Chapter 1: What insights does Steve Bone have about Pompey's recent performance?
We welcome Steve Bone to the Pompey Sound microphone. Steve, are you well? And what is running through your fine mind at this minute in time about Pompey?
I am well. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me on again. And yeah, looking forward to the Sheffield United game, which I'm sure we will do together. during this chat and reflecting a little bit on Preston which I actually thought was one of the least disappointing defeats of the season actually there's a few people getting worked up about it as they do about any defeat
Which is fair enough, people are allowed to get worked up about us losing, but I thought in the grand scheme of things, the run we've had recently, it was only our second defeat in 10 league games, that's not bad, that's not a terrible record. We didn't get hammered, we didn't get made to look silly, we only lost 1-0 and I think for large parts of the game we were the better team.
And our fans made more noise than their fans as well. I know that doesn't get you any points, but it's still worth mentioning. Obviously the problem was we didn't work the keeper. We didn't look a threat where it mattered, which is a worry. I think that's another indication of how much we miss Colby when he's not playing.
Chapter 2: How does Steve analyze the squad registered for the season?
But on the whole, I wasn't, you know, it was a game I kind of half expected us to lose. I think I might have predicted a one-all draw on here last week. So I wasn't a million miles off. But, you know, you can cope with those away defeats as long as you keep getting it right at home. We've got some home games to come. We've also got some winnable away games actually to come. Mm-hmm.
So yeah, looking back, not too disappointed. Looking forward, cautiously optimistic about the next couple of games while keeping one eye as ever on who's coming out of the treatment room and who's going into it. And also whether the pitch will be OK after rain, rain and more rain.
We'll come back to the pitch, we must, because there's a story floating around today that they're keeping an eye on it. So we'll come back to that. Can I next ask a complex question? And that is your reaction to the, I think it's 23-man squad that Pompey have registered, because there were one or two surprises there. But overall, what do you think?
Chapter 3: What are the implications of injuries on the team's performance?
Yeah, I think it was pretty much as expected. I don't think there was anyone in it that we thought would never be anywhere near it. There's a couple of people in it who are currently injured, but what has surprised some is that there's a couple of people who aren't in it, who are still at the club and are currently injured.
And it sounds like, from the explanations we've had from John Massino and Richard Hughes since, that is simply a case of keeping their options open. So we've got 23 registered at the moment. If there's somebody in the squad who suddenly becomes available again, Harvey Blair, I think, is one example that's been given.
If he suddenly became available for this Saturday or next Saturday or whatever, he can be very quickly registered, added to the 23, and he can play, no problems. I think what they're trying to do is, if it turns out that a couple of those who are not in the squad prove to be injured more long-term, then there's a space there for them to bring in a free agent or so on.
So it kind of seems the sensible way to go, really. I don't think there's anyone who's not registered who you would think, well, why on earth isn't he registered? You know, injury seems to be the only reason they haven't registered people. So I think they've been quite clever there. They've given themselves a little bit of breathing space, really.
Chapter 4: What factors contribute to the high number of injuries in football?
And I think a couple of those injured will come back within two or three weeks or a bit more. And then they're available. Then you add them to the 25. and then they're available to you for the rest of the season. Obviously, you've got the under-21s in addition to the 25-pound squad. You know, you look through it and there's been a cover for most positions.
The one position that is still a worry is centre-forward, isn't it? As we've seen with Colby out, you know, brought Jacob Brown in last Saturday, probably a bit sooner than the manager would have liked to because he'd only just arrived. and whether he's going to be the answer if Colby struggles or is out injured again, I don't know.
And beyond that, you're looking at Kirk and Waddingham, Waddingham being one of those who is still injured. So, you know, looking at the squad as a whole, I think you would like a bit more striker cover in there, as any team would, as any team needs. But on the whole, it's... You know, we are where we are with it. And I think we'll have enough.
I think the squad is strong enough and varied enough to get us through the rest of the season.
Chapter 5: Which teams are at risk of relegation this season?
Well said. It was a complex question. It's like looking at a chessboard with the game in progress. Some people can look at a chess game and just go, oh, yeah, that's boom, boom, boom. But John Massino and his team, they've got to look at 25 people.
