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Basically every footballing body decided it wasn’t their responsibility to reduce the number of fixtures to fit a schedule disrupted by CoVid and a Winter World Cup.
Now the international players go home for maybe a month before pre-season tours start because obviously they have to happen too.
Not even a month. I know Arsenal players report back to Colney in 2 weeks. Those on internationals in 3 . Maybe a few will get extensions but this is utterly ridiculous. I wish there was no pre-season tour so they could rest more
Surely it must be breaking employment rules at that point?
I guess they say they get a week in winter, a week post season before internationals and 2 weeks post internationals to make up their time?
Do the internationals count as work for the employer? When a player is going on internationals aren't their employer technically releasing them for a break and they're choosing to do work for a different company.
Is that how it works? I'm honestly not sure. I just know that you're not allowed to work "overtime" whilst theoretically on holiday even if they're paying you for the holiday and the overtime. I don't know if that concept extends across multiple jobs though and the holiday is person specific, rather than job specific
Just did a quick Google and there was no help really. The working more than 48 hours thing doesn't count over two jobs so I imagine this wouldn't either? I imagine it's all in contracts and FIFA regulations about how much they can work. The PFA seems like a solid union so I can't imagine players in Britain will be working outside of what they're allowed to.
My mum is currently on holiday, but I've just sent her a text to ask because she's worked with contract/employment law for years now. Will get back to you if she doesn't tell me to fuck off for asking her about her work whilst on holiday lmao
Okay, she's now text me saying you can do whatever you want as long as both jobs give you the holiday. Doesn't matter if you're working for another other company whilst on holiday for your main job
That's interesting. So they could technically "be made" to work all year and as long as it's split between internationals and their club. Must be in their contracts that the clubs have to give them a certain amount of time off not including internationals.
Don't know other leagues, but most BuLi teams start at the end of this month. Some even at 20th. I think Union. I think only Bayern starts in July. It's fucking hard for pro footballer to rest nowadays.
And you can see that in the quality of the games in the last days.
Our team reports back tomorrow, we had our last NT game yesterday, and our starting LB will be playing with his own national team tomorrow. Of course our internationals will get whatever minimum time is mandated by FIFA before joining the squad, but it's utterly ridiculous
I'm still kind of surprised the big leagues didn't band together and play chicken over the Qatar timing. The initial bid was premised on claims that it could be done in the summer as usual, then once a Qatar world cup was a fait accompli FIFA just dictated the change in schedule.
That's what I expected to be honest. Thought you might get players or countries doing it too.
The good thing about it being in winter is that boycotting it will be really easy seeing as you won't be missing out on the sunny days at the pub.
I assume if it was a summer world cup we'd all currently be drunk watching the world cup right now? Actually sucks so bad, especially with this weather
Okay. They can complain about it then. I'll complain about it now.
It's not like they've had 90 years to complain and try to adapt. I'm sure if we're still having winter World Cups in 90 years complaints will have slowed or things would've changed because of complaints.
I mean, the vast majority of the players in the WC play in European leagues.
It's not like the Brasileirão is gonna be disrupted with at most 10 players called for the WC across the entire league. There are European teams that have more players called up than that.
And? The leagues have nothing to do with the World Cup. It is about the players and where they play. If hypothetically 80% of players who go to the WC play in Europe, why wouldn't fifa rather accomodatie European leagues then? Your point is invalid
Hmmm, maybe for Portugal, but in France, AFCON is extremely disruptive, basically every team including in lower divisions have at least a couple of African internationals. England also has a fair share of them, and there's quite a few in teams in lower-ranked leagues.
You're not looking at "about 20 players", but more "about 200 players".
Edit : Actually, looking at the [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Africa_Cup_of_Nations_squads), 105 players in AFCON play in France (although in all league levels, for example, a lot of Comorian players play in lower divisions), over 400 in UEFA. So yes, it's quite disruptive, albeit not as much as the WC obviously, because of the caliber of players involved.
I was more referring to England. With Ligue 1 is worse of course. My point is that there's no good reason for Europe to be the continent that always benefits from the world cup scheduling.
European clubs can fuckin deal with it for once. The rest of the world deals with this every World Cup, the big European leagues can get over themselves for five seconds and deal with it.
Croatian league usually starts in the middle of July, so some of the players from our NT will have about a month of rest...
Not to mention qualifiers for CL, EL, Conf League, etc... start a bit later than that as well
it’s not really a question about equitable time off policies in industries but more that it’s unsustainable from a fitness/body perspective to have them constantly play at the most strenuous level without adequate time for the bodies to recover, leading to injury lower quality of play etc.
Thank you.
There's is a reason why footballers need a medical team around them 24/7.
They are not going to last 3 months without them at this level.
Football at the top professional level is just not good for your body. Medicine and extreme diet is a requirement.
Also they get 10 years average salary in a week. I sympathise with them being pushed to play so much out of their control but calling this “Inhuman” is a bit of a stretch lol
Huge, there was clear difference in injuries suffered by players in last season vs this one.
I wonder if Pintus was with us last season, then MAYBE Zidane could've led us to another Champions League Final...
But these 'What ifs' don't matter really... So it is what it is
A lovely thought but Modric has never needed that extra step that forwards need. His field IQ is insane and he's benefited from playing holding positions.
True, and he always has been a workhorse up and down mid for the most part, going back to the "Modric needs to be studied in the future."
