Too much football over Christmas?

[Sandbach Shrimper]

There's been a lot of talk over the last week about the festive fixture schedule and whether we play too much football in this country, with managers complaining, particularly those from the top Premier League clubs (who ironically have the biggest squads).

I do have some sympathy with them. Four games in the space of just over a week is excessive and it's noticeable how many injuries and 0-0 draws there were in the Premier League over Christmas. I don't go along with this argument that the players are paid tens/hundreds of thousands of pounds every week so they should be able to play twice in three days. Playing that amount of games at such a high level is physically tough however much you're paid.

I don't think we should have a winter break as I think fans enjoy all the football over Christmas and Boxing Day games in particular have become a tradition, and tend to attract big crowds. And at the end of the day, we have bigger leagues so we need to fit these fixtures in somewhere. But I do think we could maybe lose the game in between Boxing Day and New Year, so you'd just have one on Boxing Day and then another around New Year, depending on what day of the week Christmas Day falls. That would give the players a bit more rest and give them some time with their families.

 

[RobM]

It's the spread of fixtures that seems odd. Spurs had one game in a week, others had three.
I doubt the League Cup is valid these days, I know we had our glory day but that was a one-off. Personally I'll go to league and FA cup, the others I'm not bothered about.

 

[southendkid]

I don't go along with this argument that the players are paid tens/hundreds of thousands of pounds every week so they should be able to play twice in three days.

I've never understood that argument either, being paid hundreds of thousands a week does not give you superpowers. Even if you're an athlete your body is not built to be able to play 3 or 4 matches in a week, no matter how hard you try if your body is knackered it isn't going to be able to pull off the things you can normally do. There always seems to be more upsets in the premier league if the big clubs have played Champions League football the Tuesday before because that's the third match in 7 days for most of the players.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Yeah, I agree, I think 3 days in the 10 day period is enough, this year we had one on 23rd Dec, then one on 26th, one on 30th and then one on 1st Jan.

 

[RobM]

"I've never understood that argument either, being paid hundreds of thousands a week does not give you superpowers"

That's true but tennis players manage.

 

[southendkid]

"I've never understood that argument either, being paid hundreds of thousands a week does not give you superpowers"

That's true but tennis players manage.

Yes but tennis players can't substitute someone in for a match so that the player can have a break, so when it comes to the final both players have (usually) been through similar amounts of exhaustion during the week. If you play tired it doesn't mean you're unable to play at all, it means you'll be more sluggish than usual and won't be playing as well. If the other player will also be playing at 80-85% of their best because of fatigue it doesn't really matter, it's still a level playing field. Sometimes one player gets to the final basically winning each match in straight sets, in which case pundits usually predict he'll win the final because he'll be sharper than his opponent since he hasn't had a long match to tire him out.

In football if one side gives the first team a rest for a mid week game and the other team doesn't then come Saturday the side that rested the first team is going to be playing at 100% whilst the other team will be playing at 90%, which gives the team playing at 100% a big advantage.

 

[londonblue]

There's been a lot of talk over the last week about the festive fixture schedule and whether we play too much football in this country, with managers complaining, particularly those from the top Premier League clubs (who ironically have the biggest squads).

I do have some sympathy with them. Four games in the space of just over a week is excessive and it's noticeable how many injuries and 0-0 draws there were in the Premier League over Christmas. I don't go along with this argument that the players are paid tens/hundreds of thousands of pounds every week so they should be able to play twice in three days. Playing that amount of games at such a high level is physically tough however much you're paid.

I don't think we should have a winter break as I think fans enjoy all the football over Christmas and Boxing Day games in particular have become a tradition, and tend to attract big crowds. And at the end of the day, we have bigger leagues so we need to fit these fixtures in somewhere. But I do think we could maybe lose the game in between Boxing Day and New Year, so you'd just have one on Boxing Day and then another around New Year, depending on what day of the week Christmas Day falls. That would give the players a bit more rest and give them some time with their families.

I happen to agree with you that just because players are well played they should be able to play 4 games in about 10 days without getting injured. Just because they're well played doesn't mean they can defy the laws of nature.

But it is worth pointing out that the size of the squad is actually a red herring in this argument since each PL team has to name a 25 man squad before the season starts. All PL teams therefore have the same size squad. The difference is in the strength of the squad.

 

[londonblue]

"I've never understood that argument either, being paid hundreds of thousands a week does not give you superpowers"

That's true but tennis players manage.

The only tennis players that affects are the ones that go deep into a tournament, i.e. the top players. The players who will take two weeks off after a tournament.

Moreover, they don't manage. Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and a whole host of others have missed substantial periods in recent years.

 

[AndyT]

Simple solution.

Get rid of all the International breaks and spread the fixtures over the season more evenly.

Play your International qualifiers during the summer in smaller groups.

 

[TomMills]

Simple solution.

Get rid of all the International breaks and spread the fixtures over the spanishgrandprixclub evenly.

Play your International qualifiers during the summer in smaller groups.

Actually a great idea!

 

[ESG]

Simple solution.

Get rid of all the International breaks and spread the fixtures over the season more evenly.

Play your International qualifiers during the summer in smaller groups.

Spot on mate and as said previously dump the league cup.......it's had it day!:thumbsup:

 

[AndyT]

I'd re-vamp the League Cup and combine it with the Check-A-Trade, still having a Group Stage but including Championship and lower Premier Clubs in it.

I'd remove the Premier clubs playing in Europe from the competition.

So, potentially, you could have a Leage Cup group of say :-

West Ham
QPR
Southend
Charlton
Colchester

Top two go into the knockout stages. The Premier clubs could then choose if they want to stick their Under 23's out or not. It'd be their call.

Just as an example.

 

[ESG]

I'd re-vamp the League Cup and combine it with the Check-A-Trade, still having a Group Stage but including Championship and lower Premier Clubs in it.

I'd remove the Premier clubs playing in Europe from the competition.

So, potentially, you could have a Leage Cup group of say :-

West Ham
QPR
Southend
Charlton
Colchester

Top two go into the knockout stages. The Premier clubs could then choose if they want to stick their Under 23's out or not. It'd be their call.

Just as an example.

I'm liking that as long we don't have to go to the HMRC stadium:nope: