this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
1 points (100.0% liked)
Football / Soccer / Calcio / Futebol / Fußball
143 readers
1 users here now
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Not sure about that mate. The number of domestic games played has been the same for 25+ years now. 38 league games, usual number of FA cup and EFL cup games too. A full UCL campaign has also been 13 games for 25+ years too. The world cup has been the same length for 25yrs as well and the Euros has only been one game longer in recent years since 2016.
All these extra games that people think of like the new UCL league format, the club world cup and the 48 team world cup have not been implemented yet. There's something else behind these injuries. It could be the increased intensity of the modern game or something else but blaming the number of games seems illogical because it hasn't changed much.
I personally lean towards the extra intensity. It's an open secret that all the top level players/teams are using the blood doping and other tricks to increase oxygenation levels and recovery times. The tactics of the game such as constant high level pressing keep players running further and faster than in the past. If you watch old highlights from 20 years ago, the space players have in the midfield is unreal compared to the compactness and speed at which players are closed down today.
It’s likely an issue of higher intensity plus something to do with the WC in Qatar last year. Norway didn’t qualify and Haaland was basically injury free all season which I thought was rare for him. Other players that played in both seemed way worse for the wear if they were playing 90-100 minutes in each WC match and late into the knockouts.
Or it is just nothing. Outliers happen.
Longer injury time and the game has become more physical. Now it's normal for players to run 10-12 km, before it was only for specific roles. Even the speed increased.
So while the number of games didn't increase yet, the playtime and intensity has. And if the number of games increases the situation will get even worse
Yeah I agree its probably because of the high physical intensity of the game these days. I'm not sure about the longer injury time tbh because that's something that hasn't even been around for a year but we've had increasing numbers of injuries for a couple years now.