Sources:

• https://theathletic.com/5068440/2023/11/20/premier-league-injury-latest-news/
• https://www.premierinjuries.com/injury-table.php

• Injury crisis: The Premier League has seen a record number of injuries this season, with 196 in just over three months. Newcastle and Manchester United are the worst-hit teams with 14 players injured each this season.
• World Cup effect: The 2022 winter World Cup in Qatar may have contributed to the increase in injuries, as players had to play more games in a shorter time before and after the tournament. The average length and severity of injuries also rose after the World Cup.
• Hamstring injuries: Hamstring injuries have seen a 96% increase this season, with 53 incidents. This may be related to the longer added time and the higher tempo of the Premier League games.
• Cost of injuries: Injuries have a significant financial impact on clubs, as they have to pay wages to unavailable players. The cost of injuries across the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 was £617.8m in 2022-23, a 27.3% increase from the previous season.
• Festive period: The upcoming festive period will see more games in a short span of time, which may lead to more injuries. The Premier League says no club plays within 60 hours of another match, but some experts suggest 72 hours is the optimal recovery time.

cross-posted from: https://mastodon.online/users/hallenbeck/statuses/111438924092907782

> The Biggest Danger To English Football, Salary Caps & How Much Money Do Football Clubs Lose? - The Rest Is Football > > REALLY interesting episode with Crystal Palace co-owner and chairman Steve Parish. > > https://pca.st/episode/5b0d8ca8-0013-41cf-b158-0451672b0190 > > What is the biggest threat to the growth, or even survival, of domestic football? Would salary caps help level the playing field? Is it ok for football clubs to continually lose money? >

Summary

• Everton verdict: The Premier League has docked Everton 10 points for breaching its profit and sustainability rules. Everton is the first club to be punished for breaking financial fair play rules.
• City and Chelsea cases: Manchester City and Chelsea are also under investigation by the Premier League for alleged financial wrongdoing. They face more severe charges and potential sanctions, including relegation.
• Premier League's stance: The Premier League is keen to enforce its rules and regulations and deter clubs from circumventing them. It also wants to retain some of its regulatory powers amid the prospect of an independent regulator.
• Everton's appeal: Everton has said it will appeal against the verdict and the finding that it failed to act with the utmost good faith. However, experts believe it is unlikely to succeed.
• Other clubs' claims: Leeds, Leicester, Burnley and Southampton have 28 days to inform the commission if they want compensation from Everton. They are not allowed to take separate legal action through the courts.

cross-posted from: https://mastodon.online/users/hallenbeck/statuses/111416599829567870

> Tifo Football Podcast: Is too much football causing injuries? > > If you only listen to one thing this international break, make it this. A fascinating and absorbing deep dive into the many aspects and problems associated with player fitness. > > It's much more complicated than a binary fit/not-fit decision. > > https://pca.st/aw90kigz

• Leaked files reveal Chelsea FC received a series of secret payments worth tens of millions of pounds over 10 years from former owner Roman Abramovich. These may have breached football financial rules.

• The payments appear to be connected to player transfers and contracts for Eden Hazard, Willian, Samuel Eto'o, and manager Antonio Conte among others.

• The payments were routed through offshore companies and some may not have been properly declared to football authorities. This could violate financial fair play rules and regulations on accurate financial reporting.

• Experts say the Premier League could punish Chelsea with point deductions if rules were broken to gain an unfair advantage. The league, FA, and UEFA are investigating.

• There are also revelations around Abramovich secretly funding efforts to challenge financial fair play rules in court. And suspicious payments to the owner of Anzhi Makhachkala before Chelsea bought Willian and Eto'o from that club.

• Chelsea says the allegations pre-date the current ownership, which has voluntarily reported "incomplete financial information" from the Abramovich era to authorities. The club says it is assisting investigations.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/8065229

> Postecoglou: "Absolutely. I am not going to draw a direct correlation to Micky's injury but I was half-tempted to throw some balls out there for them to kick around. It's the reason we have warm-ups but if you're going into a game, the fact there was only 47 minutes of game time the other night in whatever it was, 110, that is not ideal for the type of athletes we have out there" > > That's the disgrace right there. All this waiting around is likely harming the players.

