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Darren Burgess


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  • 3 months later...

Only just come across the below article. I think since Burgess has left, we look a lot fitter, and we are suffereing from fewer injuries. Maybe its just luck, but what Driscoll says makes sense to me and it seems the lads were being overworked before, leading to fatigue and injuries.

 

WHY LIVERPOOL ARE NOW IN GOOD SHAPE

 

Liverpool's Glen Johnson benefits from his new fitness regime

Tuesday December 11,2012

By Paul Joyce Have your say

 

ONE OF the first points made to Brendan Rodgers when he took charge at Liverpool was that victories such as Sunday’s notable triumph against West Ham would not be possible.

 

Not because Sam Allardyce’s side was expected to tear it up in the Premier League. Rather that one of the main performers, Glen Johnson, who opened the scoring with a blistering drive in the 3-2 win, would not be available for selection.

 

Rodgers was told it was highly unlikely Johnson could play three matches in a week, as he has just done.

 

Steven Gerrard and Daniel Agger would also struggle to make repeat appearances.

 

Game by game the myth is being dismantled.

 

The art of management is governed by player availability and as Liverpool display the green shoots of recovery following a difficult start to the campaign, another piece in the jigsaw is being put in place.

 

Agger is enjoying his best run of Premier League appearances. The only match he has not started this season was due to suspension.

 

You can easily prevent injury by wrapping your players in cotton wool and not letting them play games, but that isn’t the point

Glen Driscoll

 

Gerrard is the only player to feature for every minute of every league game and Johnson, in the form of his life, is now playing midweek matches, as was the case against Udinese in the Europa League last Thursday.

 

The improvement is not down to luck. Liverpool’s medical team, which includes Glen Driscoll as head of performance, have improved how they protect and condition players.

 

Instead of pulling players out of games, the idea is to manage their recovery better which is achieved, in one instance, by modifying training sessions using small spaces rather than full-scale pitches.

 

“You can easily prevent injury by wrapping your players in cotton wool and not letting them play games, but that isn’t the point,” said Driscoll, who first worked with Rodgers at Reading before joining him at Chelsea, Swansea and now Anfield.

 

“For Steven, Dan and Glen it was a simple process of looking back at every soft tissue injury, hamstring and calf strains are examples] that they had over the past two seasons and going through the process of analysing their training and recovery between matches and before each injury.

 

“Steven, for example, covers 120metres a minute in a game and in training previously he was hitting 90m a minute.

 

He is currently performing to 30 per cent of his average speed and only 10 per cent of his highintensity distance in the training sessions before matches, compared to when he got those previous injuries, which aids his recovery and reduces fatigue in preparation.

 

“In pre-season, we did say with confidence to Steven that we could keep him fit and recover him better, so that he could have another three or four years playing at a high level if he wanted.”

 

It may seem that Liverpool are divulging some of their secrets.

 

Another area looked at has been the removal of gym work on certain days because it does not aid recovery.

 

Yet the reality is that without Rodgers’ own understanding of the process, and willingness to embrace it, the facts and figures would be largely redundant.

 

“Controlling the extrinsic causes of injuries means controlling the training on the football pitch and understanding that it is all down to space, numbers of players and duration,” said Driscoll, who is aided by physio Chris Morgan and Ryland Morgans, another recruit from Swansea who is head of fi tness and conditioning.

 

“In football drills these decisions allow you to either protect or condition footballers. When to place these sessions in context to your next or previous match is the key.

 

“Many sport scientists don’t understand this, let alone managers. Some do but don’t have the influence to affect the management and their training.

 

“The beauty here is we have a manager who not only gets it but manipulates it as part of his own methods to achieve success and protect players from injury.

 

“The manager is aware that each player has a threshold level and if he goes above that threshold then the probability of injury in the next match rises.”

 

Players such as Luis Suarez, who only ever seems to miss games due to suspension, are regarded as being “relatively unbreakable”.

 

Others need more careful handling. The fact both groups are playing together shows the progress being made.

 

 

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Most of Burgess' and Bruckner's methodology was based on the latest scientific research, which often clashed with the traditional way of doing things. If Driscoll thinks he can beat the research, then great, we have a competitive advantage. If not, expect the blame to be shifted back to previous management. Swings and roundabouts really.

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Guest San Don

Anything to reduce player injury is to be welcomed. But, as enrique showed against QPR, you cannot prevent it altogether.

 

I've thought for many seasons that our players dont appears as fit as they could be. Building a big fuck off hill at Melwood and making the players use it doesnt necessarily equate to making them fitter.

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Lucas and Cole both broke down for extended periods after reporting an injury and being told to carry on anyways. So forgive me for seeing this as nothing more than smoke being blown up asses.

 

New guys > old guys. Them's the rules. Until the new guys become the old guys.

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Most of Burgess' and Bruckner's methodology was based on the latest scientific research, which often clashed with the traditional way of doing things. If Driscoll thinks he can beat the research, then great, we have a competitive advantage. If not, expect the blame to be shifted back to previous management. Swings and roundabouts really.

 

I'm not doubting you, but how do you know that previous regimes methods were based on latest research, and even if they were, how do you know that Driscoll's aren't based on even more rececnt research?

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Lucas and Cole both broke down for extended periods after reporting an injury and being told to carry on anyways. So forgive me for seeing this as nothing more than smoke being blown up asses.

 

New guys > old guys. Them's the rules. Until the new guys become the old guys.

 

Wasn't Burgess still here then though?

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We always seemed to sweat over the fitness of Torres but pretty sure he has been injury free since he left us 2 years ago.

 

Yeah he might well have been injury free but he's also been fucking shite,shadow of the player he was,he's also a yard or two slower than he was 3 years ago,you can see that certainly over the first 10 yards of a sprint between him and defenders.

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Guest Numero Veinticinco

No fitness regime is going to make players be able to play all the time without feeling it. Not unless they start building super humans... Wait a second, lads, I've got an idea about how to get back to the top of the table.

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No fitness regime is going to make players be able to play all the time without feeling it. Not unless they start building super humans... Wait a second, lads, I've got an idea about how to get back to the top of the table.

 

Or, alternatively workload and recovery could be managed so that the condition "shattered" was reached at the end of the season.

 

If you were really clever, you could use some kind of periodization shit and manage against the football schedule, so player fitness peaked at the three key points of the season.

 

Just like Pako did.

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Or, alternatively workload and recovery could be managed so that the condition "shattered" was reached at the end of the season.

 

If you were really clever, you could use some kind of periodization shit and manage against the football schedule, so player fitness peaked at the three key points of the season.

 

Just like Pako did.

 

Don't do it, mate. Don't utter that filthy word.

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Footballers are just lazy though, they have no concept of genuine tiredness and having to push through it because you have no choice infact theyre not men, not real men anyway, the kind who cook beef on open flame. As a genuine man I'd play football twice a week, work out 5 times a week, wrestle and batter an of ox to death before I cook him on an open flame this is in between working a 60 hour week pushing that wheel thing Conan does alongside a bit of blacksmithery, making love decorating the house and getting up and off the couch to change TV stations because my remote is lost.

 

Little Raheem is 17 and tired because he trains for two hours a day and has to play 90 minutes a week sometimes even 180 minutes a week. What a little bollocks.

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We always seemed to sweat over the fitness of Torres but pretty sure he has been injury free since he left us 2 years ago.

 

Agree, we were definitely doing something wrong. Same case with Agger, Gerrard, probably Aurelio, definitely Kewell.

 

Bit by bit, I think Rodgers is fixing this club.

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