James McCarthy

[Hafnia]

5 hours ago, Bailey said:

 

Or he kept getting himself injured because he kept trying to play when he wasn't right. 

Your sports scientists can only tell you so much. If the fitness figures are right and he is saying he feels good then why wouldn't the club or international manager play him.

You mean the republic of Ireland who had keane and O'Neill pressuring  medical staff to pass players as fit?  Read what Jon Walters said about it all.

 

 

[Cornish Steve]

On 08/03/2020 at 12:16, Cornish Steve said:

How many times must it be said? Games are ultimately won and lost in midfield. We have a shockingly poor midfield right now. If we could fix that, we'd be a transformed team.

 

On 08/03/2020 at 12:33, Cornish Steve said:

...But, more than anything, we desperately need a dominator, bully, powerful engine, oversized personality in midfield. That's what will turn us around. It would have made a big difference today - if we'd have got the formation right.

 

On 09/03/2020 at 13:54, Romey 1878 said:

I loved McCarthy, I make no secret about that. He was limited in some aspects (but those aspects were the requirements for other players anyway), but what he was good at he was very good at and we miss what he brought to the team. The same way we miss Gana. 

When I wrote those comments above, I hadn't thought of James McCarthy. You're right, though, that he matches some of these criteria.

[Bailey]

On 12/03/2020 at 19:24, Hafnia said:

You mean the republic of Ireland who had keane and O'Neill pressuring  medical staff to pass players as fit?  Read what Jon Walters said about it all.

 

 

Still McCarthy's decision. 

[Hafnia]

10 hours ago, Bailey said:

Still McCarthy's decision. 

It's a load of hypocritic bullshit.  For years we had the likes of Peter Reid, Dave Watson, Duncan Ferguson, Wayne Rooney, Don Hutchison, John Ebbrell playing through the pain barrier to their own cost but they were brave if they did it for a blue shirt.

Clubs take guidance from the medical staff.... they do MRI scans on hamstring injuries and if they are torn then they don't play.  When recovered the Players are told to look for tightening etc, McCarthy is not going to play if he felt like his hammys were going to go... the fact is Martinez played him against Donachies advice - McCarthy felt ok, Donachie advised against him playing and Martinez played him and he broke down- not one but twice in succession. 

Look at a Michael Owen, Giggs, Torres, dembele....  all suffered repeated hamstring injuries.  Is it their fault too?  

At amateur level I had a pelvic injury which I recovered from, then in a matter of one year I tore my hamstring and groin sever times because of an imbalance. Each time I played before doing it I felt great.... no tightness or anything.

People just find it convenient to blame McCarthy because of the whole Everton vs Ireland nonsense.  He's not a medic and by nature is a footballer who if feeling fit will play. 

 

[Bailey]

On 15/03/2020 at 10:22, Hafnia said:

It's a load of hypocritic bullshit.  For years we had the likes of Peter Reid, Dave Watson, Duncan Ferguson, Wayne Rooney, Don Hutchison, John Ebbrell playing through the pain barrier to their own cost but they were brave if they did it for a blue shirt.

Clubs take guidance from the medical staff.... they do MRI scans on hamstring injuries and if they are torn then they don't play.  When recovered the Players are told to look for tightening etc, McCarthy is not going to play if he felt like his hammys were going to go... the fact is Martinez played him against Donachies advice - McCarthy felt ok, Donachie advised against him playing and Martinez played him and he broke down- not one but twice in succession. 

Look at a Michael Owen, Giggs, Torres, dembele....  all suffered repeated hamstring injuries.  Is it their fault too?  

At amateur level I had a pelvic injury which I recovered from, then in a matter of one year I tore my hamstring and groin sever times because of an imbalance. Each time I played before doing it I felt great.... no tightness or anything.

People just find it convenient to blame McCarthy because of the whole Everton vs Ireland nonsense.  He's not a medic and by nature is a footballer who if feeling fit will play. 

 

Why is it hypocritical? You will know as well as I do, when you have been out all you want to do is get back on the pitch. Even when you know you are not right, you get back out there because that is what you want to do. 

The example you have given is more or less proof. You think those players you mentioned didn't have the medical green light to train and then play? The rhetoric is that McCarthy was playing knowing he is injured. If he was then, that's on him, not anyone else. The Irish medics would have passed him fit just as ours did yet there is this conspiracy theory that it was all down to Martinez.

[Bailey]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/james-mccarthy-s-injury-problems-have-prompted-everton-s-medical-revamp-1.2059659

 

He definitely sounds like a man who wants to rush him back.

[Hafnia]

Just now, Bailey said:

Why is it hypocritical? You will know as well as I do, when you have been out all you want to do is get back on the pitch. Even when you know you are not right, you get back out there because that is what you want to do. 

The example you have given is more or less proof. You think those players you mentioned didn't have the medical green light to train and then play? The rhetoric is that McCarthy was playing knowing he is injured. If he was then, that's on him, not anyone else. The Irish medics would have passed him fit just as ours did yet there is this conspiracy theory that it was all down to Martinez.

