“It is not just my idea that they are really tired – you can see it on the pitch”

Having watched his England side struggle to a 2-2 with Switzerland in June, Fabio Capello made his opinion very clear in a post-match interview.

Capello isn’t the first England manager to try and blame a poor performance from the national team on fatigue and the English players having played too many games in a long season. A cynic might ask what the excuse might be for the home draw against Montenegro in October 2010; surely not tiredness? The English season was only three months old and if I were national team manager I would be asking the club managers why professional players were suffering from fatigue after less than a third of the season.

I’m no cynic, so I decided to give Fabio the benefit of the doubt and see if I could help prove him correct and do some stat hunting on how many games England players have played in the season before an international competition; compared to the eventual winners. Starting as far back as France ’98, the results were very interesting indeed.

Number of games played in the 1997/98 season by the players from France, Brazil and England ; as well as each team's average

As you can see, England played just one more game than the two teams who reached the final in 1998; their cause helped by the Manchester United contingent who all played over 40 games and in particular, David Beckham who played 50. Of course, had Bixente Lizarazu and Christian Karembeu played the average amount of games that their teammates had played, rather than just 27 games between them, England would have played three games fewer than the victorious French squad. Then you can consider the fact that four of the Brazilian team were playing in Brazil at the time and their season had been cut short because of the World Cup. Had they played the same average amount of games as their teammates they would have averaged one game more than the English team who were knocked out in the round of 16.

Number of games played in the 2001/02 season by the players from Germany, Brazil and England ; as well as each team's average

Shifting our attention to Japan and South Korea 2002 we can see that prior to this tournament the England players had played four games more than the eventual runners up and eight more than the winners. I could mention the fact that both finalists had players in their first team whose season had been hampered by serious injuries, particularly Jens Jeremies completing just ten games that season, but in this instance I think we should give England their dues and admit that playing so many extra games might have affected their overall performance.

Number of games played in the 2005/06 season by the players from Italy, France and England ; as well as each team's average

Moving on to Germany 2006 and the gap in games played has been reduced once again with England averaging just one more game than the winners Italy, and two more than runners up, France. In the interests of fairness I should mention the England players who didn’t come close to their teammates average, neither Ashley Cole nor Owen Hargreaves completed thirty games, nevermind forty-one. However neither did Gianluigi Buffon or Francesco Totti.

Number of games played in the 2009/10 season by the players from Spain, Holland and England ; as well as each team's average

Finally we look at the most recent World Cup in South Africa. For the first time England are left trailing in terms of average games played, with winners Spain playing five games more than the English players who crashed out in the round of 16. Capello’s men did play more games than runners up, Holland, who averaged just thirty-nine but once again this needs to be qualified by mentioning players like Robin Van Persie and Giovanni van Bronckhorst who completed far fewer games than their teammates; almost half the amount in the case of RVP.

So what does this prove? Well, ultimately nothing because people could argue that although the English players have only played one or two more games than their counterparts the fact that they play games in a faster, more physical league, such as the Premier League does have a drastic effect. However, I don’t buy that and I think the concept that English players are more tired than players from other leagues is a smokescreen for a lack of ability. In fact, I’m of the opinion that the standard of football that most of the “other” nations play, at a domestic level – Spain and Italy in most cases – is of a higher standard and as such just as, if not more tiring than the Premier League.

However, at a time when the world’s best teams are expected to complete upwards of 45 games per season, and most do, the argument of fatigue due to games played holds very little weight. Not that it was ever a particularly relevant point.

It’s also worth noting, for those who argue that the Premier League should be reduced to eighteen teams rather than twenty, that most of the finalists mentioned above have domestic leagues with twenty participants. The only exceptions are Germany and Holland and it should also be noted that both nations have a significant amount of players who ply their trade in a twenty team league.