Torquay United Fans Forum

The Gareth Laws interview was a good insight into his role and what he has done and what he is doing. I know a few people in the game that speak very highly about him and the job he is doing.
However I was concerned when he mentions that he reports some of his findings back to Simon Jefferies at Winners Gym. Is Simon Jefferies responsible for our fitness and pre season??

[b]Things were obviously amiss as last season got underway and as early as September 17th after an horrific week in which the team embarrassed themselves and all connected with the club by getting easily seen off at Woking (the match to which I referred earlier today) and then Boreham Wood; the manager had this to say:[/b]

[i]"I’m disgusted to be honest, a little bit embarrassed........."

"I back those boys all of the way and I’ll keep backing them because they are good people but it doesn’t matter whether you are a good person or not, when you go out there and you’re representing a football club like we’ve got, you’ve got to put yourself on the line. You’ve got to want to win, you’ve got to want to put yourself in harm’s way, whether it is to score a goal, stop a goal, you’ve got to be alive.

It’s an honour to be a footballer; it’s a privilege to be representing Torquay United. You saw today that there was a crowd of six hundred and we had virtually half of them. It’s unbelievable what our supporters do, considering especially what they have gone through. And today we have let them all down to a man.

I think the only player for me that come out with any credit whatsoever was Luke Young who kept going, kept on it, and kept doing what he can do.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in the first half, after what happened on Tuesday at Woking I expected a reaction. We looked like we were five yards slower than them. One simple ball got through us four/five times. We were lucky not to be more than two down before half-time.

Forget the penalty. Whether it was or wasn’t - Bliss missing it or not missing it, the point was we didn’t deserve that [the penalty]. We didn’t deserve to go in two one. He saved it and that’s exactly what they deserved.

Second half I think they let us have it to be totally honest. You could argue that we played the ball on the floor and we kept it quite well but it was nothing. It wasn’t cutting them up; it wasn’t putting them under pressure. It was them seeing the game out quite happily at two nil.

With five minutes to go I saw one or two of ours [players] virtually give up which disgust me even more and won’t be tolerated. So I’ve not said too much to them in the dressing room because we’ll be in [training] tomorrow and we’ll dissect it then.

At this point I think a few of them have to go away and have a look and see if they really want to be successful, if they really want to be a part of getting Torquay United back where it wants to be, they’ve got to give more than that.

They’re a good group of lads. There are no bad eggs in there. It’s a good group but sometimes maybe you can be too nice. If they don’t start really showing me the kind of aggression and will to win more than anything, then tactics, formations, home, away, none of that matters it’s just how badly do you want it. Today, if I was a neutral I would have said that the white team wanted it more than the yellow.

I took responsibility for Woking because I think we over worked them in training; we put them through a lot to get the reaction we did against York. I thought we paid the price on Tuesday but there are no excuses for today. We have given them time to recuperate; we’ve given them plenty of time to rest.  It was a big thing made that we came [to the match] in cars; I really don’t care you can on bikes for all I care, that has nothing to do with what we did today. I was proud that they made the decision to do that, but then don’t make the decision to give yourself the best chance and then go out there and go under with such a whimper.

It’s poor, and it’s all of us. I’m part of that, a massive part of that and so are all of the coaching staff. So are everyone involved. We all need to go away; we all need to evaluate. We’ll make the decisions as they come along.

If I was Boreham Wood then I would think that I’ve played pretty well in the first half but the fact is that they didn’t work for their goals. They didn’t do anything special, they just kicked the ball over us and ran onto it and that is absolute under twelve, the very first thing you learn how to defend. We’ve got to be better. They didn’t do anything clever to hurt us. They stuck some reasonable quality balls over the top and we just looked shell-shocked and that is what disappointed me most.

If a team passes it around you with great precision and finishes properly then sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say “well done” to the other team. Today and against Woking we conceded goals that were so easy and so sloppy that it’s just not acceptable.

