Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne has slammed the new added time system in the Premier League after experiencing the changed method in the 2023-24 FA Community Shield final. The Cityzens lost to Arsenal on penalties after the game ended at 1-1 in regulation time. Unlike last season’s Premier League games, the Community Shield lasted 105 minutes and 45 seconds longer than the 2022-23 season EPL games which took 98 minutes and 31 seconds on average.
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Hence talking about this extended match, Kevin de Bruyne expressed how after talking to Arsenal players and referees, no one wants these changes. The Belgium international further expressed concern of playing against lower teams that tend to go for this time wasting approach.
“We spoke to the Arsenal players and even the referees [about it] – they don’t even want to do it, but it’s the new rule and it’s what it is,” De Bruyne said. “A game like today, even the first half with three minutes extra, you can only guess what’s going to happen if you play a lower team who keep time-wasting all the time."
The former Chelsea midfielder also calculated if each game has ‘20-25 minutes’ extra time then over Manchester City first three games of the season which includes two Premier League fixtures and an UEFA Super Cup Final, he would have played an extra game. De Bruyne said, “Today we played 12 to 13 minutes. I can see games going for 20-25 minutes [extra]. I think this will change in one to two months, but this is the first game.”
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I’m thinking if we play Sevilla in Olympiakos [in the Uefa Super Cup] on Wednesday [16 August] and have 15-20 extra minutes and then play on Saturday again [against Newcastle] it’s like two times extra time. We’ll see how it goes, but it doesn’t make any sense,” he continued.
A similar comment was made by Manchester United defender Rafael Varane where he raised concerns regarding the long standing impacts of these changes on the bodies of the football players. These statements were made after players from the Manchester clubs interacted with the Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive, Maheta Molango.
