Ligue 1
Bundesliga
Serie A
La Liga
Premier League
With the World Cup over, many players have already returned to their clubs for the resumption of the domestic season We’ve analysed the impact of international exertions on each squad and who has the toughest reintroduction to their league schedule
The return of
club football
The return of the
Which clubs covered the most distance at the World Cup?
These 5 clubs’ players collectively covered the most ground (in kilometres)
Man City’s players ran almost 100km more than any other squad
Man City Man Utd Tottenham Chelsea Brighton
485.8 386.9 365.0 330.7 175.4
Which players covered the most distance at the World Cup?
These 10 players covered the most ground (in kilometres)
Chelsea duo Ziyech and Kovavic faced off in the third place play-off and were two of the Premier League’s three most industrious runners
Ivan Perišic Hakim Ziyech Mateo Kovacic Alexis Mac Allister Julián Álvarez Cristian Romero Raphaël Varane Nathan Aké Tyler Adams Casemiro
Tottenham Chelsea Chelsea Brighton Man City Tottenham Man Utd Man City Leeds Man Utd
68.2 68.0 66.4 64.8 57.2 55.8 55.2 52.6 49.6 48.3
Spurs will have a challenging return to league action, with tough fixtures on top of their fatigue Southampton’s well-rested squad should be capable of moving away from the danger zone under their new manager
x6
x300
Group
Knockout
Man City Tottenham Man Utd Chelsea Liverpool Arsenal Brighton Fulham Aston Villa West Ham Leicester Nott’m Forest Everton Leeds Wolves Bournemouth Brentford Newcastle Crystal Palace Southampton
5,180 4,107 4,029 3,681 1,994 1,928 1,737 1,507 1,396 1,261 1,139 1,074 937 785 579 572 571 540 453 316
How many minutes did each squad play at the World Cup?
Man City’s players spent over 86 hours on the pitch at the World Cup - over 1,000 minutes more than any other Premier League squad Meanwhile the likes of Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Southampton should be fresh when the season resumes
Who has the toughest fixtures when the league resumes?
Average points won per game by next 6 opponents
1.67 1.60 1.53 1.48 1.47 1.46 1.45 1.43 1.43 1.40 1.40 1.40 1.39 1.36 1.33 1.24 1.23 1.21 1.20 1.17
Tottenham Crystal Palace Arsenal Man Utd Everton Wolves Fulham West Ham Leeds Chelsea Leicester Newcastle Bournemouth Brighton Man City Nott’m Forest Brentford Liverpool Aston Villa Southampton
Share this graphic
Barcelona Real Madrid Atlético Madrid Sevilla Athletic Club Betis Valladolid Valencia Getafe Osasuna Mallorca Vallecano Villarreal Espanyol Sociedad Cádiz Almería
4,725 3,921 3,429 2,233 883 843 646 579 192 172 172 157 135 112 90 37 19
Barcelona sent more players to the World Cup than anyone else (17) and they collectively played more minutes than any other squad
Barcelona Real Madrid Atlético Madrid Sevilla Betis
471.8 387.7 358.8 205.2 84.8
Players from the traditional ‘big three’ covered the most ground, with Sevilla’s squad also used heavily at the tournament
The four La Liga players who ran the furthest at the World Cup all play for one of the two big Madrid clubs
Aurélien Tchouaméni Rodrigo De Paul Nahuel Molina Luka Modric Youssef En-Nesyri Frenkie de Jong Antoine Griezmann Yunus Musah Jules Koundé Sergio Busquets
79.0 73.3 65.3 64.7 64.7 60.5 56.7 46.8 46.6 44.9
Real Madrid Atlético Madrid Atlético Madrid Real Madrid Sevilla Barcelona Atlético Madrid Valencia Barcelona Barcelona
x5
Real Sociedad and Athletic Club were in the Champions League places when the league paused, but their tough schedule will make remaining there a tough task Meanwhile a tired Barcelona will at least have some relatively gentle fixtures to ease themselves back in
1.73 1.63 1.56 1.55 1.51 1.50 1.45 1.44 1.43 1.38 1.36 1.33 1.32 1.30 1.29 1.23 1.21 1.20 1.12 1.11
Valladolid Sociedad Athletic Club Espanyol Getafe Real Madrid Girona Betis Vallecano Valencia Almeria Mallorca Atletico Madrid Osasuna Villarreal Celta Vigo Elche Barcelona Sevilla Cadiz
