[paulwardle]

Is it just me or do our team generally look unfit compared to the opposition we play.

We seem to start most games well for the first 20 mins and then fade. This was all too obvious on Saturday, and whilst I accept that the conditions and lack of confidence sometimes have a bearing on performances we do appear to be off the pace, particularly in midfield where we don not seem to dominate any teams we play.

For me both Winter and Leven could do with losing a few pounds and sometimes Lowrey ends up looking leg weary. That said I thought he was our best player on saturday.

[BlueRover52]

paulwardle, on Feb 25 2008, 01:51 PM, said:

Is it just me or do our team generally look unfit compared to the opposition we play.

We seem to start most games well for the first 20 mins and then fade. This was all too obvious on Saturday, and whilst I accept that the conditions and lack of confidence sometimes have a bearing on performances we do appear to be off the pace, particularly in midfield where we don not seem to dominate any teams we play.

For me both Winter and Leven could do with losing a few pounds and sometimes Lowrey ends up looking leg weary. That said I thought he was our best player on saturday.

I think we do lack a bit in the stamina department. Winter could play all day, if you fitted a pedometer to him you could be forgiveen for assumming it had broke. As you say we start well and then fade especially the last quarter. And of course we are usually are slow out of the blocks at the start of the second half. Need to take a tip off the Posh, if you were there you would have seen they come out early for second half and their coach takes them through a warm up routine.

[Phil]

Were certainly no Spurs.

[Balearic Mac]

Phil, on Feb 25 2008, 02:34 PM, said:

Were certainly no Spurs.

Just look at the picture of 'Lardy' Leven that appears when logging into this site. With that dreadful double chin, he looks more dart thrower than pro footballer. I know LR was notoriously chubby in his playing days, but shouldn't the players be given a target weight to maintain? They are PROFESSIONAL athletes after all.

Whilst I acknowledge that our squad may not have the depth and/or quality of other competing clubs, surely there can be no excuse for poor fitness levels. After all, we have got a dedicated Fitness Coach at the club, and though he cetainly looks like he heeds his own advice, I see little in the way of evidence that others do. Things like raising fitness levels and working on creative set piece routines could give us an edge, but instead they are very much areas of weakness. At the end of the day, there's no substitute for hard work and whilst we may not be able to compete financially, I'd question if we really are doing all we can to help ourselves....

[BlueRover52]

Balearic Mac, on Feb 25 2008, 03:15 PM, said:

Just look at the picture of 'Lardy' Leven that appears when logging into this site. With that dreadful double chin, he looks more dart thrower than pro footballer. I know LR was notoriously chubby in his playing days, but shouldn't the players be given a target weight to maintain? They are PROFESSIONAL athletes after all.

Whilst I acknowledge that our squad may not have the depth and/or quality of other competing clubs, surely there can be no excuse for poor fitness levels. After all, we have got a dedicated Fitness Coach at the club, and though he cetainly looks like he heeds his own advice, I see little in the way of evidence that others do. Things like raising fitness levels and working on creative set piece routines could give us an edge, but instead they are very much areas of weakness. At the end of the day, there's no substitute for hard work and whilst we may not be able to compete financially, I'd question if we really are doing all we can to help ourselves....

If we had the know how we may have improved Bastiens stamina and made him in to a bettter player.

[psyman]

BlueRover52, on Feb 25 2008, 02:09 PM, said:

I think we do lack a bit in the stamina department. Winter could play all day, if you fitted a pedometer to him you could be forgiveen for assumming it had broke. As you say we start well and then fade especially the last quarter. And of course we are usually are slow out of the blocks at the start of the second half. Need to take a tip off the Posh, if you were there you would have seen they come out early for second half and their coach takes them through a warm up routine.

I thought we came out early for the second half on Saturday and did some (admittedly basic) warming up stuff with Kev Gray?

[BlueRover52]

psyman, on Feb 25 2008, 04:10 PM, said:

I thought we came out early for the second half on Saturday and did some (admittedly basic) warming up stuff with Kev Gray?

I just thought their clock was fast in dressing room and had come out too early. Thought they were just jogging round to keep warm. The Posh came out more organised with markers already out, started with light jogging and built up to fast sprints.

This post has been edited by BlueRover52: 25 February 2008 - 04:41 PM

[Bonnyman]

psyman, on Feb 25 2008, 04:10 PM, said:

I thought we came out early for the second half on Saturday and did some (admittedly basic) warming up stuff with Kev Gray?

i have been saying this for months,leven is clearly overweight,roche is overweight,the modern day footballer is a lazy beast that needs beating with a large stick,on the few times i have seen them down the gym they are embarrasing,they should be doing interval training till they bleed,and should be tested once a fortnight for fat content,leven would be a right player with out carrying the extra poundage and id bet roche would be sharper in his decision making if he didnt look like a sack of spuds.....BEAST EM SHINNER WE NEED GLADIATORS FOR A PUSH FOR THE PLAYOFFS

[SpireKop]

IMO, Winter and Leven need to lose quite abit.