There is no real reason that they should’ve been like that. They had a good week’s preparation, easier than last week to make sure that they were fresh for this game.
We’re just talking about going out there and giving everything you’ve got for your team, and it looked to me like they didn’t today.

 We’ve got to start showing some consistency. Our supporters have been great home and away. We’ll work hard again this week. As disappointed as I am now, the game has now gone and I’ve got to learn. I haven’t been a manager a year yet and I’ve got a lot to learn, but the players have got to look at themselves and ask themselves some tough questions.

I back them. I back their character. I know they’ll be hurting in there [the dressing room] but I’m hurting for the fans that paid good money for them to watch today, because I’d be going home very, very disappointed with what I saw.”[/i]

[b]There was immense anger and did-respect for those players too from the travelling fans and the press in Hertfordshire in particular as you can read here:[/b]
http://thelondonlabia.proboards.com/thread/2451/boreham-wood-away-saturday-september?page=5#ixzz4heSLvQix

[b]Gareth Law is worth listening to on TUFCTV regarding this subject:[/b]
http://www.torquayunited.com/news/article/2016-17/official-tufc-tv-qftc-gareth-law-3721577.aspx

You can never acquire enough knowledge; and he is [b]the[/b] expert on this particularly where he brings up the subject of managerial 'dishonesty' with the fans as to why certain players were not being selected during his first season as the club physio; intimating that the manager of the time was hiding behind an alleged lack of fitness for not picking them when in fact (in Law's,opinion) they were.

I too have no idea how qualified or experienced the Winners Gym fella is within football. My understanding was that a few years ago some chap who had a few quid to invest in the leisure industry bought Winners gym and invested substantially and Simon J was the front man for his business.
However his approach clearly wasn't effective and Merse and AJ are quite correct in their posts.

I was very disappointed to see so many professional players struggling with their fitness, there is no excuse. I just hope that whoever returns has kept themselves fit and are ready for pre season instead of playing catch up.

I spoke to one of the Exeter Chiefs coaches who was explaining the fitness levels now required and their daily timetable of the professional rugby player. Maybe we could send our squad to them for a bit, I couldn't believe the amount of running they do. Basically if any one of Baxters players misses a timeslot or is not putting the effort in he's in to explain himself and there will be extra work until its rectified.

Lincoln City was a great example of the standards required by them, I just hope that Nico has a plan for pre season.

[quote="Trojan 67" post_id=206041 time=1495300613 user_id=123]
[b]"You can't educate pork."[/b]

Pork being deader than shit pig.

Three oinks is dead pork talking.
[/quote]

succinctly put Troj me ol' cock.

[quote="Trojan 67" post_id=206041 time=1495300613 user_id=123][b] [i][b]"You can't educate pork."[/b][/i] [/b][/quote]

When idiots like this just attack the person who makes the point, they have lost the argument already Trojan; so just ignore them.

[b]"You can't educate pork."[/b]

Pork being deader than shit pig.

Three oinks is dead pork talking.

If you think Merse is repulsive, why would you want to meet him. Sounds like a threat to me.

As for the subject, think we all know Nicho seemed to put a lot of faith in the, we're all a winner strength and conditioning training, from what I can gather this lesson has already been learned, you don't need big bulging muscles to be strong on the ball, just technique.

[quote=threelittlepiglets post_id=206036 time=1495296978 user_id=24067] [i][b]I really do think we should meet, you are quite a repulsive person![/b][/i][/quote]

:rules:

AJ is right; players [b]must[/b] be fit to return for pre-season to work on technique and tactics and the responsibility to do so rests squarely on their shoulders meaning that ninety per cent of their 'summer break' is devoted to maintaining fitness and certainly not letting personal levels drop.

When my son was at Watford they ended the season with a two week 'winding down' routine only commenced once the last game of the campaign had been completed; followed by individual testing, assessments and individual programmes being drawn up, issued and signed for on paperwork that undertook to maintain those levels ~ and that was as an academy player!

