Peter Henry
England boss Gareth Southgate has admitted he doesn’t understand why the Premier League began so much earlier than other major European Leagues this season.
The Three Lions manager has admitted that several of his players are psychologically jaded after their exertions at the World Cup in Russia and then being given very little time to recuperate with the Premier League kicking off on August 10.
“I think it’s a lack of psychological freshness, rather than physical,” Southgate told the press before his sides UEFA Nations League clash against Spain last night in Seville.
“I don’t really understand why our league started so early, but it did. It was a really difficult situation for the clubs.
“Look at Tottenham, who had so many players in the semi-finals of the World Cup. It is an impossible situation for the coaches.”
England put on their best performance at a major tournament in 28 years by reaching the semi-finals in Russia, with Southgate even speculating that maybe the Premier League decided to begin the 2018/19 campaign so early because they expected the national team to suffer an early exit after years of underachievement.
“I hadn’t looked into when the season started until we got back,” he added. “Maybe they were expecting us to be back by the end of June.
“It’s always easy to make a comment like that and not know the complex scenario the decision-makers had to go through, because that happens to me quite a lot.”
England’s players looked far from jaded yesterday evening, however, as they sealed a famous 3-2 win over Luis Enrique’s Spain.