Playing Schedule

[Bondi77]

I have just listened to Pep whinge about the playing schedule and how too much was expected of his players and I could not help but think he knew nothing of past days in England.
The great Liverpool sides of the 70s/80s and even the Forest side of the late 70s played in all domestic comps and Europe with about 14 players at their disposal on pitches that were bogs compared to those of today and the players were paid a pittance compared to today.
Today the top teams have squads of 22/23 players made up of internationals and the best young players from around the world and can make 5 substitutions a game and when it comes to the off season they are flown around the world to play preseason to publicise themselves to make even more coin.
I wish the managers at the big clubs would shut the feck up when it comes to injuries and playing schedule.

 

[OldSchoolManc]

Peps drug program can only go so far. These players aren’t lab rats. Even 2-3 squads of world class players can only stretch so far…

 

[Shane88]

What do these twats actually propose then? When you go far into 3 or 4 competitions, do they still want 1 game a week and finish their season sometime in July?

 

[redshaw]

What next, ten subs for oil Pep?

 

[leontas]

To be fair he had a point. There was no reason why the City-Chelsea game couldn’t have been scheduled for tomorrow, while we played today. The PL and FA are the least accommodating competitions for teams that also play in Europe.

Having said that, Pep is the last manager who should complain about this given he has 2 full squads of world class players to choose from.

 

[Snow]

To be fair he had a point. There was no reason why the City-Chelsea game couldn’t have been scheduled for tomorrow, while we played today. The PL and FA are the least accommodating competitions for teams that also play in Europe.

Having said that, Pep is the last manager who should complain about this given he has 2 full squads of world class players to choose from.

Chelsea and Arsenal play on Tuesday.

 

[Theonas]

Every top manager including SAF complained about the scheduling in England. They are not all stupid. You can't compare to how the game was 30 or 40 years ago. You can compare with the scheduling around Europe and you see Ligue 1 postponing PSG game last week before their CL tie. La Liga moved Real's game before they face Bayern to Friday whereas I remember the PL scheduling us to go to Everton for a Saturday lunch time kick off after we played AC Milan in a CL semi back in 2007. It does put English teams at a disadvantage and managers are completely right to be irked by it.

 

[giorno]

He, and every other manager complaining about this, are absolutely right. But it is very much up to them to change things. Stop complaining and start striking, if it's such a big issue