Was Fitness The Season's Biggest Problem?

We have talked plenty about Alan Pardew's questionable tactics. My co-bloggers also lavished a dollop of blame on Newcastle's transfer policy (though I don't necessarily agree with Bob's conclusion from last week). But could the club's biggest failure have been on the training ground, starting in July? I'm starting to think that may be the case.

After Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa featured in Euro 2012 last June, neither player completed anywhere near 90 minutes - in total! - during Newcastle's eight-match preseason schedule. Was it any surprise, after such scant preparation, that both players spent the entire season either injured or off the pace? Obviously, a little extra rest was in order after national team duty. But sitting both players for six weeks, then throwing them into the teeth of the Premier League schedule was a disaster waiting to happen.

While they were the two most clear-cut examples of poor conditioning, it also affected Newcastle in other important ways. For months, I have been stressing the benefits of an uptempo approach, regardless of whether Pardew wanted to play a longball or short passing game. For one thing, playing quicker and pressing through the midfield is an effective way for smaller players to break up the attack and catch defenders on their heels. It's how Cabaye and Cheick Tioté established themselves as a formidable midfield duo in the 2011-12 campaign.

But there was only one stretch of matches where Newcastle played aggressively in the center of the park - in December leading up to the holiday period. The experiment came to a crashing halt after the 7-3 disaster at the Emirates. In that match, of course, it was 3-3 before Arsenal tore through a weary defense. From that point forward, it seemed that Pardew recognized his club lacked the legs to press.

Shortly thereafter, he started employing the 4-2-3-1 formation to guarantee that one central midfielder would play further up the field. While Moussa Sissoko had his moments in that role, it was never as dynamic as the swarming midfield three we saw in December. Even defensive midfielders, like Vurnon Anita and James Perch, became dangerous when given license to push forward. Yet we never saw it again, because the fitness situation made such an approach impossible.

Late in the year, what my co-bloggers perceived as mental weakness in the players could very easily be the product of poor conditioning as well. After all, having two or three players off the pace radically affects the team as a whole, leaving gaps that were exacerbated by poor communication. No amount of rah-rah leadership will give tired or injured players the ability to outrun their opponents. And given the fitness woes that affected the club earlier in the year, it seems a perfectly plausible explanation for the late-season swoon.

By all accounts, Pardew and his staff have all sorts of modern equipment designed to get players in the best shape possible. It's an indictment of the coaches that despite all the tools at their disposal, they didn't appear able to do that. And if Newcastle is serious about fixing the mistakes of last season, the training ground has to be the place to start. 

Comments

[Nick Dryden]

Our fitness training is a joke. Our payers constantly look shattered after the 60 min mark whereas ''pass and move'' teams rather than hoof ball teams (us sadly) don't seem to have this problem. Maybe it's because pass and move teams are making the other team chase shadows.

Spurs made Europa last season and this with just as many injuries. Yet we never hear about tiredness or injuries from them. I think we get so many injuries because the players aren't fit or Pardew is going all-in in training rather than passive tackling.

Mind you Pardew is the guy who brought back Ben Arfa to start a game after 3/4 months out on a plastic pitch in sub zero conditions. Who does that but a total numpty.

[rob]

I agree that an up-tempo style would be to our benefit. We seem to be bringing in more athletic players who would thrive in pressing and turning the match into an up-and-down game. One important thing you need to be careful of when playing this style of football is making sure your back 4 has make-up speed because they can find themselves 1 v 1 a lot. I'm not sure Colo, Saylor, and MYM have the kind of speed necessary to be left on an island like that. Maybe this N'Koulou guy that we are linked to does?

I am starting to wonder if the players we buy are bought solely because of the price or if there is a style of play that we are looking to bring to the club. The players all seem to have the individual talent and pedigree, but collectively may not be compatible. Hopefully I am proven wrong.

[Andrew George]

I would also point to other clubs, granted Man U always have a strong squad, but they deliberately leave out players who are not match fit due to international competitions (Euros etc) until they are fully fit - not one game.

Everything Pards does is ill-thought out, and reactive. The Ben Arfa plastic pitch injury was a joke, if I was Ashley I would definitely question his capability

[VA TOON]

Finally someone bringing attention to the fitness issue. i've been saying that all season! A new fitness coach, or better yet, fitness team (including some sports science experts) is worth the investment. We are sticking with Pardew, as such his homework this summer should have a lot to do with sports science/ fitness and conditioning, and modern tactics.

[jaeger]

another psychological point to add is that, when we're losing week in and week out, no one wants to rush back from an injury to get beaten, or they fake hurt so they dont take the blame. in the opposite scenario when we are winning, players enjoy that so they want to partake in it and do the rehab whole-heartedly. you can see that with any team.

i think this season was a combination of a lot of things:
small squad that key players were hurt, colo drama, ba drama, a sluggish start as opposed to the previous year, i guess europa hangover (for the derby disaster/month of april) and constant bickering between pardew and the fans.

think we'll pull this around and i could see us guns blazing to start the season if we have a happy transfer period.