A couple of years back Klopp was one of the most vocal advocates for the change from 3 subs per game to 5 subs per game and people constantly ridiculed him for it. Turns out that one of the best managers of the modern era knows more about football, injuries and player fatigue than a bunch of random people on social media who haven't played Sunday League in 4 years
@@teguhlg I don't mind 5 since there doesn't seem to be a limit as to how many games are going to be played (and how long), it's only going to get worse imo. 5 is necessary.
My grandma always said “if you don’t make time to rest and recover your body will automatically do it for you, and you don’t want that”. I guess this applies to athletes as well, way too many games being played!
This is what worries me most about Jude Bellingham. Kid is fantastic, but he's playing an insane amount of minutes compared to players 15-20 years ago at his age, and I'd like to see him still playing and fully healthy when he's 25, 27, 29.
@@xRyqn give time to others and make them like Bellingham, it's not like he is only person on the real madrid team to do it, touchemeni, camavinga, fede all are capable, you guys are just putting too much pressure on one guy and then you will complain
Lmao but you guys are the same NPCs that will get angry at the mention of a Super League which is better for the players. I literally a video about this
@@acai72 not advertising I just find it so appropriate because I made it in response to all the bot TH-camrs crying about the Super League. Cringe ass people saying it’s concerning as if you actually care lmaooo
@@BallersFC777 The super league is a CLOSED league, the purpose of that league is money driven. It’s plain GREEDY from any owner who supports it. We can see it from a mile away. And you said that players can benefit from it? What is your argument? How can the super league benefit other smaller clubs? It doesn’t. It’s a closed where all money generated goes to the invited clubs. Plain GREED
Had a season ticket at United as a kid, during SAF's reign, back when I was too young to appreciate what I was witnessing. Recently got back into football after years of not paying attention, and your channel has been a great source of information and insight as to the current state of the game. Always a great watch!
uefa and fifa is killing the football, super league will be governed by the club playing, if any club would break idk FFP, they would be punished because it instead of just getting a slap on the wrist. No more UEFA monopoly, perez is a genius when it comes bo buisness@@FootballIconic, and Im a barca fan, and I wish I FCB had him instead of whatever the f*ck is now in charge of the club post bartomeu era
also, superleague allows clubs to play in their domestic leagues and tournaments@@FootballIconic. English league isnt super league, its just in money, nothing else
Sadly the majority of clubs will never have the luxury of being able to do that while remaining competitive. The only possible answer I could think of is forcing every team to register/play a certain number of youth players to level it out a bit, but that's inherently not fair when you consider the discrepancy between youth setups between various clubs.
Fun fact: Klopp this season has used the most subs out of any manager in the premier league and has benefitted less injuries Same manager people ridiculed for wanting more subs and less matches Look how he's treated youth prospects to Unlike Barcelona you won't find a 18 year old starting week in week out even when their ability can demand it (Stefan Bajetic) look at Quansa, 20 years old who came out of nowhere when he could of played earlier but for his career and the long term health of the club he didn't
Klopp is a very smart man and he genuinely cares about his players, even outside the field, he knows that if he abuses of them by playing them game after game they won’t last or worse they will be more likely to suffer bad injuries like Gavi!!
Liverpool have had loads of injuries, just not as bad as before. bajcetic is not playing because he's been injured all season because he was overplayed last season.
Its not like barcelona has much of a choice, now with Gundogan and Fermin Pedri can rest more, but with our starters getting injured all the time there is little choice but to play the academy players if we want to win anything this year
Klopps not special in this regard. Pep has been doing this with youth talent since he joined city. He also rotates his players more than any other manager. Its a no brained when it comes to longevity and injury risk reduction, then in the long run the players are happier fitter and will play so much better.
Saka has been playing through a knock as well during the last few weeks. I’m very concerned when it comes to the players welfare and treatment, especially players like Saka that get fouled constantly.
@@JASPADIGHOST I do have my concerns with that as well. I would have liked to seen Nelson get given at least a couple games where he starts to really see if he is good enough and allow Saka to rest.
It’s such a tough balance. There’s insane pressure to win every week now for Arteta and Arsenal since the club has been so starved of silverware in the last couple of decades, so no wonder he wants his best players to play every game is possible. It’s clear the squad still needs to be built out more and it takes many seasons to fully build out a deep squad (and that’s if you’re a rich club, it’s next to impossible for any other club to do this since they have to keep selling their best players). I’m not saying Arteta is doing this intentionally to harm a player like Saka of course not, but think of other smaller clubs that know that they’ll probably lose their talented young player at some point, what incentive is there for them to preserve their longevity if it won’t even be at their club? It’s a sad reality that money rules all in football
@@mattanderson8575 Yeah I agree, I just would like to see Arteta providing few more games to other players to allow for us to see if they’re really capable while simultaneously allowing the already proven top quality players to rest.
Basketball in the US has the same issue, they have kids playing so many games so early on in their life that the players eventually burn out physically in the early to mid 20s and become injury prone like crazy.
@@Stuck_in_the_USBaseball ?!? Are you serious my man ?🤣 Baseball is a low intensity sport unlike football. Baseball players basically sit in field to wait to catch a routine fly ball.😅
It's not just football where the increasing schedule is an issue. To give a different example, in Formula 1 there have been concerns for a few years now about the increasing number of races on the calendar (2024 is set to have a record 24 races), and the effect that it has on team personnel especially, not just the drivers. For example, constantly travelling around the world, adjusting to different timezones, spending the vast majority of the year away from their families, possible burnout and the fact that it is all somewhat at odds with the committment reducing the sport's carbon footprint! One solution which I think some teams might have already implemented is to rotate crews, but I think that can only go so far. And the calendar could be structured a lot better. For example, last season's final phase of the season was made up of five races in six weeks: a triple header of the US GP in Texas, the Mexican GP in Mexico City and the Brazilian GP in Sao Paulo, then a week off, then Las Vegas and then the following week we finished off in Abu Dhabi! Earlier in the season we went from Azerbaijan to Miami in consecutive weeks as well. And that's without mentioning the possible product dilution effect.
F1 don't care about fans, team personnel or the environment. They only care about making as much profit as possible. These issues won't be fixed unless it hurts F1 where it hurts most. Their waller. Same goes for Football.
@@Justanotherlad789 You will never fix that under capitalism. Even if a large amount of fans don't like that, unless you can get millions of people to act like a hive mind and coordinate to do what isn't profitable for a business, like choosing not to participate in a sporting event to send a message, it's a pipe dream.
The players are more than happy to grumble a bit then accept the money to play. Anyway, FIFA are responsible for just a few competitions accounting for what, 10-15% of total games played? Why don't the leagues reduce their number of games? Serie A with 20 teams makes no sense for example. Why are pointless competitions like Carabao still happening?
Klopp is a manager with a degree in Sports Science and people called his concern about all players not just his moaning. He was very vocal about the 5 subs and a longer winter break which has been implemented. UEFA and FIFA only care about money. The Nationa League needs to be looked at and we don’t need to change and add games. Players not being included in these kids of decisions is weird.
Wtf are you talking about? Why would UEFA and FIFA care about the players? The players are not their assets, they are the clubs’ assets. The clubs are the ones who’s assets (players) are going to be damaged not UEFA’s or FIFA’s. They own no assets/players so they can just add more teams to their competitions, almost like printing money. Now do you see why elite teams want to create a Super League? I made a video on this lol
Nobody is denying Klopp credibility when they make arguments against his. It doesn't matter that he has degrees in sports science. There will be 10s of people at every club with degrees that are capable of that insight. The problem with your argument is the huge gulf in finance between top 6 clubs, such as Liverpool and smaller clubs. With the inequality, Liverpool is able to invest more into depth in comparison to smaller clubs. Increasing the number of available subs allows for better utility from a big clubs endless depth. As a result, larger clubs have another advantage against smaller clubs added on.
this video reminded me that here in brazil, even teams that are fighting to not be relegated could play up to 65+ games a season wich is crazy, is there other leagues around the world that is normal to play that many games a season?
With the investiments that the City Group is giving to Bahia, I'm concerned that soon they're going to be playing 80+ games/season since they'll be able to get into latter stages of cup competitions more consistently and the fact that North/Northeast teams play even more games than teams from other regions. The amount of matches in Brazil has to decrease.
I’m from Brazil and I disagree. Brasillian league is more like 10, or 12th, dudes play so slow, quality isn’t there like it used to be. It’s rough to watch now adays
That's actually around the number of games some youth teams in the US are playing these days. There's a belief that if you want to be a professional or even university level player it is not good enough just to play with your friends or for the local park's team- parents are told their kids have to play for "elite" traveling teams year-round.
Great shout, Tinashe. Unfortunately, the pyramid driving these increases in schedule couldn't care less about the results of any match or league or player fitness. Their intent is to increase revenue in the pyramid as the outcomes of matches/leagues/cups don't actually affect this. If you schedule more matches, people will buy the tickets and that's why this inertia isn't going to change direction anytime soon, if ever.
