No Signings Needed With Arsenal's Answer To Injuries

When Arsène Wenger arrived Arsenal in the 1996 he brought with him a new-fangled concept called sports science. The application of Wenger's fancy European methods, whilst initially mistrusted, brought an unparalleled period of success for the Gunners. Around the time of the new stadium announcement, around 2002, the rest of the league has started to attempt to replicate the Frenchman's methods.

The move to the Emirates stadium and years of just about staying competitive saw the rest of the league catch up with the Gunners and they had lost enough of their edge to flirt on the periphery of success rather than lead the march as they did before.

Over the first 8 years at the Emirates Arsenal came close to ending their exodus from the winners podium for a variety of reasons ranging from lack of experience, lower quality squads than before, constant raiding of their team by benefactor funded opponents and the old enemy - injuries.

In 2013/14 Arsenal broke their trophy duck with an FA Cup win in extra time. Wenger had assembled a squad capable of getting over the line regardless of what was thrown at them but unfortunately they were not able to clinch the title having lost half the team to injury at the most crucial stage. Silverware had been won but the title still eluded Arsenal and in no small part down to injuries to key players.

That season Arsenal lost 2472 days to injury and that proved to be the difference in the title race. Arsenal had overcome every question mark placed over their title credentials only to be scuppered by injury in the pursuit. They sought to rectify this and brought in strength and conditioning specialist Shad Forsythe.

He would not be here if I was not impressed. We are trying to be as good as we can everywhere.
Arsène Wenger on Shad Forsythe

Arsenal's first squad suffered 86 injuries in 2013/14 with Vermaelen, Koscielny, Sagna, Wilshere, Ramsey, Arteta, Cazorla, Walcott, Gnabry, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sanogo, Podolski and of course Diaby all missing more than a month - and many of those were unavailable at the same time. Over half of those injuries were so-called 'avoidable muscular issues'.

About 65 percent of injuries — both athletic and lifestyle-related — come from overuse, which is repetitive use of joints that are rendered dysfunctional by muscular imbalances.
Mark Verstegen - Mark worked with Shad for the World Cup winning German national team

So, has Shad made a difference?

The figures reported are open to interpretation but the early signs suggest Shad is making huge in-roads in keeping the Arsenal first team fit. Once again the title eluded Arsenal, in no small part once more to injuries, but most of the damage was done before you could realistically expect to see the fruits of Shad's labour.

Arsenal suffered a total of 68 injuries in Shad's first season which was a great improvement on 2013/14 where they had to deal with 86, but it's higher than the average of 2010-13 which was 61. In fact, from 2010 up to the start of the 2013/14 season Arsenal had managed to reduce their total number of injuries down by 2 each year from 63, to 61 to 59 before it shot up by a whopping 46% in our FA Cup winning season.

Shad - who spent 10 years working for the German national team and before that working for EXOS, an American athletic performance company, prior to joining Arsenal - oversaw a 23% reduction in total injuries in his first year. On first glance that may seem more like a return to our normal level after a freak season but if you dig a little deeper the evidence starts to point towards something more deliberate.

Arsenal lost 2472 days to injury in 2013/14 and 1834 in 2014/15 with an average of 2047 days per season in the past 5 seasons. In his first season Shad oversaw a saving of 600 days compared to the previous season and a more modest 200 to the 5 year average. Whichever way you look at it his arrival at the club has coincided with a real improvement in extent of days lost to injury. So why didn't that transfer to our league position?

It's worth bearing in mind that the introduction of a new training regime or method of injury prevention and rehabilitation is unlikely to have immediate effect. We certainly started to see the early effects when Giroud returned to first team action a month earlier than he was expected to return to training let alone playing.

We must also consider external influences and mitigating factors prior to Shad starting his new role as Head of Athletic Performance Enhancement such as lack of pre-season, existing injuries and shortness of holiday between the World Cup and new season. It cannot be coincidence that our three major injuries early in the season all afflicted players who travelled to Brazil - Özil, Giroud and Debuchy.

It make take another 6 months to fully see the benefits of Shad and his team's work but if you split last season into pre- and post-New Year you see a vast change in fortune. Before New Year Arsenal suffered a huge 24 muscular injuries and lost 1109 days to injury but just 11 and 725 from New Year's onwards. That's a reduction of 54% and 35% respectively - and after just 6 months at Arsenal the injury record was at it's lowest half-season tally for five seasons.

Shad's methods of movement training, plyometrics and agility training seem to have had an impact. The focus is on replicating match stress to strengthen muscles to movement and impact and guard against future injury rather than the old method of hitting the gym and hoping harder muscles will protect you.

And it's not just the physical approach Shad is implementing - he is also focused on nutrition, something Wenger is passionate about, and a holistic approach to an athlete's performance and training rather than honing in on building up "problem" areas like many traditional physiotherapists do.

This newer approach to player conditioning has been complemented by the evolution of training methods - something Wenger is wrongly accused of not doing enough.

We get weighed every week. We get regular DEXA scans to check our muscle mass and body fat levels. There's no hiding place. Training used to be long, hard double sessions for the whole team. Now it's more positional-based. Midfielders do one drill, defenders and attackers another. Training is more intelligent.
Jack Wilshere speaking to Men's Fitness on the new training regime and player monitoring at Arsenal

Arteta is an example of someone who could benefit from the appointment of Shad and crew. Written off by many as an ineffective or unreliable support to Coquelin the club captain could prove to be more than just a supporting act this season. It is easy to forget how his partnership with Ramsey took us to within 7 points of the title 2 seasons ago. He lost the best part of last season to injury but his talent should not be under scrutiny. Where his pace has reduced his mental acuity and positional awareness has improved.

Mertesacker too will benefit from better injury prevention and rehabilitation. The vice-captain has generally had a good injury record but international commitments and a lack of options at club level saw him overplayed. Instead of suffering from muscular strains his form suffered and, as he is our defensive leader, so did the team's. His international retirement will aid his recuperation over the season but so too will the management of Koscielny's Achilles problem and the addition of Gabriel.

Arsenal can look forward to fewer self-imposed injury crises, shorter lay-offs, quicker and longer lasting rehabilitation and less disruption to rhythm and momentum. A fitter Arsenal has plenty of talent to really go for the title even without new out-field additions. 

We made a lot of changes in the way we prepare, in the way we work on prevention for injuries. We know a lot more than 18 years ago than when I arrived, but still not enough to predict 100 per cent scientifically what happens to everybody.
Arsène Wenger

We should be confident in the team we have - especially if Shad Forsythe can continue to improve our injury record - but as Wenger says, we can't predict when injuries will strike and cannot control what happens our players on the pitch (see Debuchy) so a few extra bodies wouldn't hurt.

That said, if those additions aren't an improvement on our starting eleven then we should be waiting for someone who is as in terms of "depth" they are not desperately needed like in previous seasons. If no-one of sufficient enough quality is available in time we can trust Shad to help ensure we don't even notice it.

Statistics: Physioroom.com
Quotes: The Mirror & Men's Fitness

Stats used are unverified. The opinions expressed are based on the statistics as reported and are not meant to validate or add weight to these stats.

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