ALAN SHEARER has hit back at Virgil Van Dijk’s claims that footballers are being forced to play too many games.
The Dutch captain said ahead of his side’s qualifiers against France and Greece: “In England we believe the schedules are too busy. The players are getting paid well but it should never come at the cost of our health.
Virgil Van Dijk has criticised the amount of games players have to play in modern day footballRex
Youtube – the rest is football podcastBut Alan Shearer hit back, saying squads are now large enough to deal with the workload[/caption]
“We keep having to play more and more games. We as players should start saying something about it, contribute to a solution.”
The centre-back was then asked by Dutch media whether he would be willing to give up 10% of his salary if he were to play less games and responded: “No.”
When pressed on the issue he said: “I don’t think having to play less games depends on my salary?”
The defender was criticised how new competitions such as The Nations League and an expanded Club World Cup is putting too much demand on players and causing additional injury.
He has been joined in the calls for players to play less by the likes of Manchester United defender Raphael Varane.
Shearer responded to Van Dijk’s comments on his podcast, The Rest is Football, which he appears on alongside Gary Lineker and Micah Richards.
The former Newcastle striker said: “Nonsense. Nonsense. Players are playing too much football? What? I mean come on.
“I know you should never mention the money, but you’ve got bigger squads than ever, more substitutes than ever, getting paid more money than ever, you’ve got the best physios, the best technology, the best of everything.
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“Do me a favour, playing too much football? F***ing hell.
“Didn’t he say it was England that play too much football? International football I get and understand.
“We all know why they’re doing it, they’re doing it for financial reasons. But here in England, you can tell I don’t really agree with that.”
Van Dijk has appeared in seven of Liverpool’s eight Premier League games this season, playing 90 minutes in six of them.
He was sent off after just 28 minutes in Liverpool’s 2-1 victory over Newcastle in August for the denial of a goal scoring opportunity and received a one game suspension.
He has also played three times for The Netherlands so far this campaign, and is likely to feature in their qualifier against Greece tonight.
After the Premier League’s return from the international break this weekend, there will be another break for international football in November.
The November break will come following the conclusion of game week 12 in the Premier League.
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