Highbury Rock City
Active Member
All tough, it's pretty clear that this decision is up to Wenger and nobody else.
The medical team are highly trained professionals and none of us know what advice was given to Wenger on specific occassions.Terrible journalism that. Sensationalism at its ugliest. Ramsey was fine before the game and felt a slight "niggle" at halftime. A lot of the squad wasn't ready because of the Euros so the bench was poor and it was probably Ramsey's choice to try to keep playing. If players paid attention to every niggle then probably half the team would have to be substituted by the end of every game.
Terrible journalism that. Sensationalism at its ugliest. Ramsey was fine before the game and felt a slight "niggle" at halftime. A lot of the squad wasn't ready because of the Euros so the bench was poor and it was probably Ramsey's choice to try to keep playing. If players paid attention to every niggle then probably half the team would have to be substituted by the end of every game.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-injury-scare-alexis-sanchez-6903510I will assess that later. It might not be the right time to rest him.
True, we could've been better prepared. This is the price we paid by trying to snatch bigger fish at the end of the transfer window. Was the gamble worth it? This time it fell through but on the other hand, this is the strategy that brought in Özil...I partly agree, but that still doesn't excuse the fact how awfully prepared we were, when the season started.
It is a fine line. I'm sure Wenger consulted the medical staff and Ramsey himself before making the call to give it a go in the beginning of the 2nd half.When a player has extensive issue with his hamstring expresses issue with his hamstring wouldnt/shouldnt that be taken into account? He played on and has been out 2 months.
Sanchez had a hamstring issue before Norwich, Wenger didnt think it was the right time to rest him, he started, injured it, and missed 2 months.
It was a gamble and he lost the player(s) how you guys try and defend this I dont know. These are examples of how "bad luck" with injures could also/actually be simply bad management.
Before the Norwich game when the medical staff sat down with Wenger to discuss the tests and scans on Sanchez, were you present?When a player, who has extensive issue with his hamstrings, expresses issue with said hamstring wouldnt/shouldnt that be taken into account? Ramsey played on and has been out 2 months.
Sanchez had a hamstring issue before Norwich, Wenger didnt think it was the right time to rest him, he started, injured it, and missed 2 months.
I'm in no way saying ALL injuries are his fault but I provided show in these two examples "bad luck" with injures were bad management/gambles that he lost.
RvP was known for refusing to play unless 100% fit or near that. Yet he was a bit of a crock. There are things you can do to reduce certain injuries but a lot if it is bad luck and poorer physiology. RvP gave an interview and was asked who the strongest player was. He said all the African players were strong. Our smallish sample size of yester year backs that up iirc.Terrible journalism that. Sensationalism at its ugliest. Ramsey was fine before the game and felt a slight "niggle". If players paid attention to every niggle then probably half the team would have to be substituted by the end of every game.
Even though I don't think you can blame Arsène for a lot of the injury trouble we face, one of the biggest myths about last season is that it was derailed by injury.
In terms of days lost it's the lowest I can find (and interestingly, days lost to injury have declined pretty much every season since Forsyth joined the club). The period when most of those days took place (~December) was also our best run of form - 7 wins in 8, including vital wins against City and Olympiakos.
Were Leicester lucky not to suffer any injuries to their key players? Of course.
However that doesn't change the fact that we had pretty much our entire squad fit for our poor start to the season, as well as for that abysmal end of season run-in (4 wins in the whole of February/March).
Wish people would stop buying into this injury bullshit- it's just another of those mind-numbing strawmen erected by @Makingtrax so that he can deflect any and all criticism away from Saint Arsène for last season.
Before the Norwich game when the medical staff sat down with Wenger to discuss the tests and scans on Sanchez, were you present?
This short article is on injuries from last season.
http://www.thestatszone.com/articles/the-premier-league-physio-room
Two interesting points in it.
My statistician days are behind me and I don't the time at the minute to relearn how to do statistical analysis with standard deviations and the like, but on first impressions a club's injury stats seem to vary wildly from season to season.
- UEFA reckons 50 injuries per club a season is the average
- We had 42 injuries last season
Arsenal's injury record has went from being the worst to being better than most in just a couple of seasons. Conversely, Chelsea went from having no injuries under Mourinho to a bit more than the expected average the following season.
I don't think a simple model or theory can capture that type of fluctuation.
If I had to guess, I'd say the relevant factors to injuries are:
Other factors worth considering but hard to quantify
- an individual player is more or less injury prone than another, (Abou Diaby v Nacho)
- certain positions are more injury prone than another, (goalkeeper v central midfielder)
- clubs (being an aggregate of players) can get more or less luck on how the injuries play out in any one season (Chelsea 2014 v Chelsea 2015)
- increased games / decreased rest periods = increased risk.
I think this is a really interesting area but alas it gets only the most superficial of analysis.
- Style of play (short v long ball)
- In game tactics (defend a 2-0 versus continuing attacking)
- Opposition mentality (sit deep v "don't like it up 'em")
It always has been a catch 22 for Wenger. When we are on a good run some say that he should rotate while others say that you don't mess with the winning team. If Wenger keeps playing the same players and eventually injuries occur then the knives are out that he didn't rotate. If he rotates and results suffer as one would expect, the pitchforks come out that he ruined the momentum by fielding a lesser team. He can never win.Another question to consider is, is there a gradation between 100% fit and 100% injured?
If you accept that there is such a gradation, there may be a positive correlation between fitness and injury-proneness.
A manager's job would then be to decide when to field a player in less than perfect condition.
Some say Wenger fielding Ramsey against Liverpool was a mistake because he got injured. But Wenger is also criticised for not playing Kos in that game.
What is an acceptable risk of injury to a player?