The true secret of Leicester City's success / doping thread merged

[worsleyweb]

I've spent plenty of time discussing sports science inside Loughborough Uni, even giving a presentation there about 7 years back on maximising performance with limited resources in sports. So if you think that your sports science department has been responsible for this turnaround, I give up.

Can having a good ss team make you better than teams at a similar level?Absolutely.

Can they make you better than a team with better athletes, resources(including sports scientists) and coaching? Perhaps.

Can they make you better than a dozen teams with all of the above? Come on man.

I played a very decent level at a team sport and played with and against guys who were using PED's. I've seen them passed around in the locker rooms like skittles(once even between the opposing teams in a hallway). I was on a board of directors for a sport and seen a team trainer get a job who had previous form for juicing his guys on the bodybuilding circuit, so bad that they banned him. I also pushed for a WADA implemented drug testing policy to be fastracked in the sport I was Technical Director for over 5 years, so when it comes to PED use I think I know a bit about a bit.

You want the tell tale sign Leicester players are juicing? Just take a look at them at the end of each and every game. They aren't drenched in sweat. They aren't fatigued. They have pupils dilated to hell and they are far more alert than your average guy. It's bloody obvious.(and I will again state I can point to players on every single team and say the same thing, I've just never seen it team wide like this before).


Take a look over in Ireland at GAA. It's a freaking amateur sport. AMATEUR. They don't get paid. But yet they stringently drug test them and catch them time and time again. And this is in a sport where there's no financial incentive. Now take a look at Crossfit. Those guys are clearly, clearly juicing. Just look at their demeanour and they look exactly like a bunch of elite level footballers.

People will point to Sahko and say, "Oh look, they caught him didn't they?" but all that means is he was using stuff that shows in urine tests. I would love to know how stringent the drug testing for Premiership footballers is, because I guarantee it isn't.

Uou know I looked at Marez at weekend and I thought he looked strange - he was not in the least bit tired.

 

[foxedup]

So they have sport science coach, do you think other teams don't?

Any other sport and questions would arise how a team/players with the worst distance covered last season now has the top/one of the top etc.

A player in Vardy who was nowhere his entire career is now stronger and faster than he's ever been aged 29? Just seems suspicious that's all.

Well firstly I never said everything is down to them, but injury prevention and team fitness is. As for other teams having sports science departments, correct. Other teams also have scouting departments... and yet we've managed to drain more out of ours than others seem to have from theirs.

You see, here you are basing your whole opinion on a total fabrication. We did not have the worst distance covered last season and we don't have one of the top distances covered this season either. We're 8th this season, I'd also assume there has been some improvement in distance covered. Considering we've gone from having 35 year old Cambiasso in the middle to Kante. We no longer have to play Gary Taylor Fletcher, who looks like a Darts player, Dean Hammond and Konchesky both deep into their 30's and shit.

As for Vardy, again. What are you basing it on that he's not stronger and faster than he ever was. You've only just started watching him, why don't you go and ask some fleetwood fans what he was like. He's always had bags of pace and have always been a good player... otherwise we wouldn't have broken the non-league record to buy him. His technique and shooting has improved no end since he joined us, but his physical attributes aren't that much different.

You need to stop reading conspiracy websites written by arsenal fans.

 

[foxedup]

agreed.journeyman striker, hits premier league,scores 5 goals.
next season, at the age of 29 ,improves his speed......and off the balll runs...at the age of 29,and scores 22 goals.
small lightly built inside forwards whose game is based on pace and explosive finishing,do not generally get better as they get older,certainly not as they approach the age of 30.
where did that power come from? 34 games 5 goals.34 games 22 goals.wow.

Because he was learning the league, just as his did when he first stepped up to the championship. It also doesn't help when your manager leaves you out or plays you as a winger for a large chunk of the season.

Stop talking about physical attributes improving, it's garbage. Look at the united 5-3 game and he ripped them to bits with his pace. Just as he did the championship. He's always been quick, other areas of his game have improved massively.

His conditioning has improved a bit since he arrived. But so has ball control and finishing. Something you'd expect from a lad who starts getting proper coaching and is able to train full time... rather than, you know... working in a splints factory.

 

[foxedup]

The difference with Spurs and Leicester is that Spurs have been around the top six for a number of years whereas Leicester have been where. The rise has been so out of the ordinary that as people have stated on here if it was a sprinter you would have serious doubts about how clean they were. It would be the equivalent of a 28 year old sprinter who has never broken 10.5 suddenly in the space of 12 months regularly breaking 9.8, it just doesn't happen without some aid. Journeymen players turning into world beaters overnight, not having it I am afraid

Sprinting isn't a team sport and it relies pretty much entirely on physical attributes, rather than skill. Football is nothing close to being like that.

You're talking absolute nonsense.

