“They are supposed to be professional athletes some of them paid thousands a week and are playing one game a week, it’s early in the season how on earth can they be unfit or fatigued.”
Unfortunately human physiology is not affected by the remuneration of any athlete. It is a complex process of overload / recovery, and there are many other factors that feed into this (think nutrition, sleep, rest, mobility, training age, chronological age, cognitive ability and much more).
Players don’t just play one game per week, they also have training on other ‘non-match’ days, and if you factor in cup matches, and fixture congestions, they will likely be playing two matches a week on a regular basis.
When you have a small squad it is almost inevitable that the team will have to manage fatigue levels of the athletes, and this will be impacted to a greater extent if you try to play a high tempo, pressing game.
