Tim wrote:

In terms of quality and standard of football. And I think you're wrong Gael, there will be an increasing number of german teams going to the latter stages of the Champions League in the next 5-10 years imo.

Would be good to see that actually, interested to see how good this Dortmund side are next year too. Would be good for football if the 'German model' led to success, but I just don't see the quality in the league.

But you obviously watch more of the Bundesliga than I do (outside the Champions League I watched a few Bayern games last summer but that was rare), is your prediction based on this generation of young German footballers or a group of underrated players/clubs?

Ricky1985 wrote:

Is it really any more advanced than what we do, or other top teams do, though?

I have no idea, really. It's probably not that different today, but I don't know how the rest of the clubs operate. I just know that Milan Lab base their method upon continuous and meticulous studying of each player individually. I'm sure a lot of people thought they had the recipe to Coca-Cola in their possession but what's made them so effective is nothing that the rest of the world couldn't have done with a bit of money. Instead of hiring osteopaths and chiropractors they've been employing actual research scientists to do a job. It's about expensive medical research and machinery more than anything else.

Captain wrote:

This wasn't the article and it is very anecdotal (but then so are the positives spun) but she highlights some issues here.

http://www.football-italia.net/blogs/sc105.html

Interesting. I will have to find out more about this, and see what I make of it. Right now it looks like a load of rubbish from Milan, serving as little more than good PR.

I would imagine that the level of expertise is more or less the same at all of the big clubs. I'm sure that they all practice both a preventative and treatment based approach to player health.

I remember seeing a documentary on Bolton and even there, with their relatively smaller budget, Fat Sam had introduced a fair amount of science into their fitness regimes (that's why he is always going on about sports psychology and being a pioneer etc.).

Im sure they do. I don't think it's that much different either. What makes Milan superior is the frequency they do it with, the uncompromising attitude and the experience of having done it so long, I guess. It's the small things. I've got an article in a magazine called Offside (it could best be described as the swedish equivalent to L'Equipe) dated back to 2008, I think. They had an extensive look at Milan Lab and talked to a lot of people. It's a really fascinating read.

What the entire thing boils down to is, a lot of injuries just happen and then you need to treat them during the recovery period. You can't really tell whether someone will get on the recieving end of a bad tackle, or whether they'll twist their leg walking down the street, or whether a tendon will snap unless it shows on one of the routine scans. But you can influence the other things. Stuff you usually take for granted. Like body balance, for instance. Or running patterns. They study the way some players kick a ball which might result in long-term complications. They measure the endurance of each active muscle group and then they assign a special training program to the area that is lacking. They look at things that causes unneccessary wear and tear to the body and they try to reduce it.

The results have been good too. Maldini was 40 when he retired, Costacurta 42. Seedorf is 35, just like Nesta. Inzaghi is 37 and was having a wonderful season until that tendon injury came along. Most of the current squad is actually close to or on the wrong side of thirty.

Maximum efficiency for every player would be a good way to describe what they're trying to do, Klaus?

Like I said, I'l have to find out more about it.

Ricky: Yes, that sounds correct.

I think the problem, or one of the problems at least, is that people put faith into things like horse placenta because they don't always like the verdict they get from conventional medicine. Generally, however, the best method of recovery is under controlled conditions with medicine and procedures that have been proven to have a real, tangible effect. Instead of asking why Beckham's achilles went that blog should perhaps be asking: how did they manage to turn a player, who's been slacking it up in MSL for over three years, into one of the best midfielders in Serie A at the age of 35? The tempo in Italy is a little bit slower than in England, but it's not that much slower.

GaelForce wrote:

is your prediction based on this generation of young German footballers or a group of underrated players/clubs?

Yeah, I've watched a fair bit of the league since ESPN picked it up last year. I've generally been really impressed by the standard and quality of football. There's loads of quality young players spread throughout the division and even more coming through by the looks of it.

And the fact that most of the top teams are pretty well off financially means that they should be able to keep their squads together for longer.

they've leapfrogged serie a in terms of uefa coefficients and CL places, havent they?

i just find the southern european leagues too corrupt. it taints everything. barca and madrid basically have the competition rigged financially in their favour with tv rights and gov't favours, and in italy, we know for a fact it was actually rigged. and then all the diving and cheating... i dont have any time for it. mickey mouse leagues, in my opinion. nothing's better than arsenal.

There was absolutely nothing praiseworthy about that tackle.

He was guilty of a couple like that when he was here too.

I watched the first half of the Milan-Tottenham game last night. What a shit game.

How boring and predictable is the 'punt it long to Crouch' tactics? Yet Milan still failed to handle it.

Captain wrote:

There was absolutely nothing praiseworthy about that tackle.

Captainsera Captainsera, What has Don Flamini ever done to make you treat him so disrespectfully? If we'd offered him a new contract in friendship and at the right time, then this scum that wounded Ramsey, that shattered Eduardo, that tried to finish off Diaby- would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest club like Arsenal should make enemies, and have cunts constantly whispering about the DNA of their captain, then they would become his enemies- And then they would fear us!!!

Just a thought: I wonder how this team would have evolved if we still had the Flamster gently enforcing our will in the midfield. No room for Denilson definitely, but hows about Wilshere?

Hard to say, since he fucked off and chased the money at Milan, not giving two hoots about Arsenal or his team mates.

😆

Either way that was more of a botched assassination attempt than a tackle.

flobaba wrote:
Captain wrote:

There was absolutely nothing praiseworthy about that tackle.

Captainsera Captainsera, What has Don Flamini ever done to make you treat him so disrespectfully? If we'd offered him a new contract in friendship and at the right time, then this scum that wounded Ramsey, that shattered Eduardo, that tried to finish off Diaby- would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest club like Arsenal should make enemies, and have cunts constantly whispering about the DNA of their captain, then they would become his enemies- And then they would fear us!!!

Just a thought: I wonder how this team would have evolved if we still had the Flamster gently enforcing our will in the midfield. No room for Denilson definitely, but hows about Wilshere?

What on earth are you talking about?

Flamini wouldn't even get in to our team any more, even if he was on top form.

Flamini is dead to me. And as Tim says, he's inferior to what each of Jack, Fabregas and Song offer at their respective positions. Jack. Wow.

I don't miss him either. Song is a better player nowadays and he just keeps adding dimensions to his game. I didn't think much of him when we first signed him but his development during the past five years has been astounding.