Festive season fixtures and injuries.

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cleavers

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Pep intimated this afternoon that over 50 PL have been injured over the festive period, I'm sure he'll know the stats so I doubt he's making it up, but if true its damning indictment of our fixtures over this period really, to have teams playing twice inside 48 hours is ridiculous, and its little wonder that the managers/coaches are complaining about it.

Villa have lost 2 for the season from 1 game, kane looks to be out for a while too, is it time the FA looked at reducing the fixtures over the festive season ? Its not just the 2 weeks of christmas, we, united, leicester and villa all have 7 games in January on top of that, possibly 8 if we all progress in the FAC.
 
Yes. there should be no football from weekend of December 20th-ish until the FAC 3rd round.
 
January sees many of us count the cost of Christmas.

There are those who have spent too much, others who have eaten too much and then there are Premier League bosses generally frustrated by playing too much.

Some managers felt four games in 12 days was "absurd" and one club has been hit by injuries which look set to keep some of their players out for around a combined 500 days.

In all, 74 players picked up anything from a niggle to a serious injury as most teams played four fixtures between 21 December and 2 January. That means around six Premier League players were injured every 24 hours across the 13-day period.

https://ghanasoccernet.com/premier-league-fixture-congestion-absurd-as-teams-count-christmas-cost

I saw it on sky as well

I don't know who played 4 games in 12 days,try 3 in 6 days!
 
74 players injured in 17 days I think I read before, and that only includes players who have an expected absence length, still some unconfirmed so could be higher.

Medically it's nonsense to play so frequently, the demands on their bodies over this period are excessive and increase injury risk significantly. I truly can foresee a situation in the near future where a star gets injured and then he and the club look at the FA and TV companies for compensation. Being snidey gits like they were and ensuring certain teams had less than 46 hours between kick offs goes directly against the FA's own statement of principles. Namely:

5 Compete Fairly
It is the policy of the Premier League to conduct all of our business in an honest and ethical manner.

6 Health and Safety
We are committed to managing health and safety effectively to protect our employees and other persons with whom we interact. The Premier League Board recognises that it has a legal duty of care towards protecting the health and safety of its employees and others who may be affected by the company’s activities, and that managing health and safety is a business-critical function.

Source: https://www.premierleague.com/about/statement-of-principles

It also conveniently shifts blame from them to the clubs, making it their choice to risk player safety against getting results.

That said, Klopp claiming he is down to just 12 senior players is just bull to gain sympathy. He's not at all,unless you include players not injured but they'd quite like to rest.

He also claimed that too many games over Christmas is possibly leading to more arguments and divorce in the UK. Personally, if I hadn't had been able to sneak off to watch the footy a few times this past fortnight I think I'd have been driven crazy, although VAR tried it's best to achieve that regardless.
 
quiet_riot said:
Yes. there should be no football from weekend of December 20th-ish until the FAC 3rd round.
Click to expand...
I totally disagree with that
Us supporters get properly dicked about all season with fixtures being swapped around, so IMO the festive period is a time when football should be giving back to supporters
However we all want to see the best players playing, so it should be a maximum of two games in 72 hours. Two in 48, shouldn't be happening
 
dickie davies said:
I totally disagree with that
Us supporters get properly dicked about all season with fixtures being swapped around, so IMO the festive period is a time when football should be giving back to supporters
However we all want to see the best players playing, so it should be a maximum of two games in 72 hours. Two in 48, shouldn't be happening
Click to expand...

I'm coming at it totally from a selfish POV, but in between working, the festivities, family etc etc, football is (unfortunately) a PITA over Xmas. I'd be quite happy for a fortnight's break.
 
Thank heaven it's not quite as bad as the immediate post -war period. In 1946, City played Plymouth Argyle in Div Two on Xmas Day, got the train down to Plymouth immediately after the match and played them down in Devon on Boxing Day, came back and played Leicester two days later at Maine Road on the 28th. Three games in four days, including all that travel. City won all three games, though.

Having said that, I'm sure the game wasn't played at the frenetic pace of today's football. And yes, what we are doing now is ridiculous. It has to change.

Yes, before anyone queries the above, trains did run on Christmas Day in 1946.
 
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