January's Fixture Bruiser

[london blue 2]

I have a feeling the liverpool games will have significantly dropped in the priority order now. Sooner or later the second string will HAVE to be trusted. They are still more than capable though.

[brite blu sky]

As Sis of Fu says this is where it is at, the players have come to City to be in this kind of situation. That run of games is serious stuff.

This is where the players who want to be the best step it up. Personally I see no reason why the CC team with Nasri and / or Milner in it couldn't stand toe to toe with the scouce even with that cheating rabbit. Bob could draft Komps in just for that.

Other than that best team we can manage to smash the rags season to bits.

Looking at at that list again as long as Bob trusts the CC team to do the business there is just enough leeway to play the best team v rags and best team v scouce in the Prem with key players subbed and sent the CC team to Wigan.

We can do this, Bob is sat at his desk plotting it all right now.

[shortagain]

Might be worth keeping Onuoha until at least the end of the window just in case and we could use him in some of the games over the next 2 months. The problem with new signings, they never seem to hit the ground running, so other than making the numbers up may not be effective in January, even if signed on 1st

[Purple fergie]

<null>

Di Rossi is class but no guarantee he would adapt. Can't understand why they don't give De Jong the dosh because they would end up paying Di Rossi top dollar.. De Jong is awesome and knows the Premier League and is a winner. We need continuity but it looks like Bobby has decided can get better . I'm not sure we can!

[Spurge]

Well this is what happens when you start to dine at the top table of football. The better we become the more games we play, its bloody great!!

Very true Sis but out of all the teams to be pitted against in the Cup it would've been nice to at least see us get a lower league side. Haven't we had Brum, Wolves and the Arse in the CC, now 2 legs against the Dippers. There's nothing like doing it the hard way!

God knows what will happen if we somehow get through in the CL?

I know its not the greatest draw but its all about the big games for me and they dont come any bigger that the rags. They will be smarting after the 1-6 and out to prove a point, we will be going out to prove that we are not only top dog in Manchester but in England. If i had to choose something to win though it would be the Premier all day long and this should be our No 1 priority.[/quote

The way I see it is that this is more likely to create added pressure for the rags than city - yes it's a chance for revenge but if they blow it? If they blow it then it's a seismic shift in the balance of power across Manchester. Our home record is excellent over this calender year and as corporal jones would say 'they won't like it up em'

If worse case scenario is realised we lose to the rags w focus attentions on the prem (agrre with your comments here) but will also have a great chance to put it right quickly with a victory over the bin dippers again at home in the LC semi. With any luck we can put the tie to bed in the first leg and then a wembely final, and with all due respect to our fellow semi finalist,s another doemestic trophy beckons.

[dazby]

Brilliant. Love it. If we win a trophy this season it will be well and truly deserved. I would like Mancio to really utilize the squad over the next two months. Did we really need full strength v Newcastle and a weaker team v Napoli? Blend the squad a bit more. Play Micah/kolarov and Clichy/zabs. And surely at 4-1 up v Norwich a kid could be thrown on for some experience?

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

Taken from the FA Cup thread:

Between now and end of January our fixture list is brutal...

7 December - Bayern home
12 December - Chelsea away
18 December - Arsenal home
21 December - Stoke home
26 December - West Brom away
1 January - Sunderland away
3 January - Liverpool home
7 January - United home
11 January - Liverpool home
14 January - Wigan away
22 January - Spurs home
25 January - Liverpool away
31 January - Everton away

Just hope the FA Cup game doesn't go to a replay cos fuck knows where they would crow bar that in.

December's the same as every other team fixtures wise but there's some big games in Jan - 5 league and 3 'Big' Cup games.

Anybody worried we will burn out or do you think Mancini will have the guns to compete at all levels?

After the Scouse game on the 3rd we will probably have five days off before the Rags which is quite likely to be moved to the Sunday. that will allow us to play summat like our best side in both games. Then a mix and match job for the Scouse Carling Cup home game. Win by enough and it will allow us a bit of leeway for the second leg...Easy.
Filth strikers are dropping like turds after a bad curry, do you think Bacon will risk Rooney against us, if all he has besides that is Wellbeck? I know he hates losing to us, but when you consider he would detest us winning the Prem too...Hmmm.
Anyway, this is how it is at the top of the shop. If we win theses games the pressure gets ratcheted up even more. We have the best squad in the League so let's not complain.

[patrickblue]

Don't know, I think it might be an idea to move the rags game forward a day to 6/1, just for piss taking purposes.

[ruralblue]

Fu says it all really, this is what you get when your dining at the top table!

