PSG Boss Tuchel Slams Fixture Scheduling
Paris Saint Germain manager Thomas Tuchel has slammed the fixture scheduling as his side prepare to play their fifth game in 16 days against Nantes in Ligue 1 on Saturday.
A lack of an adequate pre-season coupled with the games coming thick and fast at this embryonic stage of the campaign, has seen most clubs around Europe lose players to injuries.
PSG suffered their fair share of the misfortune when star player Neymar came off with a muscle injury against Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League in midweek. The Brazilian is set to be out until after the upcoming international break.
The French champions will play against RB Leipzig and Rennes before the league goes on break, and Tuchel feels the amount of games in such a short space of time will not auger well for the players.
"We're going to kill the players. That's what I've always said. We are going to kill them because there is an important link between preparation, performance and rest," he told a news conference.
"In football it always falls on the greatest players because they will always play for their country. They play during the break, they travel and that's too much in my opinion. They don't have a recovery phase to allow them to come back and a preparation phase. This is not a secret, it happens in sport. Preparation influences injuries and performance.
"Without preparation, players are more fragile and difficult to manage. This is not an excuse, it is the truth. We are going to look for solutions and I hope we will find some."
