Cheltenham Town v Swindon Town

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asl
Posts: 6752
Joined: 20 Nov 2009, 09:37
Surely a fitness coach at any professional sports operation should be able to get any professional sportsman fit? Are you suggesting Thomas is inherently unfit?
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RegencyCheltenhamSpa
Posts: 29828
Joined: 21 Nov 2009, 03:27
asl wrote:Surely a fitness coach at any professional sports operation should be able to get any professional sportsman fit? Are you suggesting Thomas is inherently unfit?
Erm no, the complete opposite if you re-read what I wrote. I am suggesting that Thomas very much has the fitness to go full gas for 100 mins which is why he looks better at the end of games when other teams (who place less emphasis on fitness or do not have the Premier League methods Duff brings) tire.

Spurs are a good example. Look at their numbers for distance run and sprints made this season compared to last. For whatever reason they can’t put in as much effort as they did last season. The result being they look closer to relegation than title contenders. The players are no worse technically on in pure football terms than they were last season, they just can’t run as hard or as for long, which in the Football League costs you points.
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asl
Posts: 6752
Joined: 20 Nov 2009, 09:37
Ok, sorry: I misread "does have" as "does not have".
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Shade
Posts: 17012
Joined: 27 Sep 2010, 13:02
Location: Cheltenhamshire
RegencyCheltenhamSpa wrote:I believe it is Thomas’s fitness which means he plays every week. The running and stamina is what Duff demands, brining his Premier League sports science outlook.

It has been noticeable in games that Thomas does have this. Macclesfield game for example I watched online and the first hour or so the midfield looked paperweight, no passing or control. Then Macc tired and Thomas bossed it like Fabinho looking better as the game went on. Probably no surprise he still had the energy to find the space unmarked for what should have been the winner.

Ball playing and ability only get you so far. The fitness to last 100 mins at full gas is more important in my view. It is the main differentiator between teams who come up from Champ to Prem and succeed and those who fail; Villa have let in a number of late goals whereas Sheff U have scored some, and that comes down to fitness to play full gas to the final whistle.

Obviously a combination of playing ability and fitness is ideal, but then those players wouldn’t be in L2 for long.
In which case, I'd rather have quality on the pitch for 60-70 minutes and then bring on fresh legs. The amount of times he gives the ball away in some games is criminal. It's not that I dislike Thomas - I just that I think he's the least good first-team midfielder we've got.
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