Match fitness - 17 days without playing a game

[Sweeneytoad]

Our next scheduled game is 2nd January at home to Brighton, which will be 17 days since we last played a 90 minute match. Given that our squad is already injuries galore, should we be worried by the amount of inevitable Injuries that are going to occur due to the lack of match fitness as a result of the downtime? I imagine every day counts at elite level.

 

[Toast]

I can’t even imagine the injury Gbamin has picked up doing absolutely nothing over Christmas..

Sure it’s a belter..

 

[johnjoeefc]

I think as professionals they would take the best course to be as fit as possible

 

[Drico]

I can’t even imagine the injury Gbamin has picked up doing absolutely nothing over Christmas..

Sure it’s a belter..

The smart money says he fell down a chimney.

 

[Sweeneytoad]

I think as professionals they would take the best course to be as fit as possible

I’d imagine there’s a fitness level that can only be achieved by actually playing head to head 90 minute matches. A few jogs around the training pitch and 5 a side behind closed doors for the last 3 weeks will have this team gassed 20 minutes into the Brighton match.

 

[Toffee-nerd]

Being generally garbo as a side will be more of a hindrance than match fitness imo.

 

[RomanReigns]

They still have to train even if it’s in isolation for those with covid

It’s not like their job is to just turn up on match days and hope for the best although the way we play it seems like that is exactly what happens

 

[kiss the crest]

The smart money says he fell down a chimney.

Or he has pulled his cracker ?

 

[Steve EFC]

Our next scheduled game is 2nd January at home to Brighton, which will be 17 days since we last played a 90 minute match. Given that our squad is already injuries galore, should we be worried by the amount of inevitable Injuries that are going to occur due to the lack of match fitness as a result of the downtime? I imagine every day counts at elite level.

All you hear about is players and managers complaining about too many fixtures and the players are tired.
Well you’d think they’d be happy about this having more players back too.
There will always be excuses though.

 

[Igrok]

I think as professionals they would take the best course to be as fit as possible

I wish we have professionals…

 

[Mr PEN86]

Think you can look at it in a few ways. Time allows for some of these players to come back to some form of fitness so good on that front. But lack of game time can either end up in one of two ways - looking fresher and playing better (like Spurs v The RS) or United vs Newcastle who looked way off it. Will be interesting to see how Burnley get on tomorrow. They've literally had a summer off since they played last.

 

[TimHowardsBeardJuice]

Marco Silva’s Everton timeline - how the dream slowly, irretrievably unravelled

A look back at the highs and lows of the former Blues manager’s 18 months on Merseyside

royalbluemersey.sbnation.com

Remember the "17-day break" in the winter of 2019, when we were reeling after Watford spanked us in a fit of venom directed at Silva. Silva decided not to take our underachievers on a trip to Dubai or whatnot, and drilled them at Finch Farm for the whole time. We came out of it with a 3-0 win at Cardiff (I remember DCL scoring a playful goal in stoppage time; I liked those kits)

That started a 6W, 3D, 2L run to the end of the season.

It's different now because there's so much uncertainty, not only over when we'll next play, but just COVID in general, from a human standpoint, forget football.

If used properly, though, it could be a good time to get bodies healthy and get them drilling together again. I get your point about match fitness but I'm not going to complain about letting our injuries clear up some.

 

[ossie_21]

We are unfit at the best of times, hopefully we can use the experience against the opposition

 

[JLW]

Are we making more excuses now that we wont be match fit?

 

[chrismpw]

Its the mid winter break overseas managers clamour for, where, depending on preference, they can work on golf or practice their competitive eating.