The "We played in Europe during the week" Factor

[Dave]

Any truth in this or is it a myth and an excuse used by struggling Managers?

This comes after seeing Antonio Conte celebrate a point against Liverpool as if he defended the title. A title he won and didn't once mention any advantage they had over other sides by not playing in Europe.

 

 

[carefreeluke]

40 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

Any truth in this or is it a myth and an excuse used by struggling Managers?

This comes after seeing Antonio Conte celebrate a point against Liverpool as if he defended the title. A title he won and didn't once mention any advantage they had over other sides by not playing in Europe.

 

 

Yeah, he's gone from making a valid point to sounding like a broken record really, be happy when he shuts up about it. 

[DNA]

The last 8 winners of the premier league (from memory) were either not in Europe, or were kicked out in round 16.

[Honey Honey]

Simply playing in Europe won't have much of an effect. These guys are athletes, of course they can run around for an hour and half twice a week ffs. 

However if you are shit in Europe, if you are struggling, if you are taking a beating, then psychologically you can and surely will carry that into your league form. That also works two ways, a cup win can have a positive impact on confidence.

 

[Danny]

Didn't Chelsea get back at 6am on the Thursday? That is a bit of a piss take.

With that said that's why they've got a squad.

[Dan+]

When Boxing Day hit last year Leicester had actually taken more of our points in the six games that followed Champions League games in the thirteen or so that we hadn't. I mean we are a bit of a rare case but that couldn't fly in the face of that theory any further.

It's also bullshit for Conte to use that excuse when Liverpool did the exact same.

I'm not saying it has absolutely no impact because it naturally would, but I got fed up very quickly of people saying that about us last year. A total cop out as far as I'm concerned.

[Cicero]

Conte didn't say just us alone, but all clubs in Europe. 

Dying argument really as it won't ever change. Needs to shut up and deal with the cards that have been dealt. 

[Pep Talk]

This is why depth is important to retool for a long season.

[Happy Blue]

7 hours ago, Kitchen Sales said:

Simply playing in Europe won't have much of an effect. These guys are athletes, of course they can run around for an hour and half twice a week ffs. 

However if you are shit in Europe, if you are struggling, if you are taking a beating, then psychologically you can and surely will carry that into your league form. That also works two ways, a cup win can have a positive impact on confidence.

 

And we have a winner

[SirBalon]

There's also the "FIFA Virus" that gets mentioned a lot especially if you have various important players in your squad travelling half way across the planet in a one and a half week gap in domestic and European football. But then again those international coaches in "far away" places from us can say that they never get the best out of their top players because of the same factor. Also add the AFCON when it comes along...

Harvey has a point in that they're proper athletes these days and they can cope with a heavier load than they used to in the past where footballer's weren't as finely tuned physically as they are these days at he top end. 

Squad depth (as has been repeated on this thread) is paramount for the clubs vying to compete for as much as possible during the campaign... It all levels itself out though because most of the top sides you're competing against and who will inevitably be your rivals come the end of the season are usually the suspects that are also playing midweek.

[bozziovai]

the arrogance of Conte has no bounds -----------

 

 

Conte, who made five changes to the team who beat Qarabag in the Champions League on Wednesday, said: “I think we played in a really good way. We had a good tactical plan and it was difficult for Liverpool to make chances to score. It was a tactical decision, especially in the first half, to be very solid and then to try to be dangerous in possession. The game changed in the second half. We dominated the game and created many chances to score. Liverpool was lucky to score and then to draw.”

[bozziovai]

last year Conte kept on insulting Jose due to Mou's complaining of the schedule, but look who's complaining now ...........

 

Conte criticised the Premier League's scheduling of Chelsea's trip to Merseyside earlier this week. “To have only one day to rest and only one day to prepare this big game is not simple, is not easy. I think also it's not right,” he said.

[Cicero]

Show direct quotes where Conte was insulting Mourinho when he was complaining about the schedule. 

I'l save you the time, you won't. Instead, you'll find quotes about Mourinho complaining how Conte has it easy. Completely forgetting it was his fault we weren't in The champions league 

[Honey Honey]

Preparation is done in the class room these days, they pretty much had 3 days to do that. Oh no we only had one training session to give Gary Cahill one on one practice which he's never done before, we've only ever done heading practice all season and kept him away from Hazard, Willian and Pedro, what on earth will he do, he's so unprepared.

[ScoRoss]

14 hours ago, Kitchen Sales said:

Simply playing in Europe won't have much of an effect. These guys are athletes, of course they can run around for an hour and half twice a week ffs. 

However if you are shit in Europe, if you are struggling, if you are taking a beating, then psychologically you can and surely will carry that into your league form. That also works two ways, a cup win can have a positive impact on confidence.

 

I think it's more of a case of limited time to prepare for the next game, basically decreases the dedicated time for the weekend game. Allowing players and the coaching staff to start preparing for, in this case, Liverpool, on Monday rather than on Thursday would have a beneficial effect on the approach that the team can take for the game. This isn't a phenomenon limited to just European games, but any type of midweek games. 

It does appear that the EPL does less to accommodate their European teams than say Serie A does. A team that plays on a Wednesday in the Champions League wouldn't play again until the Sunday, although that is their default day for games, they'll also have a team playing on Tuesday play on the Saturday in the weekend before.

