Been saying lately, it should be 30 man squads now.A lot of people here complained about the relatively light pre-season we've had, when most of our rivals were playing high intensity games vs other PL teams and CL sides, so I thought Pep's interview after losing KDB to injury was interesting:
"It fucking sucks. He's a really important player to us, I think he'll need surgery, we'll lose months... He is a very special player, with a very distinct talent, his connections with Haaland but it is what it is. My first pre-season I had 25 days to prepare the first official match against Skonto Riga to qualify to the Champions League that we eventually won. Now they give you four, five days and then look how many ACLs. They make you go to Asia, to the US, really strong matches, derbies, big games... And people fall, will keep falling and falling... Because the show must go on and if Courtois isn't there then someone else will be, right? And if Militão isn't there then someone else will, and if Kevin isn't there then someone else will. You finish the Champions League then they go to play with the national teams for 2-3 weeks... And I'm not saying playing with the national team is bad. And then let's see the Club World Cup when the year ends, having to travel to the United States with 30-something clubs when it used to be just the Libertadores and the Champions League. It's too much, so... we'll have to adapt, try to go through it, train very little, stay a lot of time at home and bring energy to the games."
"This is a lost battle unless the players themselves stand for themselves and go 'we aren't playing'. It's a lost battle, nothing UEFA or FIFA will do. And now they keep giving more minutes, we play 112 minutes now in a game. Imagine a match that a team starts wasting time, wasting time, wasting time so it gets 10 minutes longer. And the team that did not waste time scores, 1-0. Last 15 minutes, the team that did waste time now has this advantage to try draw the game after wasting time for the whole match. Does it make sense? No, no it doesn't. From my side it doesn't have a solution. They'll keep increasing the quantity more and more, you need quality. To play well you need to be rested. Of course players will play but they need to be rested. Seasons continue, now we don't get vacations, and players will be there because we all love this sport. And if a player isn't there then someone else will. Kevin can't play? Eh well just bring someone else. Courtois isn't there? Eh well we'll sign Kepa then. And go on. And they will keep playing and the games will keep being broadcast. And then on top of all this let's play 110 minutes per game. And with this added time at the end of the league we won't have played 38 games, it will be 43 games. Plus the Champions League, plus the Club World Cup, it's more and more... And then FIFA has to look out for the national teams, which again I'm not saying is a bad thing, of course any national team has the right to play... But we have to search a balance, to search for quality not quantity.
I thought the same thing, how smart is it to start playing high intensity games a month before the season starts, on shit pitches, when you know that there are more games than ever all the time, and now they even last longer.
With 22 Matchday (11 Subs, 5 sufficient)
Given the extra load on game day, and, ever decreasing recovery periods.