How Fixture Congestion Will Push Players to the Brink

European football is back, and we couldn’t be more excited. Sure, it’s not the same as before. The fake fan noise in the stadiums is a bit irritating, especially when the celebration noises come a full three minutes after a goal has been scored, and the element of watching matches in a packed pub full of strangers, the only thing you have in common being the passion and love you exude when your team scores, is not the same as streaming a match from your living room couch.

Still, the void is gone, and now we can look forward to games all throughout the summer, with the European leagues ending just in time for the Champions League to start up again in August. It is going to be nonstop football for the next few weeks, and while that is very exciting for fans, these players are entering what will probably be the most physically demanding, mentally draining, and overall hellish time of their careers.

After a defeat to Wolves, their 19th loss of the season, Aston Villa’s manager Dean Smith spoke to the press about his team’s fixture congestion, lamenting the fact that the “amount of games [they] are playing in so many days" is a massive indication to his side's fatigue. He continued, insisting that 48 hours in between matches is not enough for players to recover.