Injuries

[Colhint]

I have been doing a little research on our Injuries over the last few years. It seems as though we are cursed.  Now I can't link all of the stats, as they come from different sources. Sporting Intelligence, Talksport, Guardian and Physioroom. Basically I just googled Premier League Injuries 2012-13, then 13-14 and this season. No one place had all the info. However if you took it as a table with the least injuries being Champions and the most being relegated, and I can only show those at risk of relegation because of the lack of stats it looks as follows

2112-13                                                         13-14                                                 this season
 
position

15  Fulham                                                 15 Man U                                             15 Everton
16 Man U                                                    16 Newcastle                                        16 Villa
17 QPR                                                       17 Everton                                           17 Stoke
18 Villa                                                       18 Villa                                                  18Arsenal
19 Wigan                                                    19 Spurs                                              19 Man U
20 Newcastle                                              20 Arsenal                                            20 Newcastle

Now you could probably draw many conclusions from that.
 
We have  the worst and newcastle second.

We would have been relegated twice
Our best positon is 2 places above relegation

Of the teams who have finished bottom half in the Last few season only us and Newcastle have appeared in that list more than once

3 teams on that list have been relegated.

I am not using this to defend  Lambert, some of his tactics leave me wondering sometimes. However perhaps he hasn't had much luck. The reason I looked into this was I read a comment a while back, which sort of said, well every team has injuries. Well yes they do, just not as many as us. Its a bit like goals, every team scores goals It's just most score more than us.

I doubt if he has had to put his best squad out 3 games running in that period, and I doubt if he has been able to put the same team out 5 games in a row. If you compare that to say Southampton this season, I think they have only used 14 players.

Anyway is it as Napoleon said I want lucky Generals?

[supertom]

When you consistently have so many injuries, which post O Neill we have done, then you can't really put it purely down to luck. Some of it is desperately unfortunate, but I don't think our fitness/physio and medical teams are quite cutting it.
Plus Lambert has signed players like Cole, Vlaar, Richardson and Senderos, all who have had questionnable injury records. Likewise McLeish in all his wisdom signed Jenas. Sometimes you're asking for trouble.

[supertom]

We expend a lot of energy too and all this desperate defending, outstretched legs, diving for blocks etc, also contributes to injuries. Cole did his hamstring stretching to block a cross. Of course that's Cole, but the point still stands. We spend too much time chasing the ball or making last ditch blocks and tackles. We're asking for it.

[Monty]

When you see teams get loads of injuries consistently, and not necessarily always to the same players, you can't help but wonder if it's not by luck but by bad design.

[hilts_coolerking]

When you see teams get loads of injuries consistently, and not necessarily always to the same players, you can't help but wonder if it's not by luck but by bad design.

Agreed.  Appearing once in that list is bad luck, three times suggests there are bigger problems.  As others have said, it could be how hard the players work, could be some of the players we've signed, some of it could our training methods.

Didn't Wenger decide this season that enough was enough and order an overhaul of the training facilities and methods?

[supertom]

When you see teams get loads of injuries consistently, and not necessarily always to the same players, you can't help but wonder if it's not by luck but by bad design.

Agreed.  Appearing once in that list is bad luck, three times suggests there are bigger problems.  As others have said, it could be how hard the players work, could be some of the players we've signed, some of it could our training methods.

Didn't Wenger decide this season that enough was enough and order an overhaul of the training facilities and methods?

Yep and that list doesn't include 10-11 which was pretty bad too. Particularly mid-season when we were decimated and it was clearly in part caused by Houlliers double training sessions.
Conversely Martin O Neill was pretty blessed for four years in terms of injuries.

[Monty]

Wenger did, and it's working to some extent. Moyes always got a lot of injuries at Everton, and always at the same time of year as well, and I'd be amazed if it had nothing to do with his style of play and training methods.

[paul_e]

You only have to look at Delph's career to see how injuries can stack up - http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/players/2738/fabian_delph_injury.html

The bottom one was his long term injury in his first season and then you see 2 years of regular related injuries, the lack of fitness and the mental caution combine to make picking up additional knocks all the more likely.

When you look at the conditioning of the likes of Nzogbia and Bent my concern is that the summer upheavals of the last 4-5 seasons (the only summer that was 'normal' was 2013) have meant that not enough care has been taken to get the players fitness levels right in pre-season.  I'm not blaming Lambert for this, I think we looked much fitter in 13-14 and a lot of the injuries that year were, like the Delph ones, a result of players taking one knock after another or were 'freak' injuries (Nzogbia, Okore, Kozak and Benteke all got serious injuries in pretty tame circumstances) I think we just need to review it before next season and make sure the right focus is put on that side of things.

[Colhint]

I have just Looked at Lamberts time and Norwich, he didn't seem to have it so bad then

[CJ]

What worries me as much as the number of injuries is the length of time it seems to take for our players to come back. Obviously you can understand serious injuries like those of Benteke, Delph and Kozak, but when the likes of Vlaar, Senderos and Baker have 'no return date' for weeks on end after the initial injury I do wonder whether it's bad injury management or just bad luck.

[PeterWithesShin]

http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/clubs/2/aston_villa_injuries.html

[Salsa Party Animal]

If we play with the ball and pass and keep it better, there will be less injuries. I wonder how do Barcelona compare on injuries front.

Any news about Kozak's recovery as he had been out almost 11 months.

[Colhint]

once again the curse strikes we have just moved into the bottom 4. So 2  Central midfielders this week, on top of one last week. So playing 3 central midfielders and having 4 out injured is crap. Luck has got to turn soon

[Ian.]

I can't see anything anywhere so here seems a good place, is there any news on Westwood yet?

[aj2k77]

Delph was back in training Friday and Vlaar and Cleverley may be back for the next game, so things are clearing up a little.