What's new

5 of the top 10 fastest players are from Leicester

Geyzer Soze

Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd
Aug 16, 2010
26,056
63,361
Speed stats for football seem to regularly throw up some absolutely mental results. Phil Jagielka was statistically the fastest player in the league at one point according to Sky Sports, and Thierry Henry's closest competition on speed metrics at Arsenal was Matt Upson.

EDIT: Here's the Jagielka stat. With the exception of Dyer there isn't a single player on that list you'd expect to see there.

B1NFTrxCMAAJ9sG.png
Alan bloody Hutton? Faaaaack off! This is flawed data i'd put my life on it
 

Hazardousman

Audere est Facere
Jul 24, 2013
4,619
8,944
Yeh, these stats always result with strange players coming out on top. Its measuring top speed during the course of a game, but actually tells you very little. Apart from maybe how determined a player is, or how often they chase something down.

Surprised by all the suggestions of doping. Of course its possible, but if we were just looking at performance as a sign of doping then frankly we should be the first team one should look into.

Anyway, yeah there was a link earlier this season. But if say it was Man utd where these links surfaced and with sch and such statistics no one would bat an eyelid. Lets not jump the gun and enjoy the season for what it is, a beautiful unpredictable thing.

But our fitness and improvement has been measured and over a number of seasons, we also have a manager who is notorious for tough training, double sessions and we have a world class training facility, not to mention the youngest squad in the league.

Leicesters average age is 28 or something ridiculous like that, most of their players are coming up to their twilight years and even their own manager admits training hasn't changed for them, not to mention they have gone from the second least fittest side last year to second fittest side this year among many other stats that seem improbable.

Basically, it's not the same whatsoever, you can trace our rise to reasonable logic, small steps. Leicester have just changed completely with no real logical explanation.
 

C0YS

Just another member
Jul 9, 2007
12,780
13,817
Alan bloody Hutton? Faaaaack off! This is flawed data i'd put my life on it
More misleading than flawed, its data showing the top speed of a player, which has nothing to do with how quick they are. Top speed is just one someone moves in a way that if it where sustained for an hour would amount to x km. The amount of time you are actually moving at that speed could be as little as half a second. Basically its pointless.
 

theShiznit

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2004
17,800
23,813
More misleading than flawed, its data showing the top speed of a player, which has nothing to do with how quick they are. Top speed is just one someone moves in a way that if it where sustained for an hour would amount to x km. The amount of time you are actually moving at that speed could be as little as half a second. Basically its pointless.
lol, I don't think they can measure half a second of speed (although the Leicester players regularly measure half a gram:hungry:)

If they could Ashley Young would be top as he often reaches terminal velocity when free falling ;)
 

C0YS

Just another member
Jul 9, 2007
12,780
13,817
But our fitness and improvement has been measured and over a number of seasons, we also have a manager who is notorious for tough training, double sessions and we have a world class training facility, not to mention the youngest squad in the league.

Leicesters average age is 28 or something ridiculous like that, most of their players are coming up to their twilight years and even their own manager admits training hasn't changed for them, not to mention they have gone from the second least fittest side last year to second fittest side this year among many other stats that seem improbable.

Basically, it's not the same whatsoever, you can trace our rise to reasonable logic, small steps. Leicester have just changed completely with no real logical explanation.
Or it could be that we have a manager that applies a strict doping regime on his players. Normally cases of doping don't come out as instant spikes.

28 is not exactly twilight years but represents the peak years of players. In fact, generally speaking in football the higher average age the better they tend to do. Yes they got little injuries but they are playing a lot less games then their competitors, and frankly we have got lucky with injuries as well.

Leicester have been good since about January last season. There success can be attributed to them having three of the best players in the league, Marez, who has steadily improved and was excellent at the back end of last year, Vardy who has always played well but has suddenly realized he can score goals and Kante, who was an inspired signing. The rest of the team is limited but well drilled, I think there success is fairly obvious when you see it. They have also had a bit of luck, they have got many penalties but more significantly they have had few shots on target but many goals. Statistically there is little to suggest Leicester would be were they are. Statistically they are good but not exceptional, but they are more than their some of parts.

May I ask where you got this 'fittest' side from, cos I see nothing to suggest they are.
 

