Smith: We must protect our Prem stars...their workload is too much
DEAN SMITH has rubbished the idea of a World Cup every two years, suggesting the game’s stars are risking burn-out.
Aston Villa’s boss said players’ welfare needs to be top of the agenda for the governing bodies and warned they are in danger of playing too much.
Former Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois has said that players are not “robots”, adding: “It’s just more and more games and less rest for us and nobody cares.”
This comes after Arsene Wenger’s plan for a biennial World Cup – a proposal that has split football – and Smith says the workload of the game’s top performers needs to be examined. He said: “Perhaps I’m talking well above my station here, but we’ve had to cram a lot of football into a short space of time.
“We’ve had a pandemic, the games have come thick and fast, there’s been a shortened pre-season and then the European Championships.
“We’ve got a World Cup before Christmas 2022.
“There’s an awful lot of games and not an awful lot of rest now for these players.
“In my opinion, that has to be looked at, because I’m not one for a World Cup every two years.
“There’s too much of a chance for burnout among the top players.
Flogging
“I want to see them at the very top of their game.
“We have to look after their health. That should be at the forefront of this – not with everyone flogging them.”
Smith has had to contend with issues himself concerning Villa’s South American contingent.
Argentine duo Emi Martinez and Emi Buendia have both been forced to quarantine after going on international duty – training alone in Croatia due to the COVID rules – while Brazil’s Douglas Luiz stepped on to the pitch against Wolves last week just 38 hours after being released by the Samba boys. But there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel ahead of next month’s break.
Smith said: “The Premier League and the government are continuing talks going into the next international window. From what I’m led to believe, it’s the last time the South American World Cup qualifiers will be played on a Thursday. I don’t think there are any more threegame international breaks.
“So that will alleviate the problems we have had with playing on Thursday and then playing on the weekend.
“We have been fortunate that Emi Martinez plays in goal. He doesn’t need to cover as much ground, physically, as the
outfield players.
“Obviously, his concentration levels
have to be high. But we’ve had to contend with the likes of Douglas Luiz, for instance, landing on British soil and then being ready to play football within 38 hours of finishing his last game in South America.
Risk
“It’s too much to ask. We knew last week against Wolves that he was going to blow up. It was a calculated risk for us.
“We had others landing 24 hours earlier who had played two full games for their international teams.
“It’s not just been ourselves.
“For instance, Liverpool had three players who didn’t even come back into the country and went straight to Madrid to face Atletico.
“That has been a big problem.
“Hopefully, that will be alleviated now.”