Madrid (AFP)
"The five changes will hurt us," said Quique Setien, coach of FC Barcelona, about the provisional measure taken to spare the players, during a videoconference with apprentice coaches Friday evening.
"The five changes (per match) will hurt us, because in many matches, we made the difference in the last minutes. There, our opponents will have more fresh players", analyzed the technician during this videoconference for the Committee technical and coaching school of the inter-island federation of Las Palmas (FIFLP).
The Board, guarantor of the laws of football, authorized on May 8 the passage from three to five substitutions per match to spare the players, provisional measure applicable as of the resumption of the competitions suspended because of the pandemic of coronavirus.
The 2019-2020 Spanish league season, of which there are 11 days to go, will resume on June 11 with the Seville FC - Betis Seville derby, and will continue with "matches every day", according to LaLiga's promise, to end July 19.
"It's been a lot of games in a short time. The heat will affect performance and affect injuries. Hopefully it will hurt us less than we fear," said Setien, worried about the effects of the recovery. of competition in this new format.
"It is possible that there are a lot of injuries like in Germany, because we spent almost two months sitting on the sofa, without playing. The heat, and playing every 3 or 4 days can affect some footballers" , he insisted.
After resuming individual training in early May, the Spanish footballers switched to breakout sessions, and should be allowed to resume group training next week, before the matches return, ten days later.
"We would have liked to have had more time to work with the whole group, but we will have to tighten it up in two weeks. We couldn't even get together in a room to do video work," complained Setien, puzzled faced with the resumption of soccer in Germany.
"New football is a bit odd ... The recovery in Germany has left me with a lot of doubts. It lacks competitiveness and intensity, but no one is advantaged, we are all equal" faced with this situation , he explained.
© 2020 AFP