Postecoglou: "Absolutely. I am not going to draw a direct correlation to Micky's injury but I was half-tempted to throw some balls out there for them to kick around. It's the reason we have warm-ups but if you're going into a game, the fact there was only 47 minutes of game time the other night in whatever it was, 110, that is not ideal for the type of athletes we have out there"

That's the disgrace right there. All this waiting around is likely harming the players.

He makes a lot of sense. Unless managers (and fans) proactively act together, and have a calm and ongoing dialogue nothing will improve. Instead, managers rant and rave post-match in a knee-jerk way and only when it goes against them. Get together and deal with it like adults. Less of the drama.

Summary

• Vicario was signed by Tottenham this summer from Empoli in Italy for £16.3 million. Head coach Ange Postecoglou made bringing in a new goalkeeper a top priority.

• Vicario has impressed with his shot-stopping ability, saving over 3 more goals than expected based on shot quality faced. He has a high goals prevented rate of 1.4, meaning he concedes fewer goals than expected.

• A big part of Vicario's appeal was his personality - he is humble, hard-working, and eager to learn and improve. He adapted quickly to the Premier League and gelled well with the squad.

• Vicario is comfortable playing as a sweeper-keeper, coming off his line to clear balls and support Spurs' high defensive line. This allows Spurs to play higher up the pitch and press opponents.

• His distribution by passing short to midfielders rather than long kicks represents a change from former keeper Hugo Lloris. This helps Spurs build up play from the back.

• Vicario has been a transformative signing for Spurs, allowing manager Postecoglou to implement his tactical approach. His shot-stopping and sweeper style have made Spurs' defense much stronger this season.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/7914713

BBC Chief football writer Phil McNulty pieces through the carnage.

Interested to know what the neutral's view of this match was, especially Ange's comments after the game.

“It’s who we are, mate. Even with five men, we’ll have a go.”

https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/news/every-word-ange-postecoglou-said-28057867

Have you been involved in as crazy a game as that before?

> No, but I think it's going to become the norm. It's where the game's heading. Unfortunately it's how we're going to have to watch and participate in football from now on because... look I've said it before, I don't like it. I don't like the standing around. I don't like the whole theatre around waiting for decisions. > > But I know that I'm in the wilderness with that. I'm on my own. In my 26 years I was always prepared to accept the referee's decisions, good, bad or otherwise, and I've had some shockers in my career let me tell you. I've had some go my way as well but I cop that because I just want the game to be played. > > When we're complaining about decisions every week this is what's going to happen. If people are going to forensically scrutinise everything to make sure that they're comfortable that it's right and even at the end of that we're still not happy. So what does that mean? It means that we're going to see a lot of standing around. > > I just think it's just diminishing the authority of the referee. You can't tell me that referees are in control of the game because they're not. The control is outside of that but that's the way the game is going so you have to accept that and just try to deal with it.

When you say you're in the wilderness, the fans seem to dislike it so is it other managers or club execs?

>I don't know but it seems like there isn't a great call for us to go back to accepting the referee's decisions for the majority of it. I understand goalline technology because that's a simple one. That came in and no one's complained about it. > > But in searching for this utopia of no wrong decisions in a game, that doesn't exist. It never will but that's the road everyone wants to go down. > > It's self-inflicted because we all complain about decisions every week. That's not new. We've been complaining about decisions...I've been doing this for 26 years and I've heard managers, me included, complaining about decisions in the past, but we've got on with it. We didn't feel the need to find some miracle cure for it. > > I don't think that that's a viable option because we've opened that door, allowed the technology. Now we want transparency. I guarantee the next thing is we'll have referees mic'ed up and explaining decisions. > > There's plenty of other sports where you can watch referees do that. I don't think it's better for football, but like I said I think I'm in the wilderness with that one.

Do you think that the Premier League managers should get together through the LMA to teach the referees how to referee a game?