It's not a conspiracy theory! Up till the McCarthy spate of injuries Martinez was almost permanently talking himself up as a physio - because he has physio qualifications.

Let's make this clear - McCarthy and his injury problems all go back to his repeated early comebacks on Martinez watch.

McCarthy is an old school footballer who would play with an injury and these players need the expertise of the management team to choose when/If to play them.

I'll leave it to the words of Donachie himself who had 10 years great service at Everton till his new boss decided he was a better physio.

 

‘It’s not inconceivable to find yourself in a position where the athlete and the coaching staff are desperate to play in the next game and you know it’s not in their best interest,’ said Donachie. ‘This is when your communication skills come into play, by convincing the management it is the best thing for the player and hence the team and explain and cajole the player into preparing for the more sensible option.’ Donachie is currently on gardening leave but is sure to be in demand.

 

 

 

[Hafnia]

41 minutes ago, Bailey said:

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/james-mccarthy-s-injury-problems-have-prompted-everton-s-medical-revamp-1.2059659

 

He definitely sounds like a man who wants to rush him back.

Yep... he with a great "let's throw the physio under the bus" act after getting rid of the bloke who told him McCarthy wasn't ready. 

The players like Distin clashed with Martinez over his training. He insisted on small space high output training, short pitches with lots of bursts and decelerating which put strain on their hammies. Jagielka was another who I recall voiced concerns.  

Distin more than any player we've had was more physically aware.  Martinez biggest issue was that he refused to listen or learn and was stubborn. It cost him his job in the end.   Was it donachies job to take training too?

No. Our injury record under him and moyes was very good for years.  All on Martinez.... it started with him and he lost the trust of players over it. 

Here's a more complete article:-

 

Just before Christmas last season, Everton’s head of medical services, Danny Donachie, gave an interview to a professional website where he addressed some of the key issues facing him as the senior physio at one of England’s leading football clubs. Six months into Roberto Martinez’s tenure as manager, Everton were riding high; the evening after Donachie’s interview was published, Martinez’s Everton would do what the team hadn’t managed in the previous 21 years and beat Manchester United at Old Trafford. It was hard to overstate the optimism, and the enthusiasm, which swept the stands at Goodison in response to the Catalan’s exposition of free-flowing football and apparent total lack of fear.

That December day, few Evertonians noticed Donachie’s interview, given as it was to a site which is part of the trade press and excited as they were about the looming fixture the next evening at Old Trafford. In the weeks which followed – as Goodison began to echo to chants of ‘Oviedo baby’ – it was still less likely that any match-going Blue would pay it much attention. But a year on, with Everton only having scored five league wins all season and slipping into a relegation battle on the back of four straight defeats – and with Donachie parting company with the club – it repays a look.

Donachie began by picking up on the issue of hamstring injuries, arguing that “many of the treatments we employ are no better than placebo under proper scrutiny. Anti-inflammatory medication for example is used widely in elite sport and yet there is more and more evidence arising that for soft tissue injuries they may actually retard rather than expedite healing.” One stat which went unheralded until recently was that in the 18 months of Martinez’s tenure, the Everton squad had been hit with 18 hamstring injuries – more than anyone else in the league – whereas previously Everton had a good record in this area. Donachie moved on, to address directly the challenges a physio can face dealing with a manager:

Competition and financial implications of success are irresistible in sport these days and the aspirations of the stakeholders involved in the care package of an athlete may not always appear to be aligned…It’s not inconceivable to find yourself in a position where the athlete and the coaching staff are desperate to play in the next game and you know it’s not in their best interest! This is when your communication skills come into play, by convincing the management it is the best thing for the player and hence the team and explain and cajole the player into preparing for the more sensible option.

So much, so unremarkable. Physios have to argue with managers – and players themselves – to stop players returning from injuries too soon. Big wow. But taken in context, Donachie’s remarks – and his sudden, unexplained departure from Everton – raise questions about the management of Everton’s first-team squad in the 2014-2015 season. It is perhaps merely a coincidence that James McCarthy, sidelined with a hamstring injury for weeks, was rushed back into the team in the middle of a bad run of form, and then had to limp out of the Newcastle match, proving to be unavailable for the next game against Hull. It’s perhaps a coincidence that news of Donachie’s resignation broke the day after that match. And then again, perhaps it isn’t.

[Romey 1878]

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11706/12004174/james-mccarthy-interview-injury-nightmare-at-everton-and-new-lease-of-life-at-crystal-palace

I wish him nothing but the best. He never gave anything less than everything he had, and while he didn't have a flashy game i thought he was a brilliant player for us and was very important.

[Hafnia]

This thread aged well...

Made up the lad has got a run together and proved his fitness...  

We could have used him after lockdown.  He would be a great option now as a double pivot with Allan and allowing Decoure free reign. 

He's a £20m midfielder in this market. £3m was a steal for palace. .. if may sweeten them for the Zaha deal maybe. 

[Romey 1878]

He's just signed for Celtic.

Good luck to him.