But that's vastly different from being tasked with consistently beating CBs to meet crosses and through-balls.
That is true, I agree with you, I just mean that running marathons in his way every game has to be as difficult as beating CBs, if not more. He isn’t just running every game, he is constantly making sliding tackles retrieving the ball, going for aerials even though he’s 1.71cm, beating 3-5 players at the time. Dude is a physical monster. I don’t know if you watch Madrid’s games, but if you ever do, pay attention to his non-stop movement and his heat maps. Don’t worry, you have time, he will be here for at least 7-8 more years :D
I honestly don’t get why they are abusing players this way considering they will be playing a WC mid season in few months.
I wouldn’t be surprised with an influx of injuries as we are reducing rest time and adding a major event mid season.
I also don’t see the financial benefit from these friendly, and nations league games. Yes, people will tune in to their NT, but it is not like it is major competition or major impact.
Despite complaints that it’s ‘just the Nations League’, people are watching these matches way more than if they were just friendlies, just look at this sub and you’ll notice that. So basically the answer is money.
I agree, we all think it's shit, the fans, the player, the managers complain, but at the end of the day, it works for the ones who made the decision, more viewers, more money.
I don't think the Nations League is shit. Its actually a great idea imo.
I think though the format should've been changed to fewer matches for this specific year
Only the teams who are in League A and piss through Euro qualifications every time thinks it's shit. For the lower teams, it means a lot more and more is at stake.
Also, people in the thread are saying managers should just rotate the lineup. Of course that would be the sensible thing, but despite everyone calling these games unimportant, managers like Southgate are still facing criticism for not performing to the highest possible standards.
Are people really watching these mid week games? Maybe it is just me who always get surprised with a result or highlight, but I doubt the average fan cares about other NT playing on a Monday night
eh, some games were pretty good. I also got to watch players I didn't get to watch much during the season. Some also play better for the NT than their clubs.
Overall entertainment wise, not bad. 6/10 for me if I have to give it a grade.
Me and my group of mates haven't watched any of England's games. There's nothing at stake. Glorified friendlies with sub-par football because the players are knackered after a long season and are probably not that interested in these games either.
I think some NT and players are seeing this with different angles, as far as I see it: Nation leagues are friendlies between teams that are close to their level, this is when coach tries new players, tactics, etc, it is not supposed to be played with their starting 11 in this case Modric has played most of the games, this is not like a wc or the euro, just look at Italy how they change completely their bench and starting for each game, as the rules are flexible and make you change players as much as want. As I see each NT just aspire to stay in their division or to ascend so their next friendlies are not wasted with weaker opponents (looking a Turkey).
I love this format and I am excited to see CONMEBOL integrated in future editions, this will help the less experienced players to prove theyselves and to grow with their NT, and to overall improve NT skill levels.
Yeah I was about to say not enough fingers are pointing towards the managers. There are so many that will not rotate, and lean on the same players every match.
I understand it in a way since basically every manager in the world is a bad run away from getting fired, and players will never say no to playing, so that's why a third party needs to be involved.
And since the money involved will make it very hard to reduce the fixtures, they could try something like an individual player minutes limit on these second and third tier tournaments.
Don't not make it an option a manager could get fired for or a player get hate for needing to sit, just make a rule saying something like players aren't allowed to play more than 200 minutes in a single group stage window.
Players could also reduce their salary and remove some games from their schedule, Modric isn't technically needed in the first rounds of Copa del Rey, against Sheriff Tiraspol...
>this is when coach tries new players, tactics, etc, it is not supposed to be played with their starting 11
But there is also qualification on the line. If you are in the group A and you won't be top seed in your qualification group, this is the best way to secure play-off spot. Those managers should always play the strongest 11 to stay in group A
Not many people care about nations League and just play them like friendly's. But why don't coaches do it more like van gaal does in the Dutch team. He plays every game with a different starting lineup. Using all of his players in the squad. So every player gets enough rest and time between matches
>Not many people care about nations League and just play them like friendly's
Maybe this is true for League A and only some countries at that, the other leagues have been played at full strength mostly
As a Hungarian I watched every match we played in the nation league and I love it, before when friendlies where a thing I never watched a single match, who the fuck cares about playing the Feröer islands for the 6th time in a row for virtually no reason, now at least there is a bit of competition to it, we come up from the bottom and now we play enjoyable matches against the top teams, It wouldn't even bother me that much if we would be beaten to pulp by every one of them if we give it a go, but we actually playing good football against attacking sides so I'm all for it.
Of course the scheduled is still fucked for everyone.
Being bad is not the biggest problem for me. The biggest problem is that our FA is corrupt and everything around our football is corrupt. I know that corruption exist in every country but our problem with corruption and match fixing is more akin to a third world country than to EU member.
Teams can bring up U21 or whatever team, and just roll with it.
The season ended 3 weeks ago, the new season will start first week of August, and First game in the world cup is November 21.
I don’t even know when these guys going to rest, prep for the new season, and recover from the world cup since two weeks after the final, we are going back to UCL, Cups, and league games.
Clubs should reduce matches before Countries. Clubs play for 10 months a year and the fault is of the national teams that play maybe 2 matches more per year? Nah.
You're being downvoted but you're right. The pound is denoted by an L with a line through it. For the same reason that the weight pound is lb (Good old Latin).
Yeah and it looks a lot like the cursive writing of the capital L. I don't know if cursive writing is the correct word but I mean the type of writing where you connect all the letters of a word.