Nearly every sport is dealing with this. NBA chose to deal with it with Load management, basically making players rest in some games so they don’t play back to back. In the NFL( American Football) running backs and quarterbacks are getting inured mire often as well. Here in football virtually in any league has countless players out. No one is actually tackling the issue, players are playing too many games. New UCL, New World Cup is more games. but in this modern age players have been playing too many games since they were kids wayyy more than older players. From little league, to youth leagues, school leagues, academy leagues. It’s too much, too much wear and tear on the body. Take Hazard for example he’s been playing since 6 or 8, that’s more than 20 years of playing, running, hitting. It’s a lot, the body has to give. Jimmyhighroller has a better video on TH-cam about it We have to decrease the amount of games in the big leagues yes but also when the kids are young. This is only gonna get worse if we don’t reduce games.
The NBA revised load management though. Now you can’t rest no more than 1 star player per game and all star players must be available for nationally televised games. It’s bad everywhere. Though The nba I can agree with as there were teams abusing it.
@@kayseeday yes the way they abused it was honestly disingenuous. Imagine paying full price tickets to see your favorite team or player and that teams superstars are sitting out. But basketball injuries are inevitable, since preteen kids have been playing competitively, AAU, high school and college. It’s a lot, It’s a no brainer why there’s a lot of injuries. Too much mileage.
@@kayseeday The NFL has 17 games if I’m not mistaken? So that means 1 game per week. I believe they hit the jackpot. They don’t need to add more games. So I can see why you don’t hear players taking a load management. The NBA on the other hand has 82 games for whatever reason even though they can decrease it to 58 games (If every team plays each other 2 times) and still be enough I can guarantee the likelihood of players load managing will decrease.
It’s gotta be on managers and players to not play every game. Stats like Saka and Pedri playing a million games in a row is going to hurt them later in their careers
Thanks for covering this. I often see this discussion brought up time and time again but the clubs themselves don't want to take care of their players and neither the national teams so there ends up being this endless standoff where clubs complain about international games and travel taking a toll but then the clubs themselves also then don't take a stance to load manage their own players until it's too late coz they'll always choose the bag rather than stand up to the governing bodies and FAs even recently with Barça having to fulfill a financial obligation playing a friendly in America 24hrs after their last la liga game before the winter break 🤦🏿♂️ so much puzzling decision making across the board.
This is the dumbest comment. The clubs want to create a Super League, which one of its positive effects would be a decrease in games for players, but greedy UEFA and FIFA are trying to block it, and peasants are supposed to it because they haven’t grown up yet and don’t know how the world works. Clubs especially in the Prem can’t afford to load manage players because the stakes are higher than ever. Teams everywhere are getting better, “oil” money is propping up new clubs, and player prices are through the roof. I’m the Prem Spurs made it a Big 5 now Newcastle and Aston Villa have made it a Big 7. Super League teams/managers want to protect their assets (players) but can’t due to how high the stakes are. Right now Newcastle is looking to sack Eddie Howe😂. Exactly, the same manager that got them to their first CL and a 3rd place finish just last year is on the hot seat 6 months later
If i have watched more than 10 videos of any channel who regularly uploads, i just subscribe. We as viewers don't lose anything but it helps them alot.
There have been a change in how we assess younger players. Earlier an 18-22 year old prodigy would be played as a rotative player and is supposed to perform whenever called to action. However, right now they are expected to play week in week out at the best of their potential
Another thing for Pedri, in almost all of his games of that year, he was the player who ran the most kilometers. I've never seen a machine like him. Of course the machine broke. Then there the serious health problems - remember Eriksen? He survived. A lot of players unfortunately didn't. More games lead to other problems - player train less. Football is learned more by training than by playing. So too many games is not beneficial for the quality of the game. More games means also lower stakes. I like the Bundesliga with their 18 team, because with the exception of Bayern, every team is fighting for something in the very last round. The only positive thing about having many games in the season is that the younger players should have more playing time. Yet, when Klopp sent the academy players to play a secondary tournament, he got slammed.
Great insights dude. I remember Mourinho also stating the December period of games in the prem were doing damage to the league and players due to injuries. They could increase player limits per team for the super league but i doubt the governing bodies would approve of this... Nevermind the FFP
Injury’s are getting out of hand Bayern Players were missing 35 Days on average because of Injuries this season that’s wild ant BTW Thanks for your vid’s please try to talk a bit more about German Football it’s pretty good and Many people underrate it
Limit the number of games any given player can play per season. Teams should make use of the bulk of their squads. Bench players need more pitch time for their careers and self worth. Everyone in you named squad should get a minimum number of games per season. Also prevents teams hogging players and ruining careers. Give more people time to shine. It's like how after covid layoffs, those who managed to keep their jobs are just expected to perpetually carry the added work load long after "normality". Share the pie, many hands make the lights work
limit fifa and uefa adding games in so that they can take the money (FOR NO OUTLAY!). if it all went back to football then fair enough, but a lot disappears for administration costs........i would expect.
I really like the stat I saw a couple of years ago about an increased in max effort sprints. Can't remember the exakt figures but for some positions the amount of sprints have doubled since 2005 ish. Max sprints are a major player in muscle injuries, especially later in games. Wonder what an extra 10 min per game adds ...
Eventually clubs will need to have literally two teams to function. Honestly I don't see a reality where the organisers reduce the number of games as they are the ones introducing all these additional matches. If anything one of two things will happen 1 - A new rule is introduced which give clubs a maximum number of times a player can play a season. Forcing teams to properly rotate a squad and not rely on the same couple of players to save them. Doubt this as that requires proactive action 2 - A big club has enough depth so its like they've built two teams, wins a lot and its down to having available players whereas everyone else is suffering from injured squads
@@IncredibleMet The problem with Chelsea isn't the amount of players but the quality of them. You have a ton of potential but no one who has already made it. Cut your team in half and you'd be doing even worse. Like bro, you have an entire team on your injury list. Plus no one understands what your manager is trying to do...
@@janthecoo4964 sort of. With more games it gives smaller teams more places to get in and compete. Honestly the change benefits smaller teams as larger teams like City, Madrid, PSG, Liverpool, Bayern, etc. are expected to compete for everything which will tire them out or force them to drop competitions to focus on winning the largest honours. Smaller teams aren't able to compete for everything and aren't expected to go far in all comps so they can instead focus on one or two and snag a trophy the larger teams have dropped out of. For example in the English league, City might just give up on the EFL cup and FA cup if they plan to win the prem and champions league. Liverpool and Arsenal may do the same which opens the door for smaller teams or teams that are having off seasons to win a trophy they normally wouldn't be able to compete for
@@colonelcider8292 not having the depth of larger teams means smaller teams need to sacrifice stuff as well. and bigger teams will still earn more through tv revenue and merch from these extra competitions despite not showing their best side
Happy new year to my favourite football channel! Obviously, there is a small number of people who are profiting off of more games. Having 48 teams in the World Cup is not going to increase the quality of the matches now, is it? They don't care about the players, because if one drops out, there are dozens who want to take his place. It's extremely unfortunate and I am very glad you and Jürgen Klopp are taking this seriously - how does the media react? I'm the kind of person who puts athlete welfare above profit but then again, I'm not a club owner. I feel this way about all athletes in all sports. Thank you very much for the video! 🙏
The World Cup *itself* is a different situation, as the maximum number of games will go from 7 to 8. To be honest, I like the idea of having 48 nations as I expect to see _all the best players_ in the World Cup - that is, no more World Cups without Litmanen, George Weah, Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona, Ian Rush, and many more.... THAT SAID, of course that the SINGLE REASON for increasing the number of nations from 32 to 48 is $$$$$, hands down... Nonetheless, after 41 years living this terrible world, what I see is that $$$$ moves 95% of things I see everyday...
Its honestly really frustrating that the game seems to be being continuously milked for more money at the expense of the players. An increasing fixture list, and the injuries that follow it can only really be dealt with by increasing the size of the squads, which means you see less of your favourite players, and that the already slim chance for smaller clubs to break through and be competitive will be even slimmer.
I think it's relevant that teams should protect their young players and decide when not to play them and be way more pragmatic in managing squads. Otherwise they should furiously fight against game congestion. The way Pep has managed Phil Foden (when everyone else thinks he should play every single game) will definitely extend Phil's career, while other guys his age are been overworked and don't play because they are injured and many times requiring surgery and recovery.
Unless players from each league form some kind of alliance and finally have a say in the matter, nothing will be solved. Unless all players show their disagreement to corporate greed, THIS MATTER WILL ONLY GET WORSE
These high numbers of matches are ridiculous. We all want to watch our favourite teams as much as possible, but also see players fit (mentally and physically) and getting better. But tell me, when they can train and rest, when there’s no time for that due to the number of matches? Sadly the narrative is quite negative in this way “because they earn lots of money and just playing football”.
Since you read all the comments, I just want to say, you’re the only channel I don’t miss an upload for. Much love from North Carolina, USA. Please keep up the great work.
If this trend continues, I wonder if that will force clubs to dig deeper into their benches as the season progresses. Maybe that's why some say there has been a decline in "star" players in the EPL for example. Too much demand to be filled, but perhaps represents more opportunities for "lower level" players who might now have a shot.
Usually I watch only NBA content, but your videos are so smart that I really like it. Also I like your basic (in a good way) presenting yourself in front of the camera, without this superior lightning and so on. Keep on like this!
And yet, this year is probably the busiest one in football for decades. There were 4 major international tournaments in 2024 (Euro, Copa America, AFCON, Asian Cup), with the latter two being held in January-February to accomodate the climate's situations in Qatar and Ivory Coast. This literally increased the risk of injuries, as players from Asia and Africa will have more games played in just a single season.
If the Super League goes through, with FIFA backing as I expect, I fully believe there will be the suggestion of deeper squads of up to 40 to cater for the additional fixtures to encourage rotation. While this is good for players, it also means big teams will hoard quality talent for rotation while less rich clubs will struggle to recruit players up to that number, leading them to rely on loans from these massive clubs to survive. That will make it easier for big teams to dominate even more with the ability to dance around injury crisis with rotation while less rich teams struggle to recruit adequately to cover their rotation needs.
I genuinely don’t think it’ll end. Players who speak up on being played too much will see themselves get passed on by players willing to give up their bodies. Cramming the calendar with more games to milk out as much money from these dudes as possible because most people will say “they’re millionaires kicking a ball”
In Italy there are some coaches, Sarri is the first wich comes to mind, who are very vocal about their distaste about having to play so often. And many times I hear this weird counterpoint wich is "well it's like that since years, just adapt". I find it stupid, it's now that we are seeing the consequences with players retiring at 29 or being extremely prone to injuries, of course it sparks a discussion now! When players like Marco Van Basten retired at 28, it was deemed a tragedy, a career cut too short. I fear the day we will see retiring at 28 standard, or near that.
I hate the notion that the "Premier League is the Super League and it's bad". Why should we feel guilty for the other leagues being corrupt, mismanaged and biased to only 2,3 clubs?
Not sure about Europe, but in the US there has been a trend towards specialization- kids are pushed to pick just one sport, or even one position and they play it competitively year round. As a result they are developing injuries at 12-13 that you would normally associate with professionals nearing the end of their careers. People can say "well I played every day when i was a kid" but pickup games with your friends are very different from a travel schedule of top-tier competitions.
So medical degree or not: I appreciate your "advocatus diaboli", but in terms of fixtures, I'm with Klopp: the rise in fixture dates is proportional to the rise in injuries, so fans get to see the best players less and less (because they are in the sanatorium). That reduces the beauty of the game, who wants that? With regard to the Super League (which will never happen), the Spanish need to fix their own league, not compromise other leagues such as the Bundesliga or the PL. Fact.
I have been saying for a number of years now that the best way to manage this issue to to have FIFA/UEFA/ or even just individual leagues (e.g., the EPL) impose a maximum number of club games that a player can play in any given season, and a maximum number of games in any 14 day period. I am not an expert, so wouldn't know what a good number is. But let's say it was capped at 40 per season and 3 per 14 days, with exceptions made for cup finals (so no player would have to miss out on a final due to a technicality). That would mean that no player can ever be fielded in every game across a season (assuming you include cup games). Yes, this would mean that squad sizes would increase, but it would also mean that the top players would be more likely to stay fit during a season, so they can actually play AND it would make it more likely that they can perform at their top level consistently. A way to deal with the increased squad sizes (in terms of the costs to the clubs) would be for players to be given their wages (which might be lower than they currently are) PLUS extra based on the value of the club: the more valuable a club, the more they have to pay the players. Sure, that means the big clubs might attract more players, but it also makes FFP more interesting, because all clubs would have a similar % of minimum spend on their player wages. It also means that the players' performances can, effectively, increase their wage as good performances will lead to improved club value.
Another issue is increased work load off the pitch, other than just playing a lot at high intensity, I feel like pushing players to bulk up a lot, often more than their body can safely handle makes them more injury prone, that’s probably why we see so many harm strings injuries and stuff like that…
The state of football right now and in the future is not looking very bright, the sate of the football as an industry that is, because the actual game is in a better position than ever, more kids play it, it's more popular and the profesional game is more complex and entertaining than ever; but the world of football is beeing ran by greed and the passion and love for the working class game seems to be missing. I am a Barcelona fan so I have a lot to say about all of this. Talking about fixture congestion, I agree that all of this games is probably not s good idea for the players (yk, the ones that make this whole "industry" exists) and I also agree that less games should mean less money for players (and it's not like they need that money). For young players in particuliarly, in the case of Barça, is specially furstrating; because, outside of the crazy schedule that affects everyone, in the case of the young talents, it seems like they are thrown into the pitch way too early, and not just thrown, in the case of Barcelona at least, they put way to much pressure, expectations and even give them way too much importance for the team, and we sre seeing the results; there's a reason that all of these guys are going in similar paths; and it hurts because, in contrast with other teams like Chelsea, it seems like we sre getting all of this young talent for almost nothing and that is really meaningful with the economic state of the club, but we are throwing this kids under the bus with all of this pressure at such a young age when they are not ready and by doing so, we are probably screwing up a really promising future. And in the case of the super league, I really don't like the idea of a few clubs having that much power over the european game; but ik where both teams are coming from, both are for money (more so Barça) but apart of competing with the Premier league, they are also fighting to stay fan-owned. Everything that Laporta has been doing, all of this leavers and friendlies are to keep the club competitive with out having to sell it, and at this point, the only option left is the superleague. And in the case of Real idk, is probably a mixture of Florentino's pride and the fact that, with LaLiga in the state that it is, they are in the same route as Barcelona, not to the same extent, but Florentino knows that in ten years, the galacticos are going to be imposible; both clubs are trying to remain at the top but without "selling their soul to the devil" (which unironaclly they are becoming "the devil" with the superaleage). I think that the best way to go is to scrap the new shitty format of the Champions league and to "fix" the rest of the leagues (in the case of this two clubs get Tebas out and bring someone who can actually run the league with all the potential it has - because there are still good teams there - ). So anyways, this whole thing is a mess and it's sad because football is suposed to be an scape out of the problems of the world but the world is consuming the beatiful game
fatigue hits about every sport rn. the nba and f1 for example are experiencing the same rn. more games than ever before on such a high level from an increasingly younger age where people get trained harder to make it big one day. organizers are more worried about their greed than the health of players since theres always gonna be new ones to replace.
Just an FYI: Serie A does not take a winter break anymore. As a Milan fan I really enjoyed this video as we have been in an injury crisis for over a year!
Unfortunately, a lot of un-inform, uneducated people still making unhinged claims that footballers are required to go through these hellish timeline, just because they are paid to do so, which makes me really frustrated. I'm from tech industry, a programmer, i know what a crunch culture is and how damaging it is to the employees, no amount of money, award winning or promised vacation can fully compensate burned out due to working on a badly scheduled project. And it seems football is now facing the similar problem.
Lionel Messi was a key player of two treble winning Barcelona teams. Cristiano Ronaldo was a pivotal part of Madrid's threepeat champions league. You gotta look back at them now and think how insanely injury resistant these guys must've been to continuously play 60+ games every year for nearly two decades.
In Zidane’s three-peat squad rotation was one of the priorities to keep Ronaldo and other key players fit and ready for UCL games which they gave maximum priority. That’s why Real only managed to win 1 League title and 0 Copa Del Rey titles from 2016-2018.
I strongly believe that Liverpool's fall off last seasson was do to the fact that they played the most amount of games possible. They were bunt out to the maximum. It took them till the second part of the season to recover.
I think the expansion of substitutions allowed is beneficial for all parties. For young players with high potential and already seeing first team play, the rate in which they are utilized will see them be run into the ground.
4:50 very true, the schedule was unfair, had to use the 2nd squad of the youth team to play Aston Villa cause most of the youth team 1st squad traveled with Liverpool so of team for the Club World Cup
One thing I haven't heard people talk about, when it comes to these excessive amounts of matches, is the decreasing quality of the pitch, simply because there's very little time for the grass to rest. This also makes athletes more injury prone.
Great video on a vital topic. I think that something often forgotten is that while players' conditioning has improved with time, the quality of play in my opinion, has probably outstripped even modern fitness regimens. I don't follow soccer all that closely, but I honestly feel that in many sports that I do watch, we're starting to run up on the physical limits of the human body in certain contexts. I'm seeing more and more injuries to stars and it may just be that we are asking too much of the humans playing the sports. The only solution is better rest rules, and an honest look at what we want of our athletes.
Another NPC comment. Why do you bots feel the need to make low effort comments? You don’t think maybe the scheduling and high stakes are taking a toll on players? Bot
@@randomgamer5100 “players are built for speed and not to endure a season” we have the most advanced sports science and technology than ever but somehow you’re dumb enough to believe that statement😂
Rugby has a similar problem but lots of people think less subs is the answer. There's already min 1 week break between most rugby matches, but a fairly popular strategy is to load the bench with front row players, and telling the guys on the pitch to play themselves to exhaustion after 50-60 minutes so they can be taken off and replaced tactically with someone else. This encourages players not to train for fitness, but for pure mass. Some people believe this makes the sport more dangerous. The idea being that if players weren't so bloody huge, people would get hurt less. Less subs is one of the only ways a lot of people see to combat this.
Honestly with the Superleague. The big teams in La Liga and Serie A shot themselves in the foot with how they did things causing people to turn away from their leagues
I’ve been mentioning this for some time that the amount of games players play is ridiculous and (potentially one of the reasons) contributing to the injury problem. That and it’s causing a massive divide against big and smaller clubs because you need an entire starting 11 and above average to elite subs in order to make it through a season.
