[AjaxCunian]

Was a boss against the Netherlands at the Euro's in that first half, couldn't touch him.

 

[Tallis]

He is just knackered after playing too much last season as compared to what his body was capable off. Then instead of some rest in the summer, he became a starting player at the Euro. Since then, he has had an on and off season with injuries and hasn't had the chance to get into his best rhythm.

 

[Smores]

At this point - with so little left to play for outside of EL - would his long-term fitness be best served by taking the rest of the season off and focussing on development instead?

As silky as he has always looked - and his on the ball ability is unquestioned - a central player needs a better 'engine' than he has shown to possess. Surely there's something we can do on that given his age?

Rio was talking on his podcast the other month about conditioning coaches who could improve players stamina significantly but clubs won't do it due to immediate impacts on performance. So yeah we could but unlikely.

Still if we go far in the EL and get an injury or two we'll need him. He's not played enough football lately so that'll be a bigger benefit.

People need to remember he's not much older than some of the youth players like Kone and he's younger than Mather. He's still a development player.

 

[criticalanalysis]

Rio was talking on his podcast the other month about conditioning coaches who could improve players stamina significantly but clubs won't do it due to immediate impacts on performance. So yeah we could but unlikely.

Still if we go far in the EL and get an injury or two we'll need him. He's not played enough football lately so that'll be a bigger benefit.

People need to remember he's not much older than some of the youth players like Kone and he's younger than Mather. He's still a development player.

In what way? I can understand tiring out a player with lots of cardio work in a short amount of time but don't understand how a club of our size can have consistently poor sprint/distance coverage issues over a long term.