Chelsea’s Italian head coach Enzo Maresca shouts directions to the gamers from the touchline throughout the pre-season pleasant soccer match between Chelsea and Inter Milan on the Stamford Bridge stadium in London on August 11, 2024. (Picture by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) (Picture by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca criticised the packed sport schedule that footballers are subjected to, saying there’s ‘little doubt’ they’re enjoying an excessive amount of and that making their voices heard is an efficient place to begin.
Extra competitions are rising the variety of video games, a difficulty that a number of gamers and coaches have raised in latest weeks.
The brand new expanded Champions League format added two additional matches within the revamped group part earlier than the knockout stage, and the brand-new Membership World Cup, to be held between June and July 2025 on the finish of an already busy season, will contain as many as 32 groups.
“We don’t defend the gamers”: Maresca’s stance on packed sport schedule and potential strike
“Sure, little doubt [they are playing too many games],” Maresca mentioned at a press convention on Friday, as quoted by Soccer London.
“When it comes to video games, it’s an excessive amount of. We don’t defend gamers. The one ones who can do one thing are the gamers. We can assist them.”
“I feel within the final two weeks, some gamers have defined what they suppose, and I feel it’s a superb place to begin.”
Chelsea’s Italian supervisor continued by explaining his issues a couple of schedule that leaves gamers little likelihood to relaxation, which is strictly associated to his resolution to omit some outstanding gamers from the Blues’ Europa Convention League listing.
“The rationale why Cole [Palmer], Wes [Fofana] and Romeo [Lavia] are out of the squad in Convention League is to guard them a little bit bit. For Cole, it’s a combination by way of it’s been an intense season for him final yr. We try to guard him.”
Manchester Metropolis’s Rodri arguably shared the strongest view on this regard. He admitted gamers are “shut” to placing and have “no different choice” if issues gained’t change.
Requested to touch upon such a state of affairs, Maresca merely added, “The one factor I can say is that there are too many video games.”
Maresca’s compatriot Carlo Ancelotti mentioned in August that he would think about giving his Actual Madrid gamers particular person holidays throughout the season to deal with a packed fixture listing.
