Do you remember football already? It’s been less than a week since the final whistle blew into the 2021-22 European season with the final match of UEFA Nations League But the new campaign is happening faster than you think.
Some Premier League The clubs are set to return to pre-season training early next week, while Arsenal will begin their summer friendly program early with a match against Nurnberg on July 8. Manchester United and Liverpool will then begin their own schedule for the new season by going head-to-head in Bangkok four days later.
– How the 2022-23 season works across Europe
– Full schedule of Premier League 2022-23
– 2022-23 pre-season fixtures: Where the top clubs are headed
Of course, there will be extended summer breaks for players who finally took down the stuff after last week’s international mission, but it won’t be long enough to really recharge tired minds and bodies.
English Premier League, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 They all start their seasons on the first weekend of August, with LaLiga and Series A starting a week later, so the biggest stars know they will have to be back on the training ground before mid-July for the realistic hope of being completely fit and ready for the new campaign.
But for anyone struggling with withdrawal symptoms due to the absence of senior football right now, it may be a good idea to take advantage of the downtime. Enjoy the silence while it lasts because the 2022-23 season will be like a sprint and a marathon combined because World Cup 2022 was held in Qatar from November 21 to December 18.
And as usual, it is the players performing in the Premier League that will have to deal with the most demanding and demanding schedule in the coming months.
City of Manchester and Liverpool, whose players are heading to Qatar later this year, both face a series of busy fixtures in the opening months of the season.
When City won the championship – who started the summer friendly with Club America in Houston on July 20th – and FA Cup Liverpool winners meet in Community Shield at Leicester’s King Power Stadium on July 30, it will be the starting place of 24 matches for Pep Guardiola’s side until the Premier League clash with Brentford on November 12, just nine days before the World Cup begins.
Liverpool are also expected to play 24 games in the same span, with both clubs needing to cram all six Champions League Group stage fixtures and Carabao Cup match, before Qatar 2022 begins.
The first leg of the Champions League is scheduled for September 6-7, while the sixth leg is scheduled for November 1-2. There is also an international break in the logs at the end. September.
And just to turn the situation around even more tightly against the Premier League teams in the European competition, they will enter the Carabao Cup in the third stage on November 9. With all conceivable focus destined for the World Cup, it may have gone unnoticed by many given that the fourth round of the Carabao Cup was held on December 21 – three days after the World Cup final.
The possible strain on the Man City and Liverpool teams is obvious as each team faces 24 games in 105 days – a fixture every 4.37 days. For Liverpool, that workload comes after a season in which they have played every game available after reaching the finals of both the domestic cup and the Champions League.
With such a tight swing from the end of one season to the beginning of another, time will tell how much of an impact not having enough summer break has on players likely to make it to the World Cup.
England Coach Gareth Southgate may regret using captain Harry Kane in all four Nations League matches – 295 minutes from 360 maybe – and don’t say Tottenham switch to an early summer break, as he did for the Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Kane played 61 games for club and country last season – 11 more than Alexander-Arnold – but he remained in the England squad after the Anfield full-back was made his debut following his second Nations League game against Germany.
On the other hand, Manchester United move forward Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho could benefit from the extended break they’ve had this summer thanks to their exclusion from the England squad.
When Rashford and Sancho return to training at United next week, they should be refreshed from the longest summer break in recent memory and can take advantage by returning to international focus in September.
However, Rashford and Sancho will likely be the exceptions. Most of football’s biggest stars are playing catch-up with their physical and mental recovery, and time may have been against them.
The new season will come too soon for some, and the congestion in the fixture will leave them short of time to breathe.
But if you miss them all, it won’t take long to wait for the fun to return.
