WEMBLEY — A half-fit Mateo Kovacic was replaced by a half-fit N’Golo Kante. Admittedly, Kovacic had been immense for 66 minutes of the FA Cup final, dragging his Chelsea team-mates through a first-half Liverpool onslaught relatively unscathed.
Especially considering it was a surprise the Croatian had even started, after struggling with an ankle injury in the build-up.
But Kovacic could no longer continue and on came Kante, who had missed Chelsea’s previous three matches through injury and had barely trained.
It seemed an innovative solution from Thomas Tuchel: patch together two halves of a defensive midfielder to create one capable of completing a game.
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Liverpool on course for quadruple after FA Cup final win over Chelsea on penalties14 May, 2022Liverpool, meanwhile, had issues of their own. Mohamed Salah was forced off with a sore groin in only the 33rd minute. And when the match, goalless after 90 minutes, went to extra time, Virgil Van Dijk was unable to continue, joining Salah in the dugout. Arguably Liverpool’s two best players unable to see out a final their team eventually won on penalties.
In fact, there was evidence of tired muscles, tweaked joints and overworked limbs all over the Wembley pitch. Thiago Silva looked too injured to continue early in the game, although heroically for a player closing in on his 38th birthday somehow powered through the entirety.
Edouard Mendy became possibly the first goalkeeper to struggle with cramp deep into a cup final. Kai Havertz would almost certainly have started but felt enough strain in his hamstring for Tuchel to leave him out entirely.
Surely it can be no coincidence that as the football calendar stretches ever closer to breaking point, the players are breaking? This was Liverpool’s 60th match of the season — Chelsea’s 61st. When the teams met at Wembley in late February for the League Cup final they went to extra time then, too. Chelsea also went to extra time in a gruelling Champions League tie in Madrid.
Salah was back in training for Liverpool two days after a punishing run through January and early February to the Africa Cup of Nations final ended in defeat. A final in which he faced club team-mate Sadio Mane.
Where does this end? World players’ union FIFPRO commissioned research from KPMG last October revealing an increase in excessive back-to-back matches for elite footballers. The study found national team footballers played 67 per cent of their minutes in back-to-back games in the 2000/21 season, an increase of six per cent from the two previous.
“The data shows we must release pressure on players at the top end of the game and this report provides new research why we need regulation and enforcement mechanisms to protect players,” FIFPRO General Secretary Jonas Baer Hoffmann said.
“These are the type of solutions that must be at the top of the agenda whenever we discuss the development of the match calendar.”
Are they even on the agenda at all, even in small print right at the bottom?
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and his counterpart at Manchester City Pep Guardiola were warning there’s too much football in 2019. Liverpool’s veteran captain Jordan Henderson said he did not believe much thought was given to players during scheduling. If nobody will listen to them, who will they listen to?
And still it goes on. Uefa recently approved a fresh Champions League format post-2024 that will require each team to play four matches more than the current six-game group stage — a 66 per cent increase and an additional 100 games across that stage each season. Great for broadcasters, not so for bones and ligaments.
Until recently, Fifa was pressing ahead with the mindless intention to stage a World Cup every two years, rather than four. Not wanting to be outdone by Uefa, who a few years ago conjured an entirely new international tournament out of nowhere.
Many of Chelsea and Liverpool’s players will jump straight from the end of this season into the Nations League for an extra two-game-a-week fortnight of competitive fixtures.
That includes the England quartet of Mason Mount, Reece James, Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who will travel from England to Hungary to Germany then home again for two games in Wolverhampton.
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These are not meaningless friendlies that can be played at half pace with rafts of substitutions. They face Italy, the current European champions, Germany and play home and away vs Hungary. They are four of six games remaining until Gareth Southgate selects his squad and starting XI for the Qatar World Cup. Everyone has motivation to be at their best.
The early June Nations League games are apparently necessitated by the inaugural winter World Cup kicking off at the end of November. Another modern problem that has brought forward the start of the next Premier League campaign. It means players will resume the season on Boxing Day — eight days after the World Cup final.
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