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Very difficult to know if a player is in a good or bad space psychologically, some players need to rest because mentally they are overloaded, says Liverpool legend David James | Football News – Times of India

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Workload management – That is a term that we hear quite a bit of these days, globally and across team sports.
However there was a time when player rotation was not something which was very common. A team’s key players were expected to play every big game, every series or tournament.
In a sport like cricket, which has as many as three internationally recognised formats, workload management and player rotation is something every team management works on a lot these days. We have seen that change take place. Of course a lot of that depends on the bench strength of a certain team or country and how many quality players the coach and the management have at their disposal. Sports science and the data logged on every individual player plays a big part in this as well.
So, what about football? – arguably a way more physical sport than cricket – what was the transition like when sports science began to be used more and more in the beautiful game and what was that transition like?
Legendary Liverpool goalkeeper and former England first choice stopper David James was a guest on Times of India’s sports podcast Sportscast some time ago and shared his own experience of seeing that transition happen in front of his eyes, when he was an active player.
James also stressed on the importance of keeping a very close watch on a players mental state of being and not just his or her physical condition.
“Definitely I saw that transition. I mean, the fact that we needed to warm up before training, when I was a kid, kind of suggests that there was some kind of sports science that was there in a sort of very rudimentary way. But I think football has learnt that there is a level that sports science can get involved (in). There’s data now that’s produced from training sessions, puts people in red zones and whatever other zones there are and as a player going through that transition there was a lot of frustration because arguably we would just want to play every game, every minute and if we weren’t then we would be frustrated. However, the one thing, from my experience is still a problem and possibly why we see more rotation – the physical output is one thing, but it’s the mental stresses, the psychological stresses on players at the top level. We just watch some games and say – why didn’t he do this and why didn’t he do that and physically you can see someone being tired, technically you can see them being superb or inept but psychologically it’s very difficult to know whether a player is in a good or bad space. So arguably some players need to rest not because physically they are tired but because mentally they are overloaded. So I’m thinking in a sport like cricket or essentially in any professional or high level sport the same things apply because as I said – when you are looking at Liverpool or Manchester City and with a treble or a quadruple (in sight), you would like to think that even those players, even though they would like to be there, competing for these competitions they have to get themselves up for the match….So, all these things are highly important. Like anything new, there will be flaws in the system, in the sense that they would have overdone it. I think I was part of certain clubs where sports science took total control which didn’t allow people like myself to utilise what sort of got me into that position as an elite performer, being able to do more work. And as a manager I felt that there was a part of my management where (also) sports science was allowed to do a little bit too much at times. It’s just about getting that balance. The physical and mental health is the most important thing about your athletes (ahead of even) winning trophies or attempting to win trophies. If your athletes aren’t alright then there’s something wrong,” James, who at one time held the record for the most number of clean sheets in the Premier League said on TOI Sportscast.
As someone who played over 200 matches for Liverpool, James also talked about the possibility of the Reds winning an unprecedented quadruple this season. With the League Cup title already under their belt, Jurgen Klopp and his band of merry men are eyeing the EPL (where they are currently 1 point behind leaders Manchester City after 30 games), the FA Cup (where they will play Manchester City in the first semi-final on April 16) and the Champions League (where they play Benfica over two legs in the quarter finals next) titles. No English club has done this before.
And in the quest to do the unthinkable, Klopp will have to rotate his players too. But how that is executed will be the tricky part, because all players, especially those who fall in the key players bracket would expect to play every big game.
“This will be the test for Jurgen Klopp. The side (Liverpool) is more than capable of winning every game of football they play, we already know that, so theoretically they are capable of doing the quadruple, the unthinkable. The balance within the squad, within the club at the moment works because there is a potential to win three more trophies. You could be one of the players who thinks he is being rested because he’s got a chance of playing later on down the line and invariably this could be an FA Cup final, EPL title decider and Champions League final, all in a very short period of time. So there will be players there who won’t play in the first one, who will be thinking they will be in the second one and potentially the third one and as these games go by people are going to, and this is the frustrating bit, people could get a little bit disillusioned thinking that they have been used somehow because, I can’t speak for every player of course, but I think every player should want to play in every one of those games, ” James further said on TOI Sportscast.
No player likes to be left on the bench, but at times, the best of players need to be rotated as part of workload management supported by the data etc. thrown up by sports science.
“As a player I was frustrated if I didn’t play, but if the team won then I had no argument. But that didn’t stop me from being frustrated.And I think this is where Jurgen is being tested now. But what a position Liverpool are in at the moment and the fact that they have got one out of the way is perfect. It’s like – we are on for the quadruple and we’ve got one (League Cup) out of the way now, so the target becomes narrower in a positive way.”
Listen to the full episode with David James here: TOI Sportscast

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