An example of mismanagement

I wrote in a couple of articles how fatigue causes injury and that is has to be managed properly. It is why Erik Lamela was on the bench.

Manchester City signed Brazilian Gabriel Jesus this summer and he has just been mismanaged and is now injured. He joins Manchester City in January after the Brazilian domestic season finishes.

The 19-year-old (20 next January) played on Tuesday for Brazil, on Thursday for his club side Palmeiras against Sao Paulo and then again on Sunday against Gremio. He played 198 minutes of football in 119 hours and it takes 48 hours for the body to fully recover from just one game.

He was stretched off with a groin injury, remember Kyle Walker having one of those after playing virtually every game one season. He was out with a groin injury in March 2014 until 2nd July, he then had to have a groin operation in September as rest hadn't cured it enough. That kept him out until December.

His injury wasn't down to being unlucky, it was mismanagement by Andre Villas-Boas. Walker had played 50 games in 2012/13, a huge 4,319 minutes and in 2013/14 was already up to 34 games and 2.991 minutes playing in a position that demands you are constantly running up and down the pitch. Players are not machines.

With 7 games in 20 days, one already played, it is something we have to be careful with. The squad will get it's chance and Pochettino has already made it clear he will be playing some of the youngsters in the League Cup tie against Gillingham. Josh Onomah can expact a full game, as can Harry Winks, Cameron-Carter Vickers and Kevin Wimmer with Vincent Jansen up front.

It will be a chance to have a look at new signing Georges-Kevin N'Koudou as well and Pau Lopez will see some time with a match day squad.

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