His last two summers have been difficult; being out of contract ~ so he never did 'pre-season' with Dagenham & Redbridge ~ on both occasions and as such he is spending his time right now training twice a week with Arsenal in the Community in order to be up to level for when he commences his two year agreement with Boreham Wood in July. He knows he cannot afford to mess up and intends to impress as an elite member of their intake as soon as he arrives.

[quote=SBP post_id=206018 time=1495270993 user_id=19401]
Just wondering how Nico is going to prepare the squad physically and mentally in pre season. Has he learnt anything from the previous two.
[/quote]


Previous [i]one [/i]surely ? Wasn't last Summer Kev's first attempt at organising a pre-season ? I'm sure he'll have learned lots of lessons regarding the preparation as well as the recruitment, and I'd be very sceptical of any Manager who claimed he got things exactly right at the first attempt and has stuck by that unmodified formula ever since.

I think Kev did indicate that the training was geared towards the players being strong during the latter stages of the season rather than shooting their bolt early and struggling over the final laps. In that respect I think he succeeded, but wasn't convinced we always looked as sharp as I would have liked during some other periods. When you think how far we will have to travel, even for a 'local' derby,then getting the fitness right is a difficult balancing act...where you wonder whether the players just putting their feet up and resting could be the better option during busy schedules.

Fitness work has certainly moved on from the days of trying to shift the beer bellies acquired over the Summer by running up and down sand dunes. I remember reading a few weeks ago, the words of the Lincoln City Manager, effectively saying that those players who keep themselves in shape over the Summer will get an extra fortnight off, or alternatively, those that don't, will be starting supervised fitness work two weeks early.



After completing their season at Southport last weekend, the players were back at the club earlier in the week working with the sports science team to assess their condition before heading off on their breaks.

[i]“They'll have two weeks off the grass, so no impact work,"[/i] explained Cowley. [i]“They'll then all have individual training programmes to start up. They will come back on June 10 so we can make sure that they're doing their work. We'll test them to make sure they're doing what they've been told. If they have they can go and enjoy the last couple of weeks of their holidays. If they haven't then they'll have me holding their hand while they're doing their fitness work. We'll then be back on the last week of June."[/i] Cowley expects his players to be professional and to stay in shape.[i] “Football is changing,[/i]" he said. [i]“Historically, pre-season was set up for players to get fit but now they should be fit. The idea is that come back to us in a good physical condition so we can push on. We don't want to waste time trying to get them fit for what will be a really exciting adventure. We'll get them match sharp, of course. But we want to be able to work technically and tactically as soon as possible."
[/i]
[url=http://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/football-has-changed-lincoln-city-players-must-be-fit-when-they-return-for-pre-season/story-30312303-detail/story.html]Lincoln's Pre-Season Approach[/url]

I was amongst the non playing members of Woking's squad when we played up there in the league last season and they were scathing of the United players' lack of sharpness and opinion was that they were blowing out of their arses when Woking pressed, closed them down and put them under pressure.......and what made it harder to bear was that conversation was centred around how they had been told that this would be so before the match.

This Simon Jeffries seems to be a chancer and another acquaintance confirmed that he was the same down at the cricket club; bullshitting himself through subjects that he had no technical expertise in.

I m interested to see if Nico recognizes this and what changes he makes to pre-season training. Of course i understand many other league clubs have the resources for dedicated staff.

Just wondering how Nico is going to prepare the squad physically and mentally in pre season. Has he learnt anything from the previous two. Is he likely to change anything??
There has been criticisms leveled at the squad of their lack of fitness. Were they in the gym too much concentrating on strength??
Mentally in many games they looked extremely fragile.
I had a good chat with a coach who happens to watch a lot of Argle and apparently the work Blissett has had to do to become match fit just to get into their squad was considerable.
I can remember a few years ago under Lings management seeing many of the players actually running from Torquay over to Paignton Community College completing a training session then running back. I spoke to Daniel Leadbitter and he said that was quite normal for players to do extra running.
Many of the players imo have just not been fit enough.