Roberto Martinez has called for a winter break in the premier league to refresh players in England ahead of the European fixtures in the second half of the season. LVG has come out saying he believes the English teams are at a disadvantage due to this and it is part of the reason English clubs don't always do as well in Europe as expected. He says players in the Italian, Spanish and German leagues for example are far fresher at this stage of the season and so have more chance to progress to the later rounds of European competition. What do you think? Does the winter break put English teams in a negative position? Does England need a winter break?
Well if having no winter break is a disadvantage you'd have to say England had some very good teams during the period of time we did very well in Europe. The two things are not mutually exclusive Personally I think it probably is a disadvantage not having a break when other leagues do, but I love the winter fixtures so I'd rather we kept things the same!
Yes, we should get a break halfway into the season, with 2 weeks maximum off. It's pretty ****ed up that unless there are internationals, then you have to play in the league every single week, I mean not even one week off? In this day and age when we talk about the regards and health of the players, to not even give them one ****ing week off is just stupid, it's obvious playing at such a high level every week takes its toll. So I am all for a break, they can even start it right after the hectic Christmas-Boxing day fixture lists, so that tradition can still be kept, but once you wrap those fixtures up, then right from the New Year give the players 10-14 days off. There can also be an economic benefit-PR benefit, EPL chiefs always looking for more exposure internationally, many European teams during their winter break, they go on international tours abroad and set up 1 or 2 friendly matches, so many EPL teams could do the same thing, set up training camps abroad, maybe hold some friendly matches etc. But it's just dumb to not have a break, every other league has one.
Any break will result in matches being played around the globe by clubs so the players won't get a break. The premier league will not stop clubs playing friendlies in the usa, middle east, asia, australia etc. as it will act as an advert for them. All a break will do is leave us without football for 2 weeks or so and prepare the ground for the 39th game to be played abroad.
Agree. The PL are looking for an excuse to bring in this 39th game and we all know the clubs will use any break to cash in on commercial deals and trips abroad. Bad idea all round for me. I'd rather see less pre-season nonsense and stick to playing football through the winter.
and i would also remove all international friendlies. There are enough qualifying matches for tournaments. The only need for friendlies is in the warm up for tournaments every two years which do not clash with any season.