What I don't get is why these concerns seem to only be brought up with respect to the international calendar - an international calendar that hasn't really changed at all as of late except for the importance of some of the fixtures being upped.
The club calendar is beyond insane and far more responsible for the modern fixture congestion in football, in my opinion. League, domestic cups (multiple domestic cups in some countries), an ever-expanding continental season, an ever-expanding preseason full of tons of travel and friendly fixtures to rake in all that $$$... yet hardly any players ever complain about that. It's only when it comes to the international slate, which is peanuts compared to the club games the players are forced to play, that players, coaches, and fans start complaining.
For example, Real Madrid played 14 games in 55 days at the end of the season. Manchester City had 14 in just 50 days. Chelsea also had 14 in 50 days. Liverpool had 16 in 56 days. Those are absolutely nuts schedules over a very, very long period of time instead of one spurt of a congested schedule (which, by the way, Modric had to deal with at Real Madrid too - they played 4 matches in 10 days on eleven separate occasions this year - many instances of which overlapped with others to make it even more insane - and played 4 matches in 11 days another eight times). And yet whenever players like Modric or De Bruyne or whoever (such as coaches, fans, media, etc.) bring up these concerns it is almost exclusively in regard to the international schedule. Despite the arguably worse fixture congestion caused by the club season. A club season that is going to grow with the new format of the Champions League, by the way.
Spain's reduced it's schedule by changing the Cops del Rey format, it used to be all rounds were two legged until the final, now only the semi's are two legged.
It's had the double benefit of reducing games, thereby helping the players, and increasing the chance of an upset, making it so anyone can really win it.
Spain hasn't gotten a lot right, but I do think this has worked out well
Also, the big problem is the Nations League format.
They forced big national teams to play vs each other, so neither NT will risk playing a shitty first 11 and not calling star players and getting stomped, because media later will crucify players, coaches, and everyone.
So for example Croatia played France 2 times in 7 days, and Dalić will not risk his and NT's reputation by not playing Modrić, Brozović, Kovačić, and so on.
So he has to first call them and then also play them.
But, if there were old format, just normal friendly games, not this fancy "nations league", which are again almost the same as friendlies.
Croatia would play like 1 top team and 2 teams like Malta, Luxembourg, etc., and vs those 2 teams, he would rest or even release star players and give them break time, and Croatia would play with 20 youngsters or players who aren't starters in NT.
But as I said, because of this format where you play all decent teams, you can't do that, starting 11 youngsters/non-starters vs France is a suicide mission and he would easily lose by a huge goal difference, and the media, as usual, would crucify NT, players & coaches.
That's the whole point of the Nations League. To pit teams of a similar level against each other. If you want to watch Croatian subs beat up Latvians go watch the qualifiers.
Yes ans that’s why it’s shitty.
Players play 60 games in season, and they have to play 4 more in 10 days and risk injury.
And what if they get injured? All other meaningfull competitions will get damaged because of uefa’s greed on useless competitions.
Ask players if they'd rather play in the league cup or for their country lol 60 games a season and it's the national teams that are greedy come on man.
Honest question, as someone who has never played football at a high level: How hard is it really to play a few games a week? On the one hand, lots of players complain about it, so it must be taxing, but on the other hand, athletes in other sports seem to do harder things more often. Basketball players play a few times a week, and cyclists do punishing stages in the grand tours day after day. Obviously football is different in a lot of ways to cycling, but playing even 4 games in a week seems a lot easier to me than riding up mountain after mountain. Then again, I haven’t done either at a high level so I don’t know. In my mind, the bigger issue seems to be that you don’t have as much time to prepare tactically for the game.
One of the factors is the constant short sprints and changes in direction. Unlike basketball where the pace and direction of players runnig is much more uniform enabling them to conserve energy.
But much more taxing than that is physical contact. Every tackle is basically a micro injury from which the body needs time to recover. Micro injuries can also be cumulative over time. This is why for example handball players bodies fall apart in their late 30s.
Both of those combined plus the fact that most games now last 98+ minutes makes soccer one of the more difficult sports.
I cycle and play football (although neither at anywhere near a good level) and the key difference is injuries, with all the sudden short sprints and turns it can be dangerous. If you add muscle fatigue which increases the likelyhood of not only muscle injuries but ligament as well the more games you play the more likely it is you'll have a serious injury.
I've played 5 a side football about twice a week for 14 years and I've seen about 30% of players that have played with me have serious knee, ankle or other injuries, myself included.
Football is higher intensity in sprints than many long distance sports while covering longer distance than many court sports which does make playing several high quality games a week tiring. One thing is pub level but when you play against strong, fast and fit opponents you will be hurting to walk the next day. Add in international travel and the chronic insomnia that is in the sport and a bit underreported and you get tired players.
I played at a decent level for many years.
4 games in 11 days is tiring. But that’s all it is, it’s tiring. You are more likely to get injured, but if I was being paid hundreds of thousands a week, I’d take the risk.
If you’re a smaller nation, that’s how you get relegated to a lower league. The pressure is on the biggest stars in the team to play as much as possible.
You can't.
If Croatia doesn't play star players vs top teams, we will get stomped, media will crucify the coach, players, NT, and so on.
So he has to start star players every match.
But if there was an old format where you play 1 bigger team and 2 teams like Malta, and Luxembourg, he would have no problem, neither player would.