[Honey Honey]

10 minutes ago, ScoRoss said:

I think it's more of a case of limited time to prepare for the next game, basically decreases the dedicated time for the weekend game. Allowing players and the coaching staff to start preparing for, in this case, Liverpool, on Monday rather than on Thursday would have a beneficial effect on the approach that the team can take for the game. This isn't a phenomenon limited to just European games, but any type of midweek games. 

It does appear that the EPL does less to accommodate their European teams than say Serie A does. A team that plays on a Wednesday in the Champions League wouldn't play again until the Sunday, although that is their default day for games, they'll also have a team playing on Tuesday play on the Saturday in the weekend before.

There's loads of time to do that type of preparation though. Especially as it is classroom learning for players these days, not like the old days of right we are playing Wimbledon let's practice defending long balls. They had Thursday, Friday and right up to 5:30pm on Saturday to prep players. That is a lot of available hours.

Maybe it messes things up because players are overly pampered and workshy.

Managers these days have staff preparing and analysing weeks in advance. There are a lot of hours in a day so the manager doesn't need days of mulling things over. A manager can surely also multi task and spend some of his day thinking about how to prepare for Carrier Bag and some of the day thinking about Liverpool. There's no need for them to wait until one game is out of the way like there probably is for a players classroom learning.

[ScoRoss]

9 minutes ago, Kitchen Sales said:

There's loads of time to do that type of preparation though. Especially as it is classroom learning for players these days, not like the old days of right we are playing Wimbledon let's practice defending long balls. They had Thursday, Friday and right up to 5:30pm on Saturday to prep players. That is a lot of available hours.

Managers these days have staff preparing and analysing weeks in advance. There are a lot of hours in a day so the manager doesn't need days of mulling things over. A manager can surely also multi task and spend some of his day thinking about how to prepare for Carrier Bag and some of the day thinking about Liverpool. There's no need for them to wait until one game is out of the way like there probably for a players classroom learning.

I'm not saying that they simply cannot do it because of a midweek game, but it clearly does lessen the time available to them. I'm not buying it as an excuse in this case as Liverpool also played midweek, and Conte would probably just pointed out Liverpool had an extra day if the game was even moved to Sunday. I was just putting across the point that people seem to think this is a physical reason and there is, in fact, more to it than that. 

In my experience, 'classroom work' or film watching can only go so far into being able to implement ideas and instincts within a team about an upcoming game. You still need time on the pitch to reflect what an opposing team will be structured like and be ingraining instincts into your team to set up how you would like. There are types of people who can watch game film, and be able to take it all in at that point. But there are people that need to do something or physically learn from it.

You also easily dismiss Qarabag, a team that drew home and away with Atletico Madrid. Which shows how a team can ruin a season without the correct approach to a match.

[bozziovai]

1 hour ago, Cicero said:

Show direct quotes where Conte was insulting Mourinho when he was complaining about the schedule. 

I'l save you the time, you won't. Instead, you'll find quotes about Mourinho complaining how Conte has it easy. Completely forgetting it was his fault we weren't in The champions league 

come the end of the season when Conte wins nothing ............  i'm looking forward to your sentiment.

 

 

[RandoEFC+]

Europe has had a negative impact on our season but that's just because we've been gash. Especially with starting with qualifiers against Ruzomberok and Hajduk Split if anything that should have given us an advantage going into the season with the momentum of winning a couple of competitive matches comfortably but a it turned out we scraped some 1-0 wins and it's been all downhill since.

[Guest]

I think it does make a difference more if you play away because you can loose a days training and especially if you are in somewhere like Russia the flight will be tiring. But even if you are at home an extra game means more training so less recovery time. Players not in Europe might get an extra day of. I think extra games ware player's out mentally more than physically.

[Stan]

i think it definitely does have a factor especially if the team you're playing hasn't played an extra game. Eventually it takes its toll on the squad (look at Arsenal in most seasons nowadays always crashing out around Feb/March time of the competitions they're in). But then to get around that you need good squad depth and be wiser in the transfer market (something we were not after we won in 2015/16). 

 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Cicero said:

Show direct quotes where Conte was insulting Mourinho when he was complaining about the schedule. 

I'l save you the time, you won't. Instead, you'll find quotes about Mourinho complaining how Conte has it easy. Completely forgetting it was his fault we weren't in The champions league 

Yeah I don't think conte does talk about other managers much. I can't remember him saying things about other managers. I think he has conducted himself quite well. I think he's quite a likable guy

[Dan+]

3 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

Europe has had a negative impact on our season but that's just because we've been gash. Especially with starting with qualifiers against Ruzomberok and Hajduk Split if anything that should have given us an advantage going into the season with the momentum of winning a couple of competitive matches comfortably but a it turned out we scraped some 1-0 wins and it's been all downhill since.

Becomes a very convenient excuse I think. It really did piss me off when people said it about us. Totally overlooks so many other factors at work and that's clearly the case for you too.

[ScoRoss]

On 26/11/2017 at 3:07 PM, ScoRoss said:

I'm not buying it as an excuse in this case as Liverpool also played midweek, and Conte would probably just pointed out Liverpool had an extra day if the game was even moved to Sunday.

As basically predicted, Conte just loves to complain.

 

[The Artful Dodger]

Conte is a bald man.