It's time to cut the Premiership

Gareth Southgate13 April 2012

At this time of the season, when the domestic programme is coming to a climax and the World Cup finals are rapidly approaching, the debate about players' fatigue levels is an obvious but important one.

Sven-Goran Eriksson has made the point about players in this country playing more matches than their European counterparts and I can speak from experience, having played every Premiership match for Middlesbrough this season, that now is the time when it's a case of recovering from the previous game rather than preparing for the next one.

I'm always careful not to be too opinionated about our workload because the frequent response can be: "What are you complaining about? Is 90 minutes football too much to ask?"

The problem is that it's not the number of matches we play as much as the necessity to perform at the highest level in all of them. That is impossible if you're one of the top players and you've been involved in around 50 matches by the end of the season.

What is the answer, a winter shutdown like some European countries?

I don't see that as a solution because all you're doing is shifting the games to another part of the season. The workload is the same.

I believe, but I have a hunch that not many Premiership chairmen will be with me on this, that we should cut the Premiership by another two clubs.

I don't offer this opinion lightly because I was a player at Crystal Palace the season they decided to relegate four clubs and we finished fourth from bottom.

I just believe it would help ease the problem of too many matches, which definitely puts us at a disadvantage when we are going into international tournaments such as the one this summer in Japan and South Korea.

Look at this weekend as an example. After we've finished tonight we rejoin our clubs and go straight into the Easter programme, which traditionally means two Premiership matches in the space of 48 hours, a tough schedule which is completely unnecessary.

The plus point for the England coaching team this time is that they should have all the necessary information about players' fatigue levels.

All the squad had blood tests yesterday and the results should be exhaustive. We had similar tests last month and the Swedish doctor who administered them will be able to see any difference in levels of minerals, nutrients, protein, and carbohydrates.

The printouts we all received last time were incredibly thorough and this time the expert eye will be able to see if there are any patterns emerging and if so, what to do.

I'm sure though, that all the players selected for tonight's match will be raring to go.

Hopefully I will have the chance to play up against one of Europe's top strikers, Christian Vieri.

It won't be the first time I've played against him though because we were in opposition when England played a World Cup qualifier in Rome and twice more when I was in the Aston Villa side and he was playing for Atletico Madrid and we met in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

He is a very good player, like an oldfashioned centre forward - big, strong, athletic - and he scores lots of goals.

A lot has been made of the situation between Sol Campbell and myself, that we are perhaps competing for one place. But I have to say that, while we all want to play, there is no particular rivalry between the two of us.

I think that all the places at the back are up for grabs and that nothing has been ruled in or out.

All the defenders get on well and those that are not playing do their bit to help those that are. One outstanding young defender, Jonathan Woodgate, has been at the centre of another debate this week and it can't have been an easy decision for the coach to leave him out.

Whatever the outcome he was going to be criticised but perhaps the decision he has made will enable the rest of the squad to concentrate just on the football between now and the beginning of June.

If the decision had gone the other way and Jonathan had been picked it is inevitable he would have been under an intense spotlight.

Perhaps this way he can concentrate on getting back to the top of his game at Leeds and start afresh with England next season.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in