How Premier League clubs are being forced to prepare for ‘two seasons in one’
A packed schedule could see some play every 3.7 days, a workload that will result in squads and players being stretched to the limit like never before
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Your support makes all the difference.The line from one fitness coach sums up the problem. “It’s like preparing for two seasons in one.”
Thursday morning saw the publication of the 2020-21 Premier League calendar, and it isn’t so much a fixture list as an endurance test. The crunch caused by the 2020 Covid-enforced postponement means this season is going to be the most congested ever seen. An international player at a Premier League club competing in Europe faces the possibility of 73 different match-days in 274 days, before the delayed Euro 2020 starts – a fixture every 3.7 days. There has never been a calendar like that.
There is just no space for any kind of breaks. One particularly brutal spell in January could see some clubs play a Premier League match every three days for two weeks.
It’s going to result in squads and players stretched to the limit, and we’re going to hear and see a lot about injuries. Premier League fitness teams have thereby been trying to come with all manner of solutions. If players are being pushed to the margins, it means marginal gains may have greater effect.
Some help may come from a company three quarters of the Premier League already work with. StatSports supply GPS vests to 15 clubs, the technology of which allowed them to come up with a white paper about player contact that facilitated the competition’s safe return to action amid Covid precautions in June. They have similarly spent the last 18 months developing an app with Sonra for the Apple watch that will allow managers and coaches to receive all that info in real-time.
That, according to the description of company director Sean O’Connor, can have an utterly transformative effect.
In real terms, it will allow managers to instantly see the metrics for any players they sense are flagging, or not quite at full pelt.
“Historically, you were limited to a laptop with a beacon and it only had limited range,” O’Connor says. “Players would be going through a session, and it would only be afterwards, once all the info had been logged, that they could see what his stats were, what percentage he was running at. So, if a strength and conditioning coach is running through the drills and asking him to hit 70% at one mark, 80% at another, you’re only guessing until you see the data. This allows them to see it as they do it.”
It really is as easy as going onto a watch, scrolling down the list of names, and looking it up.
It may well ease the burden on players this season.
What is so important is how the app will allow staff to monitor stats that are key to indicating physical overload or fitness problems.
“People focus on distance and speed which are important but it can also give you feedback on step balance,” O’Connor says. “If you have a slight tight hamstring on your right-hand side, you might compensate and put a bit more on your left.
“The superstars in the Premier League who are worth millions and millions of pounds, being able to see that information early is something to prevent something from happening and manage and load that player accordingly so you are not exposing them to excessive risk
“One of the values they look at – it’s a science term – is Dynamic Stress Load, [DSL], and it comes back to the accelerometer in the device, measuring back to front and side to side, front and back, a thousand times per second.
“In theory, when you’re fresh and healthy we have a certain running style, your gait, and you’ll be hitting the ground really lightly.
“If during the week the DSL is a lot more for that type of work, what our body is telling us is that it’s cost us more stress to do something that normally costs us less, so what is the reason for that? It can monitor the quality of the work and the effect that it’s having on the body.
“Accurate, reliable data live was key to this. It is all well and good watching something and having a feel for it but having to download it afterwards. Football is a very emotional sport and a lot is happening. If you can’t get information to the coaches within an hour or two of the training session, they are already focusing on the next session and the next match.
“It’s a big part of what Liverpool do. Wolves use it during games.”
It could make a big difference in the kind of season we’ve never seen before.
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