Raymond Verheijen has said Jurgen Klopp’s training methods “destroys players.”
The former Wales coach regularly decries the training methods of Premier League clubs and managers, and said last December that Klopp’s methods would lead to an injury crisis. The following month Liverpool were without 11 players.
Verhijen also criticised David Moyes when he was Manchester United manager over Robin van Persie’s injury problems.
In July 2013 he wrote:
“The only way to solve this problem in Jurassic Park (Manchester United) is to improve education of these dinosaur coaches, fitness clowns & scientific cowboys. All over the world in preseason you see the pattern overtraining-fatigue-injuries’. Always avoid accumulation of fatigue in pre-season.”
The Dutchman took aim at Klopp and new Chelsea manager Antonio Conte in a series of tweets on Monday afternoon.
Verheijen criticised the methods used by the two coaches, both notable advocates of high-intensity, pressing football. He claimed the pair are overworking their players in pre-season, and putting them at risk of injury.
In past weeks media reported how intelligent coaches like Conte & Klopp do 'too much too soon' with double & triple sessions in pre-season.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Coaches destroy players by training too much too soon in pre-season in 3 phases:
1) fatigue phase, 2) injury phase & 3) injury crisis phase.— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 1: Accumulation of fatigue phase. Overtraining players with too many sessions & too short recovery time in between to regain freshness
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 1: Accumulation of fatigue phase. Which Einstein invented 2-3 sessions per day with relatively unfit players just after off-season?
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 1: Accumulation of fatigue phase. As players get tired coaches condition players to play slower & inaccurate football in pre-season.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 1 –> Phase 2: After being overtrained in first 2 weeks tired players now have to play friendly games which means a high injury risk.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 2: Injury phase. Accumulated fatigue results in slower nervous system. Signals from brain to muscles travel slower. Less coordination.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 2: Injury phase. Tired players with less body coordination have to make maximum explosive actions in friendly games: high injury risk!
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 2 –> Phase 3: After some players got injured in week 3-4 of pre-season coaches can't stop vicious circle so injury crisis in week 5-6
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Phase 3: Injury crisis phase. More injuries lead to smaller squad so tired players get even more game minutes. Even more fatigue & injuries.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
Most teams have almost finished phase 1 (accumulation of fatigue phase) and will enter phase 2 in which first few players will get injured.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
In about 2 weeks the first teams will enter the 'Injury crisis phase' (phase 3). Look forward to all these coaches blaming external factors.
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
In meantime ask yourself a question: why do we no longer fly in planes of 30 yrs ago but do intelligent coaches still train like 30 yrs ago?
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) July 18, 2016
The tweets were sent on the same day that Peter Krawietz, one of Jurgen Klopp’s coaching team, explained the club’s preseason training methods ahead of their tour to the US.
‘It will be a long season, we know that, because there’s no break until the end of May. We know we have to do nearly everything we need on the pitch, and therefore we train a lot – we train long, we train hard and we train often,’ he added.
‘We have to build the base for the physical shape; we have to try to improve our style of play in defending and offense. We have a lot of work to do and it is very, very important, of course.
‘We will have a look every day and in every session at each player, as much as possible. And we want to use video analysis, to speak with the players, work with them on and off the pitch and give them our opinion if we think it is helpful. We try to make each player better.’