Just recently discovered your channel. Outstanding job, fantastic editing, charismatic presentation, just excellent. You have a new sub. Oh, and let's go Gunners!! 😊
I don't think there will be a decrease to the number of games simply because the competitions, federations and broadcasters make too much money out of it. If anything, this situation will only continue to worsen until a compromise is reached - which will probably be larger squad numbers overall per team. Meaning the bigger clubs will eventually end up hoarding all the quality players to themselves in 40 - 50 man squads
There needs to be a per player game limit for club and country in addition to less games. One of the problems rn is managers are VERY bad on load management. It’s kinda shocking how far being the data they are compared to say the NBA, who are trying to get managers to rotate players less! If it’s not a per player limit, most managers will just use reduced schedules to rest their best players even less.
That kind of rule Will only work on close league where there are not risk of relegation like NBA for example, you can be bottom on league table and get reward for first draft pick. In open league like football, every manager Will always try to play their best team because of the risk itself, so they Will avoid losing point as many as possible by fielding their best in the team, in football is not only about winning but also about avoid relegation and also get into continental spot.
@@senoalamsyah7481 which is exactly why it needs to be a rule, managers have too much pressure for immediate results to look out for players long term career and health. If it’s a rule, every other relegation team has the same restrictions, so there isn’t a risk to the starters getting some rest.
I resently started folowing basketball, and they curently have the oposite problem in a way. The injured players have increased just like in football, but the amout of games played by the players has decreased. So the question has arised how many games are too much and how many is too litle. In other words how many games put too mcuh load on your body and how many you need to maintain fitnes and not increse the chanses of injury, since if you dont play for long enough time amd then jump into high intense games the risk of injury is very high.
I am a Barca fan so this Video really hits with me as you said in the intro. DeJong, Pedri and Gavi are probably our best players and they are all out injured now and Gavi even for the whole Season. For quite some time it really seemed like Barca really recovered and it was fun watcing them again but right now its just pure misery again, and of course you cant blame everyhing on it, but i think injuries are the main resaon for that and your Video points out very well why.
It'll be interesting to see if any teams develop playing strategies that are specifically designed to reduce injuries - slower play, more squad rotation etc - and if that profits them.
"We had a meeting last week with the FA. They recommended from the referees new decisions and rules," "From the managers and players, we have shared our concerns for many years now that there are too many games, the schedule is overcrowded, and it’s at a dangerous level for players physical and mental well-being. "Despite our previous feedback, they have now recommended for next season: longer games, more intensity, and less emotions to be shown by players. We just want to be in good condition on the pitch to give 100 percent to our club and fans. Why are our opinions not being heard? "As a player I feel very privileged to do the job I love every day, but I feel these changes are damaging our game. We want to be at our maximum level, the best we can be and put on amazing performances for fans to celebrate every week. "I believe it is important that we, players and managers, highlight these important issues as we want to protect the game we love and give the fans our best." -Raphael Varane.
When comparing to rugby league in Australia. First off its full contact so more injury chances but ive also played both and have to say footballs aggression isnt too far behind. The NRL have 12 subs that can be made in an 80 minute game (a player can go back on after being taken off), 27 games in a season (was 26 for a long time), 17 teams and only 2 different club competitions. One being the main league and the other being a club cup final (1 game). There is a world cup and maybe some feature games for international teams each year but it would be a shock if any player played over 35 games. Plus theres a guarantee of 6 weeks off each year from training and/or playing. This doesnt mean there isnt major injuries with 15-20 season ending injuries happening each year but its no where near what the PL is seeing Seeing football with such condense competition schedules with the length of game time and lack of subs always shocked me because after all it is only this condense because more games=more watch time=more money which big corps always want Increasing subs, changing play times for certain competitions (move FA cup outside of regular season) or making leagues have less games is something that should be pushed for football. I want to see these golden boys make their full potential, not just see it on fifa.
Now that you mention it. Barcelona have had three proper youngsters that have been injury prone, Fati, Gavi and Pedri who are played differently than young Messi was. The players aren't being rested at all and it's causing muscle fatigue, leading to easier injuries.
These teams have rosters of like 30 guys or more use them it is that simple managers just need to start rotating squads more and prioritize the games accordingly
I know a lot of people will roll their eyes at this but honestly another huge problem is that these players like Gavi, Pedri, Saka, Ansu Fati, etc are small, skillful players who get fouled a lot, and are specifically targeted by teams for aggressive treatment. These players, especially young ones, do require some more protection from the ref. There's a reason Messi has lasted so long; the refs (and you'll know this if you watched him while he was in La Liga) were very, very quick to blow the whistle and issue cards against players who targeted him. I know a lot of people didn't like this 'preferential treatment' but it played a major role in why we got to enjoy watching him play as long and as much as he did.
Lol Go play with the kids then, leave the adults play football Also you're the most sane Messi fan, trying to spin preferential treatment as a good thing
@@LudwigVaanArthans Lol 'Messi fan' not even going to engage in that debate because I don't care 'who's better' - that's a debate for kids, adults just enjoy watching good football and good players. Watch UFC if you enjoy seeing people get kicked mate, I'd prefer to see good footballers play good football and have long lasting careers. Sorry your masculinity was so offended by my comment.
@@EliasRoy I get it you're really tough because you think football is about grown men kicking each other. What an exciting game it would be if people like you were in charge.
Too many substitutions break the game .. the problem is not the playing time, but the total amount of games.. Imo, a league should have 16-18 teams max!
More games isn’t necessarily the problem if clubs rotate more. That gives more playing time to reserves/youth and fans, Uefa, tv networks get what they want; more matches. Problem is how to incentivize managers to rotate, and not rely on their best players playing every minute. Perhaps there should be cap on number of matches a player can play per month or season.
what's even crazier is the fact that physical play has been severely reduced over the years. players aren't really being injured by other players but by themselves because they train to be pure athletes rather than football players.
What I would recommend as Measures: - Lower amount of Group matches in the Nations League from 6 -> 3 - Remove Nations League Relegation / Promotion Playoffs / Lower the legs from 2 to 1 - Abandon announced CL-Format - Eventually reduce the number of Club-Spots in some more overfilled leagues by 1-4 spots to reduce amount of competitive matches in national league
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
A couple of years back Klopp was one of the most vocal advocates for the change from 3 subs per game to 5 subs per game and people constantly ridiculed him for it. Turns out that one of the best managers of the modern era knows more about football, injuries and player fatigue than a bunch of random people on social media who haven't played Sunday League in 4 years
It should be 4, to match the max number of player can get red card before the enemy given auto-win.
5 is too much.
@@teguhlgthat makes sense
His penultimate season at BVB meant he had experience with that. At one point Dortmund had to play without any of their first choice back four.
@@teguhlg I don't mind 5 since there doesn't seem to be a limit as to how many games are going to be played (and how long), it's only going to get worse imo. 5 is necessary.
5 subs is good, I also believe that concussion protocol subs need to be expanded and used more
My grandma always said “if you don’t make time to rest and recover your body will automatically do it for you, and you don’t want that”. I guess this applies to athletes as well, way too many games being played!
You need to hit that balance where you also dont have too litle amount of games.
Wise woman
@@stefankatsarov5806 That is true!!
my grandma always said "five substitutions are too many, and will favor the rich clubs" and I think there is some truth to that
rich teams are favored either way, 5 subs is a very successful system atm@@t00b3z
This is what worries me most about Jude Bellingham. Kid is fantastic, but he's playing an insane amount of minutes compared to players 15-20 years ago at his age, and I'd like to see him still playing and fully healthy when he's 25, 27, 29.
Manager can rest him, and play Arda guler, why not rest Bellingham ?
Why not play other people in place of him
@@vaibhavsingh6760because he needs Bellingham. Bellingham is much better than the other options
@@xRyqnthen they run the risk of injury, that’s on the management tbh
@@xRyqn give time to others and make them like Bellingham, it's not like he is only person on the real madrid team to do it, touchemeni, camavinga, fede all are capable, you guys are just putting too much pressure on one guy and then you will complain
Young players recover faster, which is the one thing in his favour here. But yes, he'll absolutely be played too much this year and next.
I think very soon, we will start to see more of the effects of playing every game and more minutes and it's quite concerning.
Lmao but you guys are the same NPCs that will get angry at the mention of a Super League which is better for the players. I literally a video about this
@@BallersFC777Lmao no one is gonna watch ur videos if that’s how you plan on advertising them
@@acai72 not advertising I just find it so appropriate because I made it in response to all the bot TH-camrs crying about the Super League. Cringe ass people saying it’s concerning as if you actually care lmaooo
@@BallersFC777
The super league is a CLOSED league, the purpose of that league is money driven. It’s plain GREEDY from any owner who supports it. We can see it from a mile away. And you said that players can benefit from it?
What is your argument? How can the super league benefit other smaller clubs? It doesn’t. It’s a closed where all money generated goes to the invited clubs. Plain GREED
@@alohatigers1199ok so where do you learn about it?
Had a season ticket at United as a kid, during SAF's reign, back when I was too young to appreciate what I was witnessing. Recently got back into football after years of not paying attention, and your channel has been a great source of information and insight as to the current state of the game. Always a great watch!
Great to hear! Cheers :)
uefa and fifa is killing the football, super league will be governed by the club playing, if any club would break idk FFP, they would be punished because it instead of just getting a slap on the wrist. No more UEFA monopoly, perez is a genius when it comes bo buisness@@FootballIconic, and Im a barca fan, and I wish I FCB had him instead of whatever the f*ck is now in charge of the club post bartomeu era
also, superleague allows clubs to play in their domestic leagues and tournaments@@FootballIconic. English league isnt super league, its just in money, nothing else
@@Grubman141nah, i would just enjoy it now, giving it more years would only make them suffer more for watching the club competing the championship
What a time to start watching football again as a united fan again! Just as the new era is starting
This is why City slow-roll their youth talent, and rotate heavily. Extends careers and keeps the level high.
