In a recent Press Conference, Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola gave his opinion in the English fixture list congestion. Stating that the schedule was ‘killling’ the players the congestion, and game pile up, was a ‘disaster’ for players.
All the Premier League sides have played four games in a short space of time. Some have had a little more time between games, others not so much. League One boss Karl Robinson mocked the City boss on his comments, but clearly missed the point.
Other than the fact all his games over the Christmas period have come three days apart, Charlton have played 33 games, including the FA trophy, since August 5th. Manchester City, who kicked off their season a week later, have been involved in Champions League along with the League, and have played only two less.
So while they had home ties to Fulham U-21’s in the EFL Trophy followed days later with a home fixture to Truro in the FA Cup we were away to Napoli in the Champions League, before hosting Arsenal in the league.
Now, an injury data analyst, has backed up Pep’s comments. Ben Dinnery, a freelance Data Injury Analyst, used to crunch numbers by BBC, ESPN and other sports media outlets. In his findings he has shown that injuries in December went up 32% compared to previous months of the season.
It was significant though that the majority of those injuries were soft tissue injuries along muscle, ligament and tendon damage. Those types of injuries were actually up by 45% and are linked with an increase in fixtures, a cut in recovery time between fixtures.
A look at the Premier Injuries website shows you we have already 12 reported injuries in January, six of which are classed as ‘significant’. For Manchester City, we know of Benjamin Mendys continued absence. Gabriel Jesus joined him on the last day of December and will miss around six weeks.
Kyle Walker was also seen limping towards the end of the game, and is listed as having a groin/hip/pelvic injury and is currently being assessed. Vincent Kompany is back on the list, but should be back for the Carabao Cup Semi Final.
The data shows we are running our players into the ground and anyone in their correct mind will understand the need for recovery time between games. Some arguments are that the clubs take the television money and so should accept the schedule.
But does that argument hold water when in January, February and maybe longer, we are not seeing the best eleven put out because they all ran themselves into the medical office for our festive entertainment?
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We complain loudly when the fixtures are halted because of an International break and a player comes back injured, but then a month or so later we are happy for them to run themselves into the ground. The Premier League is the only league of Europe’s top leagues who do not embrace the winter break. I think we could still have our festive fixture list, Boxing Day and New Years day, followed by two-week break.
The traditionalists have already lost because of when the games have been played over this festive period. Every day has pretty much had a Premier League game, with some clubs not playing on those traditional days. I know we didn’t play on Boxing Day or New Years day, and I’m sure we weren’t the only ones.