I don't buy this tired bollox, they are athletes, paid a fucking fortune, fitter than I have ever been and if they cannot charge around fully focused both physically and mentally for 90 mins every third / fourth day then somethings wrong! Yup Ya Ya will be a massive loss, but Milner and Barry seems on fire at the moment and we can trust Nige to do a job!

[bluej]

Fu says it all really, this is what you get when your dining at the top table!

I don't buy this tired bollox, they are athletes, paid a fucking fortune, fitter than I have ever been and if they cannot charge around fully focused both physically and mentally for 90 mins every third / fourth day then somethings wrong! Yup Ya Ya will be a massive loss, but Milner and Barry seems on fire at the moment and we can trust Nige to do a job!

Whilst I don't think you can complain playing 3 times a week as a top athlete, I'm don't that the "more you earn, the less tired you become" is really a valid hypothesis.

[Beefymcfc]

Fu says it all really, this is what you get when your dining at the top table!

I don't buy this tired bollox, they are athletes, paid a fucking fortune, fitter than I have ever been and if they cannot charge around fully focused both physically and mentally for 90 mins every third / fourth day then somethings wrong! Yup Ya Ya will be a massive loss, but Milner and Barry seems on fire at the moment and we can trust Nige to do a job!

Why do we always stroll out the 'These are payed athletes' line. I don't see Usain Bolt doing 7k's 3 times a week.

Has anyone on this board actually trained and played 3 times a week?

[bernabias_right_boot]

Don't know, I think it might be an idea to move the rags game forward a day to 6/1, just for piss taking purposes.

Spot on post! Love it!

[Ted Hughes]

Fu says it all really, this is what you get when your dining at the top table!

I don't buy this tired bollox, they are athletes, paid a fucking fortune, fitter than I have ever been and if they cannot charge around fully focused both physically and mentally for 90 mins every third / fourth day then somethings wrong! Yup Ya Ya will be a massive loss, but Milner and Barry seems on fire at the moment and we can trust Nige to do a job!

Why do we always stroll out the 'These are payed athletes' line. I don't see Usain Bolt doing 7k's 3 times a week.

Has anyone on this board actually trained and played 3 times a week?

It may be a blessing in disguise that Yaya is away at that time. We will miss the 100% fit Yaya but we won't miss the jogging/knackered version that we get when he plays three games a week. Bob seems to insist on playing him & he's a liability, who imo, ruins the team when he's asked to play too many games.

[bigblue]

Fu says it all really, this is what you get when your dining at the top table!

I don't buy this tired bollox, they are athletes, paid a fucking fortune, fitter than I have ever been and if they cannot charge around fully focused both physically and mentally for 90 mins every third / fourth day then somethings wrong! Yup Ya Ya will be a massive loss, but Milner and Barry seems on fire at the moment and we can trust Nige to do a job!

Why do we always stroll out the 'These are payed athletes' line. I don't see Usain Bolt doing 7k's 3 times a week.

Has anyone on this board actually trained and played 3 times a week?

It may be a blessing in disguise that Yaya is away at that time. We will miss the 100% fit Yaya but we won't miss the jogging/knackered version that we get when he plays three games a week. Bob seems to insist on playing him & he's a liability, who imo, ruins the team when he's asked to play too many games.

Bollox. Missing a player like Yaya (possibly African player of the year) is a huge loss under any condition. I'm hoping that the longshot Hargreaves can step up for 3 or 4 games to help carry the workload.

[Ted Hughes]

Fu says it all really, this is what you get when your dining at the top table!

I don't buy this tired bollox, they are athletes, paid a fucking fortune, fitter than I have ever been and if they cannot charge around fully focused both physically and mentally for 90 mins every third / fourth day then somethings wrong! Yup Ya Ya will be a massive loss, but Milner and Barry seems on fire at the moment and we can trust Nige to do a job!

Why do we always stroll out the 'These are payed athletes' line. I don't see Usain Bolt doing 7k's 3 times a week.

Has anyone on this board actually trained and played 3 times a week?

It may be a blessing in disguise that Yaya is away at that time. We will miss the 100% fit Yaya but we won't miss the jogging/knackered version that we get when he plays three games a week. Bob seems to insist on playing him & he's a liability, who imo, ruins the team when he's asked to play too many games.

Bollox. Missing a player like Yaya (possibly African player of the year) is a huge loss under any condition. I'm hoping that the longshot Hargreaves can step up for 3 or 4 games to help carry the workload.

