Is There Too Much Top Level Football? | The People's Poll ep. 149 | Planet FPL 2024/25

Is there too much football at the top level of the game? It's a hot topic of debate particularly in light of Rodri suffering a serious injury only days after speaking out again about the demands on players physically and mentally at the upper echelons of the game.
Clayton joins James for an open discussion on if the likes of Rodri are right, and if so, what can be done to change things?
Conversation features the Science opinion on how many games games top players are asked to play, why the manager and player opinion often differs from 'the club' demands, the future of the Carabao Cup, whether the FIFA Club World Cup will actually happen, if players could actually consider strike action and a suggestion that might actually have some legs in the longer-term to reduce the amount of games players participate in.
Tomorrow on Planet FPL: Ask James, live stream at 1pm BST with an audio to follow shortly after conclusion
Today on Patreon: Money in Football on the battle for control at Chelsea and Talking Tactics on West Ham's setup in defeat to Chelsea
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[@Arsenal1432]

every team gets injuries and its fine arsenal have 7 first team players out injured and thats fine but soon as 1 city player gets injured its the end of the world and they need to reduce games, people need to stop sucking off city they have 4 players in each position there fine

[@matthewdobson100]

bitter much. people have been talking about this a lot longer, Rhodri himself was talking about it the week before he got injured. there was lots of talk about it last season and during the euros. it's got nothing to do with City.

[@fplgregfrost]

Not seen this yet but I think we are moving towards a system where second XI's play in all cup competitions. I don't think footballers should exceed 50 games a year and perhaps that could be enforced, 50 game limit.

[@ImmortalTreknique]

🫡❤️🤟🖖👊💪🍻

[@joea8426]

To me the answer is that managers have to rest their players. Man City / Arsenal aren't entitled to always be favourites against "Leicester" to use your example.
They need to either choose a) play your best team every game at the risk of fatiguing and injuring them or b) use their bloated squads to rotate, upskilling their squad players and resting their best players.
Wanting to remove games or competitions is inherently selfish and short-sighted

[@matthewdobson100]

who wants to watch 2nd string teams playing? most squads aren't bloated at all and have significant drop off below their starting line ups, even in the top teams most have signifcant weaknesses below their starters in several positions. I want to watch the best players playing at their best. too often we don't have that and it's been getting worse.

[@joea8426]

@@matthewdobson100 so you want top we the top players in every match? So then you either want to see those top players injured more or you want them to have less games, meaning you actually see those top players less?
Playing those second string squads on occasion would likely spread success around, narrowing the gap between the mid-tier teams and top clubs. That's what the big clubs don't like. They'd rather cancel the competitions than lose them (just like petulant children do 😂)