City don't rely on the youth. They sell them.
Barca need their academy talents that’s the thing
@@Kaijufied fortunately for city they have an infinite money cheat
@@dbz9393Barca also have money, the problem is that they’re not allowed to use it
Sadly the majority of clubs will never have the luxury of being able to do that while remaining competitive. The only possible answer I could think of is forcing every team to register/play a certain number of youth players to level it out a bit, but that's inherently not fair when you consider the discrepancy between youth setups between various clubs.
Fun fact:
Klopp this season has used the most subs out of any manager in the premier league and has benefitted less injuries
Same manager people ridiculed for wanting more subs and less matches
Look how he's treated youth prospects to
Unlike Barcelona you won't find a 18 year old starting week in week out even when their ability can demand it (Stefan Bajetic) look at Quansa, 20 years old who came out of nowhere when he could of played earlier but for his career and the long term health of the club he didn't
Klopp is a very smart man and he genuinely cares about his players, even outside the field, he knows that if he abuses of them by playing them game after game they won’t last or worse they will be more likely to suffer bad injuries like Gavi!!
Liverpool have had loads of injuries, just not as bad as before. bajcetic is not playing because he's been injured all season because he was overplayed last season.
@@siddyfisher1765bajcetic already back to training since some time ago, but klopp decided (with advice from club physio) to not rush him
Its not like barcelona has much of a choice, now with Gundogan and Fermin Pedri can rest more, but with our starters getting injured all the time there is little choice but to play the academy players if we want to win anything this year
Klopps not special in this regard. Pep has been doing this with youth talent since he joined city. He also rotates his players more than any other manager. Its a no brained when it comes to longevity and injury risk reduction, then in the long run the players are happier fitter and will play so much better.
Saka has been playing through a knock as well during the last few weeks. I’m very concerned when it comes to the players welfare and treatment, especially players like Saka that get fouled constantly.
Exactly Saka gets abused
And the thing is, Arteta is terrible when it comes to player rotation so that should worry you even more
@@JASPADIGHOST I do have my concerns with that as well. I would have liked to seen Nelson get given at least a couple games where he starts to really see if he is good enough and allow Saka to rest.
It’s such a tough balance. There’s insane pressure to win every week now for Arteta and Arsenal since the club has been so starved of silverware in the last couple of decades, so no wonder he wants his best players to play every game is possible. It’s clear the squad still needs to be built out more and it takes many seasons to fully build out a deep squad (and that’s if you’re a rich club, it’s next to impossible for any other club to do this since they have to keep selling their best players). I’m not saying Arteta is doing this intentionally to harm a player like Saka of course not, but think of other smaller clubs that know that they’ll probably lose their talented young player at some point, what incentive is there for them to preserve their longevity if it won’t even be at their club? It’s a sad reality that money rules all in football
@@mattanderson8575 Yeah I agree, I just would like to see Arteta providing few more games to other players to allow for us to see if they’re really capable while simultaneously allowing the already proven top quality players to rest.
Basketball in the US has the same issue, they have kids playing so many games so early on in their life that the players eventually burn out physically in the early to mid 20s and become injury prone like crazy.
It's happening alot in soccer too,so many young players careers becoming injury prone for years..take a look at ousmane dembele
Also baseball
@@Stuck_in_the_USBaseball ?!? Are you serious my man ?🤣 Baseball is a low intensity sport unlike football. Baseball players basically sit in field to wait to catch a routine fly ball.😅
No one cares
Whoa buddy that's hurtful@@EliasRoy
It's not just football where the increasing schedule is an issue. To give a different example, in Formula 1 there have been concerns for a few years now about the increasing number of races on the calendar (2024 is set to have a record 24 races), and the effect that it has on team personnel especially, not just the drivers. For example, constantly travelling around the world, adjusting to different timezones, spending the vast majority of the year away from their families, possible burnout and the fact that it is all somewhat at odds with the committment reducing the sport's carbon footprint! One solution which I think some teams might have already implemented is to rotate crews, but I think that can only go so far.
And the calendar could be structured a lot better. For example, last season's final phase of the season was made up of five races in six weeks: a triple header of the US GP in Texas, the Mexican GP in Mexico City and the Brazilian GP in Sao Paulo, then a week off, then Las Vegas and then the following week we finished off in Abu Dhabi! Earlier in the season we went from Azerbaijan to Miami in consecutive weeks as well.
And that's without mentioning the possible product dilution effect.
F1 don't care about fans, team personnel or the environment. They only care about making as much profit as possible. These issues won't be fixed unless it hurts F1 where it hurts most. Their waller. Same goes for Football.
@@Justanotherlad789 You will never fix that under capitalism. Even if a large amount of fans don't like that, unless you can get millions of people to act like a hive mind and coordinate to do what isn't profitable for a business, like choosing not to participate in a sporting event to send a message, it's a pipe dream.
@@shepardice3775 aye. It's a shame but that's just how it is.
@@Justanotherlad789 exactly
nba too
As long as Fifa get more money, they will keep forcing players to play more matches😞
Nope players are greedy
The players are more than happy to grumble a bit then accept the money to play. Anyway, FIFA are responsible for just a few competitions accounting for what, 10-15% of total games played? Why don't the leagues reduce their number of games? Serie A with 20 teams makes no sense for example. Why are pointless competitions like Carabao still happening?
@@nishant54 lets agree to "both sides" are greedy
@nishant54 I feel that players would not want to risk career ending injuries rather than making more money
@@nishant54not really when fatigue and getting injured occur more than ever
i think these type of schedules will definitely destroy career of alot of promising youngsters
But somehow the European Super League is a bad idea. Npcs
@@BallersFC777 super league is many games as well lmaoo
@@BallersFC777
Because it is?
@@alohatigers1199 because you’re a bot
Already has
Klopp is a manager with a degree in Sports Science and people called his concern about all players not just his moaning. He was very vocal about the 5 subs and a longer winter break which has been implemented. UEFA and FIFA only care about money. The Nationa League needs to be looked at and we don’t need to change and add games. Players not being included in these kids of decisions is weird.
Wtf are you talking about? Why would UEFA and FIFA care about the players? The players are not their assets, they are the clubs’ assets. The clubs are the ones who’s assets (players) are going to be damaged not UEFA’s or FIFA’s. They own no assets/players so they can just add more teams to their competitions, almost like printing money. Now do you see why elite teams want to create a Super League? I made a video on this lol
Nobody is denying Klopp credibility when they make arguments against his. It doesn't matter that he has degrees in sports science. There will be 10s of people at every club with degrees that are capable of that insight.
The problem with your argument is the huge gulf in finance between top 6 clubs, such as Liverpool and smaller clubs. With the inequality, Liverpool is able to invest more into depth in comparison to smaller clubs. Increasing the number of available subs allows for better utility from a big clubs endless depth. As a result, larger clubs have another advantage against smaller clubs added on.
this video reminded me that here in brazil, even teams that are fighting to not be relegated could play up to 65+ games a season wich is crazy, is there other leagues around the world that is normal to play that many games a season?
With the investiments that the City Group is giving to Bahia, I'm concerned that soon they're going to be playing 80+ games/season since they'll be able to get into latter stages of cup competitions more consistently and the fact that North/Northeast teams play even more games than teams from other regions. The amount of matches in Brazil has to decrease.
ok, but the intensity of the brasilian games are far lower than any top 7 european league...
@@majormononoke8958Wtf. There are several rankings saying that the Brazilian league is in the top 7/6 best in the world
I’m from Brazil and I disagree. Brasillian league is more like 10, or 12th, dudes play so slow, quality isn’t there like it used to be. It’s rough to watch now adays
That's actually around the number of games some youth teams in the US are playing these days. There's a belief that if you want to be a professional or even university level player it is not good enough just to play with your friends or for the local park's team- parents are told their kids have to play for "elite" traveling teams year-round.
Great shout, Tinashe. Unfortunately, the pyramid driving these increases in schedule couldn't care less about the results of any match or league or player fitness. Their intent is to increase revenue in the pyramid as the outcomes of matches/leagues/cups don't actually affect this. If you schedule more matches, people will buy the tickets and that's why this inertia isn't going to change direction anytime soon, if ever.
Nearly every sport is dealing with this. NBA chose to deal with it with Load management, basically making players rest in some games so they don’t play back to back. In the NFL( American Football) running backs and quarterbacks are getting inured mire often as well. Here in football virtually in any league has countless players out.
No one is actually tackling the issue, players are playing too many games. New UCL, New World Cup is more games. but in this modern age players have been playing too many games since they were kids wayyy more than older players. From little league, to youth leagues, school leagues, academy leagues. It’s too much, too much wear and tear on the body. Take Hazard for example he’s been playing since 6 or 8, that’s more than 20 years of playing, running, hitting. It’s a lot, the body has to give. Jimmyhighroller has a better video on TH-cam about it
We have to decrease the amount of games in the big leagues yes but also when the kids are young. This is only gonna get worse if we don’t reduce games.
