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| Did Hargreaves have a case? |
Manchester United is facing the game at Anfield with 8 first team players out and 4 players who are still a doubt. Practically every first team player has been on the injury side this season. This makes us fans wonder if it is a matter of simple bad luck or if the problems go deeper.
The first ones to get blamed for this kind of injury spell are the coaches, the ones in charge of player fitness. I find it hard to believe that a team that has training facilities such as Carrington and are advised by physios, fitness coaches, weights coaches, running coaches etc. are poorly prepared for the demands of the EPL.
And the truth is neither torn ligaments, broken bones or knocks, are the consequence of a bad training routine or lack of a proper warm up before the game.
So if it is not the physios… is it really the medical staff?
I have no medical knowledge whatsoever - and I don’t think specific medical treatments for the players are ever released to the public, so I don’t see how anyone could assess if the treatment is the right one.
Unless a player with high credibility (not being denied of a contract) goes out in public with a complaint against the medical staff, including a well known doctor’s report, we will never know if the medical staff is to blame for this bad period.
When no reasonable explanation can be found, do we blame it on luck?, there is no such thing as luck, but when a team is down 2 defenders and the first choice to replace them goes down with “Glandular Fever” I start believing there is something else behind this. “The Hargreaves Curse”
I’m not particularly superstitious but I do believe there is something, call it luck call it destiny call it some higher power, that makes things go either way. Think the best example for this is shown in the movie Match point (Woody Allen´s if you haven’t seen it I strongly recommend it) in the opening scene a tennis ball hits the net and for the fraction of a second it could go either way of the court … winning or losing ….
For as long as we don’t know what is causing this and we are still breathing down Shitty’s neck I’ll be recruiting some of the best Chamanes in the country and keeping them close by, just in case.
United’s First team players with an injury or doubtful fitness
Nani - Ankle, posible Metatarsal fracture
Phil Jones - Ankle ligaments
Rio Ferdinand - Concussion, Back Injury
Anderson - Knee
Ashley Young - Toe, knee
Darren Fletcher - Bowel Condition
Nemanja Vidic - Knee Injury
Michael Owen - Thigh Muscle Strain
Thomas Cleverly - Foot Injury
Michael Carrick - Knock
Wayne Rooney - Knock
Patrice Evra - Knock
Top 5 most injuries in a team for the EPL*
Manchester United - 11
Arsenal - 9
Aston Villa - 7
Bolton Wanderers -7
Sunderland - 7
*Data from www.physioroom.com
Article contributed by @marisolrq, from marisolredevil.blogspot.com.
7 comments:
We have got all sorts of injuries doing the round...as we say here in India...time to may be take the help of some Fengshui guys to overcome the bad spell. I doubt our Medical team is so bad that they can't diagnose injuries and let the players prepare poorly during warm up etc.
Each year most clubs go through injuries to some extent or another. Be it a bad tackle, stretched limb or just a freak accident it happens. BUT what I cannot understand is the length of time our players seem to be taken to come back from them. I have followed United for over 30 years now and I for one cannot recall ever seeing so many players out at one time let alone the amount of time it takes them to get back into the first team. One incident springs to mind and it centered around a former physio from the 80’s. Jim McGregor was fired by United after he said that Paul McGrath would never play again after a succession of knee injuries. United released McGrath in 89 and he went on to not only play for 9 more years at Aston Villa (Winning the 1993 Players player of the year) and Sheffield Wednesday to name but a few but was one of the best players at the 94 World Cup. So my point is regardless of the amount of years you have in the bank people make mistakes and I for one believe the United medical staff have made many over the past few years. Ashley Young’s injury was deemed a “2 weeker” in December, it’s the 27th of January now and he is still not playing.
Forever Red
Do not forget that ashley young's injury also didn't bleed out and as soon as he started running it started bleeding out. Heargraves was an unfortunate thing but a knee injury is never going to be easy. I cannot see SAF keeping nonsense medical staff around however in my opinion it tells me how tough defenders are particularly on manchester united it's as if they were given pepe orders to stop this guy at all cost and it also shows the commitment our players have to the club they never shy away from a tackle. Medicine today however is more high tech and will often direct you to a full recovery regime long gone are the days a player has a swollen foot and is back on the pitch as soon as he can run on it. There is also match fit and runing fit or work out fit or gym fit. different levels i can't say the staff is good or not but arsenal suffered what we are suffering also and they were also starting to play attractive and expansive football maybe teams are instructed to go after particular players. You never know. bim
I must completely ditto this thread, it seems pretty strange how much time spends our players in Physios and Medical rooms.is it a super precaution?is it for tactical reason?or is it a problem of misconduct from Fergie to a group of non committed players?!!its truly becoming a conundrum.in my opinion Manchester United is about to turn into a military asylum with that reputation, but still am confident of the size of our squad.so let us hope that its just a mind game or a strategy to mislead the public press from abusing our team.after all this is the best counter mind game, isn't it?
Hargreaves is still injured so..
Good luck is where opportunity meets preperation ! It follows that bad luck is down to the failure to prepare . A mate who was at the Citeh match said how much he admired there warm up physio activity . By comparrison we were guarded and doing just enough . Against Arsenal we were going down like nine pins . The whole thing needs reviewed . Its not just this season ,that this has raised its head .
There is no such things as luck, destiny or accidents...its just a momentary disproportion between human weakness and the physical universe or the power of nature.the team that has the greatest consistency in term of talent, physical presence and mental capability is the best candidate to welcome every challenge.we must always rise to that expectation but it seems that we are in a wrong place already this season so let us hope we fulfill what we are about to...as fas am concerned Man city have done that very well until this moment in EPL but if we are consistent enough then we can outpower any club....GO RED
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