Can a country have the most physically demanding league in world football and still see its national team win international tournaments? England will find out at Euro 2024 as, once again, the Three Lions try to prove that the Premier League is not the biggest obstacle to success.
Despite their status as a major football nation and many world-class players, England have failed to win a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup. However, ahead of their Euro 24 opener against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday, they are considered one of the favorites to win.
So after another season of two domestic cup competitions, a winter break so brief that most teams barely notice it, and European football for the Premier League’s top clubs, does Gareth Southgate’s players have a chance to overcome England’s age-old fatigue problem?
Former UEFA president Michel Platini, one of the greatest players of his generation who captained France to glory in Euro 1984, famously said that England “lions in autumn, but lambs in spring.” And before football even began to consider the effect called “burnout.”
Sports science is now so advanced that the fitness of soccer players is monitored and assessed every time they walk through the doors of the training ground. But a heavy workload is a heavy workload and England start Euro 2024 with only Portugal’s Roberto Martinez amassing more minutes in all competitions during the 2023-24 season.
The Portuguese player has scored 92,322 minutes from 1,216 games played this season. The 90,169 minutes played by Southgate’s team are from 1,140 games, but nine Portugal squads compete outside Europe’s top five leagues – England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France – with three players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, appearing in Saudi. Pro League.
England’s 26-man squad is stacked in Premier League minutes, with only Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) and Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) the only two having played their own demanding campaigns in Spain and Germany. And intensity matters.
“We know from stadium-based movement trackers, which monitor the amount of players walking, jogging, sprinting and walking, that the Premier League is the strongest league,” said Darren Burgess, FIFPRO’s Senior Advisor on Player Workload. ESPN. “And it is very clear that the 98th minute of a Premier League game is more intense than the 98th minute of a Saudi Pro League game.
“Some ex-players will say that they could have played 60 game-seasons just 10 years ago without any problems, but the speed of the game has really increased in that time. We have the data to prove that. My work with FIFPRO studies the problem of player workload and I would say that the England squad is at the top of the scale in terms of playing minutes this season.
“The nature of the Premier League is one thing, there is no real winter break, while all the top players will play a lot of games in Europe. the extent of burnout, but with the problem of residual fatigue.”
Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, who amassed 5,085 and 4,948 minutes respectively for Portugal and Manchester United last season, have logged more minutes than their English rivals in the Premier League. Ronaldo, at the age of 39, played 5,059 minutes for Portugal and Al Nassr.
But Arsenal’s Declan Rice, Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins, and Manchester City duo Phil Foden and Kyle Walker have all played more than 4,500 minutes for club and country ahead of Euro 2024. The number of Southgate’s squad unknowns is what the long-term injury will be. The absence of Luke Shaw, Trent Alexander-Arnold, John Stones and Kieran Trippier last season will make them fresh for the tournament or weakened by the psychological fatigue of the rehabilitation center.
For some, however, there is the possibility that the adrenaline rush of playing in Euro 2024 will compensate for physical or mental fatigue.
“At the level they’re playing at, I wouldn’t worry about the players showing signs of burnout,” said Andy Blow, CEO of Precision Fuel & Hydration and a sports scientist who works with Formula One teams Benetton and Renault. ESPN. “Burnout and overtraining are different, so you’re going to be looking for things like fatigue, exhaustion, risk of injury.
“Burnout is physiological as well as physical. The clear sign of burnout is when athletes lose their sports or lose. But with the Euros, one of the biggest tournaments in football, adrenaline and motivation will flow in the players, so I don’t see burnout as issue.
“Load management is key. Elite marathon runners generally only do a few marathons a year because it takes a long time to build and recover from them, physically and mentally, but football is different because they play more games and can manage it.”
1:23
Where Burley sees weakness in Euro favorites England
Craig Burley explains where England are most vulnerable, despite Gareth Southgate’s men entering Euro 2024 as tournament favourites.
Southgate has taken England to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the final of Euro 2020, and he has consistently avoided citing burnout as a concern at the end of a long season. But after watching Bellingham win the Champions League with Real Madrid this month, the manager made it a point to rest the star midfielder for the pre-tournament games against Bosnia & Herzegovina and Iceland.
“Let’s think about the individual,” Southgate said. “This is what we always do. Jude plays until the end of the season, beyond everyone who plays. Psychological freshness will be good for him. He is super professional, so he will move physically.”
Bellingham’s workload is an issue that has attracted the attention of Burgess, currently working for Australian rules football team Adelaide Football Club after spells in the Premier League with Arsenal and Liverpool.
“I spoke at a conference in London recently about player workloads and delivered some scary statistics about Bellingham,” Burgess said. “He is not yet 21 (Bellingham turns 21 on June 29), but he has played 18,571 minutes for club and country. At 21, Wayne Rooney has logged 15,481 minutes, while Steven Gerrard has played 7,034 minutes. David Beckham has logged only 3,929 minutes.
“It’s a scary number for Bellingham and it will be even more difficult for them because of the upcoming matches against Real Madrid and England.”
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Pickford: England must relish the pressure of being Euro 2024 favourites
Jordan Pickford talks about England’s hopes of winning Euro 2024.
Bellingham certainly played an important role for England in Germany. If he performs to the best of his ability, Southgate’s side can go ahead and become European champions for the first time. And Blow, a former Triathlete and Ironman competitor, said he believed a team of British sports scientists could help overcome fitness barriers to success at Euro 2024.
“Load management is key,” he said. “Elite marathon runners generally only do a few marathons a year because it takes a long time to build and recover from them, physically and mentally, but football is different because you play another game and you can manage the demands.
“All sports are different. If you compare football with the schedule of NBA players, who play more often, have a lot of air travel, late nights and early starts, etc., it’s a different challenge, so it’s all about managing. England squad will have all the support staff to gauge the condition of the players.
“If it goes down, it can often indicate that you are tired or starting to feel unwell or under stress. It is easy to measure – most people will have a smart watch – but it is a very good indicator for everything. football now has data and information more than before, but it’s all about using it and applying it properly, but from a fitness perspective, I wouldn’t worry about England’s workload going into the Euros.
So, will England be the lion or the sheep? They have a lot of miles on their legs, but if the team behind the scenes can manage their players’ fitness and fatigue levels, England could be well on their way to international glory.
