England coach Gareth Southgate has admitted that Premier League started too early and did not give players enough time to rest after the World Cup.
Southgate led England to a third place in Russia with his team comprising mostly of Premier League stars. He opines that the league should have started quite late to give the players enough time for psychological rest.
“I think it’s psychological freshness, rather than physical. Everyone adapts their training load appropriately. But I think when you see the league, there are a lot of teams haven’t started yet at the level when they are at their maximum. A lot of injuries across certainly our league, I don’t know about the rest of Europe.” Southgate said.
The Serie A started on August 18, Spain’s La Liga hit the road on 17th, while Bundesliga started on August 24th all unlike the English first tier that started on August 10th.
To Southgate, the league should have started later or should implement a rule that players should not start for clubs until after a certain period of rest in order to recover first from previous fixtures.
“I don’t really understand why our league started so early, but they did, so a really difficult situation for the clubs. Some of the clubs couldn’t field a team without… look at Tottenham Hotspur, who had so many players in the semi-finals of the World Cup. They had to put players straight into matches on the back of very little pre-season. It was an impossible situation for the coaches, really.” Southgate added.
England will face Spain in a UEFA Nations League match today before players go back for the club duties for next weekend.