Manchester United fan and part time pundit Mark Goldbridge has publicly slammed UEFA against fixture faced by Arsenal.
Arsenal played against Tottenham Hotspurs and Atalanta in the span of just three days and just three days after that they play Manchester City. Three high quality fixtures in the span of just three days. A daunting task in nature for Arteta and co. Already many top players have spoken out publicly about the amount of games they are set to play this season. With this new model of Champions League on board players have to play week in week out. Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Rodri and Haaland among the players who have raised concern about fixture congestion. Now Mark Goldbrideg has slammed UEFA for letting Arsenal play three days before their crunching match against Man City.
CROWDED FIXTURE LIST
This new model of UEFA competitions has bought about 100 more matches to the football calendar compared to the previous seasons. Now each team has to play two extra matches than before and more challenging fixtures.
Just consider the situation of Arsenal. They played against Tottenham Hotspurs on Sunday and got a hard fought 0-1 victory. Then after a single day off they came back to training on Tuesday. By Wednesday Arteta and co were on plane to Bergamo. Touch down to wednesday and on Thursday, played against a highly challenging Atalanta team. Eventhough they secured a draw pundits praised Arsenal for their resolute performance. Thursday night they traveled back to London and went on a day off. Saturday they back training for the match against Man City. On Sunday they play title rivals Man City in Manchester. We all know how exauhsting that is. A round of three high quality away matches along with more than 6 hours of travelling involved. We don’t know if they took a day off after the Atalanta match.
This is what top players like Rodri, Mbappe, Bellingham and all are trying to convey. Imagine an Arsenal player played an average 70 mins every match then he would have played 210 minutes of high intensity game in span of just 7 days. Just think about William Saliba who played full 90 minutes against Tottenham and Atalanta and he is also expected to start against Man City on Sunday.
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson hit out at fixture congestion by saying ‘Nobody asks players what they think’. Spainish midfielder Rodri hinted at players going on strike against this. He said that top footballers are ‘close’ to going on strike against crowded fixtures. ‘We are the guys who suffer’ said the City midfielder. Soon Real Madrid‘s Thibaut Courtoise, Barcelona‘s Jules Kounde and Aston Villa‘s Jhon McGinn came in support.
WHAT MARK GOLDBRIGE SAID?
Manchester United fan and pundit Mark Goldbrige through his social media publicly slammed UEFA for letting Arsenal play just two days before their match against Manchester City. Arsenal and Man City are two teams challenging for the Premier League title this season. It will undobtedly be the most important match for both teams. However it might give a slight advantage to Man City because of Arsenal’s exhausting round fo fixtures.
He used the words ‘absolute disgrace’ and ‘shocking’ towards the UEFA decision. As he said how can a Premier League teams manage such high quality round of fixtures as the season progresses. the players are also human beings and they need rest. Just think about players involved in International fixtures. We can’t even imagine right? With more fixtures comes exhaustion and injuries. Which inturn results in dminishing quality in the games. Managers will be forced to build a huge rotatable squad and not all the clubs are like Man City, Chelsea, or PSG. Then young players are forced to come in early which reduces the longevity of their careers. There are a lot of consequenses which follws with crowded fixture lists.
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