This Tuesday/Wednesday thing.

[GreasyChipBeattie]

If teams that play on a Tuesday night get the advantage of an extra day's rest before playing on a Saturday, don't we get the advantage of an extra day's rest by not playing until a Wednesday after the Saturday?

 

[SteveBlade]

Yes but also no because the team we play also gets an equal amount of rest so there's no real advantage.

So no, maybe.

 

[Karaoke Blade]

No, because the team we are playing will also have an extra day's rest

 

[Pollingtonblade]

When I started going to games in the mid 80s teams used to have 11 players and 1 sub and tended to play the same sides for league and cup games, even the Simod/Zenith Cup that was around then.

None of this resting nonsense!

 

[Pollingtonblade]

In 86/87 season we played 2 games in 2 days around Christmas I think - Silent Blade or Revolution will confirm.

 

[Sheffsteel]

If teams that play on a Tuesday night get the advantage of an extra day's rest before playing on a Saturday, don't we get the advantage of an extra day's rest by not playing until a Wednesday after the Saturday?

Wilder has mentioned in a recent interview that some teams gain a slight advantage under the new arrangement.
However we are one of the few teams where we hardly every receive any advantage during the season.

For example we play Blackburn on Wednesday, both teams will rest 3 days, so that’s fair
But we play Hull on Saturday and they played their mid week game Tuesday, so they get 3 days rest and we get 2 days rest.

These things should even themselves out throughout the season but in our case that’s not the case. We seem to be playing most of our midweek matches on the Wednesday but our opponents for the following Saturday play Tuesday night.

 

[snootyfenooty]

Tuesday night is our match night. Our midweek games have traditionally been on a Tuesday. Wednesday isn't right. It sounds wrong, we play crap and I have a bad vibes about it. There's no logic to it at all but this one needs sorting out.

 

[Silent Blade]

In 86/87 season we played 2 games in 2 days around Christmas I think - Silent Blade or Revolution will confirm.

Happened many times. We often played 3 games in 4 days over Easter until the 1980s

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Happened many times. We often played 3 games in 4 days over Easter until the 1980s

Did we play Hull Boxing Day stoke the day after the year I’m on about?

 

[Sheffsteel]

Tuesday night is our match night. Our midweek games have traditionally been on a Tuesday. Wednesday isn't right. It sounds wrong, we play crap and I have a bad vibes about it. There's no logic to it at all but this one needs sorting out.

Agree with the sentiment but there is a logic.

Sky tv are now televising EVERY Champiomship mid week match on the red button.
They’ve copied the Champions League format by randomly splitting the matches in 2, so half the matches are played Tuesday night and half are played Wednesday night, so there’s a bigger chance for viewers to watch more games.

Most clubs traditionally play on a Tuesday night but Sky are offering cash and clubs are more then happy to accept, so of course Sky want a return on their huge investment. So tradition goes out of the window.
Sky want to show a massive choice of matches 7 days a week.

I think there should be a more even split though.

 

[INTAKE BLADE]

It doesn't sit right with me playing on a we####day, love Tuesday night games.

 

[LJBlade]

No, because the team we are playing will also have an extra day's rest

Isn’t the argument that if the team we are playing next Saturday (Hull) play on Tuesday (which they are) instead of Wednesday (like us) then they’ll have an extra days rest than us.

They’ll essentially have 48 hours preparation time, Thursday and Friday (if they don’t do anything the day after their game. Whereas we’ll only have 24 hours preparation time, Friday.

 

[Revolution]

Did we play Hull Boxing Day stoke the day after the year I’m on about?

Hull on Boxing Day at home: won 4-2
Stoke away on 27th - lost 5-2

I think that's the last time we played 2 days in a row.

 

[BigBed]

Yeah, but no, but yeah, but no, but yeah.......

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

In 86/87 season we played 2 games in 2 days around Christmas I think - Silent Blade or Revolution will confirm.

Back in the 70s they used to play 3 games in 4/5 days, and half of 'em were still pissed

 

[shorehamview]

In 86/87 season we played 2 games in 2 days around Christmas I think - Silent Blade or Revolution will confirm.

