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Are Scottish players not fit enough?


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I've been thinking about this for a while. When Ronny Deila came to Celtic I think he was shocked by the fitness levels. Celtic's first team has collectively lost 45 kg - if you divide that by 16-17 players that's almost half a stone each - on average- andthat includes players like Stefan Johansen who was already supremely fit and familiar with Deila's fitness regime from Stromsgodset. And I think Deila believes there's still room for improving the fitness level at Celtic further. If you look at the Premiership Celtic is now by far fitter than anyone - Armstrong and GMS said they would need time to catch up.

If you look at the Championship Hearts is dominating and they also have a manager that puts a lot of emphasis on fitness. It just seems like fitness is the low-hanging fruit if you want to improve Scottish football. Every player in the Premiership is a full-time professional. There's no reason players at Dundee or Motherwell can't be every bit as fit as players at Celtic (or even at Real Madrid)

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More money = better coaching/training/nutrition. It's not rocket science.

But Ronny Deila came from Stromsgodset, a club with an annual budget of about 5.5 million pounds - I think that's comparable to a lot of Non-Celtic premiership clubs. It's about knowledge and culture, not money.

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More money = better coaching/training/nutrition. It's not rocket science.

At the same time clubs will all have a sports scientist and fitness coach. It's not rocket science on how to get fitness levels up. Surely a park and a gym plus said staff are adequate enough, what more can you need?

It's the players professionalism that's shite IMO. Too much drinking and #Nandos.

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I seem to recall Jim McIntyre commenting on the fact that the only player at County (when he arrived) who bothered working on their "core" without being told, was Filip Kiss. Presumably because he's come from an English team that was at the top end of the Championship/in the EPL during his spell. Mind you, Derek Adams did seem to base a his approach to management on what he picked up from Alex Ferguson in the 1980s (although the fittest County team I've seen coincided with Craig Brewster's spell at the club).

There's a mentality problem: train once a day, then head off out to Nando's to achieve 100% certified #baller status. It's not that long ago managers reacted to a defeat by telling the media that "the boys will be in on Monday for a double session", as if we're supposed to be impressed by that.

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I also think that a lot of players in Scotland are extremely fit, as fit as they could be though? I don't think so.

You see the difference when Celtic play against teams, they're bigger, faster, stronger and fitter.

Maybe the fact they get paid more the players there know they have to be more professional and have to put the work in, whereas somebody at St Mirren might just do the minimum to get by as his wages aren't as high.

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100% that scottish teams aren't as fit. Remember reading about John collins and Hibs aswell.

The other top leagues in europe are a different breed to here. Nutrition and training have been mentioned but there's the booze culture here.

Conor Sammon when at us was a skinny headless chicken then he did extra sessions in the gym and built him self up to a powerful fast centre forward. As a result gets a move down south.

Fitness can be the difference between an average team and a good team. Inverness in particular looked a lot fitter than killie last game at rugby park.

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Graham Carey was County's best player pre-McIntyre. It was no coincidence he did his pre-season with other Premiership clubs.

This is a flattering photo of Harkins from Saturday, he must have been breathing in, because he looked way overweight in motion:

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I remember Barry Glendenning mocking Craig Beattie's famous goal celebration for Hearts, for his belly shaking etc when he ran with his top off. In all honesty, at that point I thought he wasn't any more fat than a lot of players in Scotland.

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It's definitely the case for some footballers in Scotland but not all. Chris Millar is as fresh after 90 minutes as he is after 1. Definitely something that we need to improve on over here though.

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It's possibly no surprise that the 2 teams at the top of the league do have managers who put a lot of emphasis on sports science. Our fitness levels are far better than they used to be and that has to be down to McInnes 'signing' the boy from St. Johnstone.

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But Ronny Deila came from Stromsgodset, a club with an annual budget of about 5.5 million pounds - I think that's comparable to a lot of Non-Celtic premiership clubs. It's about knowledge and culture, not money.

Spot on.

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The one that brought it home to me was when McGhee came in to 'Well following years of Butcher & Malpas. The vast majority of players were still there from the season before but they came back for the new season visibly fitter and sharper. It was most apparent in guys who were less , ahem, naturally athletic like Steven McGarry and Jim Paterson but the whole squad were the same. It actually annoyed me how low the standards were previously and there is clearly an attitude in Scottish Football that a lot of the players need to be forced to get fit rather than seeing it as an utter necessity - that is definitely a cultural thing.

Ironically, after the above - we have been back at square one this season with a squad that appeared from pre-season lads holiday training in an embarrassing state for a professional football team. Until we get out of the dark ages generally and not have to rely on individual managers doing it, we're never going to catch up with other countries.

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I was listening to an interview a while back from a Norwegian journalist, He did mention Ronny was a bit shocked with the fitness levels from the Scottish players, not only that, he was a bit shocked about our lifestyles and attitudes.

It was mentioned, Norway is more of a "middle class" nation, Where most footballers come from a better education background and most are continuing working on their education while playing, overall far from professional. That was one of the reasons why in the early days of the premiership it was awash with Scandinavians

I think he might have a point to a certain extent

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