Mona Nemmer, the new Head of Nutrition at Liverpool FC has drawn up specific diet recommendations for the entire Liverpool FC team. They depend not just on the results of various tests — taking into account body fat composition, metabolic rates and the rest — but things like nationality, and position, too.
“There are different energy levels depending on where you play on the pitch,” she said. “Goalkeepers do not run as much as midfielders. And then Brazilians, say, have a different breakfast culture to the English. Everything is broken down on different cultures, body types, positions. We have players who focus more on protein, and ones who need different types of minerals and electrolytes.”
Her emphasis is on variety, and accessibility. “It is no good telling them to eat apple, some golden raisins and oats for breakfast if they cannot find them,” she said. The canteen now, she said, has “the feel of a marketplace.” The players can pick and choose what they want — as they do, for salads and juices — and Nemmer can be confident no choice is a bad one.
She will tweak her menus, depending on the time of season, or even on the number of games on the schedule. Nemmer receives Klopp’s training schedules in advance; she is kept up-to-date with bulletins from the club’s doctors, its physiotherapists, its fitness coaches, even its psychologists. Injured players are given different recommendations from those trying to regain fitness on the training field, or those enduring a period out of the team. It is all informal: quick chats are considered more effective than summons to her office; convenient apps preferred to long questionnaires.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Nemmer has changed habits. Instead of a candy pick-me-up at halftime, Lallana, Milner and Jordan Henderson now have a slug of apple juice laced with caffeine.
Source: NY Times