Anyone else agree with the co-commentator, whoever he was, last night,

[redgunamo]

about "the tiredness" becoming a thing in players' minds, if people go on about it too much. He seemed to be arguing that players themselves want to play every game.

[Brentwood]

Or Danny Big fat bottom as I sometimes like to refer to him, before chuckling at myself

[Billy Goat Sverige]

f**king passes they played. Now, i do like a statistic, but i'd say at least 25% of their passes are just two players passing it back and forth three or four times without really going anywhere.

[Monty91]

day before. They finish them tired.

The reason players are rested is because if you start a player who you know is likely to need to come off with 20-30 minutes to go, then you give yourself a handicap because it reduces your ability to make strategic substitutions.

And, of course, if the game is still in the balance, there will be a temptation to keep your best players on the pitch, not least because taking them off will cause the cancer-deserving scum in the crowd to have a hissy fit.

[redgunamo]

concentration to keep the ball without going anywhere, until the opportunities present themselves. In England though, we think of such tactics as timewasting.

It helps enormously if you have forwards that are absolutely full of goals, but we've somehow managed to occasionally get ourselves caught between the two methods.

[redgunamo]

I suppose if you're Barcelona, the manager can do whatever he likes and to hell with medical advice.

Perhaps it's merely another weapon in the arsenal of explanations a manager needs to have, egged on, in this case, by people like the BMA who realise there's good money to be made in football nowadays. See also that Eva-bird's case against Mourinho and the whole concussion kerfuffle.

Wenger was praised in the past for being able to tell whether a player was fit or not simply by watching him run. I can do the same with my dogs, in fact. Now, He would have a small team of medical professionals doing this with Him/for Him.

None of that though deals with the fact that, at the end of the day, if it's matchday, you are always going to be reduced to simply asking the player if he fancies it or not.

[Monty91]

matters of fitness. The reason fans do it is because they're not interested enough in their club to care whether someone is leeetle bit jaded. They say they are, but this is a delusional lie.

It would be like going to the threatre and finding out the star turn has f**ked off to Belgium coz he’s feeling down in the dumps and saying "ahh well, we all have bad days".

Your first thought would be "you're having a f**king laugh, aren't you?" before asking who his replacement's gonna be. Coz all we really care about is seeing a good show.

[redgunamo]

Or indeed, any game.

Everyone has turned up on matchday with a hangover or a tickly cough, for instance, but having made the effort to get there on time, you demand to play, even if you shouldn't.

Nobody wants to live their life according to medical advice, but you can understand why medical professionals say you ought to. Have you never worked while sick?

The theatre analogy does not work here because an unfit, or not 100% fit, player can still help you win the game. And *that* is all fans are interested in. Not the long-term health and well-being of the player in question.

[Monty91]

game and look as fit as a fiddle.

It is in the latter stages of games when it catches up with them. And for pragmatic reasons, managers cannot afford to play players they know are likely to have to come off with 20 minutes to go.

On occasion, as we have seen with Wellbeck since his return, they have to, as it’s the only way to get a player match-fit after injury. But it is far from ideal.

[Classic Jorge]

Wenger refuses to give the guy 90 minutes and actively refuses to pick him, he could have last night for instance, at times because he doesnt want to have one less sub.

[redgunamo]

The thing is, a manager is just like a fan in that he simply wants to win the game.

So, he hopes that seventy minutes from two unfit star players can help deliver a three-goal lead maybe and then removing them, as a result of their lack of fitness, will satisfy all demands and not be in any way controversial. Except perhaps to any retired rugby union players who may happen to be on His fitness and conditioning staff who swore to Him that the players in question had absolutely no chance of making the game.

[7evens]

[redgunamo]