There is a 4-word sentence that any player is most afraid of hearing in the dressing room. It's not that their contracts are about to expire, or that they can't get a starting spot, but that it's cold and contains enough weight to disrupt their careers. Those 4 words are: His legs have gone. In sports in general and football in particular, it is a statement, a verdict, sometimes an indictment for the end of a career.
Except for the serious injuries that have forced experts to say "His legs have gone", this is the story of older players, from Fabinho, Casemiro to now Mohamed Salah, perhaps Virgil van Dijk. Jamie Carragher was the one who said this directly after Liverpool's 1-4 defeat to PSV in the Champions League.
You watch Van Dijk play, its not him anymore. And Salah's legs were gone," Carragher said. It sounds cruel, especially for those who have taken Liverpool to the top of Europe, but football is always harsh in its own way. Carragher did not say to lower them. On the contrary, the former Liverpool defender repeatedly reiterated that criticizing legends is something no one wants to do. But the truth is that time has caught up with them.
When time changes the color of your legs
With modern football, everything can change so quickly that it stunned the players. Last season, Van Dijk was still a steel shield. Salah still scored 29 goals and assisted 18 times, an efficiency that Carragher called the "all-time season". Then in just a few months, everything turned out like when the switch was turned on.
The most frequently asked question is whether the decline will come so quickly? For Salah, this is even more difficult to explain. Before his 30th birthday, he shared that age is only a formality. He asked his older colleagues and they said that being 30 has a very different feeling, but Salah still confidently replied that he felt fine, because he still enjoyed football, enjoyed life.
But since last season, SkillCorner's data shows Salah running the ball not less, accelerating less. The numbers don't say he's in a sudden decline, but the arrival of coach Arne Slot has changed his role. Tactics require Salah to move smarter rather than more.
In reality, sometimes it is harsh. Any player over 30 years old, just needing to play a few matches below his strength, can easily be labeled as " foot tired" and "kneel weak". Especially when they are slow in situations where they are completely masters. Casemiro is a typical example. A streak of 8 yellow cards in 11 matches (for both Manchester United and Brazil), then being substituted early in the match against Luton Town, caused all criticism to be on his side.
Carragher said he had seen that sign before. Fabinho has also experienced a similar feeling of heaviness. It was Casemiro in the 0-4 loss to Crstal Palace that Carragher added in May 2024 that the players need to leaving football before football leaves you. For Casemiro, Caragher said: "Football has left him".
But then, Casemiro revived. Under the leadership of Ruben Amorim, he has played steadily again, especially in the Brazilian national team. From someone who is considered "done", Casemiro shows the revival that football often gives to those who are strong enough.
The dark side of judgments
Gareth Mc Auley, who has played in the Premier League until the age of 37, believes that the phrase tired legs is like a self-respecting blow. He always takes good care of his body, tracking the data of each training session, but is still assigned an unfounded judgment. He remembered the feeling of wanting to stand up and say: Serve me. But then Mc Auley also admitted that the times were different. That judgment could now come to the 28, 29 year old.
Inside the dressing room, some accepted, some denied. A former retired midfielder, once considered "irreplaceable", has had to face the reality that his legs can no longer catch up with his opponents. It was the other people at the club who felt that the player had become a burden as he moved slowly enough.
Gary Neville is up front. On the first day of 2011 at West Brom, after 71 minutes of struggling to catch up with Jerome Thomas, he knew he had reached the limit. The next morning, he told Sir Alex Ferguson that he would retire. He never played for the Red Devils again.
Sol Camp has another experience. He said his legs not hurt, the problem was just recovery. Campbell stressed that older players are not unable to play football but have lost recovery between matches. 1 match a week is fine, but 4 matches a day 10 will put the body under great pressure. He said that if a coach understands and shares, they will extend their career, otherwise, it is easy to misunderstand and "then your legs".
Scientific perspective
Chris Barnes, a sports data expert who has worked with many big clubs, said that football is full of bored legs-like empty sentences. The most difficult thing for sports scientists is to separate players from the average numbers. Each person is an independent ecosystem.
Data shows that the peak of form usually falls around 26 to 28 years old, but "peak" has different meanings for each position and each body. Not everyone who runs more is better. Barnes takes Blackburn's Morten Gamst Pedersen as an example, who is always leading in runs but is uncertain to be effective. Meanwhile, center back Robert Huth played best when moving less thanks to his smart positioning. The data is not lying, but if the data is misunderstood, people will accidentally lie to the players themselves.
Mc Auley said that he often asked to run 200 meters at a high speed after practice, just to make sure that sports science had no basis to conclude that he had declined. He knew there was a younger player waiting for a replacement, so his will to survive helped him overcome the limit. You cant be left out just because the manager looks at the statistics and says your legs are weak, Mc Auley said.
SkillCorner once published an age-based speed chart for players. Looking at it, you will find the interesting truth: At the age of 33, Kyle Walker is still the fastest person in the group over 30. Jamie Vardy at 38, Ashley Young at 40 is still at a higher pace than the average of young players. This is also enough to refute the prejudice that age is associated with slowness.
But the data is only a part. Any change in tactics, position or coaching can cause the numbers to be distorted. As in Real Madrid's Dani Carvajal, data on the intensity of play in each match, sometimes up and down, reflects his tactical adaptation, not just physical.
Sharing and will
Of course, it is impossible to consider individual statistics. Usually, when an individual is criticized for the team's poor results, it is because many players are playing under their power. So some people may even say that removing Salah is unfair.
Carragher added in his analysis after the game against PSV that Van Dijk and Salah have carried Liverpool many times, and that means now, when both are struggling, others need to step up and shoulder some responsibility.
No matter what happens, it is only a matter of time before the "broken legs" stick is given to another person in his 30s. Only the player's mind and will know how to react.
