A lot has been made of the appalling injury situation at Tottenham Hotspur the past couple of months. Spurs have consistently been without 8-11 players due to injury, illness, or suspension since late November, which is obviously not ideal in a compressed schedule where the club is playing two matches a week for an extended period of time.
It’s also led to a lot of rampant speculation as to what’s actually causing the spate of injuries, especially the numerous hamstring injuries. While hamstring injuries are up across the league the past couple of seasons, mostly due to the intensity of play and insane schedule of the Premier League, there are some that would also attribute Tottenham’s situation to Ange Postecoglou’s intense, high pressure, high octane tactics. The thought is that Postecoglou is overtraining his players, drawing a direct line between that and the injuries.
Today, Alasdair Gold released a fascinating English-language interview with Pedro Porro, the first one I think I’ve seen from Porro since his arrival a few years ago. And from his direct quotes and also interpretation from Gold in his conversation with Porro, the player hits back on those allegations, saying the reality of the two-games-a-week schedule means that there really isn’t all that much time for intense training, since players need adequate time to recover. Porro also says that each player has individualized training regimens intended to minimize overwork and injuries.
“We have a plan for all of our training. Those players who aren’t playing so much have their own plan to come back and me too, I train at the club but I also do my own work outside the club, recovery work, prevention of injury.
“Everyone has their own schedule, if the training sessions are less intense it’s for those players coming back, they have the training they need, and also for the players who are playing, we need a lot of recovery.
“I think it’s crazy, when you have too many players injured, the situation for the team and the club, it’s a difficult time. This is football, now we focus on recovery and the players will come back stronger.
“It’s a bad situation because when you have all the back four (defenders and goalkeeper out), seniors, it’s a bad situation. I think it’s incredible that I am 25 [and I’m the oldest], but I have been here two years now and every game I push with everything on the pitch.”
I think it’s good to hear this perspective from an actual player who is participating in training sessions, and not rely on insight from fans, media personalities, and others who are potentially pushing an agenda. It’s pretty clear, at least from my perspective, that injuries are the main reason Spurs are struggling. Likewise, based on what Porro is saying, while it’s not impossible to point to intense training earlier in the season as the players were getting up to speed, it’s much more likely that Spurs are just caught in an injury doom spiral — a few key players get injured, and because Tottenham have a thin squad, they must then rely on backups and others to play more minutes and more games, making them then more susceptible to injury. The cycle continues.
Yes, the argument against is that Postecoglou should have simply rotated more and better. There’s some merit to that position, but I think it’s more complicated than that due to the intense pressures on the club to win and maintain positive momentum in four competitions. It’s easy to criticize, especially as the results are not coming in the league, but Postecoglou, like most managers, wants his best players available to play, and every match is important.
At any rate, the full interview with Porro is worth reading. He gives some fun anecdotes from his childhood and relationship with his grandfather, and has very nice things to say about Postecoglou, Archie Gray, and Djed Spence. You should read it.