Was the Premier League season to blame for England’s poor World Cup?
Posted by Creaven on September 8, 2010 under England, Premier League, World Cup | 
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After England’s disastrous World Cup, manager Fabio Capello had an explanation for the squad’s performance:
“Germany are always in good condition at World Cups because the Bundesliga is suspended for a month. In Italy, Spain and other countries they have two weeks, but in England it is impossible because we have four competitions. Other countries have three, but in England all the competitions are really hard and the same teams arrive at the final. They are the teams with the best players, and they are the players I need.”
This explanation seems to have more merit after a fresher England squad easily disposed of Bulgaria and Switzerland in its first two European qualifying matches. Tor-Kristian Karlsen, a respected soccer consultant\pundit\twitter addict, tweeted after England’s 3-1 victory over Switzerland Tuesday, “personal opinion: the international calendar is out of sync with the form cycle of british players. wc failure due to jaded squad.” London Times soccer writer Oliver Kay responded to Karlsen’s tweet by simply stating, “Agreed.”
Can England’s failure at the World Cup really be pinned on its domestic league?