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I think our basic fitness level has been pretty shite for most of the season. We have conceded so many goals late in the game. Again last night we failed to push on for it late in the game and players looked exhaisted.

I hope Mancini and his fitness crew have some top preseason regimes. His Inter side was superfit and consistently won matches late and very late in the game.

it was horrible to watch, after the 70 miute mark we were strolling. the players looked absolutely fucked.

Case in point is Adam Johnson who at the moment is a 65 minute player. The lad needs to get himself right over the summer, get fit and be able to withstand 90 minutes play which at the moment he cant at the age of 22.

Mike J wrote:it was horrible to watch, after the 70 miute mark we were strolling. the players looked absolutely fucked.

Most of them could barely walk, never mind run. Lot of it had to do with naive tactics early on where we burned ourselves out but still professional footballers should be able to do SOMETHING even if they've run out of steam. We were doing NOTHING.

Surely if Mancini spotted the lads werent fit enough,5 months was enough time to get them in tip top shape?

Agreed. The result had an air inevitability about it after about and hour. They looked far stronger and far more hungry in the latter part of the game.

Goaters 103 wrote:Case in point is Adam Johnson who at the moment is a 65 minute player. The lad needs to get himself right over the summer, get fit and be able to withstand 90 minutes play which at the moment he cant at the age of 22.

Some players are born athletes in Johnnos case i dont believe that to be the case.

Something he needs to work on.

lets all have a disco wrote:Surely if Mancini spotted the lads werent fit enough,5 months was enough time to get them in tip top shape?

Building basic fitness requires time where you are not playing games. It's rough work with running, running and more running.

Oh, and Mancini had one double session before christmas and half of the squad were crying on papers how rough it is.

And I'm not blaming Hughes or making excuses for Mancini. Our lack of fitness has been apparent throughout the season and needs to change next season.

Maybe fitness is down thanks to double training?? Thus players not getting enough rest?

Vhero wrote:Maybe fitness is down thanks to double training?? Thus players not getting enough rest?

Extra TACTICS training session once a month. Oh yeah, that must be it.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

lets all have a disco wrote:Surely if Mancini spotted the lads werent fit enough,5 months was enough time to get them in tip top shape?

Building basic fitness requires time where you are not playing games. It's rough work with running, running and more running.

Oh, and Mancini had one double session before christmas and half of the squad were crying on papers how rough it is.

And I'm not blaming Hughes or making excuses for Mancini. Our lack of fitness has been apparent throughout the season and needs to change next season.

Weve got Sven's England fitness coach and they were without doubt one of the least fit England teams of all time.

lets all have a disco wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

lets all have a disco wrote:Surely if Mancini spotted the lads werent fit enough,5 months was enough time to get them in tip top shape?

Building basic fitness requires time where you are not playing games. It's rough work with running, running and more running.

Oh, and Mancini had one double session before christmas and half of the squad were crying on papers how rough it is.

And I'm not blaming Hughes or making excuses for Mancini. Our lack of fitness has been apparent throughout the season and needs to change next season.

Weve got Sven's England fitness coach and they were without doubt one of the least fit England teams of all time.

And one of the most succesfull ever.

Correct there have not been many "extra" training sessions and where they did double up on a day they were not both working on fitness or even working hard.

Was last night's apparent lack of fitness down to physical or mental fatigue? I was concerned mostly with 3 players who were really trying to do 2 full jobs. Tevez as striker and creative midfield was trying to do too much. Both the wide players were constantly up and down and both doing ok till well into the 2nd half.

As the game developed more in Spurs favour and most obviously after they scored our guys lost energy and Spurs found an extra yard. If it is a pure physical fitness issue I would be very concerned.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

lets all have a disco wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

lets all have a disco wrote:Surely if Mancini spotted the lads werent fit enough,5 months was enough time to get them in tip top shape?

Building basic fitness requires time where you are not playing games. It's rough work with running, running and more running.

Oh, and Mancini had one double session before christmas and half of the squad were crying on papers how rough it is.

And I'm not blaming Hughes or making excuses for Mancini. Our lack of fitness has been apparent throughout the season and needs to change next season.

Weve got Sven's England fitness coach and they were without doubt one of the least fit England teams of all time.

And one of the most succesfull ever.

Still unfit.

I say they should run,then run,then ermm run and run again until they are sick.
Wrapped in cotton wool.

lets all have a disco wrote:
I say they should run,then run,then ermm run and run again until they are sick.
Wrapped in cotton wool.

We are in full agreement there. Up and down and up and down some fucking hill. All day. And they can go and whine about it in media ll they want but that's what they need to do.

Manchester City stars want to go back to Mark Hughes style
By Rob Draper Last updated at 11:36 PM on 2nd May 2010
The ongoing dispute between Roberto Mancini and a core of Manchester City players over the Italian's unpopular training regime is due to his failure to embrace the programme introduced by Mark Hughes.

