Arsenal’s head coach Miekel Arteta has warned that the club’s players are starting to crack under pressure of their demanding schedule. He also warned that standards will take a tumble if changes are not made or the squad is not increased to 26 or even 28 players.
“I think there are a lot of ways around it,” Arteta told the Guardian. “We’re not going to please everyone with the decisions that have to be made. What is for sure is that, for players, it’s an enormous amount of games. The intensity is rising every single year, the level of pressure too, and sometimes it’s too much for them. If [there is no change], we have to be allowed to have 26 or 28 squad players, which we are not allowed to do, and even more players on the bench.
“But something has to be done, because you can see players are cracking and cracking every season. You can sustain that for one season, two seasons, but after three or four seasons you end up paying the price and I think the quality at some stage will drop. But we have a history, a massive culture, here with the cup games and to go against that is difficult.”
Arteta also said that unexpected events, such as the outbreak of the coronavirus, which has already caused some game postponements, could contribute to what is already a complex problem. “It’s very condensed and if any event happens that is not considered, like for example the coronavirus, then it will be even more complicated.”
“Some of Arsenal’s players, including Sokratis Papastathopoulos, even abandoned their tradition of shaking hands before their recent FA Cup victory over Portsmouth in favor of fist-bumps. This is a sure sign that the football club is concerned about the threat posed by the coronavirus,” said sports expert Levi Price from thepunterspage.com
“For now, the FA has not issued any advice in relation to the virus, with the medical departments of individual clubs responsible for suggesting any special precautionary measures.”
EPL have become too rough and referees are too lenient for the players being injured too often.
I do hope that everyone follows the prescribed regulations , keep themselves safe and get a good rest . For now we have to forget football and tide this trying times.
My country is in lockdown mode , but too many are not takling it seriously. I sincerely hope that this passes on , with minimal damage.
Keep safe guys.
Brickfields, of course everyone must make their own decisions. But I do hope you, such a long term reader and contributor does not forget about footbal, and Untold, totally.
I’m in western (and quite a bit north) Canada. And in the news is a report on yet another run on products in stores. That the run is happening doesn’t surprise me. That the run is being fueled by what is happening in the USA doesn’t surprise me either. One thing that does surprise me, is the journalist in question, seems to believe what I think was a fabricated answer. Unless perhaps this journalist is being sponsored or paid by the NRA.
I’m talking guns and ammunition.
Supposedly people are worried in mid March, that there will not be ammunition for hunting in September. And the journalist points to 2/3 of sales being ammunition as some kind of proof. Nonsense. The other 1/3 is largely guns.
Lots of people are hording supplies. What does a redneck do, when he/she has a lot of “supplies”? Well, they have to protect their family and their supplies. How? More guns (and ammunition). How long before we start seeing people shot and possibly dying from being shot, due to some person protecting his/her family and supplies from COVID-19 raiders?
I’ve no idea how long social distancing is supposed to happen for. Some optimistic reports talk until some time in May (2020). Others talk July or August (2020). Part of social distancing, is that people are supposed to at least consider asking neighbours if they need any supplies. Which could mean walking up to the house and asking them. If the neighbour is paranoid and has guns, what could happen? Someone is coming to my door to steal my stuff.
OT: information overload on the virus?
NPR.org had a news article about the governor of NY sending all non-essential workers home. The end of the article, points to a “dashboard” developed by Johns Hopkins University on the corona virus. In any event, lots of other dashboards are available, so perhaps the thing to search for is
site:arcgis.com list of novel coronavirus dashboards
It lists the JHU dashboard among the ones it has. It is near realtime.
Gord, thanks for that comment about guns and ammo. Not something I had considered. Nor something that is happening in my English village.
At least not yet.
Be glad you don’t live next to the USA. Especially not in the west. Everybody in the oil patch is just another Charlton Heston. At least in terms of NRA.
I liked a lot of his movies, hated his association with guns.