Barcelona defender Jules Kounde has expressed his frustration about the amount of matches that players are playing and has labelled the schedule as ‘becoming more and more dangerous.’
The 25-year-old Paris-born defender has spoken out against the intensity of the match and suggested due to that intensity, they should be playing fewer matches.
In an interview with Clique TV, Kounde said: “There are too many games. The pace has become more and more intense, too many injuries. We’re going in rhythm that’s becoming more and more dangerous. There are more and more serious injuries.
What bothers me is that when we make this observation, people say that we used to play so much. Even if that was true, it doesn’t mean it was good before.”
Kounde, who has earned 24 caps for the French national side and was a part of the team that reached the final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup last winter, has had his time with Barcelona stunted a little bit by several injuries and his Blaugrana side are now missing their key midfielder, Gavi, due to a serious knee injury he picked up on international duty with Spain.
Kounde’s comments follow a recent trend of professional footballers speaking out against the schedule during an international break with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Virgil van Dijk also being critical in the recent past.
Kounde began his career with Girondins de Bordeaux before moving to La Liga n the summer of 2019, where he joined Sevilla. After establishing himself as one of the best defenders in European football, Barcelona picked up the centre-back, who can play at right-back, for a fee believed to be in the region of 55 million euros.
The Catalans face Rayo Vallecano on Saturday afternoon as they try to continue the defence of their title, under the management of Xavi Hernandez.