That’s not much of a challenge, Silent Blade can probably tell me what I had for tea on the 7th of April 1975 his memory is that good.

 

[COME BACK CHED]

What a simple question to answer, as if we would be given anything in our favour , it is obviously a big disadvantage for us this season , and could cost us promotion .

 

[dazzlingblade]

for the money they get i'd play 7 days a week, stop whinging and gerron wi it

 

[Silent Blade]

That’s not much of a challenge, Silent Blade can probably tell me what I had for tea on the 7th of April 1975 his memory is that good.

I believe you had chips and prunes!

 

[SteveBlade]

What a simple question to answer, as if we would be given anything in our favour , it is obviously a big disadvantage for us this season , and could cost us promotion .

It's a day though, and it's not like it only affects us, it'll probably even itself out over the season.

 

[shorehamview]

I believe you had chips and prunes!

Prunes?

 

[1066blade]

If the lazy overpaid twats can't handle two games in a three/four day period then God help em when they retire at 30 odd and have to get a real job.

 

[The Tea Lady]

It's a day though, and it's not like it only affects us, it'll probably even itself out over the season.

With most things this is the case, in this particular instance, though, I don't think it is.

If "everyone" plays on Saturday and then there are some Tuesday games and some day after Tuesday games, then clearly in the midweek game it's the same for both teams.

The issue is the following Saturday: if our opponents played Tuesday and we played the day after, then they have an extra day. The way I see it, that set of circumstances is not bound to even itself out over the season, and in our case it doesn't.

Wilder thinks it's enough of an issue to have reported it to the League. He also said he expects them to do nothing about it.

(To be fair James Shield brought it up in the Star a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn't really understand what he was getting at, and I was in that default "evens itself out" frame of mind.)

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Playing on Friday night is a disadvantage.

A high proportion of those matches seem to be draws because neither team wants to show their hand.

 

[LJBlade]

It's a day though, and it's not like it only affects us, it'll probably even itself out over the season.

Apparently it won’t. There was a guy on Radio Sheffield last week that had analysed it all. According to him United and two other teams (can’t recall who but think Derby were one) will be at a significant disadvantage over the course of the season due to this Tuesday/Wednesday thing.

 

[Benny and the Blades]

I'm sure I read some where that while Wendy's even it self out we play 3 games more..

 

[snootyfenooty]

Is it me that's being thick but if we play Wednesday we have an extra days rest over the teams that play Tuesday. This cancels out the disadvantage of having one days less rest between Wednesday and Saturday.

Still don't like playing Wednesdays for other reasons but that's not the argument being presented here.

 

[WORKSOPBLADE]

Hope CW plays same side again. Winning certainly helps the fitness levels.

 

[GreasyChipBeattie]

Is it me that's being thick but if we play Wednesday we have an extra days rest over the teams that play Tuesday. This cancels out the disadvantage of having one days less rest between Wednesday and Saturday.

That's what I thought Snoots, but as someone pointed out, the side we play will have had an extra day too, so no advantage there.
It would be fair if the team we play on Sat after Weds, played on the Weds too, but I wouldn't think that will happen too often.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

3 things to ponder..

1. Today's footballers are more like athletes than the footballers of 30 years ago or more. The footballers of 40 years ago were in teams of 11 with 1 sub. They could play 3 times a week without anyone even suggesting, for one moment, that they might be "tired" and needing a rest - and blaming a poor result on that.
2. Go back further than 40 years and you don't have to go much further to find "professional" footballers who worked all week in another job, then turned up (on public transport) on a Saturday and played out of the skins for the team. They never complained of being "tired". In some cases these blokes had done a week in a steelmill or coalmine.
3. Things "do not" necessarily, or even likely, "even themselves out over a season". There is no evidence for that. It is far more likely that, at any given point in time, one team has more of a "rub of the green" than another. But even so, that is not an excuse, or a reason, for the ultimate results from a season for any team.

If we can just put these totally ridiculous notions to one side for a moment, we might be able to just accept that "tiredness" is a total cop out and has no bearing on the results of a match whatsoever. Even less so thesedays, with huge squads available to choose from and multiple subs.