Fatigue in football is starting to become a real issue. More and more injuries are plaguing teams, with the majority a result of simply the number of minutes a player is now required to play each season.
Various league, cup, and international matches result in the best players being forced to play up to 70 matches in the space of ten months, an unsustainable number by any count. But with demand for matches constantly increasing, how can the sport respond to both protect players while continuing to provide entertainment for fans?
There is a way, but it will change the face of football forever.
Breaking point
Despite the incredible athleticism shown in football in the modern era, there’s still only so much a player can do. At the end of the day, even the best footballers are human, and therefore can’t consistently sustain the level of performance required to compete at the top level of the game.
On average, a player in the Premier League covers a distance of 10 km (6.2 mi) during a 90-minute match. That equates to just over 110 m (120 yards) per minute. This means over a 38-game season a player can run up to 380,000 km (approx 240,000 miles), the equivalent of nearly ten times the circumference of the Earth.
That’s a massive ask of players, and the cracks are already beginning to show. Players who otherwise would complete a match with no problem are now picking up injuries, with teams struggling due to the higher-than-average number of absentees.
Image credit: Sky Sports
My own team, Newcastle United, failed to match their successes of the 2022/23 season the following year due to injuries sustained by key players. The entire first-choice midfield was missing at various stages of the season, with the added Champions League fixtures resulting in the remaining squad being spread too thin.
The combination of more and more matches with high-intensity tactics means players have reached their breaking point. Manchester City’s Rodri has even stated that some players have considered going on strike, with the Spaniard then suffering a season-ending knee injury during City’s draw with Arsenal.
Chelsea’s solution to the problem is to leave out some of their best players from their registered Europa Conference League squad. Cole Palmer, Wesley Fofana, Romeo Lavia, and Ben Chilwell are all staying home this year, with the idea being to limit their game time to protect them from injury.
FIFPRO, the worldwide union for professional footballers, has also weighed in on the subject, accusing governing body FIFA of not listening to concerns about player welfare when planning out fixture schedules.
This is a drastic action, but it’s the only real choice with the number of matches being thrown upon clubs. Or is it? I believe I have found another solution, but I don’t think it will be a popular suggestion.
Capping minutes
Football is currently going through a series of regulation changes, focused mainly on the financial side. Profit and Sustainability is the talk of the Premier League currently, while Financial Fair Play has been around since UEFA first actioned it in 2011.
These regulations are designed to prevent clubs from falling into financial black holes, with clubs’ spending limited to a percentage of their income. This means a club will never be able to spend beyond its means without facing sanctions.
Believe it or not, you can apply similar logic to prevent player fatigue too. By carefully managing the amount of match time a player competes in, you can minimise the risk of serious injuries occurring.
Let’s use October and November 2024 as an example. In total, Premier League clubs are expected to play seven matches across these two months, resulting in players completing at least 630 minutes before injury time is added.
The chances of players picking up knocks during this period are already high, but then you have to consider this is right before the heavily congested Christmas period, where injury risk increases even further. This can be alleviated, however, with the following proposal.
Fixtures provided by BBC Sport
The idea I’m about to pitch has been designed to suit the Premier League, but in theory, could be applied to any league or even cup competition should the need arise. Bearing in mind the Champions League has been reformatted this season to include more fixtures, it could also benefit from this.
So here’s my proposed idea: introduce a minute cap for every player at every football club. This will stop players from being forced to complete every minute of every game, with the potential for adding rest periods during congested fixture periods to aid in recovery.
How this can be implemented is variable. No fan wants to see their best player substituted at halftime in order to not breach their minute cap, so it’s important to ensure player welfare is balanced with team cohesion.
I suggest introducing a percentage ratio for players, restricting the total number of minutes a player can participate in per season. These percentages could be assigned on a player-by-player basis depending on injury risk and records, or just categorised by age range to protect players of all ages equally.
For example, if a player was limited to 80% of the available minutes in October and November, this would equate to 504 minutes. This means that a player could be substituted in the 54th minute of their sixth match without going over their allowed minutes, assuming all previous matches had no additional time added, of course.
To avoid kneejerk substitutions, there would be some leeway added so that a manager can plan around the cap rather than react to it. Allowing a player to complete 90 minutes even if their cap expires after the 75th minute should still protect the player without compromising the team.
Either that or that player could instead be used as an impact substitute, coming off the bench to make a difference when needed.
