Is congested fixture a reason to be worried about?

We have heard so many times how managers of an EPL club have complained about the tough Premier League fixtures and this includes some of the top managers like Wenger and Mourinho and now Conte is the latest one to join that long list of grippers.

So, is it really that congested fixture of the Premier League that gives headache to many of the top minds of the game. Is this the actual reason for the top teams not being able to fight for a trophy on every front? Is this the reason for teams to face injury crisis? Is this the reason why squad depth has become a crucial part of the game?

Let’s have a dig.

It is true that the teams in the Premier League play an extra set of competitive tournament when compared to the other top leagues in the world and to have a fixture where each team has to play almost 3 or 4 matches in a time frame of 10 days is definitely exhaustive and to the add to that the pressure on the top teams to progress till the end in all the competitions increases the burden not only on the players but on the manager as well.

However, there is one more factor that must be taken into consideration. The teams in the other leagues not only play one less competition but they have little competition within the league itself.  When has any team other than Barcelona and Real Madrid dominated La Liga? Bayern have been dominating Bundesliga for almost the past half a decade and the same goes for Juventus and we don’t even need to talk about the French League but that is not the case in the Premier League where there are almost 6 teams that would fight for the title and almost 8 teams would be fighting for the top 6 spot. When the scenario is like this, the definitely the congestion of fixture will have a huge impact on the players and their performance.

So, now this begs the question, if there was much less competition in the league then could the Premier League have produced a team which would have consistently challenged for the Champions League and even a team that would definitely compete for winning a treble? I definitely think so. Consider having just two or three teams in the Premier League that’d fight for the title like La Liga or just one or two like the case of Bundesliga, Serie A and French League. With the amount of wealth and the number of world class players in the Premier League we definitely can achieve a lot more.

Hence, I believe that it’s not only the tough period of games that causes stress to the players and the manager but also the competitive nature of the League but hey this is precisely why we are able to produce some of the most exciting matches in football and this is precisely why the Premier League is the best League in the World.

See you again with another post. Until then...Peace