There’s 40% more high intensity running in football compared to 2012
Research shows Central nervous system and fascia/tendon quality takes 4 days to fully recover after a game
The top teams play every 3.3days over a season and every 2.7 during “peak” periods
There are double the number of international games and breaks as in 2000
There are 12x the South American and East Asians in the Premierleague than in 2000
Who average >10000km per international break
The demands on these footballers is exponentially greater than previous eras
But
Clubs know the fixture list before a season begins
Managers have access to physiological tests and daily data of readiness of every player
They balance risk:reward daily and choose risk
They construct their playing staff volume and capacity for playing loads
There is too much football for the squad sizes managers deem to be optimal
Either spread out your spending on more players and the leagues and TV have to get used to diminished quality or reduce the games
Everyone is to blame here
Though greedy money grabbing scumbags making rules are always more to blame
Latest on Gabriel - will undergo surgery. It's not a coincidence when you have players playing year-round and having no off-season - where they can actually recover and build up their fitness, Arteta spoke on this in detail - and pushed to the extreme that it results in more extreme injuries. It's not just an Arsenal thing, it's an issue across all major leagues. Bigger squads are increasingly more important because unfortunately, year round football isn't going anywhere (in fact, only getting worse)