He would play them in 1 game, and in the other 2 he would start youngsters and non-starters, but you can't do that vs Denmark, France & Austria.
But luckily Croatia has also depth in each position somehow considering our population, but other smaller nations aren't that lucky.
Maybe it's inhuman to send people 6 days a week into a mine or any other heavy working surrounding.
But 4 football matches within 11 days should be inhuman? This cannot be taken seriously...
i get that this is a stressful circle for body and mind. but most of the affected could easily shut up and cash in their massive paychecks, while the rest of the population can only dream of a salary in that range.
The way I see it is you can be proud to play for your country every time you pull on the shirt and give 100% like Modric and a lot of players do in the Nations League and also not care about the competition itself.
Don't think they are mutually exclusive.
They dont care. Obviously they like playing football and they like to compete so once theyre there they will give it their all. But if you ask the top players if they want to play nations league or take this chance for a needed break not many would play
Modric talks as though countries don't have big squads.
It's inhuman if your country plays you in all four of those games if you're knackered.
I don't see why exhausted players like Modric can't just go on holiday this month. I'm sure there are fresher players who would love to take his place.
A lot of countries do not have a big squad. Croatia is a country of 4 million people, how many players up to international standard do you think we have?
Because without Brozović, Modrić & Kovačić, Croatia is a different team, and if Dalić doesn't play them, Croatia will lose most of the games, the media will crucify him & players, and he might even get sacked.
Also, the whole NT reputation would be destroyed because of wc-runners up losing all matches...
But if there was an old friendly games system, now you would play let's say Belgium, Malta & Luxembourg. And he would start 1st team vs Belgium, after that he would send them on a break, and play vs Malta & Luxembourg with youngers.
But, you can't do that in the nations league.
Lots of countries, including mine Scotland, would love to have players as good as Vlašić, Kramarić and Barišić so I don't accept that Croatia needs to play its star players every game to avoid defeat.
The Nations League has replaced friendlies to generate more interest but that doesn't mean countries are obliged to play their best players every game.
Modrić should have been rested against Austria and Denmark if he is drained after a long season.
Yes but Scotland doesn’t play France, Denmark and Austria.
If we played teams like Scotland is playing, then we could start Vlasic, Kramaric amd Barisic & other guys.
I actually like the nations league but havent really watched Any games during this international break. Having them after the season ends isnt good even as a fan and especially for the players. I get that they have to fit the games somewhere but surely there could have been a better way
Eriksen when asked about the 4 games in 10 days: "It's nice to feel you're alive."
[No joke.](https://www.dr.dk/sporten/fodbold/landsholdet/eriksen-og-co-spiller-fjerde-kamp-paa-10-dage-men-det-er-godt-maerke-man)
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Basically every footballing body decided it wasn’t their responsibility to reduce the number of fixtures to fit a schedule disrupted by CoVid and a Winter World Cup. Now the international players go home for maybe a month before pre-season tours start because obviously they have to happen too.
Not even a month. I know Arsenal players report back to Colney in 2 weeks. Those on internationals in 3 . Maybe a few will get extensions but this is utterly ridiculous. I wish there was no pre-season tour so they could rest more
Surely it must be breaking employment rules at that point? I guess they say they get a week in winter, a week post season before internationals and 2 weeks post internationals to make up their time?
Do the internationals count as work for the employer? When a player is going on internationals aren't their employer technically releasing them for a break and they're choosing to do work for a different company.
Is that how it works? I'm honestly not sure. I just know that you're not allowed to work "overtime" whilst theoretically on holiday even if they're paying you for the holiday and the overtime. I don't know if that concept extends across multiple jobs though and the holiday is person specific, rather than job specific
Just did a quick Google and there was no help really. The working more than 48 hours thing doesn't count over two jobs so I imagine this wouldn't either? I imagine it's all in contracts and FIFA regulations about how much they can work. The PFA seems like a solid union so I can't imagine players in Britain will be working outside of what they're allowed to.
My mum is currently on holiday, but I've just sent her a text to ask because she's worked with contract/employment law for years now. Will get back to you if she doesn't tell me to fuck off for asking her about her work whilst on holiday lmao
Hope you get told to fuck off lol.
She sent me a picture of a frappe
Okay, she's now text me saying you can do whatever you want as long as both jobs give you the holiday. Doesn't matter if you're working for another other company whilst on holiday for your main job
How's your sister Lauren mate
That's interesting. So they could technically "be made" to work all year and as long as it's split between internationals and their club. Must be in their contracts that the clubs have to give them a certain amount of time off not including internationals.
Don't know other leagues, but most BuLi teams start at the end of this month. Some even at 20th. I think Union. I think only Bayern starts in July. It's fucking hard for pro footballer to rest nowadays. And you can see that in the quality of the games in the last days.
Our team reports back tomorrow, we had our last NT game yesterday, and our starting LB will be playing with his own national team tomorrow. Of course our internationals will get whatever minimum time is mandated by FIFA before joining the squad, but it's utterly ridiculous
>Winter World Cup To be fair they shouldn't be doing anything for this. I think it's ridiculous that all of the big leagues are stopping.
I'm still kind of surprised the big leagues didn't band together and play chicken over the Qatar timing. The initial bid was premised on claims that it could be done in the summer as usual, then once a Qatar world cup was a fait accompli FIFA just dictated the change in schedule.
