Team Fitness

[cider11]

Having watched a few games so far this season, the squad dont appear to have the same fitness levels of previous seasons. I know there has been a lot of injuries/illness, but by now at least the regular starters should be near to full fitness. With what appears the lower fitness seems the work rate and tempo of our game has dropped.

The year we got promoted and to the play offs we would run and chase and be in the face of the opposition when they had the ball. This used to be pretty much from first kick to the end of the game. Against Posh we were stood off our man when they had the ball in the midfield, no one getting close to them to force them into mistakes. This was also happening when the ball was around the edge of the area. Also players getting back when lose the ball, not picking anyone out as there are a few of them, but an example on saturday was Orr. He lost the ball on the attack in the middle of the pitch, and only jogged back, even though we was short at the back as Carey was bringing the ball out of defence down the right.

When we had the ball, our passing used to be quick and passed and moved. A lot of teams couldnt keep up with it at times, and often long spells of this and moving the ball wide, trying to move the opposition around. Now we seem to have a quick burst when start an attack, but then just becomes a bit stale with passes being rolled to each other and no real movement of the players. The lack of width might have a part to play in it going slow as gets bit cramped in the middle for a quick release to the wing to draw a player or two out of position.

Could a lack of fitness also lead to the late goals which we have been conceding and the lack of concentration. The year we came up and the play-offs, if we were winning by 1 goal or drawing with 5-10 mins left to play we'd see it out the majority of times. There werent many games where we would concede a late goal, more often we would go and score one in that time. Now we seem unlikely to score and likely to let one in.