Juventus Inter Milan Napoli Torino Fiorentina Atalanta Spezia Sampdoria Salernitana Lazio Verona Roma Udinese Bologna
2,907 1,612 1,575 1,504 1,282 1,075 1,035 673 616 569 472 286 134 104 21
Juventus were the best-represented Serie A club at the tournament, with their players accumulating more minutes than their title rivals
Juventus Inter Napoli Milan Atalanta
273.3 162.2 149.4 137.9 118.8
The Old Lady were also the most active runners, covering over 100km more than any other club
Morocco’s Sofyan Amrabat covered the most ground of any player at the World Cup: over 80km in total
Sofyan Amrabat Marcelo Brozovic Denzel Dumfries Adrien Rabiot Theo Hernandez Piotr Zielinski Bartosz Bereszynski Boulaye Dia Ricardo Rodriguez Sergiño Dest
81.4 65.1 57.1 50.7 46.1 41.9 39.3 38.2 38.1 37.5
Fiorentina Inter Inter Juventus Milan Napoli Sampdoria Salernitana Torino Milan
Some more straightforward fixtures should allow Inter and Atalanta to hit the ground running more easily than the tougher games that await Roma and Juventus
1.52 1.39 1.39 1.28 1.23 1.23 1.22 1.21 1.17 1.16 1.14 1.12 1.11 1.09 1.09 1.08 0.96 0.96 0.87 0.79
Salernitana Roma Sampdoria Juventus Napoli Empoli Fiorentina Spezia Milan Sassuolo Monza Cremonese Lazio Lecce Bologna Verona Atalanta Inter Udinese Torino
Bayern Leipzig Dortmund Frankfurt Gladbach
337.7 172.8 162.3 130.0 86.1
Bayern’s squad also ran almost twice as far at the World Cup as the next busiest runners
Croatia’s breakout star Gvardiol covered over 16km more than any other Bundesliga player at the tournament
Joško Gvardiol Andrej Kramaric Dayot Upamecano Maya Yoshida Daichi Kamada Jude Bellingham Noussair Mazraoui Ellyes Skhiri Dani Olmo Wataru Endo
67.0 50.7 45.2 41.1 40.9 40.0 39.9 39.2 39.0 37.3
Leipzig Hoffenheim Bayern Schalke Frankfurt Dortmund Bayern Köln Leipzig Stuttgart
The short-term prospects of bottom side Schalke and fellow strugglers Hertha look bleak with some tough fixtures ahead
1.60 1.52 1.51 1.48 1.48 1.48 1.48 1.47 1.44 1.39 1.38 1.30 1.30 1.24 1.24 1.21 1.21 1.20
Schalke Hertha Wolfsburg Cologne Stuttgart Bochum W Bremen Augsburg Bayern Frankfurt Leipzig Dortmund Freiburg Leverkusen Mainz Hoffenheim Union Berlin Gladbach
Bayern Leipzig Dortmund Frankfurt Gladbach Stuttgart Mainz Hoffenheim Leverkusen Schalke Freiburg Augsburg W Bremen Köln Wolfsburg Bochum
3,744 1,895 1,711 1,126 1,034 848 679 528 515 427 348 344 333 309 258 190
Bayern’s players accumulated around twice as many minutes as any other Bundesliga club, although the majority of these were in the group stage
x0.15
Meanwhile Union Berlin could claw their way back into Champions League contention off the back of a relatively gentle schedule
PSG Monaco Angers Lyon Rennes
303.1 134.5 123.7 63.1 60.7
PSG’s players ran over 300km in total: more than twice as many as any other Ligue 1 squad
Life isn’t about to get any easier for relegation battlers Strasbourg, who face the top two of PSG and Lens in their next three games
1.78 1.77 1.76 1.61 1.51 1.48 1.47 1.41 1.39 1.39 1.32 1.32 1.30 1.24 1.23 1.21 1.13 1.08 1.03 0.90
Nice Strasbourg Reims Montpellier Rennes Auxerre Troyes Lorient Angers Clermont Brest Lens PSG Marseille Nantes Monaco Lille Ajaccio Toulouse Lyon
PSG Monaco Angers Rennes Lyon Nice Lens Lille Marseille Reims Lorient Brest Nantes Clermont Strasbourg Troyes Toulouse Auxerre Montpellier
3,628 1,305 1,112 772 627 595 564 543 451 360 309 206 203 175 113 112 99 93 91
With Messi and Mbappe facing off in the final it’s not surprising to see that PSG racked up the most minutes at the World Cup
x1.8
Four of the six busiest runners at the World Cup play for PSG, although the other two represent Morocco and struggling Angers
Azzedine Ounahi Achraf Hakimi Lionel Messi Sofiane Boufal Kylian Mbappé Marquinhos Nicolás Tagliafico Timothy Weah Junya Ito Ismail Jakobs
Angers PSG PSG Angers PSG PSG Lyon Lille Reims Monaco
73.0 70.3 65.2 50.7 48.0 46.9 43.4 36.9 34.8 32.6
Five of Lyon’s next six matches are against the current bottom six, so they have an excellent chance of climbing the table
