Arsene Wenger admits that he needs to spend time analysing the fitness of his squad after Arsenal lost Olivier Giroud and Francis Coquelin to injury in their 1-0 win over West Ham United in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup.
Earlier in the week the boss confirmed that Aaron Ramsey will be out until January and with Giroud pulling up with a hamstring problem that definitely rules him out of Friday’s game with Liverpool, he admits he’s going to have to be clever with squad rotation as his side tackle 10 games in the next 36 days.
“When you look at our fixtures in January and February, you cannot imagine that you will play with the same 11 players in every game,” he told press after Tuesday’s win.
“Will I change from Premier League game to Premier League game, or just for the Carabao Cup? I don’t know, I have to look at the fixtures to see what I have to do.
He added: “It [the fixture schedule] is very demanding, especially because we already have a tough schedule behind us. I will have to sit down and analyse what we can do.
“What is worrying is when you start to lose players, like Giroud tonight. After you can’t afford to lose another one. So I have to look at how I manage the schedule.”
“It [injuries to key players] puts more pressure on the rest of the squad when you have injuries, but I still have Walcott, Welbeck and Sanchez [in addition to Lacazette] who can play up front. So that is a possibility as well.”
We do seem to have quite a lot of quality in the fringe players and youth so barring disasters we should be fine.
How can they be fatigued?? The first team has exclusively played in the PremierLeague having a week break almost every week unlike previous seasons. The seconds squad has played every 2 weeks on average!
It’s not that simple. There is a line between fitness and fatigue (in fact, they go hand in hand) and the concept is not just about being overplayed, but also incrementally handling their loads to manage increased training loads. There’s a concept of acute-chronic ratio, in that a massive spike in training loads (such as rapidly going from once a week to twice a week, acute) in comparison to their 4-6 week rolling training load (chronic) causes significant risk of injury, and it’s also about managing their loads leading up to that. Just as a player who hasn’t trained for… Read more »
Wenger and his team must know the players who are slipping into the danger zone, he and the fans also know who’s not in good form, but continues to play them anyway.
Last night there was a moment where Giroud chased a player from about the halfway upto the edge of our box ive never seen him run that fast for such a distance before, he couldn’t quite catch the player up but it wasn’t long after that he was injured.
Actually Giroud makes runs like that, or longer, pretty regularly. No one would claim he is a box-to-box player, but it’s wrong to think he just stays high on the pitch all game. (Remember where he was when the move that led to the scorpion goal began.)
The poor loves, having to play once a week through most of this season. It’s tough at the top.
This is a genuinely stupid comment. No one is claiming they have difficult lives compared to most people because they must play too often. No one is claiming a pulled hamstring is a terrible affliction in the great scheme of things. But a pulled hamstring does mean you cannot play the next game, and that is our concern as supporters; that’s all we’re talking about.
I’m not talking about a pulled hamstring for one of our players. The plural ‘loves’ is talking about all our players.
We have two teams currently, one playing cup games midweek and the other playing PL games. So most players are playing once a week. That is a lot easier than when there were CL matches midweek. There is more time for rest and recovery and less chance of injury, this season is easier than most recent seasons so I question the fatigue mentioned, there is no reason for it.
Most of the first team players have played less than they would be if we were playing the champions league group stages. Something lacking in the pre-match warm-up?
No. I suspect that the problem may be on the training pitch. There’s no way that any of our players should be suffering for fatigue. Wenger has skilfully shuffled the squad around so that most players have not played more than one game in seven days. You have to admit that Le Prof has got it dead right so far this season: we are still in all the cups and all the big stars have been used sparingly. If injuries are still occurring then it’s probably due to overworking the squad on the training pitches – something which many suspected… Read more »
Hey fatgooner, your tone has shifted quite a bit to the neutral/positive side recently despite the state of shambles our club has been in…what gives? I like it though! Not sure where you got this overworking on training pitch idea from but since Shad Forsythe came in a couple of years back, you have to say that Arsenal’s General injury track record has improved noticeably. Even this season, the injury rate is probably close to par with other top clubs. Before Ramsey and now Giroud, we have hardly any real long term absentees in awhile (not counting Santi of course).… Read more »
I’ve just become resigned to the pathetic state of the club and decided not to let it bother me too much. As I don’t go to games anymore I don’t get too worked up.
We are a cup team now so I just look forward to those matches. I just hope that now we’re in the semis Wenger plays stronger sides in this competition.
With a bit of luck we can win the Caribou Cup. That would be nice.
3 FA cups in 4 years.
Champions League football for the last 20 of 21 years.
Consistently (not always, mind, but consistently) play some of the best football in the Prem.
New state of the art stadium.
World wide fan base.
Good grief, man.
How old are you, Homer? My guess is that you’re a millennial who’s never known anything except Arsene Wenger. I’m in my mid fifties and have been a fan for well over 40 years now. That’s why I know that Arsene Wenger is not Arsenal Football Club. In terms of support and league titles we are the third most successful club in England: only Liverpool and United have won more. That’s why thirteen years without winning the league is simply not good enough. Ask Abramovich and those Arabs at City if they think that FA Cup wins is how they… Read more »
Yeah but they are on another level financially then Arsenal ownership is willing to go. We all can understand that. That is sad I know but at least the ownership isn’t using Arsenal as a personal piggybank.
I know its dumb to compare Liverpool and Arsenal but Liverpool has had it worse then Arsenal since AW came aboard. Look how far they have fallen in 20 years. I’m not saying its great not winning the Prem in 13 years or CL but things have changed in the last 20 years and it could be alot worse.
I have supported Arsenal since the 80s and know enough that are also always dissatisfied, entitled cuntos like you.
Fats is still all negative. He just expanded his vocabulary, that’s all.
Kinda like my previous comment, games, as significant as they are to the training loads, are only half the story. The other half are the days between games at the training ground, and what is being done there. Either training loads and intensity are too high during training, or not high enough and insufficient enough to replicate and prepare the player for actual competition loads.
Time for Theo to considerably up his game…& finally esrn his keep.
lmao, Walcott earn his keep, he hasn,t done it in all the time he has been at the club, so I don’t think he will do now, the best thing he can do is to fuck off, jesus you must have a lot of patience
lost faith in Theo a long time ago
All he said was that with a hectic schedule coming up, and a few players injured, he’ll have to think carefully about squad management. I have no idea why this is controversial…
Why? Victim syndrome yet again (fatigue, other clubs overspending, two transfer windows, too long transfer windows and million of others) instead of taking the accountability of his actions and results. Not saying Giroud injury is his fault but instead of complaining spend some fucking money and strenghten the Team in January.
He wasn’t complaining. He was answering a journalist question…