Players are getting hurt. Managers are getting vocal. The quality of play is suffering. How can this be fixed?
Two of the most blindingly obvious pieces are right in front of us. Additional substitutions and moving CL teams to Sundays should already have happened. With December looming, something needs to happen now or the Premier League is going to field preseason and FA Cup sides during their busiest and most visible month.
Allowing for more rotation was originally argued to be a major benefit to the rich clubs. After all, they can stack talent deeper on the roster that’s better than first teams at the bottom end of the pay scale. I still think that’s largely true, but there‘s already some offset happening as first choice players are going down with injuries. Many managers haven’t figured out how to make the additional substitutions work without shattering in-game cohesion, so it isn’t necessarily a massive advantage. OSCT suggested four subs rather than five, and I think it’s a good place to trial.
I can’t cite this, but I assume that forcing CL teams to play a Saturday match after a Wednesday night away from England was tied to TV money. With PPV going away, might there be less motivation to spread the TV schedule? It seems completely asinine to me that this hasn’t already been addressed.
The PPV change and the rekindled substitution discussion give me hope that the FA is at least listening. I don’t think it does anybody any good to watch players getting hurt, teams staggering around the pitch.
I don’t think anybody here hasn’t said this, but just for the sake of completion the international breaks need to be called out. We’re in a pandemic. Countries have different methods of dealing with it. How can any semblance of player and staff safety be maintained with worldwide travel and mixing every few weeks? We’re seeing more and more injured players for this one. Poor Dybala can’t go to Argentina due to a “genital issue.” Whatever it takes not to get on that plane, I guess.
Two of the most blindingly obvious pieces are right in front of us. Additional substitutions and moving CL teams to Sundays should already have happened. With December looming, something needs to happen now or the Premier League is going to field preseason and FA Cup sides during their busiest and most visible month.
Allowing for more rotation was originally argued to be a major benefit to the rich clubs. After all, they can stack talent deeper on the roster that’s better than first teams at the bottom end of the pay scale. I still think that’s largely true, but there‘s already some offset happening as first choice players are going down with injuries. Many managers haven’t figured out how to make the additional substitutions work without shattering in-game cohesion, so it isn’t necessarily a massive advantage. OSCT suggested four subs rather than five, and I think it’s a good place to trial.
I can’t cite this, but I assume that forcing CL teams to play a Saturday match after a Wednesday night away from England was tied to TV money. With PPV going away, might there be less motivation to spread the TV schedule? It seems completely asinine to me that this hasn’t already been addressed.
The PPV change and the rekindled substitution discussion give me hope that the FA is at least listening. I don’t think it does anybody any good to watch players getting hurt, teams staggering around the pitch.
I don’t think anybody here hasn’t said this, but just for the sake of completion the international breaks need to be called out. We’re in a pandemic. Countries have different methods of dealing with it. How can any semblance of player and staff safety be maintained with worldwide travel and mixing every few weeks? We’re seeing more and more injured players for this one. Poor Dybala can’t go to Argentina due to a “genital issue.” Whatever it takes not to get on that plane, I guess.
