Leicester: Insight into modern Premier League pre-seasons

Leicester City already played their first pre-season game against Burton yesterday. Throughout the game, the interval of the offseason was noticeable.

Many fans were disappointed that the Foxes failed in their quest for the Bass Charity Vase. More specifically, it was disheartening to see the team not get into the opposition’s half to create any significant offensive threat to test Burton’s keeper. Thus, it is imperative to understand the real motive of these pre-season games followed by the training regimes during modern times.

Overcoming the first challenge

The aspect of modern-day sports has changed several folds in the past decade. Teams now rely on the state of the art facilities and formulate their approaches consulting sports science. The first challenge for the attendants of the first team is to ensure the players are fit both mentally and physically before the resumption of the Premier League.

The players are never in their optimal state when they return after holidays, so the first few weeks become a task for the trainers to help and push the players beyond their limits. It’s very tiring and not easy by any stretch of the imagination how much work is put behind each individual to elevate their fitness levels.

The Leicester squad reported to their training facility at Seagrave on July 12th. A few exceptions for the players who had an extended season and played a part to represent their national side for the continental tournaments received additional breaks. Those who returned had to start their training sessions with coaches and instructors.

The pre-season fixtures are beneficial to provide a headstart for the teams to find their usual footing before the regular season starts. Generally, there is a gap of six weeks for sides between their first pre-season game to the first game of the new Premier League season. Easing the players remains the top priority for the training.

Slowly, once the team hits that benchmark, the training intensity is turned up a notch higher. Over the next week, the players are eased into exercising to adjust to their routine fitness levels. The training sessions are scheduled such that each player gets his custom analysis from the sports science team.

Based on the player’s data- a tailormade session routine is designed to hit that individual’s maximum threshold levels over the coming weeks. Right now, the team has two training sessions regularly under the hot summer sun.

The outdoor sessions are both tiring and challenging, to say the least. The indoor fitness and training drills take place during the afternoon followed by low-intensity group activities such as swimming which are termed as recovery sessions.

Sports and Science going hand in hand

Over the upcoming weeks, the training sessions will be rigorous and straining. Every player trains hard to develop their strength, speed, and agility in their exercise modules. Players are monitored individually in terms of their data outputs.

The oxygen levels of the players at different intervals of the training sessions will be vital in analyzing and predicting some parameters that will help processing the collected data to predict the player’s expected performances.

Mapping data and machine learning are both used in a fashion that has become inseparable in modern training approaches. Several risk assessments could be achieved by the sports science team that can be vital and helpful.

Cardiovascular conditioning is crucial for the players who will be instrumental for the team over the season. The efficacy of the methods is undeniable. Injuries can be foreshadowed if sports science’s aid gets enough to say.

In the next two immediate weeks, the team will be playing five-a-side matches for developing their physicality. Sprint exercises will be regular to test out their maximum threshold capacity. Strength positively impacts speed and builds up resilience to injuries as optimal conditioning levels are warranted.

Leicester City’s upcoming challenges

The training of the first team will become crispier and far more concise this year. The competitive season resumes for the King Power club a bit earlier than usual. Leicester City will challenge Manchester City for the FA Community Shield at Wembley on 7th August.

The upcoming matches in the coming weeks will be testing the waters before going full throttle for the season. The Foxes will be traveling to two of their away fixtures of the pre-season against Wycombe and QPR before hosting the Europa League champions Villareal at the King Power stadium.

The European champions will face the FA Cup champions in an exciting matchup which will be a much more intense game because it will be Leicester City’s last game before taking on Pep Guardiola’s side.

Yesterday’s loss was just a hurdle to the team’s path as they looked disoriented against a better-gelled side. The East Midlanders need to find their mojo quickly in the upcoming games to establish themselves as a legitimate threat early on into the coming season.