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If the players are genuinely knackered


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I don't buy the fatigue excuse.

We have a group of professional footballers who train at the highest level every single day, are in tip top shape and play, at most, 3 games a week with a 2-3 day rest in between. We have only played 17 games this season and already our players are 'tired.' If a professional footballer is fatigued after a schedule like that they are not fit enough.

Cyclist's in Tour de France race over 100 miles every day, at an average speed of 30mph, over some of the tallest mountains in Europe and they do that every other day for 3 weeks with only 3 rest days in the space of 21 days. But do they complain of fatigue?

And even if some of our players were feeling the strain Walter Smith would still continue to pick them without changing things.

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Smith has no idea how to rotate a squad

We threw away the title in 2008 because despite having a squad of 30 players, he refused to ever rest Broadfoot, Weir, Cuellar, Papac, Davis or Ferguson despite them playing 3 games a week for 5 months

Tonight would've been an ideal night to give the likes of Foster and Fleck a start

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such a hard fuckin life these guys have eh ???

HIBS have played nearly the same amount of games ffs ,and been under more pressure of recent..and aint on

anywhere near the salaries of our players ..so DONT give us this tired pish ..

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maybe fuck the cups aye, but surely we want to do well in the champs league or europa if it comes down to it.!?!

If its going to affect our league performances I honestly dont give a fuck, Id send the reserves out.

I don't buy the fatigue excuse.

We have a group of professional footballers who train at the highest level every single day, are in tip top shape and play, at most, 3 games a week with a 2-3 day rest in between. We have only played 17 games this season and already our players are 'tired.' If a professional footballer is fatigued after a schedule like that they are not fit enough.

Cyclist's in Tour de France race over 100 miles every day, at an average speed of 30mph, over some of the tallest mountains in Europe and they do that every other day for 3 weeks with only 3 rest days in the space of 21 days. But do they complain of fatigue?

And even if some of our players were feeling the strain Walter Smith would still continue to pick them without changing things.

Possibly not physically, but our group of at least a few reasonably average players, are expected game in game out to go and break down walls of 8 and 9 players who for the majority are happy to escape with a 0-0, and who are more fired up than any other game of the season, even their own local derby. I can see where a mental fatigue would come in if Walters isnt changing the team. He has to begin starting players like Wylde and Hutton. Its a risk, but one he has to take because its looking as if the players are struggling with the aforementioned task.

If we beat Aberdeen at the weekend and go on a decent run then Ill take what Ive said back, but at the minute im struggling to see it

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I dont buy the physically tired pish and tonight they didn't look tired, they just looked crap.

The mentally tired argument is relevant but I wouldnt say its tiredness really. I can understand when you have a big game to get up for, that sometimes there can be a let down after that, it happens in all walks of life. I think it's more to do with overconfidence, and perhaps that isn't even the right word. It seems that it takes something in nearly every domestic game to wake our players up, and eventually they were going to come a cropper.

However one good result doesnt make you the best and so one bad result doesnt make you the worst, but Walter really needs to drop some of these guys so they get a taste of reality.

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Did Dundee United not win the league with 14 players? I can't help feeling if the results aren't good and the players keep getting told they are tired then pretty soon they will start to feel that way. Bottom line for me is the attitude hasn't been right since the OF game and it's being shown on the score board :anguish:

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Davie Weir isn't tired and he's fucking ancient.

"I can only speak for myself when I say that tiredness wasn't the problem, the bottom line is we didn't play well enough."

Walter, tired or not you need to rotate the starting XI a bit just to keep them on edge. Players don't like being on the bench or in the stand. Especially those who are always there. Given the size of our squad most of our players just think they are a shoe-in for selection every week and that leads to laziness and arrogance. The players need to start believing that just because we do win the majority of our games it doesn't mean we have a right to. It's all about the performance of the players as a team and v Hibs it was very poor. Whoever plays on Saturday we really need to put in a decent one.

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I think a lot of the problem is that because both teams had 100% records going into the OF game the players almost assumed it was easy street until the next one when we won ... surely they now realise that they have to be up for every game as if it's an OF one if we are to retain the title

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This is the reason why I'd rather not waste our time in the Europa League this year.

We simply do not have a big enough squad to compete in four competitions, moreso when Smith refuses to start our youngsters in three out of the four.

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