Then there’s the issue of how to prevent a club from running out of minutes during a crucial title challenge run-in. For this, I think football can turn to the world of Formula 1 for some inspiration.
From the track to the pitch
Formula 1 teams are limited in how much development they can undertake during a season. Aerodynamic testing regulation (ATR) periods restrict the number of wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamic hours a team can utilise while designing new parts for their cars.
In layman’s terms, each team’s resources are capped across a set number of periods per season to ensure fairness across the grid. A similar model can be applied to football. Splitting the season up into three or four cap periods can ensure players have the time they need to recover and reduce the risk of injury.
At the start of the season, players are more likely to be fit and ready for action, so the first minute-cap period can be set from August to November. December and January can then be their own period to combat the intense Christmas period without needing a winter break.
From here, the remainder of the season could be treated as either one or two cap periods. Keeping it as a single period will require some clever management while splitting it up into two allows for a bit more freedom from managers.
F1 Manager 2024 demonstrates F1’s ATR periods in car development
Ideally, I think a February/March period, followed by an April/May period would work better, but it does depend on the situation. A team like Manchester City competing for silverware is far more likely to have a busy fixture list in the latter stages of the season, so may benefit from two cap periods instead of one.
A system like this will allow managers to plan their squads based on their players’ minute allocations. Ultimately there would be no excuse for a player having to be substituted early in a match if the manager is aware of how long they were able to be played for.
ATR periods in Formula 1 are weighted based on the previous season’s constructor’s championship, with the reigning champions allocated 70% of the baseline, while the last-placed team receive 115% of the allocation.
In truth, this part of the model won’t transfer over to football well enough to be considered, especially considering the idea is to protect players, not teams. The bigger clubs do have bigger squads, but cutting the minutes of players at bigger clubs does nothing to help the players at smaller clubs forced to play more minutes.
This does, however, highlight the issue of squad sizes. Bigger squads create an advantage when player minutes are capped. The Premier League does limit squad sizes to a maximum of 25 players over the age of 21, with a specific requirement for a certain quota to be ‘homegrown’.
There’s no real need to change the squad size restrictions, as they open the door to arguably the best part of this whole concept.
Future talent
We’ve seen what can happen when a manager is forced to use younger players to fix gaps in teams. Trent Alexander-Arnold is now arguably the best attacking right-back in the world, while Kobbie Mainoo has cemented his place in the England setup despite starting last season as a reserve player for Manchester United.
It could be argued that neither would have had that initial opportunity were it not for injuries, but my idea is to get them involved without needing to rely on another player missing large periods due to injury. Developing future talent is crucial for the continued success of clubs, and by capping minutes it does mean managers will be looking to the reserve and academy teams for players to fill the gaps.
If a senior player reaches their minute cap, someone else will have to deputise for them until the next cap period starts. This creates opportunities for younger players to stake their claim in the first team, potentially fast-tracking themselves to becoming first-team regulars.
England stars Trent Alexander-Arnold & Kobbie Mainoo
Fast-tracking younger players into senior football isn’t a new concept. In 2016, the EFL Trophy was reformatted to include academy teams from Premier League and Championship clubs. As well as introducing men's football to younger players, the goal was to give academy stars valuable game time and possibly even source loan moves to help develop them further.
Despite the idea being good on paper, in practice, it’s proved incredibly divisive. Fans have boycotted the tournament in large numbers since the format change, with crowd numbers in stadiums continuing to fall with each and every season.
Forcing player development into an existing tournament has proved unsuccessful so far. There is, therefore, the possibility that capping minutes will have a similar reaction, but this concept is to protect player welfare rather than crowbarring teams into competitions they don’t belong in.
Ultimately, players are human, and can only endure so much before they break. By creating a situation whereby players are forced to rest and recover, it can only benefit the game in the long run. Plus it may just result in the next generation of footballing talent coming through quicker than expected, benefitting not only club teams but also international setups too.
Now there will always be managers who will be opposed to the idea, but this concept will actually help clubs. Keeping players fresh is actually beneficial for teams competing at the top while nurturing talent can help reduce transfer spending and increase income from potential player sales in the future, evading the risk of breaching financial regulations.
It’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned. Yes, managers may not like being told which players they can and cannot play at any given time, but my response to that is to tell them what they should already be doing: manage!
Do you agree with my idea to stop fatigue in football? Let me know in the comments below!