Pick a Ram, any Ram

[Jack Willow]

1 hour ago, RamNut said:

I really don't get the argument that modern players are loads fitter. the modern game looks slower to me.

Today's professional footballers are much fitter than their predecessors. But that's not surprising, says Peta Bee. The old timers thought warming-up was 'namby pamby'

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/sorry-bobby-becks-and-his-mates-would-have-run-rings-round-your-lot-136038.html

"On one count at least, the modern players win hands down. Sport scientists who have measured and analysed every conceivable indicator of fitness are in no doubt that contemporary players could run rings round the great players of yesteryear. And before fifty per cent of you throw down your paper in disgust, even players whose careers have spanned the last three or four decades tend to agree.

Dr Neil Phillips was medical adviser to the Football Association (FA) and the England team during the 1960s and 1970s. He believes that a better understanding of physiology along with sweeping changes in attitude have undoubtedly resulted in improved fitness among top players. "You only have to look at the intensity and technique of training methods to see how far things have come," Phillips says. "In the 1950s, lapping around a running track was the sum total of most top players' fitness sessions and many of them never saw a ball from one Saturday to the next, the theory being that it made them hungrier to play in a game when you eventually got to kick a ball. Only in 1960 did ball practice become part of training"

"With the intensity of the game greater than it was even 10 years ago, footballers need to be faster, both on their feet and in reacting to changes in play. Thanks to the relaxation of the offside law, for example, there is more pressure on them to cover the pitch at a faster pace.

Studies on top English players compared with Olympic athletes have shown that their body type most closely resembles 400-metre hurdlers and triple-jumpers. In sprint trials, Premiership players cover 30 metres in an average 3.94 seconds.

It's not just speed and strength that sets today's players apart; they have a better endurance base too. When British researchers looked at footballers from the old First Division in 1976, they found that the distance covered in a game was an average 8-11 kilometres, 25 per cent of which was walking and 11 per cent sprinting. Physiologists reckon that Premiership footballers now cover around 12-14 kilometres per match and that a greater percentage of that distance is run at top speed. In the World Cup qualifier against Greece last year, David Beckham was recorded as running 16.1 kilometres – that's the equivalent of almost 40 laps of an athletics track."

 

[Norman]

12 minutes ago, SaintRam said:

That doesn't seem right. Talksport did a "hardest working players" for 2014/15 PL season and the players at the bottom of that list averaged 11km per game. So every player except the dozen or so above them ran less than 11k per game which is about in-line with the 70s average.

You could probably find a player from the 70s who ran 16km in one game too.

 

Not that I agree with @RamNut - I do think players are fitter purely because the science has improved, but I don't think the game's match speed has changed much.

"With the intensity of the game greater than it was even 10 years ago, footballers need to be faster, both on their feet and in reacting to changes in play. Thanks to the relaxation of the offside law, for example, there is more pressure on them to cover the pitch at a faster pace".

"I remember how Jimmy Greaves always refused to take part in warm-ups because he felt it tired him out too much and that sort of feeling was quite common."

All from the same Independent article from 2002. Could be wrong. Just thought it was interesting.

[Phoenix]

Wiilie Carlin certainly made an impact in the promotion winning side of 1968-9, and played in the old 1st division the following year. I believe Brain Clough had been chasing him for ages and he was reluctant to come.  B.C. described him as "a belligerent, aggressive little Scouser".

Described as a central midfielder, but only 5' 4" I'm not sure where he'd fit in.

[Premier ram]

My votes torn between the best left back weve ever had in David Nish or my all time Rams hero Bobby Davison , if im pushed , Bobby back please

[OLI]

Nathan tyson

[Seaside Sam]

2 hours ago, Norman said:

"When British researchers looked at footballers from the old First Division in 1976, they found that the distance covered in a game was an average 8-11 kilometres, 25 per cent of which was walking and 11 per cent sprinting. Physiologists reckon that Premiership footballers now cover around 12-14 kilometres per match and that a greater percentage of that distance is run at top speed. In the World Cup qualifier against Greece last year, David Beckham was recorded as running 16.1 kilometres "

From 2002, so i assume the average has gone up again.

covering 11k on the baseball ground pitch would surely seem more like 20k 

[Seaside Sam]

2 hours ago, Phoenix said:

Didn't he play in white boots - in the early 1970's.

Glady's as he was affectionately known,now when it comes to putting a decent cross in he was your man

[Rammed79]

My head says Dean saunders but my heart says Marco Gabbiadini 

[ramsbottom]

When we brought in Palmer the other day, I thought back to the impact Leon Osmond had on us when Burley brought him in.  He practically kept us up that season on his own.  If Palmer has half the impact, he'll be a major success.

 

I'd love to see The Tin Man bombing down the wing and arcing over some pin point crosses on to Jerome's head...

[ViewsFromTheMiddle]

37 minutes ago, ramsbottom said:

When we brought in Palmer the other day, I thought back to the impact Leon Osmond had on us when Burley brought him in.  He practically kept us up that season on his own.  If Palmer has half the impact, he'll be a major success.

 

I'd love to see The Tin Man bombing down the wing and arcing over some pin point crosses on to Jerome's head...

Osman crossed my mind too. Brilliant player.

[Brammie Steve]

5 hours ago, Phoenix said:

Didn't he play in white boots - in the early 1970's.

If he did it was so he could find his feet in the quagmire!?

Wikipedia blames it on his boots and his coiffure.

I tweeted him in Seattle and he sent a nice reply BTW

[RamNut]

9 hours ago, Norman said:

"When British researchers looked at footballers from the old First Division in 1976, they found that the distance covered in a game was an average 8-11 kilometres, 25 per cent of which was walking and 11 per cent sprinting. Physiologists reckon that Premiership footballers now cover around 12-14 kilometres per match and that a greater percentage of that distance is run at top speed. In the World Cup qualifier against Greece last year, David Beckham was recorded as running 16.1 kilometres "

From 2002, so i assume the average has gone up again.

They weren't measuring Huddlestone then?

[BeerRam]

From the players I have seen would have to be Eranio, or Alan Biley of course, I saw him in the first game I went to and he scored a penalty, I was 8, he was my hero from that day! 

[zaragozaram]

Simon Dawkins

 

 

 

I´m serious

[irobinson]

39 minutes ago, RamNut said:

They weren't measuring Huddlestone then?

The decimal point moves to the left for Hudzz

[Grimbeard]

14 hours ago, oldtimeram said:

Alan "Gladys"  Hinton was the best two footed crosser of the ball I have ever seen.  When Hinton was in the team getting a corner was almost as good as getting a penalty. You could almost guarantee the ball would land on Roy Mac's head and it would be a goal. 

And think of what he could do with the protection he would get in today's game

[Igorwasking]

Ted Mcminn or Gary Micklewhite

[RodleyRam]

Hinton might be what we need there's no way he'd make it in a Gary Rowett side. Wouldn't run about enough for Rowettball.

Of the players I've seen live I'd go for Chis Powell, Lee Carsley or Seth Johnson as good fits for this side. I personally think we lack creativity and flair in the old school sense so I'd love to see Asa, Kinky, Eranio or Baiano pulling on a white shirt again! Shexy football...

[Jimbo Ram]

If we were struggling at the back it would be Roy Mac but the current squad could do with some energy and pace in midfield so I would plump for Archie.....

[Owd miner]

Sniffer cross