Is it possible for a country to have the most physically demanding league in world football and still see its team win an international tournament? England are about to find out at Euro 2024 as the Three Lions once again attempt to prove that the Premier League is not their biggest obstacle to success.
Despite their status as a major footballing nation and a host of world-class players, England have failed to win a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup. But, ahead of their Euro 24 opener against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday, they are considered one of the favorites to win it.
So, after another season of two domestic cup competitions, a winter break so brief that most teams barely noticed it, and European football for the Premier League's top clubs, do Gareth Southgate's players have any chance of overcome England's long-standing fatigue problem?
Former UEFA president Michel Platini, one of the greatest players of his generation, who captained France to Euro 1984 glory, famously said that England were “lions in the autumn, but lambs in the spring”. And that was before football began to consider the effects of so-called “burnout.”
Sports science has advanced so much that the physical condition of footballers is monitored and evaluated every time they walk through the doors of the training ground. But a big workload is a big workload and England enter Euro 2024 and only Roberto Martínez's Portugal have collectively accumulated more minutes in all competitions during the 2023-24 season.
Portuguese players have accumulated 92,322 minutes in 1,216 games played this season. Southgate's team's 90,169 minutes have come from 1,140 games, but nine members of Portugal's squad compete outside Europe's top five leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France) and three players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, They played in Saudi Arabia. Professional league.
England's 26-man squad is packed with minutes in the Premier League, with Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) and Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) the only two playing their own demanding campaigns in Spain and Germany respectively. And intensity matters.
“We know from motion trackers installed in stadiums, which monitor how much a player runs, jogs, sprints and walks, that the Premier League is the most intense of all the leagues,” said Darren Burgess, FIFPRO's senior adviser on load. players' work. ESPN. “And it is very clear that the 98th minute of a Premier League match is more intense than the 98th minute of a Saudi Pro League match.
“Some former players will say that just 10 years ago they managed to play 60 games a season without problems, but the speed of the game has really increased in that time. We have the data to prove it. My work with FIFPRO studies the workload problems of players. players and I would say the England team are at the top end of the scale in terms of minutes played this season.
“The nature of the Premier League is one thing, the lack of a real winter break is another, while all its best players will have played many games in Europe. So England go into this tournament with clear risks, if not the degree of exhaustion, but with residual fatigue problems.
Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, who logged a combined 5,085 and 4,948 minutes for Portugal and Manchester United last season, logged more minutes than any of their English rivals in the Premier League. Ronaldo, at 39 years old, played 5,059 minutes with 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 played more than 4,500 minutes for club and country ahead of Euro 2024. The unknown of Southgate's team is Whether the long-term injury absences of Luke Shaw, Trent Alexander-Arnold, John Stones and Kieran Trippier last season will leave them fresh for the tournament or exhausted by the psychological fatigue of rehabilitation.
For some, however, there is a chance that the adrenaline of playing in Euro 2024 will offset any physical or mental fatigue.
“At the level they play at, I wouldn't worry unless the players showed outward signs of exhaustion,” said Andy Blow, CEO of Precision Fuel & Hydration and a sports scientist who has worked with the Benetton and Renault Formula One teams. ESPN. “Exhaustion and overtraining are different things, so you would look for things like tiredness, fatigue and risk of injury.
“Exhaustion is both physiological and physical. An obvious sign of exhaustion is when an athlete shows a loss of interest in their sport or loses the ability to get up and go. But with the European Championship, one of the most important tournaments in football , Adrenaline and motivation will flow among the players, so I don't see exhaustion being a problem.
“Load management is key. Elite marathon runners usually only do a couple of marathons a year because it takes a long time to develop and recover, physically and mentally, but soccer is different because they play more games and are able to manage that.”
1:23
Where Burley sees weakness in England, favorite for the Euro Cup
Craig Burley explains where England are most vulnerable, despite Gareth Southgate's men entering Euro 2024 as tournament favourites.
Southgate has led England to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and the Euro 2020 final, and 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 coach aimed to rest his star midfielder for pre-tournament friendlies against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland.
“Let's think about the individual,” Southgate said. “That's what we're always trying to do. Jude played until the end of the season, beyond where everyone else has played. The psychological freshness will be good for him. He's super professional, so physically he's going to improve.” .
Bellingham's workload is an issue that has already caught the attention of Burgess, who now works with Australian soccer team Adelaide Football Club after spells in the Premier League with Arsenal and Liverpool.
“I spoke recently at a conference in London about player workload and gave a scary statistic about Bellingham,” Burgess said. “He's not even 21 years old yet. [Bellingham is 21 on June 29], but he has already played 18,571 minutes with the club and the national team. By the time they were 21, Wayne Rooney had logged 15,481 minutes, while Steven Gerrard had logged 7,034. David Beckham had logged only 3,929 minutes.
“That is a scary number for Bellingham and it will only get heavier for him because of the games he will be involved in with Real Madrid and England in the future.”
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Pickford: England must enjoy the pressure of being favorites for Euro 2024
Jordan Pickford talks about England's hopes of winning Euro 2024.
Bellingham will surely play a key role for England in Germany. If they give their best, Southgate's team could go all the way and be crowned European champions for the first time. And Blow, a former triathlete and Ironman competitor, says he believes England's team of sports scientists can help them overcome fitness obstacles to success at Euro 2024.
“Load management is key,” he said. “Elite marathon runners usually only do a couple of marathons a year because it takes a long time to develop and recover, physically and mentally, but football is different because they play more games and are able to manage those demands.
“All sports are different. If you compare football to the schedule of NBA players, who play more often, have a lot of plane trips, go out late at night and start early, etc., it's a different challenge, so it's about managing it. But the England team will have all the support staff to assess the condition of the players. They will be monitoring heart rate variability (HRV), sleep levels and mood; HRV is a big thing now.
“If it goes down, it can often indicate that you are too tired or starting to feel unwell or under stress. It's an easy thing to measure (most people will have it on their smartwatch), but it's a very good indicator for everyone.” “. The athletes. Football now has a lot more data and information than ever before, but it's about using it and applying it correctly. But from a fitness perspective, I wouldn't be worried about England's workload leading up to the Euros.
So will England be lions or lambs? They already have plenty of miles under their belts, but if the team behind the scenes can monitor the players' fitness and fatigue levels, England could finally be on their way to international glory.
