In many of the world’s top industries, quality and quantity work hand-in-hand to deliver a top-notch product or service in good timing. Surprisingly enough, this concept also applies to sports and their athletes. Especially when it comes to the world’s most viewed, most popular and most played game, football where some upper management, leagues and coaches have been known to work their players hard, filling their schedules to the brim.
As the sport grows in viewership, commercialisation and overall fandom, this practice is becoming more and more common. In a technical sense, this action is named fixture congestion, and below we’ll take a look at how it is being used in the world of football, and particularly in England’s Premier League.
Fixture congestion.
To understand fixture congestion’s impact, we must first get to the root of its definition. Fixture congestion is known in the sporting environment as the practice of playing back-to-back matches without a sufficient recovery time given to the players in between. Fixture congestion is particularly prevalent in football and has been proven to show up much more in this sport over others. It happens because of many factors, including the need to make up for lost games, unexpected weather conditions, or simply a growing demand from certain leagues.
By now you might presume that the more footballers are pushed to play over their limits due to saturated fixtures, the more their risk of injury goes up and performance quality goes down. In fact, Liverpool’s management has noted that some of their defensive players who experienced concentrated fixtures were more commonly caught in incorrect positions on the field during gameplay.
This is where the real problem comes in since football organizations have often been forced to work with hefty schedules while maintaining an elite-level of skill and aptitude.
Arsenal’s home base, Emirates Stadium, is one of the largest in all of England
How it’s affected England’s top football league system
We’ve already mentioned how fixture congestions have affected the 6-time English champions, but what about the other major teams in the EPL? Football clubs in the league including Arsenal, Manchester City, Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Machester United, and Chelsea have all recently dealt with seriously congested fixtures during the UEFA Champions League. Each organization played a whopping 14 games between October 17thand December 13th, some dealing with the busy schedule better than others.
In addition, sometimes players suffer from freak injuries that lower their entire team’s morale in the face of intense fixtures, which can be another source of stress. For example, Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli’s knee injury prevented him from contributing in the UEFA Europa League where the team had seven fixtures in just 22 days.
Regardless of each outcome, it’s clear to see that fixture congestion is a real issue in the EPL. Since it’s a long-term problem that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, what methods can clubs implement to better serve their players? Some teams have been known to make use of gadgets that track energy exertion in practice and even matches. In this way, coaches can have logged information on each player concerning things like how many miles each member has run in training or during any given competition.
However, there may be even more important methods to fight against fixture congestion rather than just tracking player performance. During rest time, coaches and trainers must find ways to utilize low-intensity, efficient exercise routines specifically designed to lower risk of injury. If players and coaches work together to combat saturated fixtures, prioritizing things like a healthy diet, proper exercise, and enough sleep, football organizations may be able to function better even while under the increasing strain of fixture congestion.
