PARIS — The new season that kicks off this weekend in the
Premier League and around Europe promises to be like no other with clubs being
forced to adapt to the long interruption in November and December for the World
Cup, and the resulting consequences.
اضافة اعلان
“The
World Cup in Qatar will make this season more
intense than any other,” insisted Real Madrid and Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut
Courtois recently as he looked ahead to what is in store at club and
international levels.
In Spain, like in Italy, the season does not begin
until next weekend, but the Premier League kicked off on Friday, along with the
Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and Dutch and Portuguese championships.
All leagues will then stop by the weekend of
November 12–13 to allow players involved at the World Cup to join up with their
national teams ahead of the opening game in Qatar on November 21.
The World Cup final will be on December 18, but the
Premier League will restart with its traditional
Boxing Day fixture list on
December 26.
La Liga returns
on December 31 while the French top flight has done away with its traditional
Christmas and New Year holiday — instead Ligue 1 teams will play on December 28
and again on January 1.
In contrast Series A will remain shut down until
January 4, while the German Bundesliga has conserved its long winter break,
shutting down on November 13 and not kicking off again until January 20.
“To have the break in the middle, with a World Cup,
will affect all the teams in every league around the globe,” observed Jurgen
Klinsmann, who coached both Germany and the US at World Cups.
‘Shake up everybody’
“It will influence players’
performances and team performances. It could be a dramatic season for
everyone.”
“It’s never been done before. It will shake up
everybody.”
The compressed schedule means just one weekend off
for an international break before Qatar, in late September.
The lack of time impacts on European competition
too: the six
Champions League group-stage matchdays will all be played by early
November.
Given the schedule, clubs know they will need to
adapt to guard against the danger of losing players to injury.
“We are certainly going to need to let players
breathe a bit,” said Christophe Galtier, the Paris Saint-Germain coach.
“We will need to adjust players’ playing time so we
lose as few as possible to injury.”
Then there is the issue of the month during the
World Cup — ordinarily, with the tournament in June and July, players not
involved would be on holiday.
Liverpool could lose as many as a dozen players to
international duty but the rest of Jurgen Klopp’s squad, including Mohamed
Salah and Andy Robertson, will head to Dubai for a training camp.
“It’s close (to Qatar) so players can come quickly
back, so they can prepare quick with the team again, and it gives us real time
to prepare for the second sprint of the season,” Liverpool assistant coach Pep
Lijnders, whose side reached the finals of the Champions League and both
domestic cups last season, said this week.
“Last season felt like a marathon with 63 games.
This season feels like it’s a sprint, a break, and then a sprint again. So it
is important to start fast and Dubai has to create that — we start fast again
after the World Cup.”
To that end, the Premier League’s decision to join
the rest of Europe and permit teams to make five substitutions per game can
only help.
If clubs are currently focused on how to cope with
the build-up to the World Cup, and during the tournament itself, what happens
after could be especially fascinating.
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