The NBA revised load management though. Now you can’t rest no more than 1 star player per game and all star players must be available for nationally televised games. It’s bad everywhere. Though The nba I can agree with as there were teams abusing it.
@@kayseeday yes the way they abused it was honestly disingenuous. Imagine paying full price tickets to see your favorite team or player and that teams superstars are sitting out.
But basketball injuries are inevitable, since preteen kids have been playing competitively, AAU, high school and college. It’s a lot, It’s a no brainer why there’s a lot of injuries. Too much mileage.
Thank you finally
@@kayseeday
The NFL has 17 games if I’m not mistaken? So that means 1 game per week. I believe they hit the jackpot. They don’t need to add more games. So I can see why you don’t hear players taking a load management.
The NBA on the other hand has 82 games for whatever reason even though they can decrease it to 58 games (If every team plays each other 2 times) and still be enough I can guarantee the likelihood of players load managing will decrease.
@@kayseeday
That’s not a solution. That’s sweeping the problem under the rug. NBA is dumb for that.
It’s gotta be on managers and players to not play every game. Stats like Saka and Pedri playing a million games in a row is going to hurt them later in their careers
Just managers. Look at pitching in baseball.
Thanks for covering this. I often see this discussion brought up time and time again but the clubs themselves don't want to take care of their players and neither the national teams so there ends up being this endless standoff where clubs complain about international games and travel taking a toll but then the clubs themselves also then don't take a stance to load manage their own players until it's too late coz they'll always choose the bag rather than stand up to the governing bodies and FAs even recently with Barça having to fulfill a financial obligation playing a friendly in America 24hrs after their last la liga game before the winter break 🤦🏿♂️ so much puzzling decision making across the board.
This is the dumbest comment. The clubs want to create a Super League, which one of its positive effects would be a decrease in games for players, but greedy UEFA and FIFA are trying to block it, and peasants are supposed to it because they haven’t grown up yet and don’t know how the world works. Clubs especially in the Prem can’t afford to load manage players because the stakes are higher than ever. Teams everywhere are getting better, “oil” money is propping up new clubs, and player prices are through the roof. I’m the Prem Spurs made it a Big 5 now Newcastle and Aston Villa have made it a Big 7.
Super League teams/managers want to protect their assets (players) but can’t due to how high the stakes are. Right now Newcastle is looking to sack Eddie Howe😂. Exactly, the same manager that got them to their first CL and a 3rd place finish just last year is on the hot seat 6 months later
This man needs more subs
word!
Yes his content is so good and many information fun to watch
If i have watched more than 10 videos of any channel who regularly uploads, i just subscribe. We as viewers don't lose anything but it helps them alot.
I truly look forward to all of your videos man. No one else on TH-cam does content the way you do it. Love it man keep it up 🫶🙂
There have been a change in how we assess younger players. Earlier an 18-22 year old prodigy would be played as a rotative player and is supposed to perform whenever called to action. However, right now they are expected to play week in week out at the best of their potential
And some of..if not most of the players expect to be playing those many games
Another thing for Pedri, in almost all of his games of that year, he was the player who ran the most kilometers. I've never seen a machine like him. Of course the machine broke.
Then there the serious health problems - remember Eriksen? He survived. A lot of players unfortunately didn't.
More games lead to other problems - player train less. Football is learned more by training than by playing. So too many games is not beneficial for the quality of the game.
More games means also lower stakes. I like the Bundesliga with their 18 team, because with the exception of Bayern, every team is fighting for something in the very last round.
The only positive thing about having many games in the season is that the younger players should have more playing time. Yet, when Klopp sent the academy players to play a secondary tournament, he got slammed.
By far one of my fav channels and one of the absolute best when it comes to football content....keep it up my guy
The fact that most teams want to press from the front all game doesn't help either, but at least that is purely for footballing reasons
As a Newcastle fan, injuries have been a terror at our club tis season. Like jfc.
I hope you guys can at least make top 4 and Howe doesn’t get the sack🫡
Great insights dude. I remember Mourinho also stating the December period of games in the prem were doing damage to the league and players due to injuries. They could increase player limits per team for the super league but i doubt the governing bodies would approve of this... Nevermind the FFP
Injury’s are getting out of hand Bayern Players were missing 35 Days on average because of Injuries this season that’s wild ant BTW Thanks for your vid’s please try to talk a bit more about German Football it’s pretty good and Many people underrate it
Limit the number of games any given player can play per season. Teams should make use of the bulk of their squads. Bench players need more pitch time for their careers and self worth. Everyone in you named squad should get a minimum number of games per season. Also prevents teams hogging players and ruining careers. Give more people time to shine. It's like how after covid layoffs, those who managed to keep their jobs are just expected to perpetually carry the added work load long after "normality". Share the pie, many hands make the lights work
At youth levels there can/should be limits, but at the top level it is simply player management. Overusing any asset can hurt it.
limit fifa and uefa adding games in so that they can take the money (FOR NO OUTLAY!). if it all went back to football then fair enough, but a lot disappears for administration costs........i would expect.
I really like the stat I saw a couple of years ago about an increased in max effort sprints. Can't remember the exakt figures but for some positions the amount of sprints have doubled since 2005 ish. Max sprints are a major player in muscle injuries, especially later in games. Wonder what an extra 10 min per game adds ...
Eventually clubs will need to have literally two teams to function.
Honestly I don't see a reality where the organisers reduce the number of games as they are the ones introducing all these additional matches.
If anything one of two things will happen
1 - A new rule is introduced which give clubs a maximum number of times a player can play a season. Forcing teams to properly rotate a squad and not rely on the same couple of players to save them. Doubt this as that requires proactive action
2 - A big club has enough depth so its like they've built two teams, wins a lot and its down to having available players whereas everyone else is suffering from injured squads
As a Chelsea fan, two teams is not the play here
@@IncredibleMet The problem with Chelsea isn't the amount of players but the quality of them.
You have a ton of potential but no one who has already made it. Cut your team in half and you'd be doing even worse.
Like bro, you have an entire team on your injury list.
Plus no one understands what your manager is trying to do...
so the organizers are just kicking smaller teams while theyre down. yikes.
@@janthecoo4964 sort of. With more games it gives smaller teams more places to get in and compete.
Honestly the change benefits smaller teams as larger teams like City, Madrid, PSG, Liverpool, Bayern, etc. are expected to compete for everything which will tire them out or force them to drop competitions to focus on winning the largest honours.
Smaller teams aren't able to compete for everything and aren't expected to go far in all comps so they can instead focus on one or two and snag a trophy the larger teams have dropped out of.
For example in the English league, City might just give up on the EFL cup and FA cup if they plan to win the prem and champions league. Liverpool and Arsenal may do the same which opens the door for smaller teams or teams that are having off seasons to win a trophy they normally wouldn't be able to compete for
@@colonelcider8292 not having the depth of larger teams means smaller teams need to sacrifice stuff as well. and bigger teams will still earn more through tv revenue and merch from these extra competitions despite not showing their best side
Happy new year to my favourite football channel!
Obviously, there is a small number of people who are profiting off of more games. Having 48 teams in the World Cup is not going to increase the quality of the matches now, is it?
They don't care about the players, because if one drops out, there are dozens who want to take his place. It's extremely unfortunate and I am very glad you and Jürgen Klopp are taking this seriously - how does the media react?
I'm the kind of person who puts athlete welfare above profit but then again, I'm not a club owner. I feel this way about all athletes in all sports.
Thank you very much for the video! 🙏
The World Cup *itself* is a different situation, as the maximum number of games will go from 7 to 8. To be honest, I like the idea of having 48 nations as I expect to see _all the best players_ in the World Cup - that is, no more World Cups without Litmanen, George Weah, Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona, Ian Rush, and many more....
THAT SAID, of course that the SINGLE REASON for increasing the number of nations from 32 to 48 is $$$$$, hands down... Nonetheless, after 41 years living this terrible world, what I see is that $$$$ moves 95% of things I see everyday...
@@TheNVLS I hope the quality of the matches will be good. Thanks for your opinion! 😎
Its honestly really frustrating that the game seems to be being continuously milked for more money at the expense of the players. An increasing fixture list, and the injuries that follow it can only really be dealt with by increasing the size of the squads, which means you see less of your favourite players, and that the already slim chance for smaller clubs to break through and be competitive will be even slimmer.
I wonder how frustrated you are about plumbers being milked for money or other profession. When you get 400k a week you have no right to complain
@@teosal3224you can always complain, and players have the right to do so too
@@teosal3224you're really stupid
I think it's relevant that teams should protect their young players and decide when not to play them and be way more pragmatic in managing squads. Otherwise they should furiously fight against game congestion. The way Pep has managed Phil Foden (when everyone else thinks he should play every single game) will definitely extend Phil's career, while other guys his age are been overworked and don't play because they are injured and many times requiring surgery and recovery.
Unless players from each league form some kind of alliance and finally have a say in the matter, nothing will be solved.
Unless all players show their disagreement to corporate greed, THIS MATTER WILL ONLY GET WORSE
These high numbers of matches are ridiculous. We all want to watch our favourite teams as much as possible, but also see players fit (mentally and physically) and getting better. But tell me, when they can train and rest, when there’s no time for that due to the number of matches? Sadly the narrative is quite negative in this way “because they earn lots of money and just playing football”.
