Striker of the Screamers Joel Pohjanpalo said directly in the summer that “there is no sense in that pace of matches”, when four Nations League matches were played after the club football season.
Won the championships of the English, Spanish and German leagues and the Champions League as a head coach Pep Guardiola uploaded that Uefa and Fifa “kill” players with inadequate recovery times.
Guardiola In the story of ESPN (you will switch to another service) joined by the Belgian stars, Real Madrid Thibaut Courtois and Manchester City Kevin De Bruyne.
The previous football seasons were mixed up by the corona pandemic. The game jams have spoken even now, when the soccer calendar is exceptional due to the World Cup in November-December.
Among Europe’s major leagues, the English Premier League returns from its break on Boxing Day, eight days after the World Cup final. Also in France and Spain it will continue before the new year, in Italy 4.1. and in the German Bundesliga, known for its winter break, on 20.1.
“Not as massive a problem as it is made out to be”
Fifpro, the international football players’ association published (you are moving to another service) in the spring of a poll, the result of which was, in summary, that professional players support new rules that would deal with match congestion and the burden of travel.
In the survey, 82 percent of the performance experts reported that they had seen overload causing mental health problems for players. 88 percent felt that the number of games was too much.
The number and risks of injuries are usually brought to the fore first. However, the latest research data does not support the claim of an increase in the number of injuries, says a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Sports Science at the University of Jyväskylä Eero Savolainen.
– Last year, a study was published, an 18-year follow-up of more than 3,000 players from Europe’s top leagues. The number of injuries has decreased by a couple of percent. It supports the view that even though the level is rising and the physical demands are increasing, the support measures have remained even ahead of the mark.
So is the concern of Guardiola and his partners completely exaggerated?
– Players are people and there is more to life than practicing. It’s not humane if the national team games start after the end of the league season, and then it’s only a week before the club season.
– I understand the concern, and it is supported by the surveys of the players’ associations. From a purely research point of view, this is a problem, but not as massive as it is made out to be.
To summarize, we can say that the total number of injuries has not increased, but based on the statements of the players, the limits of mental endurance have been reached, even exceeded. The expectations for the performances of the hugely earning players are high in every match. Tuning yourself to the top level from game to game is mentally taxing.
On the other hand, views have been expressed in the public that the largest number of games only concern a fraction of the top players whose teams advance far in various competitions.
The biggest problem is the match congestion
Match congestion is a problem in terms of player endurance and injuries. This usually means when there are less than five days between matches.
– The number of injuries that occur in matches increases during match rush. Almost all studies supported it, Savolainen says about a recent research review.
– What was also interesting, injuries that occur during the rush of matches can be dealt with by fewer absence days. On average, there are more injuries, but they are less serious, Savolainen continues.
In the fall of 2021, it was reported that more and more players are aiming for seasons of more than 60 matches.
Let’s take three examples.
Tottenham’s goalkeeper clocked the most minutes of the field players in the Premier League last season Harry Kane. In addition, he played no fewer than 20 international matches in the English national team from summer 2021 to summer 2022. Kane had 70 matches in just over a year.
Virgil van Dijk played a total of 7,597 minutes from July 2021 to October 2022 – 84 full matches.
Having played in the Spanish European Championship and Olympic teams With Mikel Oyarzabal was According to ESPN (you will be transferred to another service) only an eight-day vacation in summer 2021.
1,055 players from Europe’s four biggest leagues participated in Fifpro’s survey. 55 percent of them felt that they had been injured in their career due to overload, and half said that the training season leading up to the season had to be shortened.
The lack of training time is a multifactorial problem
According to research, clubs’ too short training periods, pre-seasons, increase the risk of injury.
On the other hand, Guardiola and his partners have received criticism that they cheat on the number of games in order to pursue the financial and sporting interests of their clubs.
Piloted Liverpool to Premier League and Champions League victories Jurgen Klopp complained about the excessive number of national team games, calling the Nations League “the most ridiculous idea in football”.
Also an expert in the physical training of the Football Association Joni Ruuskanen states that it is difficult to draw conclusions about the risk of injury from the number of games. Above all, he highlights the effect of the number of games on training opportunities.
– Football has proven to speed up quite a lot in the last decades. Those who follow football like that the game is speeding up and becoming more entertaining. If the number of games increases, it can slow down the development.
– Training should improve the players’ performance and affect the game. It is not possible if the game numbers swell.
You could think that the direction of development that Ruuskanen has set will increase the power of the richest and biggest clubs. Especially when the rule of five changes seems to be taking hold.
– Does this lead to the need to assemble bigger and bigger assemblies? There must be enough quality players so that they can be recycled in meaningful games, Ruuskanen thinks.
However, the situation is balanced by the fact that there are usually the most players from the biggest clubs on the national teams’ trip, while others can rest and train.
What is a “reasonable amount”?
What would be an appropriate number of matches? How does Kane’s 70 matches a year sound?
In Savolainen’s opinion, it is not possible to give an unequivocal answer, but the most important thing is whether the player’s background enables the load.
– Lionel Messi has been playing these amounts for 15 years. If a player from Finland goes to a series, where there will suddenly be series games and European games, as well as national team games, is the training background such that it enables the load?
– If the season is 40 weeks, 60 games are reasonable. In terms of the players’ physical and mental recovery, it would be important to have at least 2-3 weeks of Huili and a good pre-season.
The argument will continue.
The players’ association demands a reduction in national team windows due to, for example, travel stress. Club teams want to hold on to their advantages and the performance of their players. Fifa wants to increase its sources of income.
Most recently, at the time of the FIFA World Cup, the president of Fifa Gianni Infantino announced the increase of the World Cup tournament for club teams to 32 teams, which caused a knock-out from the direction of the Premier League.
Reporter for ESPN Gabriele Marcotti only saw one (switch to another service) solution: mandatory rest periods should be imposed on players like truck drivers.
So a rule should be created to limit players’ playing during match rush or the number of games per year. Marcotti admitted that this is not a foolproof idea either, but would lead to a dispute, for example, about whether a player rests in his club or national team.