Liverpool FC Forum

by **GOAT** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:58 pm

KOP-1892 wrote:I don't buy the exhaustion theory just yet, our recent run of 4 game's without a win is down to bad luck and nothing else really. We are still playing half decent football and dominating most of the matches.

You will know when the player's break down through tiredness when you see them switching off and making stupid mistakes through lack of concentration - although some of our goal's conceeded recently suggest that theory.

Player's train hard nearly every single day and are conditioned for these situation's. In my opinion it will be the last 4 - 5 week's or so when we see fatigue setting in, this will be when we need to grind out result's, even though our season run in look's relatively straight forward on paper.

yes...us losing 3 out of 4 matches, drawing the other is completely down to bad luck.... come on, theres bigger problems in our team than just a bit of bad luck. thats ridiculous. Theres several obvious reasons contributing to our run of awful form of late

by **Rastalovich** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:59 pm

I don`t buy this from professional athletes who should be looking after themselves.

Especially if u`r on 10,20,30,40k a week, and extra especially if u`r playing as a squad.

by **Sabre** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:38 pm

Hi, after reading all the posts and thinking about it I think that I agree Lando in some points, and disagree in others.

I agree that the amount of games we're playing is insane, and that we had a complicated preseason having to qualify for the CL

I also agree that the Japan experience was no good for the team, after all, it's not just that we spent a fecking week in Japan, it's that we had 2 games in hand, which means to play them some other day, which means that the opposition have 1 week to prepare our game, while we have 3 or 4 days, and for a methodic trainer like Rafa I'm sure that's annoying.

I even agree that at some point we'll notice that and we'll end the season very tired (I'm concerned also for next season's Gerrard, as many players suffer the consequences of not resting due to the WC and injuries are more likely after WC).

But I don't agree we're knackered just yet. Just a couple of bad games, that's all.

by **neilE** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:46 pm

I agree with Lando here - you can't go 10/12 games without even conceding a goal, like the end of last year, and then suddenly be easy to score against, unless there's something wrong mentally. No-one could ever question the attitude of the likes of Hyypia and Carragher at the back, so it can only be a tiredness thing - and losing games makes you feel more knackered, so every bad result is making it worse. Any hopes of the league title are completely gone now, so why not use the league games to get the new playes ready for next season, whilst resting top players for the FA cup, CL and the biggest league games. As well as Kromkamp and Agger, some of the youngsters in the reserves - especially Barragan - could do with a few 1st team games, to get an idea if they can cut it, and for experience. Fowler can't play in the Cup, so it ought to be time he had 90 minutes this weekend. Squad rotation has its problems, sure, but you can't use the same 11 70 times in a season, so let's get some benefit from rotating the right players in the right games.

by **Gareth G** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:23 pm

GOAT wrote:
KOP-1892 wrote:I don't buy the exhaustion theory just yet, our recent run of 4 game's without a win is down to bad luck and nothing else really. We are still playing half decent football and dominating most of the matches.

You will know when the player's break down through tiredness when you see them switching off and making stupid mistakes through lack of concentration - although some of our goal's conceeded recently suggest that theory.

Player's train hard nearly every single day and are conditioned for these situation's. In my opinion it will be the last 4 - 5 week's or so when we see fatigue setting in, this will be when we need to grind out result's, even though our season run in look's relatively straight forward on paper.

yes...us losing 3 out of 4 matches, drawing the other is completely down to bad luck.... come on, theres bigger problems in our team than just a bit of bad luck. thats ridiculous. Theres several obvious reasons contributing to our run of awful form of late

What is the big problem's you speak of then?

I know one problem is that our striker's aren't scoring, but other than that and bad luck what else is there?

Remember that is only my opinion though.

by **andy_g** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:46 am

funnily enough there is an article on exactly this same topic in today's guardian. you can read it here

by **Sabre** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 10:00 am

funnily enough there is an article on exactly this same topic in today's guardian. you can read it here

<What's your occupation>

I used to be a LFC forum poster, but I realised that in the Guardian they'd paid me money so I started a career as journalist

</What's your occupation>

by **andy_g** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 10:18 am

you cheeky scamp, you, sabre! :laugh:

Rastalovich wrote:I don`t buy this from professional athletes who should be looking after themselves.

Especially if u`r on 10,20,30,40k a week, and extra especially if u`r playing as a squad.

and i don't go with this kind of argument at all. 10, 20, 30, 40k a week does not buy you unlimited energy and stamina. playing as a squad doesn't help if you have still played 40 games already and have traveled all over europe and to japan.

i'm lucky enough to really enjoy what i do for a living, i get paid reasonably, but i often get completely knackered when i'm on a major project, like now. if someone offers me another 50k i'm going to be very happy but i'm still going to be knackered.

by **anfieldadorer** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:09 am

[quote="anfieldadorer"][/quote]
some referring here to japan matches but let's just convert things to numbers:

teams | matches

liverpool 45
chelsea 41
arsenal 46 (with few friendy matches more)
manure 41

those stats represents overall matches including all the pre-season friendlies. it shows that there are no wide gaps amongst the mentioned teams in terms of total matches played,

so i would rephrase my opinion here: fatigue? yes
that's why we recently lost? no, 4 other tops also experience many games

by **azriahmad** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:23 am

It's not so much the number of games, but in the qualifiers, the squad had to travel to Kaunas and Sofia, and the trip to Japan did not help either.

However, as there is not such a big gap in the number of games we have played compared to the other top clubs, it must be also a mental factor as losing games to Manure and Chelski while playing well and conceding a late goal against a 10-man team must have taken a mental toll in the players going into the Charlton game and when domination did not result in a goal but one counter-attack by them led to a penalty and successful conversion, heads may have dropped and the ability and will to follow the gameplan wilted.

Wigan will be mentally tough on the players if we can't score. We rely far too much on Gerrard to deliver the match winning goal(s).

by **Dalglish** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:35 pm

Theres little doubt that we are struggling at the moment and the amount of games and travelling may well have caused the recent downturn in results. To be honest we haven't played well since the turn of the year gaining one solitary victory in the Prem against Spurs , getting out of jail against Luton and wionning a desperate game at Pompey in the cup.

Against Chelsea , Man u and Charlton we played Ok but away from home Ok is often not good enough as results have proved.

Tiredness is obviously on Rafa's mind or else why rest key players aka Gerard and Alonso.

Alonso has experienced a dip in form and we still haven't solved the strikers problem even with the reurn of Fowler.....

I am confidant Rafa will turn it round pretty soon, the teams packed with quality and at the end of the day we were all relaistically saying 3rd or 4th this season anyway. I know we are all disappointed to lose ground on the mancs after being in such a strong position but it wil come good.

Walk on ......

by **alxy** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:47 pm

my first post! though i've been following this forum for quite some time... and a liverpool fan even longer (about 25 years)....

i think the fact that fans are mad with the current situation shows that we have improved... i remember just a few years back... when i would be fearing playing teams like west brom or portsmouth even at anfield... now we go to old trafford and stamford bridge realistically expecting a win! i'm just as mad as anyone especially having to stay up at time until 4am to watch the last 4 league matches... yes, we're having a bad spell now... but hopefully things will improve starting tomorrow

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