Huge spike in premier league injuries due to fixture congestion

[TheLittleBigMan]

Surely this cannot go on..

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/01/02/exclusive-huge-spike-recent-premier-league-injuries-sparks-call/

[Collymore]

4 hours ago, TheLittleBigMan said:

Surely this cannot go on..

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/01/02/exclusive-huge-spike-recent-premier-league-injuries-sparks-call/

The clubs need to manage it better like we have. 

Edited 3 January 2020 by Collymore

[Goober]

Just now, Collymore said:

The club's need to manage it better like we have. 

They don't all have the luxury of sitting 2nd in the table like we do. Nor do they have the luxury of having a squad as strong as ours. Much harder to make wholesale changes and potentially chuck away points when you're down at the bottom.

[TheLittleBigMan]

1 minute ago, Collymore said:

The club's need to manage it better like we have. 

I don't think making forced changes is managing anything. It's not good for the sport or the fans that watch it. Mostly, these figures are telling us it's definitely not  good for the players. You'd have to acknowledge that after seeing Newcastle. 

[knitro]

They need to find times earlier in the season to add fixtures vs. this mid-season glut or trying to extend it later into June. They could even make a thing of it - like "Big Tuesday" when everyone plays after the first Saturday or something. If there's not going to be a winter break, inventiveness is needed.

[urban.spaceman]

No shit.

[MPH]

Most teams compensate for the amount of games by drastically reducing the training they do. It’s most likely that’s the cause of the injuries rather than the actual increased amount of games. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stadt]

7 minutes ago, MPH said:

Most teams compensate for the amount of games by drastically reducing the training they do. It’s most likely that’s the cause of the injuries rather than the actual increased amount of games. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, sport scientist MPH

[Guest SO1]

Up to the players to form a union that has bite. Ultimately its their livelihood that's getting destroyed by this.

As always its the lowest paid players who always suffer the most damage. Look for the league to drive a wedge between the players.

Sadly greed always seems to prevail.

 

[HybridFox]

Not rocket science is it. But TV broadcasters and the Premier League are unable to look past the £ signs 

Edited 3 January 2020 by TK95

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

Love the busy Christmas period myself, if players get muscle injuries then that's a shame but I can't say I'll lose much sleep over it.

[MPH]

1 hour ago, Stadt said:

Thanks, sport scientist MPH

you’re welcome!

[Dan LCFC]

Just trim it down a bit. Move the season to start a week earlier. Bin pointless games (there's a real case to bin the CL and Europa groups IMO). Scrap FA Cup replays between two teams in the same league. Get rid of one of the games from this period - in this instance, West Ham away.

 

I've got to admit I've gone right off fixtures like Boxing Day and New Years Day. Boxing Day's a logistical ballache. In terms of attending games the Christmas period is good but the actual games themselves are frequently shit.

[Nicolo Barella]

A lot of it I think is down to poor sport science. It's no coincidence one of the worst sufferers is Newcastle under Brucey, a notorious worsener of injuries.

[jayfox26]

2 hours ago, Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot said:

Love the busy Christmas period myself, if players get muscle injuries then that's a shame but I can't say I'll lose much sleep over it.

I'd be pretty pissed off if it was us that ended up with Evans, Soyuncu and 2 others injured after the Newcastle game instead of them getting 4 injuries! Easy to say don't worry about it when we are fortunate enough not to have fallen foul of the fixture congestion! 

[mannyzlcfc]

4 hours ago, Goober said:

They don't all have the luxury of sitting 2nd in the table like we do. Nor do they have the luxury of having a squad as strong as ours. Much harder to make wholesale changes and potentially chuck away points when you're down at the bottom.

It also doesn't help when theres more international breaks in a season.

[ozleicester]

What percentage of those injuries are related to "extra" games?

 

Clavicles, ankles, toes and "knocks" are just injuries.

 

Yes, you play more games you get more injuries but the injuries arent a result of added strain and stress.

[Matt]

Anyone ever noticed the huge spike in Premier League 'injuries' ahead of pointless International Friendlies aswell? Just saying.

[Gamble92]

I don't think anyone would miss the fixture crammed inbetween boxing day and new years day. 

[MC Prussian]

I'm a bit surprised by this finding.

It's as if the fixture congestion wasn't known beforehand and no one had the time and foresight to prepare. Are other clubs' fitness coaches and managers that bad at handling the flurry of games? 

How did teams in the past deal with it then? Doesn't seem anything new to me or something worth complaining about. Champions are the ones handling it the best or the ones lucky enough not to suffer too many injuries.

 

Klopp moaned no end about it, suffered in a cup game deploying youngsters, but Liverpool still handled it very well (some people interpreted the moan as weakness, but here you go).

 

Maybe it's not just the fixture congestion, or not at all. Maybe it's the price to pay for a type of football that becomes increasingly physical and predominantly fast-paced, which puts strain in itself on the joints and muscles.

And maybe more managers occasionally need to put more faith in their fringe players as starters instead of desperately clinging onto fielding their strongest starting XI every single week.

Now they certainly know.

[Guest bss9401]

It is a shame and unfortunate that 4 Newcastle players got injured by each having been torn a new a'hole. 

[NaijaFox]

Are there more injuries PER games or merely an aggregate of more injuries just because there are more games? Interestingly, this rash of injuries seemed to affect the top teams the least (if at all). 

[Finnegan]

I just don't understand why we insist on playing the Saturday in between. 

 

I'm really against a Christmas break, I've said loads of times I hate to hear managers moan about it, most people I know like the boxing day and new years day games. 

 

But they're comfortably a week apart. The obsession with sticking to the Saturday in between is odd and getting rid of it seems like such an obvious fix. 

 

That said, almost all of Newcastle's injuries against us were just awful management. They were all injured or risks before kick off and shouldn't have played. 

[mazarron fox]

It says on that list Ricci has an hamstring problem and Barnes too? Is that true? 

[Guest bss9401]

I listened to a 5 live podcast this week and it covered this subject. I heard Pulis, Crouch, Shearer and others say that they absolutely loved the December/|January period. Their points were that as professional footballers they are very privileged, are in love with the game and are in peak condition physically. To them playing several games in rapid succession was part of what they lived for and Pulis has said that he cannot understand those who complain about it.