TOP level footballers play too many games.
It’s a controversial statement and debate surrounding it has been raging in the footballing world for some time now.
Some of the most high-profile coaches in world football, namely German duo Thomas Tuchel and Jurgen Klopp, have been adamantly pushing this narrative for years.
Bayern boss Tuchel stated after the latest international break that “the situation is at the limit, maybe even over the limit” in regard to player welfare.
They claim that players are getting injured more often, are too fatigued to perform at their best, and that it’s all due to UEFA’s insistence on playing more games to make more money.
It is true that, compared to eras long gone, modern players at the top of the pyramid have more work to do.
With the creation of the UEFA Nations League, there are more international games.
With the Champions League’s forthcoming format change, an added two more games will be played.
For the best players in the world, those who are so integral to a team’s success that they start almost every game, make every international squad and go deep into European competitions, so much football can be a massive strain on their bodies.
In the eight-month long football season, players like these can make upwards of 60 appearances.
When you factor in the fact that we’ve just come through a World Cup year, some of those players have even more minutes in their banks.
That’s thousands of minutes of running up and down the pitch at a high intensity. Footballers run an average of around 10km per match, during which they sprint, jog, get tackled, jump, go to ground etc.
This of course varies by position. Centre backs move the least of outfield players, midfielders move the most. In a contact sport with so much running, the more you play the more you run, and the more likely you are to get injured.
But a good point to bring up is that modern players receive far better training and medical treatment than players of old.
Training sessions are more intense and streamlined than ever, players diets are monitored more than ever, you don’t see players smoking, taking drugs or drinking alcohol during the season as was standard just a few decades ago.
They’re fitter, and a testament to that is the number of players lasting into their late 30s or early 40s at the top of the game.
If legends like Maradona and Pele were alive today in the shape they were in during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, they simply wouldn’t be able to play every week like modern pros do.
But no matter how well trained you are, how perfectly sculpted your body is to play the beautiful game, probability does not lie. There is always a chance of injury when you play any sport.
Every match is a dice roll, with one side resulting in a trip to the treatment room.
And every time that dice is rolled, the chance of landing on that unlucky number gets more and more likely.
Luck is cruel, some players like Werder Bremen’s Naby Keita or Chelsea’s Reece James could tell you all about it. So why toy with luck?
To keep the beautiful game beautiful, the best need to be at their best.
Managers like Klopp and Tuchel are right that these players who play every game can’t do that anymore as they are too tired or pick up too many knocks. But there’s another way for them to play less games than cancelling them outright. Just give someone else a chance.
That plucky youngster from the academy who spends every matchday on the bench or in the stands, give them a shot more often.
Perhaps Tuchel is right that a limit has been passed on how many games are played.
They shouldn’t add any more no matter how much more money they are likely to make.
But so many players spend their weekends simply watching. Maybe the silver lining in the chaotic calendar is giving them a chance.
