One thing I have heard on the grapevine is that Ten Hag has a “one size fits all” fitness policy. Where players are driven equally hard to be as fit as possible and run as much as possible during training sessions. That is as far as that information extends.
if it is true, then it would seem to be a pretty big reasons for why we are seeing so many injuries, especially in defence. While the foundation for fitness has to largely be the same, defenders naturally have to cover a lot less ground than other players, and if they are older, this is a huge shock to the body. Generally speaking, as I understand it, most clubs have the finer details of fitness work tailored to the individual age, position, injury predisposition, and current condition of players. But we don’t under Ten Hag.
I have also heard that some players have been getting conflicting advice from their personal trainers or external doctors/surgeons. Someone posted above how Casemiro was told he was fit to play but consulted his doctor back in Spain who told him he wasn’t. I hadn’t heard any specific examples like that, but it certainly backs up what I was told.
What seems very, very clear to me, is that we need a complete overhaul of our medical and fitness department to integrate “best in class” technology, data, and personnel, to create an industry leading fitness department that operates almost autonomously from the head coach and his staff. That way when you change the head coach and his back room team, you keep these best in class assets in place. Their approach can be tweaked in concert with the head coach, but ultimately having the fittest and healthiest squad possible, is a universal principle surely?
The training and playing loads players have these days, mean that a rigorous evidence based approach is required. I would not leave it to the discretion of each head coach. Not at all. Players are our most valuable assets and as such the club should have the absolute best facilities and personnel to manage those assets irrespective of whether the coach is Pep PED Guardiola, or Olé Gunnar do what he wants Solksjaer.
