The Premier League currently has 196 injuries recorded in just over three months, with Newcastle and Manchester United suffering more than most - so why this many?
Can’t overlook winter World Cup’s impact, that last season just didn’t end add in how competitive pre-season is getting (tours are not hammering a couple of local J-league sides anymore, it’s Arsenal and Utd kicking lumps out of each other!), when is the break? When was pre-season?
Also something I’d add is it’s not just player price, some of the most overworked players are youth products. Look at how much football Gavi and Saka have played last couple years.
Final point is PL related but the number of points needed to win a league now with how competitive the league is all the way down makes rotating players out hard. Sure Man City can rotate between Grealish and Doku, but how many even big sides have a £100m player and a back up £70m player with both happy to be there?
Jose whined about Europa being 2 days ahead of the Derby only to play most of his starters into the ground and refuse to sub anyone out, or give them rest. Proceeded to do absolutely nothing in either games
I see this repeated a lot but it’s not true in reality. Pep and Klopp rotate more than anyone. Having deep benches allow you to do that. Clubs with shallower benches are forced to play their best XI more often.
This is a really important point that people often do not consider.
One thing is to rotate with a squad that is made up of players of lower quality than your starting XI, another thing is to rotate when you have a 100m player on the bench.
Sure you can choose to rotate to protect your players, but it’s perfectly understandable that coaches that are first and foremost judged by results are reluctant to do that if rotation means likely dropping more points during the season.
Most of these make sense. While I think longer pre-seasons would be helpful, describing players as “sedentary” when they come into camp is not true at all. Players are on conditioning schedules during the break now. They may not come in at 100%, but they aren’t starting from anywhere near zero either.
I am also not sure teams are viewing players they need to spend millions acquiring as expendable, and probably are investing quite a bit in avoiding injuries as much as they can (while still running those players out as often as possible).
Oh yeah? Well I’m a genius and have a rebuttal for every single one of your points:
too many games.
They’re being paid lots of money to kick a ball, they should be happy they even get to play at all.
not enough rotation because every player is expensive so you’re not going to rotate out your 100m man when every game is must win.
Why should they be rotated when they earn 100m every week? My boss doesn’t rotate me at my office job.
players are getting more athletic so more forces put into the ground at higher speeds and shorter ground contact times.
They’re being paid to be fit? What’s the problem here?
time off between seasons are way too short. pre seasons are way too short. 4 week preseason to go from sedentary to game speed is nowhere near enough.
When my grandad worked the coal mines, do you think they cared if he had a break? These millionaire diva crybabies that I invest hundreds of hours watching every year need to think of the common person.
generally very mediocre strength and conditioning. which clubs can get away with because you can just buy a healthy player, buy a fast player etc instead of revamping your physical development systems
Maybe they can take the 200m they earn every week and spend it on a trainer that’s actually good at their job!
Makes me sick seeing all the defenders of these overpaid footballers. They get paid more than most will see in their lifetimes, clearly their bodies are different from the rest of ours.
time off between seasons are way too short. pre seasons are way too short. 4 week preseason to go from sedentary to game speed is nowhere near enough.
This point is so true. I follow some american sports and they get an incredible amount of time off compared to footballers. NFL, MLB and NBA get months off whereas footballers get 6-8 weeks at most. Less if there is an international tournament.
Do the players even have long enough of an offseason for them to really be considering “from sedentary” at the beginning of the pre-season? The players who are called up to offseason international tournaments definitely don’t.
too many games.
not enough rotation because every player is expensive.
players are getting more athletic so more forces put into the ground at higher speeds and shorter ground contact times.
time off between seasons are way too short. pre seasons are way too short. 4 week preseason to go from sedentary to game speed is nowhere near enough.
Can’t overlook winter World Cup’s impact, that last season just didn’t end add in how competitive pre-season is getting (tours are not hammering a couple of local J-league sides anymore, it’s Arsenal and Utd kicking lumps out of each other!), when is the break? When was pre-season?
Also something I’d add is it’s not just player price, some of the most overworked players are youth products. Look at how much football Gavi and Saka have played last couple years.
Final point is PL related but the number of points needed to win a league now with how competitive the league is all the way down makes rotating players out hard. Sure Man City can rotate between Grealish and Doku, but how many even big sides have a £100m player and a back up £70m player with both happy to be there?
That is on the clubs. Top clubs have capacity to rotate but refuse to.
Jose whined about Europa being 2 days ahead of the Derby only to play most of his starters into the ground and refuse to sub anyone out, or give them rest. Proceeded to do absolutely nothing in either games
I see this repeated a lot but it’s not true in reality. Pep and Klopp rotate more than anyone. Having deep benches allow you to do that. Clubs with shallower benches are forced to play their best XI more often.
That is actually only partly true, city has one of the smaller squads - though oep rotates alot in his “17” outfield squad
Depth isn’t only a matter of numbers, it’s also a matter of quality.
This is a really important point that people often do not consider.
One thing is to rotate with a squad that is made up of players of lower quality than your starting XI, another thing is to rotate when you have a 100m player on the bench.
Sure you can choose to rotate to protect your players, but it’s perfectly understandable that coaches that are first and foremost judged by results are reluctant to do that if rotation means likely dropping more points during the season.
That I agree with, but remeber that quality also allows you to use players like akanji, rico, stephen very often
Most of these make sense. While I think longer pre-seasons would be helpful, describing players as “sedentary” when they come into camp is not true at all. Players are on conditioning schedules during the break now. They may not come in at 100%, but they aren’t starting from anywhere near zero either.
I am also not sure teams are viewing players they need to spend millions acquiring as expendable, and probably are investing quite a bit in avoiding injuries as much as they can (while still running those players out as often as possible).
Oh yeah? Well I’m a genius and have a rebuttal for every single one of your points:
They’re being paid lots of money to kick a ball, they should be happy they even get to play at all.
Why should they be rotated when they earn 100m every week? My boss doesn’t rotate me at my office job.
They’re being paid to be fit? What’s the problem here?
When my grandad worked the coal mines, do you think they cared if he had a break? These millionaire diva crybabies that I invest hundreds of hours watching every year need to think of the common person.
Maybe they can take the 200m they earn every week and spend it on a trainer that’s actually good at their job!
Makes me sick seeing all the defenders of these overpaid footballers. They get paid more than most will see in their lifetimes, clearly their bodies are different from the rest of ours.
I don’t think strength and conditioning is mediocre in the premier league
You’d be surprised with what goes on at some clubs.
This point is so true. I follow some american sports and they get an incredible amount of time off compared to footballers. NFL, MLB and NBA get months off whereas footballers get 6-8 weeks at most. Less if there is an international tournament.
These points all apply to the seasons before. Why is it now a 15% increase? None of it is an explanation for that.
And I just say this: Why the fuck do these teams have a medical staff, when they aren’t able to to check player health and manage their load?
Do the players even have long enough of an offseason for them to really be considering “from sedentary” at the beginning of the pre-season? The players who are called up to offseason international tournaments definitely don’t.