When entering a major international tournament, each country is looking for ways to hold advantages over its competitors. Usually, this will be in the form of tactics and strategy, with managers poring over footage and data related to other countries in the competition.
Euro 2020 is a lot different, though. Covid-19 has changed the landscape of football, at least for the short term, in many different ways but one of the largest effects it’s had this year is the demand on players and teams to perform with fewer and shorter rest periods.
The 2020/21 season began later than usual – in September – and, for most countries, did not include as many breaks as usual in a bid to squeeze in all of the games for each league before the season ended.
This resulted in a congested season with games being played at an unprecedented rate. For top-level clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City, their players also had deep runs in elite competitions like the Champions League, adding further stress to their schedules.
So, the outcome of this year’s Euros could hinge more on endurance than anything else. It may be the squad that can last the longest and the players who can maintain stamina the most who prevail, rather than those with the most talent or best strategies.
While this is always a factor in these international tournaments – as they are held at the end of seasons – this year’s competition could be drastically impacted by it according to new research from Betsson.
Though they are the betting favourites to win Euro 2020, Didier Deschamps’ France squad have played the most number of games combined across all their players, a whopping 1,079. That’s 20% higher than the average for all other countries in the tournament (857).
In stark contrast to this is the Finland squad, which has only played 561 games across the 2020/21 season, equating to 41,893 minutes of playing time.
This gulf is explained by the talent on offer in the respective rosters. France boasts a plethora of stars like Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba. These names play for top-flight clubs across Europe and so have been involved in many more games, thus playing a lot more.
For example, Griezmann clocked 5,542 minutes of game time, while Mbappe and Pogba played 4,650 and 4,472 minutes respectively. Mbappe’s numbers would have been higher were it not for an injury earlier in the season.
Indeed, the added strain of the busier schedule this season has resulted in a lot of injuries and it is Italy who are the worst-hit country here. In total, their players missed 164 games through injury or illness, more than any other squad in this year’s Euros.
Italy’s Marco Verrati was also the most sidelined player in Europe, dealing with 10 separate issues – including two bouts of coronavirus. This caused him to miss a total of 25 games, though this is not as many as Belgium’s Eden Hazard, who was ruled out of 33 matches this season.
Once again, Finland fared better than any other country in the Euros when it comes to injuries suffered by their players, with a total of just 11 instances. They’re closely followed by Hungary, whose players registered 15 injuries.
However, it is England coach Gareth Southgate who may have to be the most considered when it comes to conserving the energy of his squad. Betsson found that Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford played more games than any other European player this season; 56 matches.
The 23-year-old shipped four injuries during that time, though none of them kept him out of action for long. Southgate appears to have selected a squad that will allow him to regularly rotate attacking players like Rashford so as to not run them into the ground.
That being said, defensive players like Harry Maguire have also accrued an eye-watering amount of playing time over the past season. Maguire has notched a total of 6,545, more than any other player heading into the Euros.
He is currently sitting on the sidelines with an ankle injury which might rule him out of all England’s group stage matches.
The members of England’s talent-laden squad have played more minutes than anyone else this season: an average of 3,700, or 40 games. This is eight whole fixtures more than the average player at the Euros. 11 English players in the squad appeared in the Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester City just a few weeks ago and the Europa League final with Manchester United.
Though the betting odds suggest Euro 2020 will ultimately be contested by one of a handful of countries like France, England and Belgium, the research from Betsson suggests the issue of fatigue and tiredness could upset those estimations.
Squads like England and France are full of top stars, though they have relatively little time to rest after the regular season and their coaches will need to keep a close eye on how they rotate their players.
