Strain on the game

Why are Premier League clubs struggling in Europe this season? In this episode of Strain on the Game , Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb break down why four English clubs crashed out of the Champions League last 16, despite such a strong start to the campaign. With only Liverpool and Arsenal left in the quarter-finals, the conversation turns to fixture overload, player fatigue, lack of recovery time...

In part two of this special with Dave Fevre, the conversation turns to the work fans rarely see: what really happens when a player goes down injured, how decisions are made in those first critical moments, and what the rehab process actually looks like behind the scenes. Drawing on decades of experience across the professional game, Dave explains the pressure of pitch-side assessments, why staying...

In part one of this episode, Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb sit down with one of the most respected figures in elite sports medicine, Dave Fevre. A chartered physiotherapist with more than 30 years at the highest level, Dave has worked with Manchester United’s treble-winning side, Blackburn Rovers, Burnley, Chelsea, Leicester City and Manchester City in the WSL. In this conversation, he looks bac...

In this special episode of Strain on the Game , Stephen Warnock turns the spotlight onto co-host Adrian Lamb — the performance coach whose career has taken him from a farm in Cumbria to some of the biggest environments in world football. Adrian shares the remarkable journey that led him into elite sport, beginning with his upbringing on a working farm next to the Sellafield nuclear plant in the La...

In this special “Meet the Presenters” episode of Strain on the Game , Adrian turns the mic on Stephen Warnock — to unpack the story behind the voice. Stephen and Adrian kick off with a bit of life catch-up (Utah, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur), a few birthday shoutouts… and then get properly stuck into Stephen’s journey: coming through Liverpool’s academy, the influence of iconic youth coaches like Steve H...

his week on Strain on the Game , Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamby Lamb flip the script with a reflective episode — looking back on recent guests and the big themes that keep coming up behind the scenes of elite football. From Paul Brand’s eye-opening look at how analysis has evolved (six-person departments, live-coded training, drones over set plays and half-time tweaks that change games), to the...

Ryan takes Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb inside the 2010 World Cup campaign with New Zealand, revealing the behind-the-scenes chaos that nearly derailed everything. From players forming a literal human conveyor belt for baggage in an airport transfer, to staff decisions that screamed “amateur hour,” Ryan explains how elite performers clash with mediocre structures — and why he ended up effective...

Ryan Nelsen’s football journey is anything but traditional — and that’s exactly why it’s so valuable. In this episode of Strain on the Game , Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb sit down with the former New Zealand captain , Blackburn leader , and ex- Toronto FC head coach to unpack a career built on graft, perspective, and a proper “do it your way” mindset. Ryan takes us from Christchurch United to t...

Former Premier League fullback Luke Young joins Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb to unpack how the fullback role has transformed over the last 10–15 years — from “stop the cross” defending to today’s on-ball creators. Luke gives a brutally honest take on sports science, “red zones,” squad rotation, and why modern fullbacks might be asked to do too much. He also dives into mentality: where his compe...

This episode is Part Two of our in-depth conversation with Paul Brand , continuing our performance analysis series on Strain on the Game . After breaking down the role of a performance analyst in Part One , Paul returns to take us inside his current role at UEFA as Football Intelligence Lead — analysing Champions League and European competition matches, supporting elite technical observers, and sh...

Everyone talks about “data” in football — but very few people really know how it’s used inside a club. In this episode of Strain on the Game , Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb pull back the curtain on one of the Premier League’s most influential (and misunderstood) roles: the performance analyst. They’re joined by Paul Brand , who Stephen and Adrian worked with at Blackburn, before Paul spent 12 ye...

2026 has barely begun, and football is already deep into what can only be described as a managerial bloodbath . In this episode of Strain on the Game , Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb dissect a brutal start to the year that has seen multiple high-profile managers sacked within weeks — some despite recent success. Is this really about results… or something much bigger? From Chelsea and Manchester U...

In this end-of-year review episode, Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb look back at the biggest themes that shaped football in 2025 — and revisit the questions we’ve explored across the season. We break down the long-term impact of the Club World Cup , using real injury data and availability trends to assess whether the tournament is already affecting squads — and whether the second half of the seaso...

