Former Wales assistant manager Raymond Verheijen has slammed Jurgen Klopp’s training methods in a Twitter outburst.
Verheijen, who was Gary Speed’s assistant between 2011 and the time of the manager’s passing, said doing too much too soon during pre-season destroys players, adding that he believes the methods used to be “outdated”.
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We see this two ways – Klopp needs his players to be incredibly fit in order to comply with his in-game tactics and demands, but there is also a fair argument that says any overworked body will be more injury prone.
In fact, Verheijen himself said last Christmas that Klopp’s players would suffer an injury crisis in the New Year – a prediction that was proved to be correct.
We had 11 players injured in mid-January, with six of them going down with hamstring issues.
Here are his Twitter comments in full – what do you think?
In past weeks media reported how intelligent coaches like Conte & Klopp do ‘too much too soon’ with double & triple sessions in pre-season.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Coaches destroy players by training too much too soon in pre-season in 3 phases:
1) fatigue phase, 2) injury phase & 3) injury crisis phase.— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 1: Accumulation of fatigue phase. Overtraining players with too many sessions & too short recovery time in between to regain freshness
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 1: Accumulation of fatigue phase. Which Einstein invented 2-3 sessions per day with relatively unfit players just after off-season?
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 1: Accumulation of fatigue phase. As players get tired coaches condition players to play slower & inaccurate football in pre-season.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 1 –> Phase 2: After being overtrained in first 2 weeks tired players now have to play friendly games which means a high injury risk.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 2: Injury phase. Overtrained players have lost freshness in first weeks & now have to play friendly games with lower body coordination
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 2: Injury phase. Accumulated fatigue results in slower nervous system. Signals from brain to muscles travel slower. Less coordination.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 2: Injury phase. Tired players with less body coordination have to make maximum explosive actions in friendly games: high injury risk!
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 2 –> Phase 3: After some players got injured in week 3-4 of pre-season coaches can’t stop vicious circle so injury crisis in week 5-6
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 3: Injury crisis phase. More injuries lead to smaller squad so tired players get even more game minutes. Even more fatigue & injuries.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Most teams have almost finished phase 1 (accumulation of fatigue phase) and will enter phase 2 in which first few players will get injured.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
In about 2 weeks the first teams will enter the ‘Injury crisis phase’ (phase 3). Look forward to all these coaches blaming external factors.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
In meantime ask yourself a question: why do we no longer fly in planes of 30 yrs ago but do intelligent coaches still train like 30 yrs ago?
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016