The Stick To Football podcast last week debated the idea that the availability of more data has made clubs overly conservative with young players, denying them chance to build the physical resilience required to play 60 games a season as professionals.
Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester United, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Brighton, Bournemouth and West Ham make up a non-exhaustive list of sides who, this season, have dealt with an abnormal number of players being sidelined at once, and often for a significant period.
In fact, they are a random selection of coaches plucked from fitness staffs across the Premier League, whose names and faces will probably mean little to the majority of supporters, even at their own clubs.
The most recent development has put set-piece coaches in the spotlight, from Aston Villa’s Austin “Nanny” MacPhee, to Arsenal’s Nicolas Jover, who, along with the likes of Bukayo Saka, Mikel Arteta and David Rocastle, is the subject of a mural painted outside the Emirates Stadium.
That is in no way to denigrate what Slot and his team have done in finishing top of the Champions League group phase, reaching the Carabao Cup final and establishing a seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League.
