Ruben Peeters and Jonathan Power aren’t too well known outside of football, but that could change over the next few months. Insiders are talking about how the deciding factor of this Premier League season might not be the star talents, or even tactics. It might be the elusive ability to fully deploy them when it matters. That will be down to sports science and performance staff, like Peeters and Power.
The former is responsible for Liverpool’s physical performance. Power is the club’s director of medicine. Both have been integral to keeping Arne Slot’s squad healthy, which has been so crucial in keeping them clear at the top of the table. That’s how influential the intensity of the calendar has become. Little wonder people are starting to talk about those who can navigate it in the way they do modern recruitment gurus, and even set-piece specialists.
That, at least, is if coaching staff actually listen to them.
Many in football certainly took note of Ange Postecoglou’s words on Sunday, after his replenished Tottenham beat an injury-ravaged Manchester United.
“What’s happened to us is going to happen to other clubs,” the Spurs manager warned. “People think I’ve been making excuses all along… but trust me, other clubs will feel that as well. It’s only mid-February. There’s a fair way to go.”
There’s also a fair debate over who has had it worse. Many clubs would tell Postecoglou they’ve already had it just as bad, from Arsenal through Manchester City to Bournemouth. It’s not like it’s new to this season, either, as Newcastle United or Manchester United might say.
Injury lists are getting longer and also staying like that for longer. That is in direct correlation with the increased fixture list, which is demanding more of players.
You only have to stand back and track the changes. The calendar was already a political issue before Covid, but the pandemic forced a huge crunch. Leagues and cup competitions had to be completed in a shorter time, with the rearranged Euro 2020 ensuring there were three major men’s tournaments in three years. The other side of that is now bringing expanded European competitions and a new Club World Cup.
There has never actually been a worse time for more fixtures, and yet Fifa and Uefa seem to see it as an opportune moment.
This is all as pressing entirely shapes how the game is played, with many regularly covering more than 10km a game. Some analysts estimate Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon sprints 500m per match.
It is little wonder the game is starting to snap, mostly in the form of players’ hamstrings. You only have to look at the news of the last few weeks, as Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Nicolas Jackson joined players like Joe Gomez and Micky van de Ven in succumbing. Muscle injuries like hamstrings are seen as klaxon for fatigue, and problems that should have been preventable.
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Something had to give, and it’s a sad inevitability it was always going to be players’ bodies. The game’s authorities, after all, were never going to budge.
In this writer’s book, ‘States of Play’, former Fifa Council member Moya Dodd describes the international football calendar as “a wealth allocation mechanism upon which the game hinges”. It is how football’s single natural resource of players is allocated, which is how money is spread. Control of the calendar means control of the game. That’s all the more pronounced when prize money translates into returned votes for football’s presidents.
This is viewed as one reason why Gianni Infantino has so personally anchored his legacy to an expanded Club World Cup, and feeds into why Aleksander Ceferin acquiesced on the expanded Champions League. And this all before the expanded World Cup for 2026. You’ll note the repetition of the same word there.
Fifa should notionally be the ultimate independent regulator in this but they have become invested parties, competing for time, space, revenue and players. Tension is already building about the Premier League’s refusal to grant City or Chelsea delayed starts to the 2025-26 season over their participation in the Club World Cup.
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The Premier League doesn’t see why it should bend when this has been imposed upon them, and it is mostly a money maker with no obligation to play. When people in Fifa are asked about this, a stock response is about the Premier League’s own summer series in the US. Pre-season friendlies obviously aren’t the same as a fill tournament, though.
Some even believe the tension ties into Fifa wanting the all-powerful Premier League to reduce to 18 clubs. There will never be sufficient votes for that, though.
So, with no one budging, all of football’s competitions literally become survival of the fittest. Some key figures point to how major finals are almost like the 12th round of boxing matches, with exhausted players just throwing whatever is left.
“It’s not sustainable,” Professional Footballers’ Association chief Maheta Molango has said. “We shouldn’t want major competitions to basically just come down to who can get the fittest team out.”
There is another side to that, though, which is how clubs manage this reality. That question does raise another modern tension, between increasingly dogmatic ideologue managers and the flexibility that performance departments advise.
Some prominent figures even feel this is going to define modern clubs: how much they are manager-led and how much they are performance-led.
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It should be acknowledged that it’s not like all ideologue managers just ignore advice. Those days are gone, but there is nevertheless a spectrum as regards how intently they listen, that has become more important given modern demands.
A common complaint that performance staff share is how coaches can become so adamant about their tactics that they insist on training them at game intensity as much as possible. On the more extreme end, one doctor was told to “f**k off”, while there are anecdotes about sporting directors having to tell head coaches that certain players just have to be rested due to their physical data.
This is admittedly complicated by recent recruitment logic that has around 80 per cent of player wages going on those who feature regularly. Coaches inevitably lean towards trying to play them, with the regular pressure bringing short-term decisions.
That is also where performance staff can become newly influential, in getting these players fit. The Championship has become an instructive testing ground, since it has navigated such intensity for much longer.
Its recent science suggests the less you train the more you win, with some clubs reducing two-game weeks to a mere two days of sessions. This is similar to what Liverpool have adopted, with longer sessions that are less intense.
The return of Michael Edwards certainly brought a much greater focus on performance, and it was a significant consideration in Slot’s appointment. He brought Peeters from Feyenoord.
The real solution is of course a cohesive calendar, with fewer matches and more rest. Since it is apparently absurd to even hope for that, however, there are likely two next developments. One is wealthy clubs pushing for bigger squads. Another is the potential rise of the performance directors.
In the meantime, injuries may yet bring some wild swings this season. There may be much more to come.
