The holiday schedule in the Premier League is one of the busiest times of the season, with each team playing three matches in less than ten days.
New to the English game, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is getting his first taste of winter football, and he’s not the biggest fan.
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The Bundesliga takes a full month off until late January, and Klopp believes a break like that would help both the England national team and English teams playing in the Champions League.
You have too many games, that’s for sure. You have no break, too many tournaments. I think everybody knows that’s not the way [to be successful].
Everybody thinks [manager] Roy [Hodgson] should lead these boys to the title, they have really good players.
But they’ve had no break for one year. All the other teams have. You can be [successful] but it’s much harder.
There are reasons why the big English clubs in the last few years were not that successful.
The England national team has only won one major tournament, the 1966 World Cup, while only four out of the last 30 Champions League winners have been English. However, three of those champions came in the past 11 seasons.
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While a bit more rest around the midseason point would definitely help the players, the Premier League’s winter schedule is not going to change any time soon. Matches on Boxing Day have become a tradition as big as the holiday itself, and it is one of the things that makes the Premier League unique.