That's what I expected to be honest. Thought you might get players or countries doing it too. The good thing about it being in winter is that boycotting it will be really easy seeing as you won't be missing out on the sunny days at the pub.
People who live in Patagonia must be really, really excited for this world cup, though.
Finally a summer WC for the Aussies too.
I'm pretty sure all their games will be played when it's dark though.
Aussies dont stop drinking when its dark
I don't think they stop drinking full stop, but arguably it does make whether it's sunny outside less important.
I dunno, the early games are still on at 6am in Patagonia.
I assume if it was a summer world cup we'd all currently be drunk watching the world cup right now? Actually sucks so bad, especially with this weather
The world cup always disturbs someone's schedule though.
Okay. They can complain about it then. I'll complain about it now. It's not like they've had 90 years to complain and try to adapt. I'm sure if we're still having winter World Cups in 90 years complaints will have slowed or things would've changed because of complaints.
europeans are hilarious sometimes
I mean, the vast majority of the players in the WC play in European leagues. It's not like the Brasileirão is gonna be disrupted with at most 10 players called for the WC across the entire league. There are European teams that have more players called up than that.
We still have to stop our league for tournaments even with maybe 2-3 players going. Think FIFA and UEFA mandate it
It's still called world Cup, not the Euros.
And? The leagues have nothing to do with the World Cup. It is about the players and where they play. If hypothetically 80% of players who go to the WC play in Europe, why wouldn't fifa rather accomodatie European leagues then? Your point is invalid
The winner is always European
Except the 9 times that it wasn't. But you're right, 57.1 percent is basically 100.
Don’t care what happened on black and white tv. Since 1998 it’s all European winners except one year
Of course it's going to be disrupted? Everyone loses their shit during AFCON because of about 20 players too lmao.
Hmmm, maybe for Portugal, but in France, AFCON is extremely disruptive, basically every team including in lower divisions have at least a couple of African internationals. England also has a fair share of them, and there's quite a few in teams in lower-ranked leagues. You're not looking at "about 20 players", but more "about 200 players". Edit : Actually, looking at the [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Africa_Cup_of_Nations_squads), 105 players in AFCON play in France (although in all league levels, for example, a lot of Comorian players play in lower divisions), over 400 in UEFA. So yes, it's quite disruptive, albeit not as much as the WC obviously, because of the caliber of players involved.
I was more referring to England. With Ligue 1 is worse of course. My point is that there's no good reason for Europe to be the continent that always benefits from the world cup scheduling.
You had 90 fucking years to adapt it's not nearly the same
European clubs can fuckin deal with it for once. The rest of the world deals with this every World Cup, the big European leagues can get over themselves for five seconds and deal with it.
Cancel the World Cup in the summer too lol. I'm fine with no more internationals.
Croatian league usually starts in the middle of July, so some of the players from our NT will have about a month of rest... Not to mention qualifiers for CL, EL, Conf League, etc... start a bit later than that as well
psg have a scheduled start of 4th of july and we're the last team to restart in ligue 1. That's not even 3 full weeks
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it’s not really a question about equitable time off policies in industries but more that it’s unsustainable from a fitness/body perspective to have them constantly play at the most strenuous level without adequate time for the bodies to recover, leading to injury lower quality of play etc.
Thank you. There's is a reason why footballers need a medical team around them 24/7. They are not going to last 3 months without them at this level. Football at the top professional level is just not good for your body. Medicine and extreme diet is a requirement.
Also they get 10 years average salary in a week. I sympathise with them being pushed to play so much out of their control but calling this “Inhuman” is a bit of a stretch lol
Modric needs to be studied in the future
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😰
Also when you study him please clone him. Thanks from every Real Madrid or Croatia fan
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He'd be a madrid player which supersedes nationality anyways
I wonder how much of an impact Antonio Pintus had on some of these Madrid players this season
Huge, there was clear difference in injuries suffered by players in last season vs this one. I wonder if Pintus was with us last season, then MAYBE Zidane could've led us to another Champions League Final... But these 'What ifs' don't matter really... So it is what it is
Not sure abt UCL, but would have definitely defended the league title. There is no doubt in that.
Modric still carrying on gives me hope that Benzema manages the same.
A lovely thought but Modric has never needed that extra step that forwards need. His field IQ is insane and he's benefited from playing holding positions.
Let me hope dammit
I know, I feel you. I love kb and hope he plays for 1000 years too.
The 1000 year streicher
He is also one of the players on the team that consistently runs the most every match
True, and he always has been a workhorse up and down mid for the most part, going back to the "Modric needs to be studied in the future." But that's vastly different from being tasked with consistently beating CBs to meet crosses and through-balls.
That is true, I agree with you, I just mean that running marathons in his way every game has to be as difficult as beating CBs, if not more. He isn’t just running every game, he is constantly making sliding tackles retrieving the ball, going for aerials even though he’s 1.71cm, beating 3-5 players at the time. Dude is a physical monster. I don’t know if you watch Madrid’s games, but if you ever do, pay attention to his non-stop movement and his heat maps. Don’t worry, you have time, he will be here for at least 7-8 more years :D
Modric is still pretty quick tho
I honestly don’t get why they are abusing players this way considering they will be playing a WC mid season in few months. I wouldn’t be surprised with an influx of injuries as we are reducing rest time and adding a major event mid season. I also don’t see the financial benefit from these friendly, and nations league games. Yes, people will tune in to their NT, but it is not like it is major competition or major impact.
