Of course, that doesn’t mean a reduction in playing time wouldn’t help. But if one wants to solve the problem, it helps to know the cause.
Fixture schedules are barely busier than in the past, and squad sizes have grown to mean no rise in minutes per player regardless...
Fixture schedules are barely busier than in the past, and squad sizes have grown to mean no rise in minutes per player regardless...
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Here’s the full article: https://www.ft.com/content/36ebc96e-18d7-4601-9826-d799d73f38b8
Very interesting analysis with some parallels to N American pro sports (particularly NHL and NBA) and amateur sport
1) Data is through to the current season. 2024-25 wasn’t showing for some reason but see here (x-axis labels are season start, not end).
2) Minutes played data is for all comps, club and country.
Bigger squads and more rotation are putting a cap on minutes, therefore the increased physical toll is coming from intensity-per-minute, not more minutes.
If you're a City or Chelsea player, the next summer off you get is in *2027*.
Top teams likely to have a great proportion of international Players also will be playing in expansion of Europeans cups. E.g. new format of champs league.
It might take time to learn, but they could just stop and let the attacker waist his energy if they're that sure.
But seriously, it might appear clear offside to the player but there might just be someone playing the attacker on that the defender hasn't seen. They can't take that risk.
The concern is that key players are getting overplayed - e.g. Pedri playing 70+ matches a couple of seasons ago.
Do you have e.g. # players playing 50+, 60+, 70+ matches in a season? Or ave. minutes played for - say - the top decile?