Yeah.
and go, OK, well, if he gets injured, then he can come across. We've got full-backs who can play right-back and left-back, Swanson and Williams, which is great, isn't it? I mean, to have that much cover in that way.
Do you think he has a little... In order to do this, he has a little sort of Subutio pitch and Subutio figures with the players' names on them. As he's working out his 25, he's moving them on and off the pitch and looking at where... I hope he has. I really hope he has.
Well, I do know.
That would be the way I'd do it. I would need that sort of framework to work to.
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Chapter 6: What predictions does Steve make for the upcoming Sheffield United game?
I do know one way in which he does it, because I was in his office and I had a look at it, and he... He hangs photographs, individual frame photographs of the players on his wall.
Does he?
Yep. All right. Well, he did. Don't know if he still does.
Yeah. Yeah, that keeps them in his mind, doesn't it? If he can see their faces looking down at him.
Well, funnily enough, they're behind where he sits, so he's got to turn around. But anyway, that's how he used to do it. And it is a complex puzzle to solve, isn't it? Having, if possible, two players available in every position, especially with so many injuries. What should we do next, the pitch or our injury crisis?
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Chapter 7: How does the weather impact football matches and pitches?
Well, let's go on to injuries, shall we? That should be the next... We need to get that out of the way again, don't we? And it doesn't get any... It just seems that whenever there's good news about somebody being back a little bit sooner than we thought or whatever, That's followed by bad news about somebody else new being injured.
The latest being Anderson, who we've barely seen him yet, and he's got a hamstring injury. And, you know, people quite rightly are saying, what is going on? There must be some reason we're getting this many injuries.
injuries hamstring seems to be the one this season doesn't it that we're particularly suffering from it's not it's not the only one but it is a it's happened to a few um yeah it just seems to be a constant cycle there's quite a good quite detailed uh interview with rich hughes uh which has gone out today on the news his website with neil allen has done it
And he's obviously asked Richard Hughes, you know, what is going on with the injuries? What are the factors? What have you ruled out? What have you not ruled out? And so on and so forth. And Richard Hughes gives quite a detailed answer. He says we are, as you'd expect, we're doing everything we can behind the scenes to prevent the injuries and then to look at as to why they're happening.
Chapter 8: What are the potential effects of training intensity on player injuries?
And he quite rightly makes the point that there's a lot of different types of injury. You know, there's a few muscle injuries, but there's a few impact injuries as well. He's quite insistent that there's nothing wrong with the training pitches. He says they were relayed, I think, last year. There's no worries over the general quality of the surface that they're training on.
And he does say it's not the case that all the injuries have been picked up there. Some of them have, some of them haven't. And he said we're constantly looking at it all, as you would hope. And they don't seem to have got to the bottom of it yet, if there is anything to get to the bottom of.
Well, I wanted to ask, what's your personal theory? What's your take on it? Because people talk about the training ground. People talk about the intensity of training. People talk about perhaps these players are too fit or maybe too much is asked of them during the course of a game. What does Steve Bone think?
Yeah.
I don't have any magic answers to it, but I think the biggest factor is the way the intensity of football has changed over the past few years. And I'm talking about probably in the past...
five years even you know since you go back to it's a useful sort of time to go back to and judge things by you go back to covid and the lockdowns and the period where we had no football and then we had behind closed doors football and then it came back um it seems it to me that since then a lot of clubs pumping among the worst sufferers but not the only sufferers a lot of clubs have had a lot more injuries than they had before that
I think football has evolved quite quickly into being a faster game, a more pressing game. So over the 90 minutes, players are expected to be... sprinting more, generally, over short bursts to press and to move quickly in possession as well. When you're playing the number of games they are, when you're playing two games a week, which they often are,
to have that sort of intensity, although you hear people say they only have to work for 90 minutes a week or 180 minutes a week, that's not much, but actually with the intensity that's expected in that short period of time, it's a lot to ask of the muscles in players' bodies, isn't it?
Some will cope with it without any problem at all, others will struggle at times, others will struggle all the time, and that's where you're seeing I think so many injuries. You look at injuries, again, not just at Pompey, but across all clubs at Premier League level and below, there's a lot of younger players getting injured now, which you wouldn't have expected previously, would you?
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