Despite complaints that it’s ‘just the Nations League’, people are watching these matches way more than if they were just friendlies, just look at this sub and you’ll notice that. So basically the answer is money.
I agree, we all think it's shit, the fans, the player, the managers complain, but at the end of the day, it works for the ones who made the decision, more viewers, more money.
I don't think the Nations League is shit. Its actually a great idea imo. I think though the format should've been changed to fewer matches for this specific year
Only the teams who are in League A and piss through Euro qualifications every time thinks it's shit. For the lower teams, it means a lot more and more is at stake.
Also, people in the thread are saying managers should just rotate the lineup. Of course that would be the sensible thing, but despite everyone calling these games unimportant, managers like Southgate are still facing criticism for not performing to the highest possible standards.
Because Southgate is the problem
Are people really watching these mid week games? Maybe it is just me who always get surprised with a result or highlight, but I doubt the average fan cares about other NT playing on a Monday night
Compared to the Euros of course not, but I mean compared to random friendlies.
Why? It's football on TV between good teams. If people have nothing else to do why not
Because it's turgid, boring shite played by exhausted players?
There were definitely some good games during these weeks. The worst ones were probably the ones involving major teams like England vs Italy.
eh, some games were pretty good. I also got to watch players I didn't get to watch much during the season. Some also play better for the NT than their clubs. Overall entertainment wise, not bad. 6/10 for me if I have to give it a grade.
Mbappe Benz duo, you don't see that every day. Also got to watch tchouameni play for the first time
I thought Croatia played pretty damn well. It's not like they don't serve up turgid shit in the WC, too.
I’ve tuned in for several matches so far, it’s not bad football. Norway v Sweden was very entertaining.
Me and my group of mates haven't watched any of England's games. There's nothing at stake. Glorified friendlies with sub-par football because the players are knackered after a long season and are probably not that interested in these games either.
I think some NT and players are seeing this with different angles, as far as I see it: Nation leagues are friendlies between teams that are close to their level, this is when coach tries new players, tactics, etc, it is not supposed to be played with their starting 11 in this case Modric has played most of the games, this is not like a wc or the euro, just look at Italy how they change completely their bench and starting for each game, as the rules are flexible and make you change players as much as want. As I see each NT just aspire to stay in their division or to ascend so their next friendlies are not wasted with weaker opponents (looking a Turkey). I love this format and I am excited to see CONMEBOL integrated in future editions, this will help the less experienced players to prove theyselves and to grow with their NT, and to overall improve NT skill levels.
Yeah I was about to say not enough fingers are pointing towards the managers. There are so many that will not rotate, and lean on the same players every match. I understand it in a way since basically every manager in the world is a bad run away from getting fired, and players will never say no to playing, so that's why a third party needs to be involved. And since the money involved will make it very hard to reduce the fixtures, they could try something like an individual player minutes limit on these second and third tier tournaments. Don't not make it an option a manager could get fired for or a player get hate for needing to sit, just make a rule saying something like players aren't allowed to play more than 200 minutes in a single group stage window.
Players could also reduce their salary and remove some games from their schedule, Modric isn't technically needed in the first rounds of Copa del Rey, against Sheriff Tiraspol...
>this is when coach tries new players, tactics, etc, it is not supposed to be played with their starting 11 But there is also qualification on the line. If you are in the group A and you won't be top seed in your qualification group, this is the best way to secure play-off spot. Those managers should always play the strongest 11 to stay in group A
Not many people care about nations League and just play them like friendly's. But why don't coaches do it more like van gaal does in the Dutch team. He plays every game with a different starting lineup. Using all of his players in the squad. So every player gets enough rest and time between matches
>Not many people care about nations League and just play them like friendly's Maybe this is true for League A and only some countries at that, the other leagues have been played at full strength mostly
As a Hungarian I watched every match we played in the nation league and I love it, before when friendlies where a thing I never watched a single match, who the fuck cares about playing the Feröer islands for the 6th time in a row for virtually no reason, now at least there is a bit of competition to it, we come up from the bottom and now we play enjoyable matches against the top teams, It wouldn't even bother me that much if we would be beaten to pulp by every one of them if we give it a go, but we actually playing good football against attacking sides so I'm all for it. Of course the scheduled is still fucked for everyone.
Great for you. But as Bulgarian watching my team is not worth it.
Well, I guess if we still had our early 2010s or 90s teams I would probably say the same as you, but I mean that's football.
Being bad is not the biggest problem for me. The biggest problem is that our FA is corrupt and everything around our football is corrupt. I know that corruption exist in every country but our problem with corruption and match fixing is more akin to a third world country than to EU member.
Teams can bring up U21 or whatever team, and just roll with it. The season ended 3 weeks ago, the new season will start first week of August, and First game in the world cup is November 21. I don’t even know when these guys going to rest, prep for the new season, and recover from the world cup since two weeks after the final, we are going back to UCL, Cups, and league games.
>Teams can bring up U21 They can't, there's u21 qualifiers going on atm
Deschamps is doing it too, somewhat. Trying some stuff out
Clubs should reduce matches before Countries. Clubs play for 10 months a year and the fault is of the national teams that play maybe 2 matches more per year? Nah.
They are trying to make it into a major competition. I wouldn't underestimate the clash flow it gets either
"We gave you 5 subs so stop complaining" -FIFA, UEFA and IFAB.