> See that's the problem. That's the problem. Premier League managers should just manage their football clubs. I've never and I never will talk to a referee about the rules of the game. > > I was taught that you grow up and you respect the officials. You know what managers do? I tell you what managers do. We, me included, try to find ways to bend the rules and get around them. Tell me what the rule is and I guarantee you'll have a room full of managers processing 'how can I get around this?'. > > They're not the right people. We're not the right people and I get that people keep saying that. I don't agree with that. What I want is the best officials always being upskilled to officiate the game. > > I think that it's so hard for a referee to officiate the game nowadays. Their authority is constantly getting diminished. I grew up afraid of referees. They'd be like policemen. Nowadays I guess we talk back to policemen as well. > > I'm old school mate. I'm from a bygone era and I just like the purity of the game but that's not what's going on. > > Part of this is my problem. I've got to embrace it and find a way to work with it but it goes against everything I want to work with my team on. I want my team to play fast, attacking, high tempo go at it football. > > If we get a red card, a penalty against us, so what. Let's cop it, let's go again. But we have to stand around for two minutes trying to figure out if something is offside or not. Let the linesman make the decision. Remember it used to be the benefit of the doubt to the striker. Remember that? We all lived with it. The game didn't collapse, but like I said I'm an old man shouting at the clouds mate. I'll cop it for that but that's who I am.

BBC Chief football writer Phil McNulty pieces through the carnage.

Summary:

• Tottenham have overhauled their recruitment department, hiring Johan Lange as technical director and bringing back Rob Mackenzie as chief scout.

• Mackenzie previously worked at Spurs in 2015-16 before moving to Derby County. He has an analytical background and worked with Lange at Aston Villa.

• The new recruitment team will aim to use data and analysis to unearth undiscovered gems in the transfer market, as well as identify players who fit Postecoglou's system.

• Mackenzie is known for his thorough scouting and for advising against players who won't fit a manager's tactics. Postecoglou is expected to have a big influence on transfers.

• The new setup aims to improve on recent recruitment issues at Spurs. Paratici's role may be diminished with his ban, while Postecoglou drove transfers in his first window.

• The hope is the new team brings efficiency and minimizes risk in signings, avoiding past mistakes like Ndombele. Providing tailor-made players for Postecoglou's system is the priority.

Quote of the day:

Did you go to the team meal, it looked fun?

The reason it was fun was because I wasn't there.

Summary

• Team news: Davies still has ankle issue and is touch and go for Chelsea game. Udogie also 50/50 with injury. Everyone else available apart from long-term absentees.

• Focused on the present and next challenge of Chelsea game, not dreaming about anything further ahead.

• Next few games against Chelsea, Villa, Man City, Newcastle will be defining but only focused on Chelsea now.

• Gave players couple of days off after Palace game then intensive training this week to make up for lack of midweek games. Used it to work on things physically, tactically and keep squad fit.

• Not focused on league table position, just on tackling each challenge and focusing on improving.

• Pochettino had huge impact at Spurs and his work is unquestioned. Will only be respect from club for him but won't get guard of honour as we want to win.

• Styles have similarities in wanting to play progressive, attacking football but more nuance than just saying two managers/teams are alike.

• Players equally culpable for last season, had to take responsibility and embrace new direction. Changed environment, training, way we do things.

• Son seemed right choice for captain at the time with Kane leaving. Knew he would embrace it and fill leadership void. Helped rejuvenate him.

• Lange now in building interacting with people. Important he and Mackenzie joined early before January window. Aims to get business done early in window.

• Sarr's versatility to play 6/8/10 a strength currently. Will refine game but provides enormous energy now.

• Romero been rock in defense, guides others with winner mentality. Van de Ven partnership working well but down to individual quality.

• All managers have unique challenges outsiders can't understand. Pochettino will get Chelsea right, has great track record.

• Success not about unlimited spending. Needs right chemistry and players committed to cause. Wouldn't want £1bn and 24 best players.

• Didn't worry about inheriting Pochettino's legacy. Focused on what environment needed. Once managers become exes, they're exes.

• Attack clicking through players understanding roles more, becoming clearer in approach. More upside but takes time. Goals vs Palace came from training work.