arsenal and opta stats

[tikay]

The stats claim that Rooney ran 11,232 metres in last night's match v Marseilles, which seems quite something in the context of his position, & role.

TWO Man U players came off with hamstring injuries, how many Premiership players have suffered the same fate this season? Seems to be loads of them.

Back in the day, Liverpoool, under Shankly, fielded an unchanged team for 85% of the Season, & only used 13 players all season. OK, less matches then, more competitive now, da de da, but more & more I'm struck by the increased injury rate in modern football. These days, they can scan everything, rotate players, have huge squads, coach loads of substitutes, use specialised fitness coaches, eat "healthy" diets, bla bla, & yet injuries seem to be very much on the increase. It does not quite add up for me.

[AndrewT]

Players do far more nowadays - running around the whole time.

If you see old footage of football matches, you'll be struck by just how little running about players do when they don't have the ball. A few years ago, the BBC showed the whole of the 1966 World Cup final again and it's amazing to see how much of the game was played at walking pace, or periods with the defenders just passing it to each other and back to the keeper while they all had a breather.

You don't get that now - it's mostly helter-skelter the whole time.

[tikay]

Players do far more nowadays - running around the whole time.

If you see old footage of football matches, you'll be struck by just how little running about players do when they don't have the ball. A few years ago, the BBC showed the whole of the 1966 World Cup final again and it's amazing to see how much of the game was played at walking pace, or periods with the defenders just passing it to each other and back to the keeper while they all had a breather.

You don't get that now - it's mostly helter-skelter the whole time.

Yes, fair comment, thank you.

However, unless I've missed it, the incidence of hammys in, say, RU, RL, NFL etc, sports where agility, frequent physical contact, quick changes of direction are part of the game, hammys are much less, frequent, no?

[TightEnd]

Players do far more nowadays - running around the whole time.

If you see old footage of football matches, you'll be struck by just how little running about players do when they don't have the ball. A few years ago, the BBC showed the whole of the 1966 World Cup final again and it's amazing to see how much of the game was played at walking pace, or periods with the defenders just passing it to each other and back to the keeper while they all had a breather.

You don't get that now - it's mostly helter-skelter the whole time.

Yes, fair comment, thank you.

However, unless I've missed it, the incidence of hammys in, say, RU, RL, NFL etc, sports where agility, frequent physical contact, quick changes of direction are part of the game, hammys are much less, frequent, no?

Incidence of injuries in a lot of sports is up massively

for some sports the players are asked to play more games. RU is a prime example, football too

in the rugby sports players are far bigger than they were. Some wings are now the size of the old props! Collisions are bigger. Strength and fitness is far greater but the toll on bodies is now immense.

ACLs, MCLs etc are now an every week occurrence because of the force of tackles.

As to hammy's specifically you'll find the incidence of them increases March through to end of the season. It's a wear and tear thing. Why this is more in football than the other ball sports? Not sure it is, really.....even the ref at the E v S rugby game tore his after 50 minutes on Sunday....you just get more media coverage of all football injuries including minutiae on SSN for example, than you do on the other sports....with the exception of the NFL in the US which we don't see and has an immensely long off season to get players fit 

[AndrewT]

However, unless I've missed it, the incidence of hammys in, say, RU, RL, NFL etc, sports where agility, frequent physical contact, quick changes of direction are part of the game, hammys are much less, frequent, no?

The thing that puts strain on hamstrings is when you stretch your leg reaching for a ball - rugby/NFL players don't do this.

[Karabiner]

The new pitches are far harder and faster than in yesteryear too.

[AndrewT]

It's affecting all sports are competitors push themselves to the limits. In cricket, the top fast bowlers seem to spend more of their time injured than playing, and in tennis, Nadal is pushing his body so hard that he's probably not got long left in the sport before bits of him break down completely.