27 Jul 2016 14:16:43
I hope this winter break stuff is rubbished.

The biggest problem we have in English football is too many games coming at once. Squeeze in a winter break and then there will be an even bigger fixture pile up at some point. You may save the players 2 weeks to rest, but you'll kill them in May when they have a game every 2 days just to squeeze all the fixtures in!

Look at all the top leagues; Spain, Germany, Italy, France etc. How many teams to they have in the top flight? 18. That may seem a minor difference but that is 4 less league games a season wiped off your calendar. There is your winter break!

Then you have the cup competitions. Premier league teams usually end up playing at least 1 or 2 games in each Cup competition. Why do we have 2 cups? Again, go to Spain, Germany etc and they have 1 domestic cup! Get rid of the league cup and there is another 2 games gone. So you will save a Premier league team 5 games a season at least just by making these changes. That may not seem like much but over a standard 40 game season that is about 12% of the games eradicated. For a team that goes far into the cups and/ or plays in Europe it is still cutting their tally by about 8-10%.

I am not sure what the other countries do about replays but that is another thing that needs to change about the FA cup. A cup game should be settled on the day. ET, then penalties. End of. None of this replay nonsense.

Maybe if all this happens, English top flight football will make room for a winter break. The lower tier leagues though have 24 teams per division and the bottom 2 pro-divisions have to contend with yet a 3rd domestic cup, in the Johnstones Paint Trophy (or whatever it's called now) .

So what will a winter break do to them? Teams in league 2 cannot be expected to play 46 league games, compete in 3 domestic cups and then still cram in a winter break. When the fixtures pile up they will have an injury nightmare that they aren't equipped (squad wise) to deal with!

This is a non starter. Winter break? Give it a rest, English football doesn't have time for a winter break, unless they drastically reduce the number of competitions, and the number of professional teams.

In my opinion there should be 4 tiers with 18 teams in each division and then the FA cup only. Maybe keep the Paint Trophy for the lower divisions so they can still get some silverware, and the community shield as it's a pretty good event to kick off the season and only 1 game.

This all stems from English teams, TV networks, sponsors and the FA being greedy. They want as many games as possible so they can milk the fans for every last penny. So sadly, this will never change and thus a winter break will never be viable.

1.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 14:47:55
Bang on MK.

2.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 14:54:42
Increase the squad sizes - more players to play more games. The youngsters and Balotellis would get more of a look in playing in the cups. I have no problem watching Liverpool play twice a week all season if we had a few more players.

3.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 14:58:51
Personally, I think teams in the Champions League or Europa League shouldn't be entered into the League Cup.

4.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 15:01:44
MK

Agree with you. It's ridiculous.
But I think it's Big Sam pushing for it and possibly trying to stamp his authority on the English game.
I hope it never happens personally.

5.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 15:31:36
Spain, France and Italy have 20 teams in the top flight.

6.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 15:57:23
My Mistake Kman, and well spotted. However my point that there is still too many games in English football is not really dented by the fact 3 other leagues also have 20 teams. Those leagues still have less cup competitions.

The Europa League is another farce. It loses all legitimacy when the Champions league drop outs join at the first knockout stage. Just extra games heaped on more teams.

Football is now putting money ahead of the health of the players and also the entertainment value.

It's boring watching two tired teams crippled by injuries and missing key players.

I also have to disagree that bigger squads would solve anything. The English clubs are already spending well beyond their means and racking up debts they will take years to clear. Doubling the wage bill will just compound that and make it much harder for kids to get a game.

English football needs to be changed massively in order to make a winter break viable.

Personally, I think this is all stemming from an England manager already trying to make excuses before he's even stepped foot in the dugout.

7.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 16:03:58
Excellent post MK! I very seldom don't agree with any of your posts.

8.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 18:50:46
I think a winter break is necessary. Personally I'd cancel the League Cup (or cancel Premier League teams' entry into it) and have the break for 10-14 days before Christmas, starting again with the Boxing Day games (which I'd be loathe to lose) . The FA Cup only starts for Prem teams in January anyway so is irrelevant to the break, it'd require fitting 3 or so games which were rearranged before Christmas into the rest of the schedule. Probably 2 before the break and 1 afterwards because of the space freed by the cancelling of the League Cup. I wouldn't have a winter break in the rest of the divisions, only the Prem. Personally I agree RE the Football League structure, though I think 20 in the Prem should be the case, I'd reduce the other 3 divisions to 20 teams each, reducing their league schedule by 6 games.

9.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 19:11:42
Some good ideas Totti. Very good post.

I can see how a winter break would be beneficial, but games need to be cut down to make room for it. As you say, cancelling the league cup would free up a lot of time to reschedule the matches that would usually be played during the winter break.

It'd be careless to just dump a break in though. It will just cause a bigger fixture pile up, less rest in between games and would make my Christmas Holidays boring!

10.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 19:16:46
Bundesliga has 18 teams
Bpl, Serie a, liga bbva and ligue 1 all have 20 teams.

11.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 19:36:52
Yes MK, just putting one in with the same amount of games would be a big mistake, the amount of games is bad enough as it is without reducing the time we have to play them. I guess they could start the season 1 or 2 weeks earlier, but frankly the League Cup only gets people interested at the semi stage, and some people not at all.