Are there too many games?

[Demitri_C]

Apologies if there is a thread on this as could not see it but the talk of player strikes, as they feel too many games no days.

Sons the latest to speak out saying they are not robots and there are too many games. Ange supports  him. What do you think about this?

I mean from a villa point of view it does probably make sense because as you worry about all your players- but ones like watkins and konsa for example. They just played in the euros now have to play extra games for CL as they have increased the volume of games by two. I do feel for the players as its a awful lot of games these days.

[Dave]

Sure. And they should definitely cut back on all those lucratives tours of the US and the Far East out of concern for the welfare of their players.

Once those stop, let's then bring the chat round to the proper matches.

[cdbearsfan]

No.

[PeterWithesShin]

The time to worry as a top flight club is when you aren't playing a lot of games as it usually means you're shit.

[Drummond]

Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals.

Job done.

That's the only increase footballers in our country have had in a long long time, without them, the number of games has reduced as the league reduced from being a 22 team league.

Clubs need to manage their resource better, and if they don't let the players go on strike and the clubs can be fined and deducted points for not fulfilling fixtures.

[PeterWithesShin]

The number of internationals is pretty much the same as it was 40 odd years ago. The issue is players want max wages so clubs have to do tours etc. When we had this discussion on another thread I said it's a vicious circle.

[Demitri_C]

Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals.

Job done.

That's the only increase footballers in our country have had in a long long time, without them, the number of games has reduced as the league reduced from being a 22 team league.

Clubs need to manage their resource better, and if they don't let the players go on strike and the clubs can be fined and deducted points for not fulfilling fixtures.

I wasnt round in the 80s and before. What were the games like then? Would you say they were as demanding as they are now?

I know the european cup was two legged knock out games but was it more games than our current Cl format?

I know the actual english league as ut was known then was bigger than what it was now though

[cdbearsfan]

There were far fewer games in the European competitions, slightly more cup games due to abolition of replays and some two leg rounds, and four more league games during most of the eighties. Internationals about the same as PWS has said.

Players played a far higher percentage of the time though, as there weren't many sub, smaller squads, and rotation was unknown.

In short, they have nothing to moan about, though I won't lose sleep if the World Club Cup gets abolished. It would have been decent a few years ago when South American clubs could compete, but boring as fuck now.

[PeterWithesShin]

Players were nowhere near as finely tuned as they are now. On the flipside, challenges that are now a clear red were common place back then and were often not even given as a foul. And pitches were woeful, you'd have to go a fair way down the non league pyramid now to find pitches as bad as most top flight pitches were back then. And you only had one sub per game. Unless you were dead you stayed on.

[jon collett]

We are loving being back in the Champions League but any objective observer can see the format to basically reduce 36 teams to 24 is ridiculous and purely for commercial purpose!

[Demitri_C]

We are loving being back in the Champions League but any objective observer can see the format to basically reduce 36 teams to 24 is ridiculous and purely for commercial purpose!

I don't think son and ange would be complaining if spurs were in the CL though...

They probably feel spurs have a right to be in CL

[eamonn]

Less matches means you won't live and die on H&V. You don't want that, do you?

[VillaTim]

No is the simple answer. Emery himself prefers the games and scales back the training to allow recovery . football thrives on 2 games a week. Enjoy it and stop sounding like Klopp

[cdbearsfan]

We are loving being back in the Champions League but any objective observer can see the format to basically reduce 36 teams to 24 is ridiculous and purely for commercial purpose!

Not that different to the old format, in which 24/32 teams qualified for European knock-out games. Albeit, eight of them dropped into a different competition.

[London Villan]

I doubt many man city players play anywhere near as many minutes compared to 30 or 40 years ago.