1.) 18 Jan 2020
18 Jan 2020 09:01:09
Love it Tris always a good read great about Macguire and the armbands, a bit harsh about Eddie Howe all season his first team is injured at one stage he had 14 players injured I would say sack the physios and get a new bunch in.

{Ed001's Note - Howe has spent huge sums to get the team up but never once has he figured out how to sign a defender. He still has a League 1 defence and usually plays Ake at centre back, despite him being unable to defend and saying himself he wants to play in midfield.

As for injuries, this happens all the time with Bournemouth because his players are not fit enough. Watford have the exact same problem. The fault lies with Howe, in Bournemouth's case, nothing to do with physios and just shows how little you understand if you think the physios cause injuries.

Also, if Howe could organise a defence, they wouldn't be in a relegation battle every season. Awful manager who is ridiculously overrated after having money thrown at him. And yet all he has done is a worse job than Wilder, for much more money. If Howe was any nationality other than English, the media would hammer him.}

2.) 18 Jan 2020
18 Jan 2020 10:40:53
Ed. I don’t know if you can answer here or it’s worth an article in itself but I’ve often wondered who is responsible for a players fitness and physique. I’m assuming there is pre season and the two hours a day training but when are players going on runs, hitting the weights etc and do they do this at home or the club?

Thanks.

{Ed001's Note - training is done at the club during the training sessions. Some players will then take it on themselves to do extra training as well, depends on the player. I know Lallana has been putting in extra work, Cristiano Ronaldo is obsessive about his training. Pavel Nedved used to go home from training and train in his home gym.

Clubs will have (at top flight level) a fitness and conditioning coach or coaches, and sports scientists, whose responsibility is to maintain the fitness level of the players at peak levels. That might involve extra fitness work for some individuals or giving them a different kind of training from others etc. Sometimes it might be that a player has been pushed to their limit and needs a day off. The fitness is becoming more focused on an individual player's needs, as every player needs something different. Added to that, clubs such as Liverpool employ a nutritionist, who will decide on what food and how much of it a player needs after results from blood tests and the information coming in from fitness monitoring equipment the players wear during training.

The players still go home and have many hours a day where it is down to them to ensure they get enough sleep, eat properly and don't spend their time doing the wrong things for their fitness. For instance they don't mind players playing video games, it can help improve reaction times for example, but you don't want them sitting in the same position playing for hours at a time as that can cause back problems or tightened hamstrings etc.

So a fair degree of responsibility is on the player himself, to ensure his lifestyle is more suited to a professional athlete rather than a darts player. That is one of the issues at Bournemouth. Howe is not looking into players' backgrounds, checking out their lifestyles or giving them help on improving these aspects. He is very League 1 still in far too many respects.}

3.) 18 Jan 2020
18 Jan 2020 12:08:40
My Manc colleagues are still insisting that Slabhead has been a good buy at £80m. I point out mistakes he makes and they end up reverting back to how bad Bailly and Jones were and he's an improvement. Yeah, the average domestic house cat would've probably been an improvement on Bailly and Jones.

I'm hoping Salah turns him inside out tomorrow like he did at Leicester a couple of seasons ago.