There is definetly something to the game shape deal.
I am the Japan U21 coach and i played china last week. Everyone on the roster had strong or better game shape after one week.
I noticed that many of them were played all 48 mins one game, than sat the rest of the week.
I also had nearly everyone on my team fall between 48+ and 80 mins and im still working with mostly respectables.
And one guy on the u21 team played his guard 90+ mins and he popped to strong from average.
So it looks like to me there are 2 (maybe 3) windows. What those windows are? I have no idea. But maybe a low min hit (48 - 60ish) maybe and a high min hit (80ish - 92ish). I cant quite figure it out.
Until now, ive gotten by keep players between 48 and 80 mins, but its pretty clear that isnt working this season.
Somebody let me a hold a no. 2 pencil cause they testin' me.