{"id":212,"date":"2015-09-07T15:35:08","date_gmt":"2015-09-07T15:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=212"},"modified":"2016-07-13T11:20:54","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T11:20:54","slug":"whats-the-point-of-the-international-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/whats-the-point-of-the-international-break\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s The Point Of The International Break?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Premier League is the most popular league in England and everyone welcomed its return when it kicked off again in August. The surprising inability of the top teams to string any decent results together only furthered the intrigue, with Jose Mourinho\u2019s Chelsea enduring a terrible start to their defence of the Premier League crown.<\/p>\n
Why, then, must the whole thing ground to a halt after just four games in order for the players to disappear off to every corner of the globe for pointless internationals? Admittedly this season seems slightly better now that teams play four games rather than the three of the past, but it\u2019s still frustrating and annoying.<\/p>\n
From Liverpool\u2019s point of view the terrible performance against West Ham at Anfield before the break has left a sour taste in the mouth, with the players and fans having to stew over the 3-0 loss with nothing to fill their time except keyboard warriors spouting bile on the internet. Personal attacks on Brendan Rodgers, pathetic #RodgersOut hashtags and constant references to Jurgen Klopp have filled the airways, as if Klopp didn\u2019t have a whole host of issues during his final season at Borussia Dortmund.<\/p>\n
What makes the whole thing worse is that the international matches aren\u2019t even really worth bothering about. San Marino\u2019s goalkeeper is an accountant, for example, whilst other members of the team are employed as bank clerks, bar owners and an olive oil company owner. In fact, only one member of the team is employed professionally as a footballer. Are games like this really necessary? As the country wondered whether Wayne Rooney would be able to break Bobby Charlton\u2019s goalscoring record, did no one stop and ask whether it was even an achievement worth shouting about?<\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t Bobby Charlton have to score his goals in actual competitions against actual teams that featured actual footballers? Should Rooney really be lauded for scoring goals against such ludicrously amateur opposition as San Marino? It seems more like that we should be talking about the fact that he\u2019s the only footballer who\u2019s managed to go bald twice.<\/p>\n
For fans of Liverpool most of the international break is spent hoping that our players can return safely and without injury; something that Daniel Sturridge failed to do last year when Roy Hodgson and his backwards ways refused to acknowledge how Liverpool were dealing with the striker\u2019s fitness, sending him home with an injury which essentially saw him out for the season.<\/p>\n