To Jürgen Klopp’s chagrin, Liverpool have to kick off against Newcastle United in the English league 62.5 hours after the Champions League game against Villarreal, Wednesday evening at Anfield. Not for the first time, the interests of Premier League broadcasters take precedence over those of a top club. The continuous load on his players threatens to break the end of the season in the eyes of the German trainer.
“I don’t understand,” Klopp responded to TV channel BT Sport’s decision to make Liverpool’s game against Newcastle a ‘lunch game’. “The Premier League and the broadcaster should at least make an effort to help.” Liverpool is not only battling for a place in the European final, but is in the middle of a battle with Manchester City for the title and will be in the FA Cup final in May.
Coach Unai Emery of Villarreal is having a hard time optically. His team will play in La Liga at Deportivo Alavés on Saturday around the same time. The difference is that the Spanish club is no longer competing for the championship and can forget about direct qualification for the Champions League. Emery can give his key players a rest in the competition.
Highest Intensity
The Premier League prides itself on being the ‘best’ and ‘toughest’ league on earth. This marketing propaganda is not based solely on the slogans of fast advertising people. In no other country does playing matches take as much energy as at the highest level in England. The Training Ground Guru website recently compiled the data using a measurement system. The intensity is nowhere higher than in the Premier League.
Anecdotal evidence of this already existed. Former Ajax player Joël Veltman presented the challenge to the home media of Brighton & Hove Albion. “With Ajax I came into action every three weeks in the Champions League,” he said. “Here I feel like I’m playing at that level every week in terms of intensity. That takes adjustment time.”
Periodization, the alternation between rest and effort, is difficult to reconcile with the English playing calendar. Under pressure from the players’ union, although the Premier League reluctantly agreed to a short profit freeze at the end of January, the accumulation of games in the festive month of December has already caused considerable damage. And this spring, due to the aftermath of corona, a total of 22 make-up matches increased the pressure on teams.
Real Madrid, Tuesday evening in the other semi-final of the Champions Legaue opponent of Manchester City, only played five times in the run-up to New Years. City played eight times in that period. An away game against Arsenal immediately awaited on New Year’s Day.
Unlike in Spain, England also has two cup tournaments: the FA Cup and the less prominent League Cup. English teams that excel on all these podiums pay the price. Chelsea, winner of the World Cup for club teams in February, has fallen away in recent weeks with 56 games in their legs. The sanctions for owner Roman Abramovich may play a psychological role, but the increasing injuries indicate overload in the business end of the season† the team limps towards the end of the competition.
Klopp’s indictment against the TV channels is therefore not an isolated one. Many colleagues, including Louis van Gaal at Manchester United in the past, regularly sound the alarm. It doesn’t help much. The financial muscles behind the Premier League have no intention of diluting their golden formula. Especially after the corona crisis, the English league is considered the cork on which their media empires float.
At the time of the pandemic, the Premier League managed to extend expiring contracts on the same terms. In exchange for almost six billion euros and a payment of two billion euros per season to the twenty participating clubs, Sky Sports, BT Sport and Amazon Prime Video will own the live rights until the summer of 2025. Foreign concerns further supplement the income.
Comcast, the American owner of Sky, pointed out the changed circumstances sharply. Where subscribers left elsewhere, growth in the United Kingdom remained ‘healthy’. This situation is in sharp contrast to that in the German Bundesliga, the French Ligue 1 and the Italian Serie A. Spain’s Primera División did manage to close a lucrative deal last year, but one that falls short of that of the Premier League. Spanish pay channels have lost a lot of money in recent years. Between 2017 and 2021, they lost four of the 6.5 million subscribers. The Premier League remains the largest cash cow worldwide.
Mediterranean Rivals
The English top clubs could not compete with Real Madrid for a long time. After Chelsea’s win in the Champions League in 2012, it took six years for an English team to qualify for the final. The British-Dutch journalist Simon Kuper knows this in 2016 for two reasons. According to the columnist of Financial Times The Premier League lagged behind European giants such as Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus due to a fairer distribution key of revenue. The English top also lacked ‘brilliant teams’, as stars such as Neymar, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo stayed away.
This analysis, which was accurate at the time, no longer holds. Liverpool and Manchester City, in particular, have overtaken their Mediterranean rivals financially and sportingly. The development of British talents, the arrival of top trainers such as Klopp and Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), and the aftermath of the pandemic on the European mainland have given us a head start. Only the physical demands of the Premier League continue to hinder.
Regular TV analysts such as Gary Neville and Roy Keane invariably dismiss the criticism. Pointing to the weak mentality of the current generation of players, they oppose any form of innovation. The views of former Manchester United players should be taken with a grain of salt. Sky and BT pay the talking heads no hefty salaries to discredit their ‘product’.
The increased quality of club selections in the Premier League can contribute to player well-being. Virgil van Dijk is the most visible example of this. When the captain of the Dutch national team dropped out last year with a torn cruciate ligament, Liverpool could no longer operate so close to the center line in possession. Because the spaces on the field grew as a result, the team rolled over. Injuries piled up.
With Van Dijk directing the rear, Liverpool against Villarreal is nevertheless the favorite, as is Manchester City against Real Madrid. The looting on the bodies of the football players of the English teams provides this estimate with a caveat. Madrid, which needs one point to become champions, and Villarreal probably have the longest breath in two matches measured from a physiological point of view.
After the summer, this physical handicap can be made up somewhat. In their mission to protect their players, Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have achieved an important victory. Clubs in the Premier League are then allowed to make five substitutions in a match, a rule already applied in Spain. A drop in the ocean, as long as TV bosses don’t give an inch.