 

[foxedup]

You want the tell tale sign Leicester players are juicing? Just take a look at them at the end of each and every game. They aren't drenched in sweat. They aren't fatigued. They have pupils dilated to hell and they are far more alert than your average guy. It's bloody obvious.(and I will again state I can point to players on every single team and say the same thing, I've just never seen it team wide like this before).

Absolute garbage, I've just compared post match interviews from several of your own matches to those of ours. Barely any difference in how the players act, how much sweat they are covered in or frigging pupils.

 

[Eds]

Sprinting isn't a team sport and it relies pretty much entirely on physical attributes, rather than skill. Football is nothing close to being like that.

You're talking absolute nonsense.

No I am not, the concept is the same. Remember all those Chinese who won world records? The 10,000 meters record was 22 seconds faster than any other athlete has run to this day and she passed all drug tests. She later admitted to doping as did many of the other athletes as it was state sponsored. When an athlete improves beyond all recognition in such a short space of time in most sports questions are asked.

 

[Citizen in Pakistan]

All this speculation completely discounts the fact that renieri is a fantastic manager, often this season when pellegerini has been criticized here examples of renieri has been given of his understanding of the game and how much better he is than pellers and now its not the renieri effect but the doping effect? Leicester has been fantastic and great to watch, they deserve every bit of it

 

[foxedup]

No I am not, the concept is the same. Remember all those Chinese who won world records? The 10,000 meters record was 22 seconds faster than any other athlete has run to this day and she passed all drug tests. She later admitted to doping as did many of the other athletes as it was state sponsored. When an athlete improves beyond all recognition in such a short space of time in most sports questions are asked.

But there is zero evidence that our players have improved physically. You aren't providing any evidence at all, we're nowhere near the top in terms of distance run (we're 8th) and we weren't bottom last year either.

Again, all you can trump up is other sports that are totally about physical attributes. Drugs aren't going to make Mahrez rip your defence to bits with skill and bang it in the net, they aren't going to make Vardy smash one in from 30 yards or Kante any better at tackling. You can jack a team up to their eyeballs, it won't make a bad player good. Burnley ran around more than anyone last year and went down without a wimper.

Rather than chucking about nonsense like you are, back it up with facts. Failing that, do a bit of research into what Ranieri has done tactically this year, the signings we've made, the players that have gone, look at games last year where we showed the ability many of the players had. United at home, Arsenal home and away, Liverpool and Spurs home and away. We didn't always walk away with the result (mostly down to individual errors), but there were some fantastic performances.

 

[foxedup]

All this speculation completely discounts the fact that renieri is a fantastic manager, often this season when pellegerini has been criticized here examples of renieri has been given of his understanding of the game and how much better he is than pellers and now its not the renieri effect but the doping effect? Leicester has been fantastic and great to watch, they deserve every bit of it

Tactically, the bloke has blown me away, he's drained every ounce of ability out of players, but it's so simple and so obvious really what he's done really. All this PED stuff is rubbish, especially when people bring up the defence and say they've suddenly become amazing.

They haven't, they are just asked to do what they are good at. Simpson can't attack to save his life, he'll never get in a team that wants attacking full backs. So we just tell him to stay back and not to stray too far from the CB's. Huth is so slow he'd get ripped for pace, so Simpson stays by his side and restricts the space, meaning teams are forced to go to the corner and have to cross it, rather than running at the CB's. Crosses are meat and drink to Huth and Morgan. They will smash them away all day long, you don't ask them to pass the ball though, that's why we have low possession stats, you can't ask them to play it out from the back.

 

[Citizen in Pakistan]

Tactically, the bloke has blown me away, he's drained every ounce of ability out of players, but it's so simple and so obvious really what he's done really. All this PED stuff is rubbish, especially when people bring up the defence and say they've suddenly become amazing.

They haven't, they are just asked to do what they are good at. Simpson can't attack to save his life, he'll never get in a team that wants attacking full backs. So we just tell him to stay back and not to stray too far from the CB's. Huth is so slow he'd get ripped for pace, so Simpson stays by his side and restricts the space, meaning teams are forced to go to the corner and have to cross it, rather than running at the CB's. Crosses are meat and drink to Huth and Morgan. They will smash them away all day long, you don't ask them to pass the ball though, that's why we have low possession stats, you can't ask them to play it out from the back.

They played to best of their abilities and stuck to the role given by the manager, the whole lot of them. Dont pay attention to conspiracy theories on here and enjoy the success coming your way.

I think to Leicester's advantage no one really treated them as title challengers as late as feb/march, they were all banking on them to fail and for wheels to come of, so most of the teams didn't set up against them as they would have done it had it been a usual suspect chasing title instead of Leicester, so from small teams to big teams every team thought they could get a result against them rather than realizing they were playing to Leicester's counter attacking strength