Jones reveals pressures of fixture slog and asks, could Mo Farah run like Luton stars ‘asked to just trudge through the mud’?

Nathan Jones has laid bare the problems that the football fixture pile-up is putting on players, preparation and coaching, posing the question of whether Olympian Mo Farah could break long-distance athletics records if he had to perform as often as Luton players this season. 

Because of the delayed start to the season, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Hatters are currently in the midst of seven games this month, which will see them play every weekend and midweek. 

All across football, managers have been highlighted their concerns for player welfare as injury lists pile up, while the congested fixture list means that managers doesn’t have much time to work with players on the training pitch in-between games.

Jones said: “It’s just unprecedented, suddenly you can have a full squad and in two weeks you can be decimated and that’s because of the schedule.

“And anyone outside of football, that tries to say that dispensation shouldn’t be given here or there, is mental, because it’s crazy.

“I wonder how many 10,000-metre world records Mo Farah could  break in a six week period, if he had to race competitively, three times a week, in an Olympic environment.

“So he had to go at it, three times, I wonder what his times would be? I wonder what his injury record would be? Things like that, because that’s what players have to do now, they do 11-12 kilometres (per game).

“They get kicked, have to travel up and down the country, pitches are heavier, they sprint, they don’t just have one consistent run, they sprint, they check, they hit, they jump, they do everything, and then they’re required to come home, rest, and go again three days later and do exactly the same, then go again.

“So, it’s a real good analogy, because (athletics) world records are set with the best environment possible, but at the minute, our footballers are being asked to just trudge through the mud.”

Jones concedes that there’s nothing that can be done if the season is to finish on time, but admits the schedule is having an effect on all aspects of football. 

He said: “At the minute, I had this conversation with my wife this morning, it’s just never ending, you come off the back of one thing and yesterday you are solely focused on Coventry because I have to do my prep work today. So I literally have 24 hours to tactically be ready for Coventry City. 

“After we played Norwich, I had 24 hours to get ready, tactically, for Swansea because I had to do my prep work on Friday. So, everything is just so manic at the minute and in between me getting clear on how we’re going to play, I have to then get the knowledge and watch games. I like to watch five games, I’m not able to do that at the minute, so you have to watch three games. 

“Then our game, to see what we did, to see what we can improve. Work is just never, ever ending and it just rolls into one and that is the difficult thing at the minute.

“Then when you go out and train, at times you cant really do much because people are still feeling sore from the weekend. We train them again and then play them, they pick up an injury and then you’re without them for two or three weeks. 

“It’s crazy. I could paint the picture that this is professional sport now but it’s not professional sport. Professional, elite sport means you are playing at your maximum every single time you exit onto the pitch, that is not the case now and I don’t know what league is.

“The Premier League might be because they have less games, not the Champions League boys but the Championship at the minute is crazy, it’s bonkers.”

With so little window to work with players on the training pitch, Jones said: “You have to get information in some other way. If we’re going to work on a certain press or whatever it is, we normally have to work 15, 20 minutes on it. You line a team against them, you set them up, go at, be aggressive. We will pick points in it, pick holes in it until we get what we want. 

“Right now, we can’t because I can’t ask my players today to go 20 minutes aggressively, full throttle, then recover, then travel to Coventry tomorrow and then do the same to Coventry.

“You have to get the information across without giving them the physical volume, the physical load and that has been the case since we came out of lockdown but also when we came out of the international break.

“Then you get a little bit of respite where you get four or five days to work with them and then you are back into it again. The travelling doesn’t help either, but we’re reasonably fortunate here because how, for example, Plymouth are coping, I don’t know! If Plymouth were in the Championship, I wouldn’t know what they would have to do.”