Eva Carneiro, The Untold. By Rabbiel Mwasha #viaVitalFootball One football analyst once inferred, the sweetest memory AVB left behind his Chelsea legacy, was a move to appoint Eva Carneiro as the Blues First-Team Doctor in 2011/12 season. I can`t help but agree with his thoughts. Besides the pretty face that Eva wears, and the feminine aura she brings to the EPL, underneath lies unveils of the work she puts for Chelsea football team. Born in Gibraltar, she schooled medicine at Nottingham University as well as her Msc. (Sports and Exercise) through Queen Mary University, before moving to the Scottish Highlands to work in Surgery and ER. She also worked at British Olympic Medical Institute, Women`s Football and UK Athletics, before joining Chelsea in February 2009. She initially worked with Chelsea reserves before promotion to senior team`s physio in the 2011-12 season. To analyze what Dr. Eva brings to Chelsea team, this piece collected Chelsea`s injury data` from 1st August 2011 to 21st Oct 2014 and benchmarked it against the other five top teams (Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool and Tottenham). 1. Injury League from 1st August to 21st Oct, 2014: During this period, Arsenal has been the most injury-plagued team (289 injuries) of the top six compared. Man U came worst-second (279) followed by Spurs (248), Man City (199), Chelsea (198) came 2nd best, to only Liverpool (156). 2. Number of Games Vis-a-vis Injuries: During 1st July 2011 - 21st Oct 2014, Arsenal played a total of 178 games and acquired 289 injuries in the process at injury per game ratio of 1.62. Man Utd on the other hand, played 172 games through the same period, and acquired 276 injuries, equating to 1.62 injuries per game. Spurs played 174 times and acquired 248 injuries at a rate of 1.43 injuries per game; while, Man City players hurt themselves 199 times in as many as 177 games at a rate of 1.12 injuries per game. Chelsea had 198 injuries acquired through 199 plays, equating to 0.99 injuries per game; and Liverpool played 160 games and scathed merely 156 times at a rate of 0.98 injuries per game. As you will notice, Chelsea played the most during this period (199 times), and yet managed its injuries convincingly well. Liverpool with fewest injuries played 39 less games than Chelsea (theoretically, Chelsea played one full EPL season more than Liverpool). In very simple terms, Liverpool had reasons to be less susceptible than Chelsea. 3. Minutes Per Game: Beside number of games, Chelsea seems to feature in highly contested and yet exhaustive games more than other 5 benchmarked teams. During this period, Chelsea had 4 games extending to 30 Minutes Extra Time. On the other hand, Man Utd had 2 games, Arsenal 2, Man City 2, Liverpool 1 and Spurs had 1 game decided through additional 30 minutes. Analyzing this further, Chelsea had played 18,030 minutes in total (bar injury times), averaging to 90.60 minutes per game, which is higher than the other five teams. Arsenal featured 16,080 minutes averaging 90.34 minutes per game, Man City 15,990 minutes averaging 90.34, Spurs 15,690 minutes averaging 90.17, Man Utd 15,540 averaging 90.35 per game and Liverpool totaling 14,430 minutes at an average of 90.19 minutes per game. 4. Days Between Games: Chelsea players were not afforded longer rests between games, the luxury that other teams relished. During this time, Chelsea duked it out after every 5.92 days, which is the highest of all the 6 compared. Arsenal played after every 6.62 days, Man City 6.66 days, Tottenham 6.77 days, Man Utd 6.85 and Liverpool could afford a luxury of playing one game after every 7.36 days. 5. Player Injuries League: The most injured player of the top six teams during this period has been Wayne Rooney with 25 injuries, followed by Tomas Rosicky with 22 occurrences. Chelsea`s most injured player (David Luiz with 18 incidences) came in 11th position. The next Chelsea player in the roster is John Terry (15 injuries), who came in 25th position, followed by Ashley Cole (13 injuries) in 29th spot and Frank Lampard with 11 incidences, came 38th. Takeaways from the list however are, only John Terry is the remaining Chelsea player, and he has been well managed recently. Last time he was injured was in May 2014 and the injury he sustained was just a knock. Conclusion: I will use two stark contrasts to highlight the injury-profile of Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturidge, two who played for both Liverpool and Chelsea. I have picked the two, because there were few player movements between Chelsea and top five`; and the two bagged enough playtimes to justify contrasts. Torres played 126 games for Liverpool before Joining Chelsea in 2011/12 season. In the process of playing for Liverpool, he accumulated 11 injuries, which turn out to be an injury after every 11.45 games. After moving to Chelsea, Torres has played 117 games and got injured 7 times; which equates to an injury after every 16.71 games. Isn`t this pretty? Daniel Sturidge played for both clubs as well. He played 49 games for Chelsea and his injury tally was 10, equating to one injury after every 4.9 games. In his current service to Liverpool, he has so far played 46 times enduring 12 injury incidences, computing to an injury after every 3.83 games. Number of games teams plays, number of minutes a player sees on pitch, player age, style of play, squad size, training methods/facilities, dietary arrangements, medical team, etc, may have a big say in player`s fitness and how prone to injuries they become. Besides playing so many games during Eva`s tenure, Chelsea managed to create the right balance. They kept their players reasonably far from physio room whilst securing trophies (Champions League and Europa League). Looking at how other top five teams have coped with their players` fitness, perhaps we should appreciate Dr.Eva exceedingly.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 16:15:30 +0000
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