This season will be unique in Premier League history, with a 6 week break, from 13 November until Boxing Day. In effect, we will be playing two mini-seasons.
For the top clubs, they can expect most of their squads to be on World Cup duty. That’s going to add a significant match load onto those players. Additionally, there will be injuries to manage, as well as the adjustment back to Premier League football. Thomas Tuchel has already commented on this and he is worried that players will struggle to make the adjustment when they get back.
For the remainder, the challenge will be in maintaining match fitness of their players while the World Cup is on and in re-igniting their teams after a long spell of non-competitive activity.
Added to this, the five sub ruling is going to change the way teams utilise their players and the smarter managers are the ones who will add depth to their squads to accommodate this. Marsch led the way in this regard yesterday, using four subs to revitalise Leeds, where Lage didn’t use one until it was too late. This makes it all the more important to hang on to our experienced players even though they will be giving way to the young bloods. As Klich showed yesterday, he still has a lot to offer.
Over the course of the season, the better the team, the more games their players will be involved in, and with the five subs, the tempo of the game will increase, requiring strength in depth to succeed.
For these reasons, I think there will be opportunities for teams like Leeds to take advantage in the second half of the season. Also, I think the top six teams will be losing a lot more games this season, making it hard to predict who is going to claim the CL places. I wouldn’t be surprised if a team like West Ham is in the mix. At the other end, I have a feeling Man U are going to struggle badly this season. They looked shaky in their last couple of pre-season games and I don’t think the club is in good health behind the scenes.
All in all, then, this season does offer us the opportunity to surprise a few of the established clubs. And let’s not forget what Leicester did after almost being relegated in 2016
World Cup - implications for us
posted on 7/8/22
Interesting post - I think you might well be right re the World Cup. It's going to make for a very intense season for some players and it's great the Marsch is giving the likes of Geldhart and Greenwood minutes.
With regard to Klich, he wants to play in the WC but is slipping down the order due to his advancing years. I wonder after the four years of Bielsa whether he still has the legs for it. Therefore to use him as an impact sub, to add some bite to a flagging midfield over the last 30 mins or something, is a good strategy.
I am generally very pleased with the performance yesterday - gives us a lot to be positive about. Most importantly we withstood a 25-minute-long attack in the second half without conceding. Meslier is a great keeper, so how bad was our defence last season? Grinding that result out yesterday is a very good sign as I'm sure that better teams than Wolves will subject us to the same. Marsch seems not to bother much about keeping possession.
Great to see Paddy firing on all four again - very unlucky with the header and made the winner. And Aaronson - what a great debut! Adams was strong too. Questions have been raised about Kristiansen's defensive positioning, but he certainly gives it 6-0 - Ayling might struggle to get back into the team.
All in all, very positive, I thought.
posted on 7/8/22
Well thought out comment.
posted on 7/8/22
comment by Jaz63 (U8369)
posted 31 minutes ago
Interesting post - I think you might well be right re the World Cup. It's going to make for a very intense season for some players and it's great the Marsch is giving the likes of Geldhart and Greenwood minutes.
With regard to Klich, he wants to play in the WC but is slipping down the order due to his advancing years. I wonder after the four years of Bielsa whether he still has the legs for it. Therefore to use him as an impact sub, to add some bite to a flagging midfield over the last 30 mins or something, is a good strategy.
I am generally very pleased with the performance yesterday - gives us a lot to be positive about. Most importantly we withstood a 25-minute-long attack in the second half without conceding. Meslier is a great keeper, so how bad was our defence last season? Grinding that result out yesterday is a very good sign as I'm sure that better teams than Wolves will subject us to the same. Marsch seems not to bother much about keeping possession.
Great to see Paddy firing on all four again - very unlucky with the header and made the winner. And Aaronson - what a great debut! Adams was strong too. Questions have been raised about Kristiansen's defensive positioning, but he certainly gives it 6-0 - Ayling might struggle to get back into the team.
All in all, very positive, I thought.
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Sorry I did not read your comment, before I posted my comment. Yours was also very good comment.
posted on 7/8/22
We play Man C straight after the WC break. Probably the perfect time to face them.
posted on 7/8/22
Another thought about the second half of the season - the clubs playing in Europe will experience extra congestion in their fixture lists. Added to that, most of the league fixtures take place in that second period, so the importance of a strong transfer window in January can not be understated. Hopefully, we are putting funds aside for that contingency?
posted on 8/8/22
comment by My favorite Marschian (U19827)
posted 1 day, 2 hours ago
Another thought about the second half of the season - the clubs playing in Europe will experience extra congestion in their fixture lists. Added to that, most of the league fixtures take place in that second period, so the importance of a strong transfer window in January can not be understated. Hopefully, we are putting funds aside for that contingency?
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I'd almost put money on them not spending again in Jan and doing another big gamble. Though I think they'd be foolish to.
posted on 8/8/22
I don't understand why you want funds put aside for January?
The best time to make a signing for the second half of the season is now. If we have funds and an opportunity to sign someone, do it now, don't save funds for later
posted on 9/8/22
comment by HaveFaithInLeeds (U8688)
posted 7 hours, 15 minutes ago
I don't understand why you want funds put aside for January?
The best time to make a signing for the second half of the season is now. If we have funds and an opportunity to sign someone, do it now, don't save funds for later
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I think the club will look at this season as two mini-seasons. The first one is 15 games or so. The second is about 23 games. That one is longer and more mentally challenging - a bit like our promotion season under Bielsa. The way our club acts on transfers is reactive, so I think we have spent our funds for this window and the club wants to wait and see if we need to buy anyone in the next window. That would give us time to fix any problems. It's going to be interesting. Some clubs will be low on points, with players injured in the World Cup, needing to bring in new players quickly. I just hope it's not us.
posted on 9/8/22
Hmmm...I'm with Havefaith on that question. Jan is a terrible time to sign new players for all sorts of reasons. If there's still business to be done, and there is - we need a LB to push Firpo at least - then let's get it done now.