25 Oct 2023 11:46:03
Sorry, accidentally sent ahead; grubby fingers and all.

Point is, and I am aware it’s just my mini observation, that teams who kick off early seem to struggle or not perform to their best.

{Ed001's Note - most do, I agree. It is difficult to adjust with European football as you really need to spend the week training earlier than usual to adjust your body clock. Instead playing evening midweek makes it harder.}

1.) 25 Oct 2023
25 Oct 2023 12:55:41
I'm no conspiracy loon but there definitely needs to be a review of how those 12.30 KOs are being arranged. The simple fact is that too many of them feature Liverpool, more than twice as many as any other team. Let's see it done more fairly.

2.) 25 Oct 2023
25 Oct 2023 14:19:23
It's not 'unfair'. The other team has to prepare for the early KO too. So even if the standard is lower (debatable), it is a level playing field, therefore 'fair'. Beat what is in front of you and all that.

It's also not a conspiracy. The Saturday 12.30 KOs are shown on TV, whereas the 3pm ones are not. Would you rather that? The TV schedulers probably think they are doing LFC fans a favour, given the large following and all, by putting the game on TV. Just enjoy it.

3.) 25 Oct 2023
25 Oct 2023 16:13:18
That's interesting ed, regarding body clock. I wonder if anyone has ever done a serious study on the topic. Hormones certainly fluctuate during the day, would be interesting to see if there is a big difference between earlier and later kick off times. (Difficult to get blood samples during the course of a season) .
I have a feeling a lot of it is psychological too.

{Ed001's Note - I was thinking psychological, as I doubt they could do much about hormones legally. I had never given much thought to hormones and I would also be interested to read any serious studies on this topic. It is usually just a case of being similar to weight training, where to make bigger gains more quickly you have to change the time you train (if possible to do so). Your body settles into a routine and finds it easier, but then you give it a shock by doing your training at a different time and it finds it more difficult but it enables you to make bigger gains if you are looking to increase muscle growth.

I always find it strange that early kick offs are such a struggle when they are usually in training earlier in the day than that, so they shouldn't be. It is not like they don't start training until 3pm each day, so it really shouldn't be an issue.

I would say that a big part of the problem is the atmosphere tends to be flat, which means the adrenalin will not be flowing in the same way as when the atmosphere is electric. In that case they need to review warm ups for early kick offs to increase the intensity and get them fired up, maybe?}

4.) 25 Oct 2023
25 Oct 2023 17:52:02
Not only have Liverpool had more than their fair share of 12.30 Saturday KO's, but most of them have been away.

5.) 25 Oct 2023
25 Oct 2023 18:30:11
the your point about 'where to make bigger gains more quickly you have to change the time you train, ' it's really about progressive overload rather than timing. Changing up how you train will be hugely beneficial (5x5 vs a 3x8 approach), supersetting blah blah blah.

Where I do think the timing coming into it is by allowing it to kick your ass into gear from the release of dopamine and endorphins. There's enough studies showing the mental benefits of weight training so shifting it from an afternoon to a morning allows you to benefit from that release to give you a ton of energy during the day (an expect a crash earlier in the evening) .

{Ed001's Note - it is about breaking a routine actually. Those points you make are all true as well, but the human mind and body craves routine. The minute it is broken up, that causes it to have to react. With training, your body finds it more difficult as it has stored up the energy and set itself to release it ready for the time your routine has set. So changing it causes it to have to prepare for extra, as it still expects to train at the usual time too. Unless you then let that settle into a routine as well, so it stops thinking it might be required to act later and can just settle into the once a day routine.

I should say that is the theory behind it anyway. Though that is not to say your comments are wrong, as they are also correct. It is just not as simple as just being about one thing, which is the problem with all the studies as you need to have so many testing so many different things. And so many of them are engineered to just produce a certain result for the sake of the company that sponsors them. There were a lot done behind the Iron Curtain, without the need for things like safety, so they could test bodies to destruction. Hence why so much of the current thinking on fitness work stems from what was done there before the collapse of the Soviet Union.}

6.) 25 Oct 2023
25 Oct 2023 17:01:03
Hi Ed’s can you post a link to your match review please.

{Ed033's Note - There is a new post on the banter page, timestamp 25 Oct 2023 18:56:01

7.) 26 Oct 2023
26 Oct 2023 06:53:54
Well there are a lot of variables that likely go into deciding who gets certain time slots. I would imagine it wouldn't be any single one of these but a combination of all listed, and likely many more that I didn't think of.

- Predicted/ historical viewing figures for each particular fixture.
- Importance of each fixutre.
- Travel distance for the away teams.
- Time between previous and next fixture.
- Other events going on the town/ city that's hosting the match (sports, performance arts, parades, etc) that may clash with other time slots.

It could be a whole host of things, but it can't be ignored that we have had a hell of a lot more fixtures at that time than anyone else.

8.) 26 Oct 2023
26 Oct 2023 07:50:31
@stoneage a) I didn’t say it was a conspiracy b) plenty educated responses here about how timing of games impacts on the players c) explain why Liverpool having to play twice as many early games as other teams is fair d) you honestly think that TVs schedulers give a toss about the fans? Nonsense post from you there.

9.) 26 Oct 2023
26 Oct 2023 17:53:39
The other point that gets overlooked by people who try to claim that early fixtures after internationals equally affect both teams is the larger number of players that Liverpool have traveling long distances compared to other teams. Having multiple south American starters means that smore of our team is still recovering. Compare that to a mid-table team with few or no starters recovering from travel/ international duty and it's a significant advantage in a competitive league. So it usually advantages our opposition since it's rarely another top 6 team we play in that situation. The other part that's unfair, is that other top teams who would have players in the same position rarely gets this disadvantage.

10.) 27 Oct 2023
27 Oct 2023 01:19:56
There is quite a long trend of us playing badly after breaks. I was always surprised that klopp called for winter break considering we are so bad after a break. If we can play twice a week all season we will have better form. The issue is having players to rotate, but having lots of games is good for us (as long as we have a decent squad in key positions )