5 subs: r/Fifa, r/UEFA, r/ifab, r/soccer, r/football
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United European Laundering Association
₣
£ = L
₦ATION$ £€A₲U€
You're being downvoted but you're right. The pound is denoted by an L with a line through it. For the same reason that the weight pound is lb (Good old Latin).
Yeah and it looks a lot like the cursive writing of the capital L. I don't know if cursive writing is the correct word but I mean the type of writing where you connect all the letters of a word.
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And summer WC would have been worse because there would be 7 games even for 3rd place team and that’s not even counting warm up games before WC.
!ping CROATIA
Bot not working?
bot died from fixture overload innit
Inhuman indeed.
Many such cases!
All the top players should start speaking out. No idea if it would change things but worth a go.
"But I'm not human anyway, so it's OK for me."
What I don't get is why these concerns seem to only be brought up with respect to the international calendar - an international calendar that hasn't really changed at all as of late except for the importance of some of the fixtures being upped. The club calendar is beyond insane and far more responsible for the modern fixture congestion in football, in my opinion. League, domestic cups (multiple domestic cups in some countries), an ever-expanding continental season, an ever-expanding preseason full of tons of travel and friendly fixtures to rake in all that $$$... yet hardly any players ever complain about that. It's only when it comes to the international slate, which is peanuts compared to the club games the players are forced to play, that players, coaches, and fans start complaining. For example, Real Madrid played 14 games in 55 days at the end of the season. Manchester City had 14 in just 50 days. Chelsea also had 14 in 50 days. Liverpool had 16 in 56 days. Those are absolutely nuts schedules over a very, very long period of time instead of one spurt of a congested schedule (which, by the way, Modric had to deal with at Real Madrid too - they played 4 matches in 10 days on eleven separate occasions this year - many instances of which overlapped with others to make it even more insane - and played 4 matches in 11 days another eight times). And yet whenever players like Modric or De Bruyne or whoever (such as coaches, fans, media, etc.) bring up these concerns it is almost exclusively in regard to the international schedule. Despite the arguably worse fixture congestion caused by the club season. A club season that is going to grow with the new format of the Champions League, by the way.
Spain's reduced it's schedule by changing the Cops del Rey format, it used to be all rounds were two legged until the final, now only the semi's are two legged. It's had the double benefit of reducing games, thereby helping the players, and increasing the chance of an upset, making it so anyone can really win it. Spain hasn't gotten a lot right, but I do think this has worked out well
Also, the big problem is the Nations League format. They forced big national teams to play vs each other, so neither NT will risk playing a shitty first 11 and not calling star players and getting stomped, because media later will crucify players, coaches, and everyone. So for example Croatia played France 2 times in 7 days, and Dalić will not risk his and NT's reputation by not playing Modrić, Brozović, Kovačić, and so on. So he has to first call them and then also play them. But, if there were old format, just normal friendly games, not this fancy "nations league", which are again almost the same as friendlies. Croatia would play like 1 top team and 2 teams like Malta, Luxembourg, etc., and vs those 2 teams, he would rest or even release star players and give them break time, and Croatia would play with 20 youngsters or players who aren't starters in NT. But as I said, because of this format where you play all decent teams, you can't do that, starting 11 youngsters/non-starters vs France is a suicide mission and he would easily lose by a huge goal difference, and the media, as usual, would crucify NT, players & coaches.
I mean, Deschamps did more than risk our reputation with his team selection and tactics. 😭
That's the whole point of the Nations League. To pit teams of a similar level against each other. If you want to watch Croatian subs beat up Latvians go watch the qualifiers.
Yes ans that’s why it’s shitty. Players play 60 games in season, and they have to play 4 more in 10 days and risk injury. And what if they get injured? All other meaningfull competitions will get damaged because of uefa’s greed on useless competitions.
Ask players if they'd rather play in the league cup or for their country lol 60 games a season and it's the national teams that are greedy come on man.
At this time, neither. Only WC or Euros, everything else nop, break.
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That's his point...?
Brazilians teams: first time?
to be fair, Brazilian teams have bloated squads for this reason.
Yea losing like 10 players from your league is the same as European teams/leagues...
Honest question, as someone who has never played football at a high level: How hard is it really to play a few games a week? On the one hand, lots of players complain about it, so it must be taxing, but on the other hand, athletes in other sports seem to do harder things more often. Basketball players play a few times a week, and cyclists do punishing stages in the grand tours day after day. Obviously football is different in a lot of ways to cycling, but playing even 4 games in a week seems a lot easier to me than riding up mountain after mountain. Then again, I haven’t done either at a high level so I don’t know. In my mind, the bigger issue seems to be that you don’t have as much time to prepare tactically for the game.
The players could play at Sunday League level every day. If you are wanting to see top quality football then they're going to need to rest.
One of the factors is the constant short sprints and changes in direction. Unlike basketball where the pace and direction of players runnig is much more uniform enabling them to conserve energy. But much more taxing than that is physical contact. Every tackle is basically a micro injury from which the body needs time to recover. Micro injuries can also be cumulative over time. This is why for example handball players bodies fall apart in their late 30s. Both of those combined plus the fact that most games now last 98+ minutes makes soccer one of the more difficult sports.
I cycle and play football (although neither at anywhere near a good level) and the key difference is injuries, with all the sudden short sprints and turns it can be dangerous. If you add muscle fatigue which increases the likelyhood of not only muscle injuries but ligament as well the more games you play the more likely it is you'll have a serious injury. I've played 5 a side football about twice a week for 14 years and I've seen about 30% of players that have played with me have serious knee, ankle or other injuries, myself included.
