Mikel Arteta has voiced his opinion on the congested football calendar and has called for the Premier League to increase the size of squads to help alleviate pressure.
Like most teams in the Premier League this season, Arsenal have had to deal with a host of injuries to first-team players.
At his press conference on Friday, Arteta announced that both Thomas Partey and Gabriel Jesus had suffered ‘muscular injuries’ and would miss out on the next few weeks.
Both players have already spent extensive periods of time on the sideline over the past year.
It seems like now more than ever, players are picking up injuries almost every week with many suggesting that the congested football calendar, a result of the winter World Cup, is to blame.
Speaking ahead of Arsenal’s clash with Sheffield United, Arteta spoke about how increased squad sizes could help managers deal with these issues.
“If we have more games, more competitiveness and physically the standards are higher – by playing more minutes – we have to do that or instead of five subs, we have 10,” he said via the Irish Independent.
“The five subs is now something normal, but it was a big fight to go from three to five. I cannot imagine the game in the conditions we are in today after last year and the World Cup without five subs, it would be so difficult.
“If the calendar extends, for sure, we would have to think of not dropping the quality. The only way to do it is players have to have certain availability and you need players to pick.”
“When is this going to stop and how long will it take for us to make the right decisions? The laws will change and probably our capacity to do things during games will change as well. We will have to adapt, for sure.
“We will need more players. The players have a certain amount of energy. The battery lasts so long and we will burn them. We will need more players if that’s the case. We have to adapt.
“There are periods sometimes where you get really unlucky, and sometimes things that are really difficult to prevent. When you are loading players more and there are players who haven’t done it in the past that risk increases.
“We try to manage every single thing to control it, but there are things that are difficult to do and we have to accept that.”
Sorry but no that’s how you bring young players in and throw them in the deep end.I wonder ho w many players have been found this way.