[The Earl of Chesterfield]

This is a point i've heard made by increasing numbers of people and it's difficult to argue otherwise. What's more poor fitness levels could be a major factor in our repeated "mistakes" and failure to kill-off obviously limited opponents.

Allow me to widen the discussion, too: the rumours alluding to Lester becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Club refuse to go away and it's easy to understand why he might feel that way. After all, he's been at far bigger clubs than Town and the levels of professionalism he's experienced must appear light years away from the "everything on the cheap" attitude so often displayed at the Rec.

Infact it wouldn't surprise me if sometimes he looks at the inept amateurism around him and wonders what the heck he's gotten himself into.

[paulwardle]

Clearly it's a general topic that we appear to agree on and I would have thought that given our recent slump getting the players leaner and fitter would have been a priority. The fitter a player the sharper he is and the quicker to the ball he is. How many toimes have we come off second best especially in midfield this year.

The majority of the squad is young enough to accept more training and sureky it would help paper of the cracks of lack of ability in certain quarters if they were all 5-10% fitter?

[Wooden Spoon]

bonnyman, on Feb 25 2008, 04:47 PM, said:

i have been saying this for months,leven is clearly overweight,roche is overweight,the modern day footballer is a lazy beast that needs beating with a large stick,on the few times i have seen them down the gym they are embarrasing,they should be doing interval training till they bleed,and should be tested once a fortnight for fat content,leven would be a right player with out carrying the extra poundage and id bet roche would be sharper in his decision making if he didnt look like a sack of spuds.....BEAST EM SHINNER WE NEED GLADIATORS FOR A PUSH FOR THE PLAYOFFS

Agreed. Its what the military do, and thats `basic` fitness.

[SpireKop]

Maybe they should get their bottom's into gear and start realy hitting the cardio at the gym, because according to a few on here who have seen them at the gym, they hardly do naff all.

[dim view]

Balearic Mac, on Feb 25 2008, 03:15 PM, said:

Just look at the picture of 'Lardy' Leven that appears when logging into this site. With that dreadful double chin, he looks more dart thrower than pro footballer. I know LR was notoriously chubby in his playing days, but shouldn't the players be given a target weight to maintain? They are PROFESSIONAL athletes after all.

Whilst I acknowledge that our squad may not have the depth and/or quality of other competing clubs, surely there can be no excuse for poor fitness levels. After all, we have got a dedicated Fitness Coach at the club, and though he cetainly looks like he heeds his own advice, I see little in the way of evidence that others do. Things like raising fitness levels and working on creative set piece routines could give us an edge, but instead they are very much areas of weakness. At the end of the day, there's no substitute for hard work and whilst we may not be able to compete financially, I'd question if we really are doing all we can to help ourselves....

This is ridiculous. Have you got ANY facts other than a facial of Leven to back this up or is just an impression?.
Here are some recent facts, from our last 2 home matches.
1. We bombarded Peterborough for the last 20 minutes.
2. Brentford have had to sign another player today, partly because of the number of injuries they sustained against Chesterfield.

So one could superficially conclude quite easily that we are fitter than either of those two. Superficial, but a better argument than yours.

[Ernie Ernie Ernie]

dim view, on Feb 25 2008, 07:09 PM, said:

This is ridiculous. Have you got ANY facts other than a facial of Leven to back this up or is just an impression?.
Here are some recent facts, from our last 2 home matches.
1. We bombarded Peterborough for the last 20 minutes.
2. Brentford have had to sign another player today, partly because of the number of injuries they sustained against Chesterfield.

So one could superficially conclude quite easily that we are fitter than either of those two. Superficial, but a better argument than yours.

How does being fit translate to the other side getting injuries.

Facts on Leven not being fit:

He fades
He has an inability to track back with his man
He doesn't close down

Failing those 3 if he is fit then he's fckin idle who just doesn't do any of the above cos he doesn't want to.

[MattTheSpire]

if barry roche is overweight then im a walrus

[Ernie Ernie Ernie]

MattTheSpire, on Feb 25 2008, 08:38 PM, said:

if barry roche is overweight then im a walrus

I'd have to agree if Roche is over weight then i may have to consider myself a few ounces over

[mr. smith]

Ernie Ernie Ernie, on Feb 25 2008, 08:41 PM, said:

I'd have to agree if Roche is over weight then i may have to consider myself a few ounces over

surely a typing error??