I think he's only missed when he's 100%; then he's a great player. I don't rate the bloke who played at Napoli at all, I think he gives the ball away in dangerous areas & fails to do his job defensively. Hargreaves is no replacement from what I've seen though, not unless he gets 50% fitter between now & then. We have Barry, Milner & De Jong to fill 2 places there though. They should be able to do that easily. One can rest each game. I'm more worried about what happens if Lescott or Viny gets injured. I don't fancy us to beat any of those teams if one of them is replaced by Savic.

[sandman]

Dupe Post

[sandman]

http://www.drdavidgeier.com/pro-soccer-injuries/

Professional soccer injuries increase with more than one match per week

August 29, 2010
Injury By Sport, Soccer

Recently I sat down to meet with Andrew Bell, the team president of the Charleston Battery. MUSC Sports Medicine serves as the Battery’s sports medicine provider, and as such, I serve as the team’s head physician, and Michael Barr is the team’s physical therapist. We met with Andrew to discuss the season and plans for next year’s medical coverage. This year, the Battery joined the second division of the United Soccer League. In this league, teams typically only play once a week unless the team travels for road games. On road trips, the teams play on consecutive Friday and Saturday nights. Mike and I tried to make our case to Andrew that playing games on back-to-back nights places the players at higher risk for injury.

In the September issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine, Gregory Dupont et al. present a study they performed using 32 professional soccer players who played for one European soccer team. They analyzed the data for this team over two consecutive seasons. They placed players into two groups based on the length of time between games. In one group, they looked at players who had not played a match for six days or more. In the second group, they looked at players who played two matches within four days. The authors hypothesized that match-related physical performance would decrease in the group of players playing two matches within four days. They also speculated that the injury rates in players in this group would be higher.

I think this is a fascinating study, and it confirms what I had previously believed to be true. The authors of this study found an injury rate of 25.6 injuries per 1000 hours of exposure in the group of players who played two matches per week compared to 4.1 injuries per 1000 hours of exposure in the group who had six days or more between matches. In addition to what looked like a six-fold increase in injuries overall, injuries to the thigh, knee, and ankle all seemed to increase notably in the group who played more than one match per week. Interestingly, match-related physical performance, which was measured by determining total distance, high-intensity distance, sprint distance, and the number of sprints, did not significantly decrease.

I think there are several take-home messages from this study. Obviously playing multiple matches per week puts soccer players at higher risk of injury. Therefore, it seems that having enough players on the roster in order to allow players adequate rest would be beneficial. Working with the governing bodies of various soccer leagues to recommend schedules that provide enough rest between games can be helpful. Unfortunately, team budgets, travel arrangements, and other factors might make playing only one game per week difficult for professional sports teams, and it can be even more difficult for college and high school teams. Injury prevention programs, looser substitution restrictions, and adequate roster size can help decrease injury rates if the schedules cannot be accommodating.

Another interesting recommendation of this study pertains to the recovery procedures implemented by the authors after soccer matches. They advised the players to immediately immerse themselves in an ice bath after matches. They also recommended that the players wear compression clothing for 12 hours after a match. Finally they advised the players to eat and drink large amounts of carbohydrates in the hours after the match. Presumably the ice baths and compression garments help to decrease inflammation and swelling of muscles and joints of the body. Carbohydrate ingestion likely increases muscle glycogen levels and theoretically improves performance. These recommendations might be beneficial not only to soccer players, but also athletes of other sports, whether or not they are competing in one match per week or multiple matches per week.

While this study pertains only to soccer players, and in particular professional soccer players, I think the findings are likely to be applicable to athletes of many sports. I do not know of studies done in a similar fashion on other sports or at other levels such as high school and college, but I expect that the principle remains the same. Adequate rest and injury prevention programs throughout the season are likely to help keep injury rates low and athletes healthy.

[BarryBurse]

Brilliant. Love it. If we win a trophy this season it will be well and truly deserved. I would like Mancio to really utilize the squad over the next two months. Did we really need full strength v Newcastle and a weaker team v Napoli? Blend the squad a bit more. Play Micah/kolarov and Clichy/zabs. And surely at 4-1 up v Norwich a kid could be thrown on for some experience?

Well said.

[Wonderwall]

Well this is what happens when you start to dine at the top table of football. The better we become the more games we play, its bloody great!!

This is bob on for me.

I imagine the players are seeing things this way as well. Hope so.

I hope Bob has analysed Wengers failings and his battling on all 4 fronts and quadruple mentality as that is what causes Arsenals dip every year.

[Goataldo]

I just read that fixture list, and my hamstring went.

In all seriousness though, it is a nasty looking time. Can only echo previous sentiments re this being the sort of tough task associated with top teams. The league is our grail, and must be maintained as a priority at all costs. Gutted we don't have Yaya, as he is someone who tends to really step up in the big games.