Since you read all the comments, I just want to say, you’re the only channel I don’t miss an upload for. Much love from North Carolina, USA. Please keep up the great work.
Appreciate that, thanks!!
Your voice and accent is awesome
You were born for this
If this trend continues, I wonder if that will force clubs to dig deeper into their benches as the season progresses. Maybe that's why some say there has been a decline in "star" players in the EPL for example. Too much demand to be filled, but perhaps represents more opportunities for "lower level" players who might now have a shot.
Usually I watch only NBA content, but your videos are so smart that I really like it. Also I like your basic (in a good way) presenting yourself in front of the camera, without this superior lightning and so on. Keep on like this!
And yet, this year is probably the busiest one in football for decades. There were 4 major international tournaments in 2024 (Euro, Copa America, AFCON, Asian Cup), with the latter two being held in January-February to accomodate the climate's situations in Qatar and Ivory Coast. This literally increased the risk of injuries, as players from Asia and Africa will have more games played in just a single season.
Um dos melhores TH-camrs de futebol no mundo. Abraços de um fã do Brasil. Seu trabalho é muito, muito bom. Continue.
I like the way you present your information, it's evident you always do your research
If the Super League goes through, with FIFA backing as I expect, I fully believe there will be the suggestion of deeper squads of up to 40 to cater for the additional fixtures to encourage rotation. While this is good for players, it also means big teams will hoard quality talent for rotation while less rich clubs will struggle to recruit players up to that number, leading them to rely on loans from these massive clubs to survive. That will make it easier for big teams to dominate even more with the ability to dance around injury crisis with rotation while less rich teams struggle to recruit adequately to cover their rotation needs.
This is how some championship and football league sides view the premier league 😂.
I genuinely don’t think it’ll end. Players who speak up on being played too much will see themselves get passed on by players willing to give up their bodies. Cramming the calendar with more games to milk out as much money from these dudes as possible because most people will say “they’re millionaires kicking a ball”
As days go by, I agree more with Pep when he said Players should protest, I don't know when that time will come.
In Italy there are some coaches, Sarri is the first wich comes to mind, who are very vocal about their distaste about having to play so often. And many times I hear this weird counterpoint wich is "well it's like that since years, just adapt". I find it stupid, it's now that we are seeing the consequences with players retiring at 29 or being extremely prone to injuries, of course it sparks a discussion now!
When players like Marco Van Basten retired at 28, it was deemed a tragedy, a career cut too short. I fear the day we will see retiring at 28 standard, or near that.
I hate the notion that the "Premier League is the Super League and it's bad".
Why should we feel guilty for the other leagues being corrupt, mismanaged and biased to only 2,3 clubs?
Not sure about Europe, but in the US there has been a trend towards specialization- kids are pushed to pick just one sport, or even one position and they play it competitively year round. As a result they are developing injuries at 12-13 that you would normally associate with professionals nearing the end of their careers. People can say "well I played every day when i was a kid" but pickup games with your friends are very different from a travel schedule of top-tier competitions.
Always great content big dawg
Thanks, big dawg
So medical degree or not: I appreciate your "advocatus diaboli", but in terms of fixtures, I'm with Klopp: the rise in fixture dates is proportional to the rise in injuries, so fans get to see the best players less and less (because they are in the sanatorium). That reduces the beauty of the game, who wants that? With regard to the Super League (which will never happen), the Spanish need to fix their own league, not compromise other leagues such as the Bundesliga or the PL. Fact.
I have been saying for a number of years now that the best way to manage this issue to to have FIFA/UEFA/ or even just individual leagues (e.g., the EPL) impose a maximum number of club games that a player can play in any given season, and a maximum number of games in any 14 day period. I am not an expert, so wouldn't know what a good number is. But let's say it was capped at 40 per season and 3 per 14 days, with exceptions made for cup finals (so no player would have to miss out on a final due to a technicality). That would mean that no player can ever be fielded in every game across a season (assuming you include cup games).
Yes, this would mean that squad sizes would increase, but it would also mean that the top players would be more likely to stay fit during a season, so they can actually play AND it would make it more likely that they can perform at their top level consistently.
A way to deal with the increased squad sizes (in terms of the costs to the clubs) would be for players to be given their wages (which might be lower than they currently are) PLUS extra based on the value of the club: the more valuable a club, the more they have to pay the players. Sure, that means the big clubs might attract more players, but it also makes FFP more interesting, because all clubs would have a similar % of minimum spend on their player wages. It also means that the players' performances can, effectively, increase their wage as good performances will lead to improved club value.
Showing love from Zimbabwe🇿🇼🇿🇼🇿🇼
The pitches are really hard now. There is no give.
Oh yeah, those muddy pitches in the 80s where players were heading leather balls sure were a thing of luxury.
Another issue is increased work load off the pitch, other than just playing a lot at high intensity, I feel like pushing players to bulk up a lot, often more than their body can safely handle makes them more injury prone, that’s probably why we see so many harm strings injuries and stuff like that…
The state of football right now and in the future is not looking very bright, the sate of the football as an industry that is, because the actual game is in a better position than ever, more kids play it, it's more popular and the profesional game is more complex and entertaining than ever; but the world of football is beeing ran by greed and the passion and love for the working class game seems to be missing.
I am a Barcelona fan so I have a lot to say about all of this. Talking about fixture congestion, I agree that all of this games is probably not s good idea for the players (yk, the ones that make this whole "industry" exists) and I also agree that less games should mean less money for players (and it's not like they need that money).
For young players in particuliarly, in the case of Barça, is specially furstrating; because, outside of the crazy schedule that affects everyone, in the case of the young talents, it seems like they are thrown into the pitch way too early, and not just thrown, in the case of Barcelona at least, they put way to much pressure, expectations and even give them way too much importance for the team, and we sre seeing the results; there's a reason that all of these guys are going in similar paths; and it hurts because, in contrast with other teams like Chelsea, it seems like we sre getting all of this young talent for almost nothing and that is really meaningful with the economic state of the club, but we are throwing this kids under the bus with all of this pressure at such a young age when they are not ready and by doing so, we are probably screwing up a really promising future.
And in the case of the super league, I really don't like the idea of a few clubs having that much power over the european game; but ik where both teams are coming from, both are for money (more so Barça) but apart of competing with the Premier league, they are also fighting to stay fan-owned. Everything that Laporta has been doing, all of this leavers and friendlies are to keep the club competitive with out having to sell it, and at this point, the only option left is the superleague. And in the case of Real idk, is probably a mixture of Florentino's pride and the fact that, with LaLiga in the state that it is, they are in the same route as Barcelona, not to the same extent, but Florentino knows that in ten years, the galacticos are going to be imposible; both clubs are trying to remain at the top but without "selling their soul to the devil" (which unironaclly they are becoming "the devil" with the superaleage). I think that the best way to go is to scrap the new shitty format of the Champions league and to "fix" the rest of the leagues (in the case of this two clubs get Tebas out and bring someone who can actually run the league with all the potential it has - because there are still good teams there - ).
So anyways, this whole thing is a mess and it's sad because football is suposed to be an scape out of the problems of the world but the world is consuming the beatiful game
Eden Hazard is a good example here. Started very young and have to reteire early
That's because he didn't know when to put the cheeseburgers away.
No Hazard was lazy & loved McDonalds too much
Or maybe he loved McDonalds a bit too much
fatigue hits about every sport rn. the nba and f1 for example are experiencing the same rn. more games than ever before on such a high level from an increasingly younger age where people get trained harder to make it big one day. organizers are more worried about their greed than the health of players since theres always gonna be new ones to replace.
Another excellent video. Keep up the great content and thank you for uploading!
Just an FYI: Serie A does not take a winter break anymore. As a Milan fan I really enjoyed this video as we have been in an injury crisis for over a year!
Unfortunately, a lot of un-inform, uneducated people still making unhinged claims that footballers are required to go through these hellish timeline, just because they are paid to do so, which makes me really frustrated. I'm from tech industry, a programmer, i know what a crunch culture is and how damaging it is to the employees, no amount of money, award winning or promised vacation can fully compensate burned out due to working on a badly scheduled project. And it seems football is now facing the similar problem.
Lionel Messi was a key player of two treble winning Barcelona teams. Cristiano Ronaldo was a pivotal part of Madrid's threepeat champions league. You gotta look back at them now and think how insanely injury resistant these guys must've been to continuously play 60+ games every year for nearly two decades.
In Zidane’s three-peat squad rotation was one of the priorities to keep Ronaldo and other key players fit and ready for UCL games which they gave maximum priority. That’s why Real only managed to win 1 League title and 0 Copa Del Rey titles from 2016-2018.
I strongly believe that Liverpool's fall off last seasson was do to the fact that they played the most amount of games possible. They were bunt out to the maximum. It took them till the second part of the season to recover.
Proud of you, wonderful channel for a South African !SWEEEET !!!
Andros Townsend getting caught in a drive by for no reason lolllll, leave that man alone 😂
Injury identification is a huge factor, not just the frequency of injuries themselves
The amount of injuries this season has been insane, and it’s only gonna get worse… real, real problem that needs resolved. Players aren’t robots
I think the expansion of substitutions allowed is beneficial for all parties. For young players with high potential and already seeing first team play, the rate in which they are utilized will see them be run into the ground.
4:50 very true, the schedule was unfair, had to use the 2nd squad of the youth team to play Aston Villa cause most of the youth team 1st squad traveled with Liverpool so of team for the Club World Cup
it's about time you put an AFCON Video!!!!!