It’s Part Two of our Strain on the Game Christmas Special — and this one goes right into the chaos of the festive football calendar : AFCON, alcohol, and what Christmas is really like for players and staff. First up, Stephen and Adrian break down AFCON’s ripple effect across the Premier League: who gets hit hardest, how clubs cope when key starters disappear for weeks, and why it can quietly tilt...

It’s our Strain on the Game Christmas Special , and we’re kicking it off with the bit we didn’t give enough airtime this year: supplements . After Stephen gets hit with a proper dose of “man flu” and calls Adrian for help, the lads dive into why even a “good diet” doesn’t always cover you anymore — from the decline in the nutritional quality of food (and what soil depletion has to do with it), to...

World Cup 2026 is already chaos – and the ball hasn’t even been kicked. In this episode, Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb react to the showbiz World Cup draw in the US: scripted jokes, awkward celebrity cameos, Infantino centre stage, and now a Super Bowl–style halftime show for the World Cup final. They ask a simple question: is all this actually good for the game, or is football being bent out of...

This week on Strain on the Game , it’s officially Job Justification Day for fitness coach Adrian Lamb – as Stephen asks the question every player has had at some point: what’s the point of the warm-up… and why does it take so long? Fresh from an overindulgent Thanksgiving and battling with his Whoop data, Adrian breaks down what an elite warm-up actually does at Premier League and MLS level. He ex...

n this episode of Strain on the Game , Stephen and Adrian dive deep into one of the Premier League’s biggest modern problems: the disappearance of time, patience, and stability for managers. With sackings at record levels and average tenures dropping below 18 months, they explore why the managerial cycle has become so brutal — and what really drives clubs to pull the trigger. From fan pressure and...

This week on Strain on the Game , we’re turning the mic over to you . In our first-ever Ask Me Anything episode, Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb dive into a brilliant mix of questions sent in by listeners covering everything from elite player preparation and recovery routines, to Premier League dressing-room dynamics, training misconceptions, mindset, motivation, and the realities of life inside p...

This is Part Two of our deep dive into elite recovery with Dr. Robin Thorpe — the man who managed player regeneration and performance at Manchester United for a decade. In this episode, we go even deeper behind the scenes of Premier League recovery and uncover what most fans never see : How travel, fixture congestion and European away days affect player readiness The data + monitoring systems that...

This week on Strain on the Game , Stephen Warnock and Adrian Lamb sit down with Dr. Robin Thorpe , one of the world’s leading performance and recovery experts and the former Senior Performance Scientist & Head of Recovery at Manchester United . For a decade (2009–2019), Robin worked directly with the first team under Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes, Ryan Giggs, Louis van Gaal, José Mourinho and...

Ever wondered how Premier League teams plan their training week? It’s not endless 5-a-sides. It’s a calculated build toward peak performance physically, tactically, technically, and psychologically. In this episode, Stephen and Adrian break down Tactical Periodisation the methodology used by elite coaches to structure each day with a specific performance objective: strength, endurance, speed, acti...

This week we sit down with Steve Beharall , CEO of the Newcastle United Foundation , for an open, honest conversation about mental health—and the unique role football clubs play in changing lives far beyond the pitch. Steve shares how the Foundation’s ethos— “talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t” —drives a portfolio of 40+ programmes built on one simple idea: get the right people into the right...

Former England international Stephen Warnock and elite performance coach Adrian Lamb sit down with performance psychologist and mindset expert Jamil Qureshi—whose client list spans Premier League clubs, Ryder Cup winners, F1 drivers, Olympians, and FTSE boardrooms—to unpack the mental edge at the very top. Jamil traces his unlikely route from a £30 pub talk to work with Derren Brown, a golfer who...

The Premier League is facing an injury epidemic — and the numbers are staggering. Last season alone, clubs recorded 593 time-loss injuries , with players missing a combined 2,597 games . The financial hit? More than £255 million in wages paid to injured players — an increase of £70 million on the year before. Hamstring injuries have doubled in the last 21 years, fixture congestion is at breaking p...