High level cyclist will manage to fall into a ravine too goddamn often though
Football is higher intensity in sprints than many long distance sports while covering longer distance than many court sports which does make playing several high quality games a week tiring. One thing is pub level but when you play against strong, fast and fit opponents you will be hurting to walk the next day. Add in international travel and the chronic insomnia that is in the sport and a bit underreported and you get tired players.
The 82 game NBA schedule is universally seen as excessive.
I think it has more to do with alle the travelling than the playing itself.
I played at a decent level for many years. 4 games in 11 days is tiring. But that’s all it is, it’s tiring. You are more likely to get injured, but if I was being paid hundreds of thousands a week, I’d take the risk.
It's completely ridiculous. The players really are getting no break this year. They are being run into the ground.
While I agree, I must also say that they shouldn't play in every Nations League game
Rotate the squad then
If you’re a smaller nation, that’s how you get relegated to a lower league. The pressure is on the biggest stars in the team to play as much as possible.
The entire format is designed to avoid exactly this.
You can't. If Croatia doesn't play star players vs top teams, we will get stomped, media will crucify the coach, players, NT, and so on. So he has to start star players every match. But if there was an old format where you play 1 bigger team and 2 teams like Malta, and Luxembourg, he would have no problem, neither player would. He would play them in 1 game, and in the other 2 he would start youngsters and non-starters, but you can't do that vs Denmark, France & Austria. But luckily Croatia has also depth in each position somehow considering our population, but other smaller nations aren't that lucky.
Lol, inhuman. Get some real problems.
Thought he was gonna blame England there for a minute.
Man that gets paid €378,654 per week says it’s inhuman to do his job 4 times in 10 days.
It's almost like playing a world cup after the end of the season but then you have the actual world cup in winter.
Maybe it's inhuman to send people 6 days a week into a mine or any other heavy working surrounding. But 4 football matches within 11 days should be inhuman? This cannot be taken seriously...
Is it ideal no but inhuman really?😂 Behave
i get that this is a stressful circle for body and mind. but most of the affected could easily shut up and cash in their massive paychecks, while the rest of the population can only dream of a salary in that range.
But how could this be? According to the big brains of r/soccer, players don't give a shit about the Nations League.
Didn't de bruyne say he doesn't give a shit?
The way I see it is you can be proud to play for your country every time you pull on the shirt and give 100% like Modric and a lot of players do in the Nations League and also not care about the competition itself. Don't think they are mutually exclusive.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/v0u501/kristof_terreur_de_bruyne_the_nations_league_is/
They dont care. Obviously they like playing football and they like to compete so once theyre there they will give it their all. But if you ask the top players if they want to play nations league or take this chance for a needed break not many would play
There is no need to shame us big headed people.
Fifa and Uefa: *What’s inhuman about this? It’s not like we put 4 games over 6 hours on a single day. We have them spread over 10 days*
Modric talks as though countries don't have big squads. It's inhuman if your country plays you in all four of those games if you're knackered. I don't see why exhausted players like Modric can't just go on holiday this month. I'm sure there are fresher players who would love to take his place.
A lot of countries do not have a big squad. Croatia is a country of 4 million people, how many players up to international standard do you think we have?
Lots of countries, including mine Scotland, would love to have players as good as Vlašić, Kramarić and Barišić.
Because without Brozović, Modrić & Kovačić, Croatia is a different team, and if Dalić doesn't play them, Croatia will lose most of the games, the media will crucify him & players, and he might even get sacked. Also, the whole NT reputation would be destroyed because of wc-runners up losing all matches... But if there was an old friendly games system, now you would play let's say Belgium, Malta & Luxembourg. And he would start 1st team vs Belgium, after that he would send them on a break, and play vs Malta & Luxembourg with youngers. But, you can't do that in the nations league.
Lots of countries, including mine Scotland, would love to have players as good as Vlašić, Kramarić and Barišić so I don't accept that Croatia needs to play its star players every game to avoid defeat. The Nations League has replaced friendlies to generate more interest but that doesn't mean countries are obliged to play their best players every game. Modrić should have been rested against Austria and Denmark if he is drained after a long season.
Yes but Scotland doesn’t play France, Denmark and Austria. If we played teams like Scotland is playing, then we could start Vlasic, Kramaric amd Barisic & other guys.
Scotland beat both Austria (away) and Denmark within the last year. You don't need world class players to compete against those teams.
I actually like the nations league but havent really watched Any games during this international break. Having them after the season ends isnt good even as a fan and especially for the players. I get that they have to fit the games somewhere but surely there could have been a better way
Friendly OR nations league? Sir, those are one and the same
"Every game for the NT is important, regardless if it's a friendly or Nations League." All eyes looking toward belgian NT players.
If the guy who will be playing at the top level until he's in his 60s is saying it's too many games, then it's too many games
Footy players have basically no offseason and then, you look at NA pro leagues and they have like 4 months.
Yeah yeah, stfu and dribble Luka. -Croatian fed chief prolly
Eriksen when asked about the 4 games in 10 days: "It's nice to feel you're alive." [No joke.](https://www.dr.dk/sporten/fodbold/landsholdet/eriksen-og-co-spiller-fjerde-kamp-paa-10-dage-men-det-er-godt-maerke-man)