ELITE SOCCER
Which elite players have suffered serious injuries early in the season? Courtois, Militão, De Bruyne…
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has bemoaned shorter pre-seasons and players being forced to play more and more matches.
“Before we did pre-season training, now we do tours”, said Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola as many as 12 years ago, when he was still in charge of Barcelona. Even then, elite clubs were complaining about fixture suggestion. Now, things have almost reached breaking point.
During a season that had the FIFA World Cup right in the middle of it, plans for an expanded FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Champions League were revealed, and Guardiola has once again voiced his concern after City star Kevin De Bruyne suffered a long-term hamstring injury in the very first Premier League game of the season against Burnley.
Guardiola: “If De Bruyne doesn’t play, someone else will”
Speaking before Wednesday UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla, the ex-Bayern Munich head coach had the following to say: “When I did pre-season, I had 25 days to get ready for my first competitive match. Now they give you four or five days and look how many players are injured. They make you go to Asia or the United States to play against rivals or in derby games...and players suffer physically. And that will keep happening. Because the show must go on and if Courtois doesn’t play, then someone else will, right? And if Militao doesn’t play, then it’ll be someone else. And if Kevin (De Bruyne) doesn’t play, then someone else will. The Champions League finishes then national teams play for two or three weeks. Next year, it’ll be the Club World Cup in the United States with 37 teams. Before it was the Copa Libertadores and the Champions League. It’s too much”.
How long was Manchester City’s pre-season?
In 2008, Guardiola’s first season as manager of Barcelona’s first team, 30 days passed between La Blaurgana’s first pre-season training session (14 July) and their first competitive game (13 August). In 2023, there were only 20 days between City’s return to training (17 July) and the Community Shield match against Arsenal (6 August).
Pre-season schedules have also changed drastically in that time. In summer 2008, Barcelona played two friendlies in Scotland (against Hibernian and Dundee United), one in Florence, Italy (versus Fiorentina) and two in the United States (against Chivas and New York Red Bulls). City, meanwhile, have only played three friendlies this year, two in Japan (versus Yokohama F. Marinos and Bayern Munich) and another in South Korea (against Atlético de Madrid).
15 years ago, Guardiola’s Barça played more games against much weaker opposition. “Pre-season now means playing games anywhere on the planet as long as they pay enough money,” said Sevilla boss José Luis Mendilibar when asked his opinion on his counterpart’s views.
Which players have suffered long-term injuries at the start of 2023-24?
It is hard to think that so many players picking up long-term injuries so early in the season is simply a coincidence. In LaLiga and the Premier League alone, six players (Thibaut Courtois, Eder Militão, Jurriën Timber, Wesley Fofana, Tyrone Mings and Emiliano Buendía) have torn their anterior cruciate ligaments, while many others, including De Bruyne, Christopher Nkunku, Gabriel Jesus and Arda Güler have suffered other long-term injuries.
Guardiola’s solution to too many games
Guardiola can only see one solution: “We’re fighting a losing battle until the players stand up and say: we’re not playing. If not, there’s nothing we can do, neither in meetings with UEFA nor FIFA. And now they are adding more stoppage time, now we play for 110 minutes. This will mean that by the end of the year we will not have played 38 league games, but 43″.
Champions League, World Cup to expand in the future
The future of soccer, as it stands, means more games, not fewer. The new UEFA Champions League that will begin in 2024-25 includes two more matches for every team in the group stage and another two for those who play in the round of 16 playoff.
The FIFA Club World Cup, meanwhile, will move from seven to 32 participants, 12 of which will be European. The 2026 World Cup will also expand from 32 to 48 countries, while comes on the back of the European Championships going from 16 to 24 teams in 2016.
How many games do elite players play?
The Spanish members of Barcelona’s 2007-08 side were those who played the most games due to La Roja reaching the final of Euro 2008, with Xavi playing 75 times that season. City’s Julián Álvarez, meanwhile, was involved in 83 games last year after making it to the World Cup final with Argentina.
As Guardiola says, “one season merges into another, there are no more holidays”. Shorter pre-seasons mean more games, more minutes in the legs and, as a result more injuries.