"The calendar is not only overloaded: at this rate, it will even burst". Didier Deschamps protested this Monday, in an editorial published by our German colleagues in Kicker, about the too many games played by the big European clubs, the main employers of the players of the France team.
"The calendar is too busy, but I have little hope that the situation will evolve favorably, admits the coach of the Blues, in words translated by The Team. The Club World Championship scheduled for China in 2021 with no less than twenty-four teams proves that there are now too many matches. ” From his coaching point of view, Deschamps considers that he "often suffers the consequences" of "shorter and shorter pre-season preparations" and of clubs which "take the risk of playing a player who is long unavailable too quickly".
"A frantic pace"
"I feel a lack of cohesion in football in general and we don't take enough care of the players' health," continues Deschamps. It is a problem facing every great nation. Even the young players bear less and less these infernal cadences, so much they have to chain the matches at a frantic pace ”.
A speech that is very similar to that of Thomas Tuchel, PSG coach. The German regularly underlines the calendar of his club at a press conference. Recently, he put forward the game schedules, too late for his taste. "The players are dead," he dared, while thinking of "families" and "children", who could not watch the scheduled meetings at 9 pm.