Villa players fighting fit for manager
Wednesday 20th April 2011, 12:11PM BST.
Villa manager Gerard Houllier has declared the Premier League is “survival of the fittest” and credited their recent revival to an improvement in the condition of his players.
The extra sharpness expected by the Frenchman since his arrival at Villa has not been without controversy, following reports last month of unhappiness about the methods employed by fitness coach Robert Duverne.
But it now seems the Villa squad have accepted the demands of the current regime towards an improvement in conditioning and Houllier believes the players are reaping the rewards on the pitch.
He said: “When you are fit you can use your skill right until the end of the game. You are able to take the right decisions and to control the game, particularly the last half hour.
“To me the most important minutes are the last half hour. There was a time when we were conceding too many goals, now we can not only keep the result but make an even better result.
“I said to the boys there was a time where we used to lose games in the final minute, but now we seem to even win in the final moments of the game.
“Some players sometimes probably don’t realise how important it is in this competition to be as fit as you can be, because every team is fit now and it is a survival of the fittest.
“If you are not fit I don’t think you can compete in the final stages of a game.”
UK Sport
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