Every single manager in the league wants their team to be the fittest. Anybody who thinks otherwise is a buffoon. The only things that throws a spanner in the works for them are injuries, knocks, and the fact that some players are just naturally fitter than others. C Ronaldo vs Rooney or Scholes for instance.
He was clearly talking about the players who aren't at full fitness yesterday, yet some idiots are taking it as him saying none of our players meet his fitness requirements just yet. With some crying out that pre-season was 4 months ago
As for the pedants getting angry about his use of the term Prem fit. Well, it just means fit enough to start matches in the premier league. That's not even up for debate. It's pretty self explanatory. It's not a new concept, but if people want to get angry about nothing, I'll not be bringing it up again.
Also seen people getting angry about the term Dyche fit. Saying he's gone from saying 'Dyche fit' to 'prem fit' . Has Dyche ever actually muttered the term 'Dyche fit' or is this just another example of the sheep getting angry over nothing again?
I had the luck to be involved in some elite teams and laterally in preparing elite teams in the last few years in different sports, with nothing like the resources available at PL teams. I learned an awful lot from sports scientists, strength and conditioning experts.
In a general sense the management team set the goal - usually this is when you want to peak fitness - its usually linked to an outcome - it might be to start the season well and taper off it might be to get Xmas or it might be to peak heading down the straight. What happens then is you design a programme based on load, there will be periods of heavy training over a period of time and because of that teams will look unfit but really its building loads. As time passes depending on when you want to peak, you taper off, maintain and focus more on recovery and management.
Why do they do it, because its almost impossible to maintain peak fitness over the length of a season, if you do you risk injury and the like. Its like preparing for a marathon, you slowly build up stamina and fitness to hit a goal, maintain, do the marathon, then recover and taper. If you were to keep peak fitness and perform at it all the time you very quickly get injured, thus the importance of recovery and managing load. Its like going hard from three months in the gym taking two weeks off to recover - you will never feel so good and feel so fit and full of energy.
It looks to me we are still in that heavy set of building a load, i dont think we're close to full peak fitness, i expect us to taper off toward the middle and end of this month and will maintain and mange from there - i think the hope is we will be fitter from March onward coming down the straight.
There are viable in this injury - disputes this - if you are out for a period of time you have to go on an individual training programme and rebuild the load and conditioning, to fit back into the fitness level of the team. Hes actually the perfect example of not being "PL fit" and the impact it can have on a team.
You also have to judge individual cases - take JT - i dont think his issue at the moment is form - i think his issue is hes not fit - he looks to me like someone who isn't training much and is compensating in games and is behind the play - this is leading to bookings & penalties given against etc. Hes clearly not "PL fit" and is compensating.
Then you look at someone like Young - you can predict now his form is going to go of a cliff in December, because at 39 you cant maintain fitness at his age and go Weds and Sat, there just isnt the recovery time his body needs.
Then your looking at injuries - take Doucoure, im pretty sure hes going to pick up an injury sometime Dec/Jan - why because he runs 10-12 miles a game, with contact, overstretching and foot manoeuvring in football - its a reaching certainty. What we will have are metrics of how and how many miles triggered his last injury.
Its also why i think Dwight will play or be on the bench Saturday, his is a contact injury rather being not fit - so he will just have analgesia and get through the game unless there is a borderline risk of a long term damage.
You could go on and its fascinating stuff, i learned a lot from sports science guys and strength conditioning experts. Its far more nuanced then many people think and its advancing all the time.