Withnail
Full Member
We're playing Leeds in two weeks who have already played 4 games and only two of our starters are even in training.It's different in all sorts of ways. Above all in that the previous season we had a week less than anyone else in the PL, and 3 weeks less than most (because of having to play three stages of the EL after the PL finished) - so it affected us worse than it affected other teams. By the time our players went on holiday, players from every other team save Wolves, Chelsea and City had already had 3 weeks. This is the key thing - one thing was how little preparation and rest they'd had, but that might not have mattered as much if everyone else had been in an equally bad position.
If I remember correctly, also no one got more than 2 weeks off, or had much more than 2 weeks of pre-season after the rest. There were players who arrived back literally a few days before the season opener. We had a single pre-season game. Only one of our newly signed players (DvdB) was in place by the season opener. It really was extreme. Players went out to face Crystal Palace in the opener who normally wouldn't be considered to have reached a high enough level of fitness to start a friendly.
We're going to be undercooked compared to them, Southampton and possibly Wolves. While not as bad I think it's similar to be honest.