Coming in two weeks haha
One thing I haven't heard people talk about, when it comes to these excessive amounts of matches, is the decreasing quality of the pitch, simply because there's very little time for the grass to rest. This also makes athletes more injury prone.
We needed a video like this, to shed some light on this issue thanks
Nice info man. Thanks
Leagues should implement rules for maximum games per players. That way teams would use more of their squad and balance out the league a bit more.
Great video on a vital topic. I think that something often forgotten is that while players' conditioning has improved with time, the quality of play in my opinion, has probably outstripped even modern fitness regimens.
I don't follow soccer all that closely, but I honestly feel that in many sports that I do watch, we're starting to run up on the physical limits of the human body in certain contexts. I'm seeing more and more injuries to stars and it may just be that we are asking too much of the humans playing the sports. The only solution is better rest rules, and an honest look at what we want of our athletes.
the real issue is these players are built for speed.. none of them are actually built to endure a season
Another NPC comment. Why do you bots feel the need to make low effort comments? You don’t think maybe the scheduling and high stakes are taking a toll on players? Bot
@@BallersFC777or maybe they are both the problem 😂😂 it seems that you are the true NPC
@@BallersFC777or maybe they are both the problem 😂😂 it seems that you are the true NPC
@@BallersFC777the real npc got shut lol🤡
@@randomgamer5100 “players are built for speed and not to endure a season” we have the most advanced sports science and technology than ever but somehow you’re dumb enough to believe that statement😂
Rugby has a similar problem but lots of people think less subs is the answer. There's already min 1 week break between most rugby matches, but a fairly popular strategy is to load the bench with front row players, and telling the guys on the pitch to play themselves to exhaustion after 50-60 minutes so they can be taken off and replaced tactically with someone else. This encourages players not to train for fitness, but for pure mass. Some people believe this makes the sport more dangerous. The idea being that if players weren't so bloody huge, people would get hurt less. Less subs is one of the only ways a lot of people see to combat this.
' In 1920, they had to play a League Cup quarterfinal on the 17th of December," bro he was off by 100 years💀💀💀
You are right. We all love football but if these players don’t get breaks, this sport won’t be the same for long
Honestly with the Superleague. The big teams in La Liga and Serie A shot themselves in the foot with how they did things causing people to turn away from their leagues
I’ve been mentioning this for some time that the amount of games players play is ridiculous and (potentially one of the reasons) contributing to the injury problem. That and it’s causing a massive divide against big and smaller clubs because you need an entire starting 11 and above average to elite subs in order to make it through a season.
Just recently discovered your channel. Outstanding job, fantastic editing, charismatic presentation, just excellent. You have a new sub.
Oh, and let's go Gunners!! 😊
I don't think there will be a decrease to the number of games simply because the competitions, federations and broadcasters make too much money out of it. If anything, this situation will only continue to worsen until a compromise is reached - which will probably be larger squad numbers overall per team. Meaning the bigger clubs will eventually end up hoarding all the quality players to themselves in 40 - 50 man squads
There needs to be a per player game limit for club and country in addition to less games. One of the problems rn is managers are VERY bad on load management. It’s kinda shocking how far being the data they are compared to say the NBA, who are trying to get managers to rotate players less! If it’s not a per player limit, most managers will just use reduced schedules to rest their best players even less.
That kind of rule Will only work on close league where there are not risk of relegation like NBA for example, you can be bottom on league table and get reward for first draft pick. In open league like football, every manager Will always try to play their best team because of the risk itself, so they Will avoid losing point as many as possible by fielding their best in the team, in football is not only about winning but also about avoid relegation and also get into continental spot.
@@senoalamsyah7481 which is exactly why it needs to be a rule, managers have too much pressure for immediate results to look out for players long term career and health. If it’s a rule, every other relegation team has the same restrictions, so there isn’t a risk to the starters getting some rest.
Andros Townsend catching strays on 12:12 😅
I resently started folowing basketball, and they curently have the oposite problem in a way.
The injured players have increased just like in football, but the amout of games played by the players has decreased.
So the question has arised how many games are too much and how many is too litle. In other words how many games put too mcuh load on your body and how many you need to maintain fitnes and not increse the chanses of injury, since if you dont play for long enough time amd then jump into high intense games the risk of injury is very high.
I am a Barca fan so this Video really hits with me as you said in the intro. DeJong, Pedri and Gavi are probably our best players and they are all out injured now and Gavi even for the whole Season. For quite some time it really seemed like Barca really recovered and it was fun watcing them again but right now its just pure misery again, and of course you cant blame everyhing on it, but i think injuries are the main resaon for that and your Video points out very well why.
It'll be interesting to see if any teams develop playing strategies that are specifically designed to reduce injuries - slower play, more squad rotation etc - and if that profits them.
"We had a meeting last week with the FA. They recommended from the referees new decisions and rules,"
"From the managers and players, we have shared our concerns for many years now that there are too many games, the schedule is overcrowded, and it’s at a dangerous level for players physical and mental well-being.
"Despite our previous feedback, they have now recommended for next season: longer games, more intensity, and less emotions to be shown by players. We just want to be in good condition on the pitch to give 100 percent to our club and fans. Why are our opinions not being heard?
"As a player I feel very privileged to do the job I love every day, but I feel these changes are damaging our game. We want to be at our maximum level, the best we can be and put on amazing performances for fans to celebrate every week.
"I believe it is important that we, players and managers, highlight these important issues as we want to protect the game we love and give the fans our best."
-Raphael Varane.
On a journalistic side, very good content man. You've achieved to give an as objective point of view as possible. Well played.
When comparing to rugby league in Australia.
First off its full contact so more injury chances but ive also played both and have to say footballs aggression isnt too far behind.
The NRL have 12 subs that can be made in an 80 minute game (a player can go back on after being taken off), 27 games in a season (was 26 for a long time), 17 teams and only 2 different club competitions. One being the main league and the other being a club cup final (1 game). There is a world cup and maybe some feature games for international teams each year but it would be a shock if any player played over 35 games. Plus theres a guarantee of 6 weeks off each year from training and/or playing.
This doesnt mean there isnt major injuries with 15-20 season ending injuries happening each year but its no where near what the PL is seeing
Seeing football with such condense competition schedules with the length of game time and lack of subs always shocked me because after all it is only this condense because more games=more watch time=more money which big corps always want
Increasing subs, changing play times for certain competitions (move FA cup outside of regular season) or making leagues have less games is something that should be pushed for football. I want to see these golden boys make their full potential, not just see it on fifa.
Now that you mention it. Barcelona have had three proper youngsters that have been injury prone, Fati, Gavi and Pedri who are played differently than young Messi was. The players aren't being rested at all and it's causing muscle fatigue, leading to easier injuries.
These teams have rosters of like 30 guys or more use them it is that simple managers just need to start rotating squads more and prioritize the games accordingly
I agree with the increased number of matches because: 1. It levels the playing field between teams 2. It gives more players the opportunity to play
As a Newcastle fan, we currently have about 11 first team players injured. I think we were at 14 at one point, there're far too many games.
I know a lot of people will roll their eyes at this but honestly another huge problem is that these players like Gavi, Pedri, Saka, Ansu Fati, etc are small, skillful players who get fouled a lot, and are specifically targeted by teams for aggressive treatment.
These players, especially young ones, do require some more protection from the ref. There's a reason Messi has lasted so long; the refs (and you'll know this if you watched him while he was in La Liga) were very, very quick to blow the whistle and issue cards against players who targeted him. I know a lot of people didn't like this 'preferential treatment' but it played a major role in why we got to enjoy watching him play as long and as much as he did.
Lol
Go play with the kids then, leave the adults play football
Also you're the most sane Messi fan, trying to spin preferential treatment as a good thing
Most bunch of bollocks I have ever read
@@LudwigVaanArthans Lol 'Messi fan' not even going to engage in that debate because I don't care 'who's better' - that's a debate for kids, adults just enjoy watching good football and good players.
Watch UFC if you enjoy seeing people get kicked mate, I'd prefer to see good footballers play good football and have long lasting careers. Sorry your masculinity was so offended by my comment.
@@EliasRoy I get it you're really tough because you think football is about grown men kicking each other. What an exciting game it would be if people like you were in charge.
Too many substitutions break the game .. the problem is not the playing time, but the total amount of games.. Imo, a league should have 16-18 teams max!
More games isn’t necessarily the problem if clubs rotate more. That gives more playing time to reserves/youth and fans, Uefa, tv networks get what they want; more matches.
Problem is how to incentivize managers to rotate, and not rely on their best players playing every minute.
Perhaps there should be cap on number of matches a player can play per month or season.
what's even crazier is the fact that physical play has been severely reduced over the years. players aren't really being injured by other players but by themselves because they train to be pure athletes rather than football players.
NPC comment. “They train to be pure athletes rather than football players”😂😂 like shut tf up bot
What I would recommend as Measures:
- Lower amount of Group matches in the Nations League from 6 -> 3
- Remove Nations League Relegation / Promotion Playoffs / Lower the legs from 2 to 1
- Abandon announced CL-Format
- Eventually reduce the number of Club-Spots in some more overfilled leagues by 1-4 spots to reduce amount of competitive matches in national league
Great video and very important topic!!! Agree with everything said!