That is the view of the club's fitness coach Raymond Verheijen, who has been sidelined by Mancini.

Verheijen, who was Guus Hiddink's fitness guru for his campaigns with South Korea, Australia and Russia, was brought in by Hughes last summer to revolutionise City's training.

They embraced shorter, sharper sessions - which Mancini has since abandoned and reverted to longer sessions - often twice a day.

'I have to admit the players were really sceptical about my methods,' said Verheijen in a Dutch newspaper interview.

'Craig Bellamy came to see me and said, "What you want will not work". I said to Craig "Let's try this for six weeks".

Bellamy was a special case as he has been suffering from far too many injuries in his career.

By September they had by far the best statistics for fitness in the entire Premier League and then in October, November, December as well.

And Bellamy? He felt better than ever. It was the first time in his career he did not have a single injury in pre-season.
'But in December the club decided to sack Mark Hughes. They should never have done that. I still find it impossible to understand that he was not allowed to carry on with the job he started.

'Mancini brought his entire staff with him and he did not believe in training once a day or in the shorter sessions. A big part of the coaching staff was suddenly not wanted any more. I am still tied to the club, but I concentrate more on other projects now.'


If this story from the Mail is correct (and it has quotes but it could be just a bitter member of staff) then up until December we were the fittest team in the league. MAybe it takes longer to get used to Mancinis methods than 4 months, or maybe the new methods are just wrong.

Bluez wrote:Manchester City stars want to go back to Mark Hughes style
By Rob Draper Last updated at 11:36 PM on 2nd May 2010
The ongoing dispute between Roberto Mancini and a core of Manchester City players over the Italian's unpopular training regime is due to his failure to embrace the programme introduced by Mark Hughes.

That is the view of the club's fitness coach Raymond Verheijen, who has been sidelined by Mancini.

Verheijen, who was Guus Hiddink's fitness guru for his campaigns with South Korea, Australia and Russia, was brought in by Hughes last summer to revolutionise City's training.

They embraced shorter, sharper sessions - which Mancini has since abandoned and reverted to longer sessions - often twice a day.

'I have to admit the players were really sceptical about my methods,' said Verheijen in a Dutch newspaper interview.

'Craig Bellamy came to see me and said, "What you want will not work". I said to Craig "Let's try this for six weeks".

Bellamy was a special case as he has been suffering from far too many injuries in his career.

By September they had by far the best statistics for fitness in the entire Premier League and then in October, November, December as well.

And Bellamy? He felt better than ever. It was the first time in his career he did not have a single injury in pre-season.
'But in December the club decided to sack Mark Hughes. They should never have done that. I still find it impossible to understand that he was not allowed to carry on with the job he started.

'Mancini brought his entire staff with him and he did not believe in training once a day or in the shorter sessions. A big part of the coaching staff was suddenly not wanted any more. I am still tied to the club, but I concentrate more on other projects now.'


If this story from the Mail is correct (and it has quotes but it could be just a bitter member of staff) then up until December we were the fittest team in the league. MAybe it takes longer to get used to Mancinis methods than 4 months, or maybe the new methods are just wrong.

Oh yeah, how do they measure that? I'd love to hear that. Because I remember us conceding late goals and drawing games we should've been winning. But hey, if the fitness coach of the same era says we were fittest team on the league, then it must be so.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:His Inter side was superfit and consistently won matches late and very late in the game.

Very little due to physical condition in my opinion. The best teams in the world score goals in the last 5 minutes of matches is all down to a mental state of mind pushing the body further than it can simply because the mind is stronger and will not accept defeat or a draw. Until we get these type of players we will always look beaten against the top teams.

We're not fit enough but we were scoring goals as well, not just conceding late in games early season & seem to have got worse. It may be because of players being out injured & others perhaps carrying niggling injuries etc but it could be something more.

I think Bellamy & Tevez have been overworked because the alternatives have either not been fit or not been good enough. Both are looking very tired & they are the heartbeat of the team. Next season we need players who can come in & replace them without the standard dropping. Same with Barry & DeJong. If SWP, RSC, Ireland, M. Johnson etc aren't able to do that then they need to go.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Oh yeah, how do they measure that? I'd love to hear that. Because I remember us conceding late goals and drawing games we should've been winning. But hey, if the fitness coach of the same era says we were fittest team on the league, then it must be so.

No Idea but on reading this http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/apr/03/martin-oneill-aston-villa-john-terry where Martin O'Neill said "If you are looking at the stats, we do them all the time. Interestingly, we are one of the fittest sides in the Premier League" it looks like the clubs have some way of comparing fitness stats, unless of course you believe O'Neill is some form af Rag lover who was planted in advance to back up comments from Citys fitness trainer, who still works at the club.


The quotes in the first article come from a current member of staff who has been sidelined (which I mentioned) but someone inside the club spoke out, on record and wasn't punished.