Southgate says Premier League’s early start has taken toll on players

SEVILLE: England coach Gareth Southgate said the Premier League’s early start was a factor in some of his players lacking sharpness or suffering from injury and questioned why the season began less than a month after the World Cup final.

The English top flight was the earliest of the major European leagues to start this season, kicking off on Aug 10, a week before Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A and a fortnight ahead of Germany’s Bundesliga.

Southgate, whose side reached the World Cup semi-finals in July, believes his players and teams across the league are paying the consequences of a lack of rest.

“I don’t understand why our league started so early but it did and it’s a really difficult situation for the clubs,” Southgate said in a news conference on Sunday.

“Some couldn’t field a team. Look at Tottenham, they had so many players in the semi-final and they had to put players straight into matches, it’s an impossible situation for the coaches really.”

England captain Harry Kane (pic), on a six-game goal drought for his country yet in good form for Tottenham, is one player believed to be suffering from a lack of rest, although the striker has said he does not need time off.

Danny Rose and Luke Shaw are two of five players missing for England due to injury.

“I think it’s a lack of psychological freshness rather than physical,” added Southgate.

“When you look at the league, there’s a lot of teams that have got going yet; there’s been lots of injuries.”