Arsene Wenger says Arsenal have made tremendous progress reducing the number of muscular injuries sustained by players, but he says it’s too early to suggest the improvement will influence the club’s title chances.
“It’s a bit early to say that [we have fewer injuries].” he told his pre-Middlesbrough press conference.
“I believe we have improved on the muscular injuries front tremendously in the last two or three years.
“Last year we were a bit unlucky with the knocks we got and joint injuries as they were down to blocks in the game. Overall on the muscular front I think we have done much better. Hopefully we can continue that.
Asked what his medical team are doing differently, the boss stressed that the improvement was not down to any single adjustment.
“It’s not one measure. We analyse the level of fatigue and recovery and the preparation, the prevention…everything is a bit more scientific. Maybe that makes you a little bit more predictable to what could happen.
“We know the players very well now because we have data for a few years, we can analyse when they got injured, the repetition of some signs or warnings. We know them much better.
The boss also touched on how his 30-years of managerial experience helps him make decisions about when to rest players. Criticism was arrowed in his direction when he rested Mesut Ozil at the start of the season, however, having watched the German score eight goals in ten games he says he’s been justified.
“I have to make the right decisions and be convinced by the things I do. After, criticism is part of being exposed to a public job.
“I think so [resting Ozil was right]. I have a lot of experience on that front. I managed players who go to the big tournaments for a long time. I gave an even bigger break to Sanchez. I gave him five weeks because he had an ankle injury as well. I believe it took them some time to get back to their best but it was the right decision.”
Arseblog News will now put £10 on Ozil and Sanchez sustaining ‘Grade 3’ tears to their respective hamstrings. And another £5 on Mike Dean sending them both off for limping.
That picture is waiting for a caption contest. If there ever was one I would go with, “Look, I don’t think we’ll need you, Shad, after we develop little bit android Dennis Bergkamp.”
“To be fair, I think its you who should have received the million quid instead of Ivan for top top quality services. But I encourage you to think about football first.”
Both good bets.
Nice to see some progress on injuries. Plus the squad is big enough to cope.
All the way through reading his I was thinking “No they have gone and jinxed it now!” so those two last lines made me have a good chuckle 😉
I just can’t see how uniteds back 4 who are all thick as two planks but have some physical pedigree can cope with us when we get there. Sorry I just have a laser fixed beam coming from my eye right into mourinho’s forhead! Back to reality we have some players rested for this weekend which is nice 🙂 we also have coq back with his mid week game to bring him upto speed. Boro must not be fancying this one!
United back 4? You serious?
ManUre playing with back 10.. because the other player is Zlatan.
The Jose way
a 0-0 tie away to United is not the worst score, but I hope we open them up at home with a victory this season. 4 points from them this year and I’d be very happy. Sp*ds are looking really good this year…on defence. Their D is not making too many pundits talk about how bad their offence has been. I think City and Sp*ds are more our rivals this year than Man U or Chelsea. Liverpoop are 1 injury away from disaster (Coutinho, for example) and have no consistency at the back end. Sorry to get off topic, Mourinho… Read more »
But what has happened to Debuchy? No science will ever discover the answer.
But is there any need?
why not wait till the end of the season to some out with this?
why not wait till the end of the season to come out with this? JINX
Thomas ‘Shad’ Dolby? Get my coat …
Here’s a question; if, by some miracle, we have some good luck with injuries and don’t experience anything season threatening, how good to people genuinely think we are? Do you think we’ve got enough to tackle the Bayerns and Barcas, or are they on a level above?
We tackled Bayern and Barca with a less experienced team in the past with various degrees of success. But i think we have a better chance of knocking them out this time (not saying we are better than them though). If every one of our key players is fit, we can do an “Atletico” over them.
Agree with Chuqu here. Our attack may not be famous like the B’s but it’s as dangerous as any in the world right now. Pace, strength and versatility with Ozil to pick them out. And it’s hard to outwit a defence led by Mustafi and Koscielny. For once, we are strong everywhere. The bench is full of goood players who must be chomping at the bits to come on and put in a shift.
We can beat Bayern no problem. Barca and Real we might struggle with I think.
This team may go on to beat everybody and turn out to be something special. Looks possible but only time will tell.
At this point you would think we are still improving.
Oh crap Mike Dean is ref this week
At least vs Middlesborough there’s a fair chance it won’t matter
Depends who’s defending the first corner doesn’t it. Because they’ll be down to ten men quicker than you can say mike dean’s a cunt
Faster than you can say shiiiit
Dean will also be trying to get our ‘Contact’ injury numbers higher!