Fitness Coach Reveals Real Reason For Arsenal’s Injury Crisis
Arsenal have been going through hell with regards to injuries this season, currently, the Gunners have 9 players on the treatment table though some are closing in on a return but Dutch fitness coach Raymond Verheijen has slammed the Gunners for the unabating string of injuries that seems to have spanned to a decade.
The Dutchman that has worked with Dutch coach Guus Hidink and also had spells at City and Catalan giants Barcelona opined that Arsenal’s injury record is self –inflicted. He took to Twitter to explain this. Below are his tweets,
The Arsenal injury catastrophe in last decade is the perfect illustration of 2 massive problems in the relatively uneducated football world.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) October 10, 2014
Problem 1. Coaches (and the media & fans) think more training is better. So, players are overtrained, accumulate fatigue & get injured.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) October 10, 2014
Problem 2. Coaches (+ media & fans) still consider most injuries to be bad luck so nobody takes responsibility for the unnecessary injuries.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) October 10, 2014
Arsenal seem determined to fix the injury problem that has ravaged the club for many seasons by appointing German fitness coach Forsythe in the summer but the Gunners are still struggling with injuries which unfortunately have bedevilled key players. Maybe it is high time for Wenger to give a thought to what Verheijen had to say.
Probably Wenger should introduce a more subtle training regimen that would not pose too much strain on the players and players that tend to be injury prone should be taking off the training totally. I don’t think not training would affect a player’s productivity. It has been revealed that Chelsea’s star Diego Costa has not really been training because of his long standing hamstring injury but that hasn’t stopped him from delivering the goals in the league matches. Of what gain is it to exert so much strain on mere training only for players not to be productive in the matches that count for everything?
Also, just like he suggested, injuries should be seen as a consequence of an action and not just ill-luck. If it is taken as the former, somebody would have to take responsibility and that would help prevent a re-currence. Ozil’s injury is more than ill-luck. He was injured just for a few days while at Schalke, rarely injured at Real Madrid but often injured at Arsenal.
Definitely, something is wrong and must be addressed. Probably, the German playmaker is been over-used. Wenger doesn’t use him for mindless cup competitions (Capital One Cup) but he tends to use him for 90 minutes and that doesn’t seem to be going down well with the former Real Madrid man. While at Real Madrid, he seldom played 90 minutes and Wenger would do well to consider this option, we have enough options that can come in for him from the bench to see off matches a la Cazrola, Rosicky, Wilshere even Chamberlain.
If Arsenal must do well this season, they just have to decipher a way to stymie the injury crisis that seems to be crippling their season.