C0YS

Just another member
Jul 9, 2007
12,780
13,817
lol, I don't think they can measure half a second of speed (although the Leicester players regularly measure half a gram:hungry:)

If they could Ashley Young would be top as he often reaches terminal velocity when free falling ;)

Actually they can measure much less than half a second of speed

'The figures, published by Sky Sports, are courtesy of TRACAB, which uses technology that can track the position of all moving objects on the pitch 25 times a second to make it possible to calculate players' top speeds during games'

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/L...tory-27809951-detail/story.html#ixzz46pzhresg
 

Disconosebleed

Well-Known Member
Dec 22, 2005
2,553
2,569
Hazardousman seems to have fallen into the usual conspiracy theorist trap of believing every theory going. There's no reason to think Leicester have been doping based on stats. None of their players even feature on any of the studies of the players who have covered the most distance this season:

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/10161166/hardest-working-players

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...t-who-leads-arsenal-chelsea-and-a6863056.html

Two separate studies at different points of the season, no Leicester players feature.

Leicester's success isn't that difficult to work out - they've developed a system that limits the deficiencies in the side and maximises the qualities. But no, it has to be somehow unfair, they're all packed full of PEDs and only play against teams that want to lose to them.
 

theShiznit

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2004
17,800
23,813
Or it could be that we have a manager that applies a strict doping regime on his players. Normally cases of doping don't come out as instant spikes.

28 is not exactly twilight years but represents the peak years of players. In fact, generally speaking in football the higher average age the better they tend to do. Yes they got little injuries but they are playing a lot less games then their competitors, and frankly we have got lucky with injuries as well.

Leicester have been good since about January last season. There success can be attributed to them having three of the best players in the league, Marez, who has steadily improved and was excellent at the back end of last year, Vardy who has always played well but has suddenly realized he can score goals and Kante, who was an inspired signing. The rest of the team is limited but well drilled, I think there success is fairly obvious when you see it. They have also had a bit of luck, they have got many penalties but more significantly they have had few shots on target but many goals. Statistically there is little to suggest Leicester would be were they are. Statistically they are good but not exceptional, but they are more than their some of parts.

May I ask where you got this 'fittest' side from, cos I see nothing to suggest they are.
I'm sure there was some stat that said they have run on average more than other teams, or maybe that they had run the most in an individual game.

Either way, when you here the manager doesn't make them run in training, and regularly gives them days off, it's not exactly conducive with extreme performance levels, where as Poch is thought to run players into the ground for results. (with players not exactly loving it until they see positive results)
 

tttcowan

Well-Known Member
Aug 12, 2005
2,792
3,295
But our fitness and improvement has been measured and over a number of seasons, we also have a manager who is notorious for tough training, double sessions and we have a world class training facility, not to mention the youngest squad in the league.

Leicesters average age is 28 or something ridiculous like that, most of their players are coming up to their twilight years and even their own manager admits training hasn't changed for them, not to mention they have gone from the second least fittest side last year to second fittest side this year among many other stats that seem improbable.

Basically, it's not the same whatsoever, you can trace our rise to reasonable logic, small steps. Leicester have just changed completely with no real logical explanation.

Leicester are the only team in the league to give their players 2 days off a week. Now while people might point at that as perhaps a reason why they're so sharp it flies against the general and justified understanding that the best way increase fitness levels is increased controlled training like we do.

The biggest flags for me are,

  • The unexplained increases in fitness occurring towards the end of end of last season. With no documented changes to training regime. The sort of thing EPO might do.
  • The insane recovery times from injuries they've had this year. I can't quote but have seen these posted sometimes and it's just such a tell tale sign of things like steroids or equivalent. As if you want to recover quickly from injury one of the best things you can do is take steroids. It'll improve healing times by an order of magnitude.
  • The lack of any kind of burn out, we know more than most what these levels of fitness/sharpness/pressing require and the cost it can bare. It's taken us a long time to get our squad this fit and we still look leggy at times. And while our pressing play is energetic it is also calculated, we don't just charge around all game. It's considered and we conserve energy intelligently.
  • The age of the players... You just don't get suddenly sharper/quicker/fitter/bigger/faster/stronger in your late twenties and beyond as a pro athlete without at least some sort intervention. Whether that's changes to a training regime or doping. You have to do something pretty extreme.
  • Nothing about they're training regime would explain a lot of the above. It hasn't changed from what I can see and Ranieri has said as much in the press.



..... It's all just very odd. And with the poor PL doping testing program(when compared to other sports) and the fact it wouldn't be hard to get players on stuff without them knowing at a football club. It's just perfectly reasonable to ask the question.

Incidentally after reading about this I'm pretty sure I could work out a club wide EPO micro dosing program without any of the players knowing they were on it and it wouldn't get flagged up by any of the current tests. It's not even difficult and the information is out there on how it could be done.
 

C0YS

Just another member
Jul 9, 2007
12,780
13,817
I bet Leicester fans are laughing at this thread right now;

In all the examples I've found of distance covered per game Leicester fall at about 7th or 8th.

