English clubs faltering in Europe is hardly a new phenomenon. It was only a decade ago that the Premier League feared it might lose its fourth Champions League spot after no top-flight side reached the quarter-finals in two seasons out of three.
Now, for the fourth year in a row, the Premier League will have two sides in the last eight. That doesn’t sound too bad until you remember we had six clubs in the last 16 and four of them just crashed out at an aggregate score of 28-11.
That Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle all suffered hefty defeats has led, inevitably, to instant head-scratching on what on earth went wrong.
Chelsea were one of four English teams who crashed out of the Champions League last 16
Newcastle United were eliminated on Wednesday after a heavy second-leg defeat at Barcelona
The first thought is how much the physical demands of the Premier League and the premium it now places on running and wrestling, combined with the bruising schedule, has led to our sides burning out.
Newcastle’s 7-2 humping at Barcelona was their 50th game of the season, the most of any side in Europe’s big five leagues. Their longest break between games since the last international break to the last 16 first leg was six days. Arsenal and Man City’s was eight while Chelsea and Liverpool’s was nine. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and PSG, the English club conquerors, could boast gaps of between 13 and 15 days.
At least eight – and around a quarter or more – of the players used by Liverpool, Newcastle, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City have racked up at least 2,500 minutes in all competitions. That’s more than any other club from the Big Five leagues that reached the last 16, bar Atletico Madrid, who are level with City on 24 per cent.
Of the 20 outfield players from those clubs with the most minutes all season, 12 of them – and all of the top five – are from English sides.
And the old cliche that there are ‘no easy games’ in the Premier League in the world has rarely been truer. Just 22 points currently separate fourth and 18th, the smallest gap since 2011 and easily the most compact of all the major European leagues.
English clubs can no longer save their legs by breezing past minnows.
Is all this taking its toll? In all 10 of Newcastle’s previous Champions League matches this season, they outran their opponents. In both legs against Barcelona, the Spanish side covered more ground as Newcastle chalked up their two shortest distances of the campaign.
Man City also posted their lowest numbers of the campaign in their two legs against Real Madrid too.
How far a team runs during a match affected by multiple factors such as the state of the game, tactical plans, if teams have had players sent off as City did in their second leg and, especially, how much actual playing time there was. Newcastle’s numbers against Barcelona jump up hugely when adjusted for the fact the ball was in play for just 46 minutes in their second leg.
Liverpool still ran the furthest they have in the competition all season to overcome their deficit against Galatasaray while Tottenham also put up some of their biggest numbers as they tried in vain to do the same against Atletico.
While the brutal nature of the Premier League may have had an effect on tired legs, its biggest impact has been on the creative chasm left in its wake.
Of the top 20 players in this Champions League this season for chances created from open play, only one of them is from any of the six English clubs to reach the last 16.
Is it any wonder that Florian Wirtz, the one player who has most struggled to adapt to the intensity of the Premier League, is the one who has been at their fruitful best in Europe? On Wednesday night, Wirtz created the most chances in a single Champions League game for the club on record with eight against Galatasaray.
Florian Wirtz’s Premier League form has not hit the heights of his in the Champions League
Is it any wonder, too, that when stars play in a league that has abandoned craft and guile in favour of pace and power, that they struggle to do the same when its needed in Europe?
Only 20 players in the Premier League have created at least 30 chances from open play across the first 30 game weeks of the season. Twice as many had managed it at the same stage last term with 37 doing so the season before.
Only six players have created 40 open-play chances compared to 15 at this stage last season and 12 in 2023-24. Bruno Fernandes is the only player to surpass 50. At the same stage over the previous two campaigns there were four and six.
And, so, is it too hard to imagine that when defenders in England are no longer coming up against elite chance creators week in, week out in a league where physicality and set-pieces are king, they struggle to cope in Europe when wrestling your opponent at corners is no longer enough.