Where has this idea that Leicester are super fit come about?
 

Disconosebleed

Well-Known Member
Dec 22, 2005
2,553
2,569
I bet Leicester fans are laughing at this thread right now;

In all the examples I've found of distance covered per game Leicester fall at about 7th or 8th.

Where has this idea that Leicester are super fit come about?

Exactly. It's bollocks. The sort of pathetic rubbish we'd all be chuckling away to ourselves about if it was posted in the "What our opponents are saying about us" thread.

Who knows, maybe they are doping and the conspiracy theorists will turn out to be right, occasionally a blind squirrel finds a nut. But let's not pretend there's any evidence beyond "they're playing better than expected and it's going to cost us a league title".
 

Dougal

Staff
Jun 4, 2004
60,346
129,923
I think the biggest sign that they are not on anything is it's too bloody obvious! Freak happening I'm afraid.
 

tttcowan

Well-Known Member
Aug 12, 2005
2,792
3,295
Exactly. It's bollocks. The sort of pathetic rubbish we'd all be chuckling away to ourselves about if it was posted in the "What our opponents are saying about us" thread.

Who knows, maybe they are doping and the conspiracy theorists will turn out to be right, occasionally a blind squirrel finds a nut. But let's not pretend there's any evidence beyond "they're playing better than expected and it's going to cost us a league title".

Oh no! I'll surely be gutted if they're talking about us behind our backs!

It's a totally reasonable discussion to have. Nobody, or at least I think nobody is really saying, yeah Leicester are on drugs. But there are some anomalies around the physical attributes of their players so it's totally reasonable to at least talk about.

FYI they're running stats this year have been lower than they were towards the end of last season. I can't find the actual stats but they went from least distance covered for any prem league team the 2nd highest in April last year.

I hope they're not on anything, because that would just be shit for a number of reasons but it's allowed to be questioned.
 

Lilbaz

Just call me Baz
Apr 1, 2005
41,363
74,893
Really don't like this accusing with zero evidence. We wouldn't like it if other fans accused us. The premier league regularly test leave them too it. You can be sure wenger would have got them to test leicester. Because he is a miserable bad loser. Don't imitate him.
 

etchedchaos

Well-Known Member
Jun 1, 2006
2,670
5,278
Really don't like this accusing with zero evidence. We wouldn't like it if other fans accused us. The premier league regularly test leave them too it. You can be sure wenger would have got them to test leicester. Because he is a miserable bad loser. Don't imitate him.

Except UEFA were the ones who caught Sakho doping, not the PL, so clearly players have been getting away with it.
 

Lilbaz

Just call me Baz
Apr 1, 2005
41,363
74,893
Except UEFA were the ones who caught Sakho doping, not the PL, so clearly players have been getting away with it.

And toure was caught by the fa. We don't know the details so you can't say they've been getting away with it.
And it has nothing to do with leicester.
 

etchedchaos

Well-Known Member
Jun 1, 2006
2,670
5,278
And toure was caught by the fa. We don't know the details so you can't say they've been getting away with it.
And it has nothing to do with leicester.

Well seeing as he got caught it's reasonable to assume he'd been getting away with it until that point, unless your of the opinion that he's just a poor soul who used it once and got caught.

As for it having nothing to do with Leicester, I was merely pointing out that the last doper was caught by UEFA and not the PL, and I thought it was a common belief that UEFA has tougher tests. So, if Leicester are doing something untoward, there's no evidence the PL would ever catch them, they certainly didn't catch Sakho.
 

etchedchaos

Well-Known Member
Jun 1, 2006
2,670
5,278
Fixed mate. But yeah, again, it's not great it had to be left to UEFA to "catch" Sakho.

Well, Sakho was getting away with it and it sounded weird for me to say a player was getting away with it, consider it an eccentricity of my own language.
 

tttcowan

Well-Known Member
Aug 12, 2005
2,792
3,295
Really don't like this accusing with zero evidence. We wouldn't like it if other fans accused us. The premier league regularly test leave them too it. You can be sure wenger would have got them to test leicester. Because he is a miserable bad loser. Don't imitate him.
I agree with the sentiment and we shouldn't be throwing around acquisitions but questions can be asked and at least discussed. Leicester have turned themselves from bottom of the league to top in a year with pretty much the same players and those same players look like they're not the same players any more. And not just mentally. With a lot of them physically. How have they done that? edit - I just mean, can we get some descent explanations. That's the question though. How.

Also, on the PL testing,

It's pretty crap compared to other sports. Certainly it wouldn't catch EPO. The PL relies a lot on good will at the moment when it comes to doping... Which yeah... Doesn't help matters.
 
Top