Luton chief wonders if Mo Farah could break Olympic records if asked to 'trudge through the mud' like Town players

Luton manager Nathan Jones believes the current fixture schedule is akin to asking his players to ‘trudge through the mud’ and likened the situation to asking Olympic gold-medalist Mo Farah to attempt to keep breaking records on the track while racing three times a week.

Town head to Coventry City this evening for their sixth game in 18 days, while they still have a further five matches to play before turn of the year, with the season being squeezed into a shorter period due to the coronavirus pandemic which forced the previous campaign to end in late July.

On the physical challenges facing his squad, Jones wanted to demonstrate just how tough it is for them, saying: “The amount of work we're able to do with them is minimal and I was thinking about it in bed as I thought I might be asked the other day, I wonder how many 10,000m world records Mo Farah could break in a six week period, if he had to race competitively, three times a week, in an Olympic environment?

“So if he had to go at it, for three times, I wonder what his times would be?

“I wonder what his injury record would be?

"Things like that, because that’s what players have to do now.

"They do 11, 12k, they get kicked, have to travel up and down the country, pitches are heavier, they sprint, they don't just have one consistent run, they sprint, they check, they hit, they jump, they do everything.

"Then they’re required to come home, rest, and go again three days later and do exactly the same, then go again.

“So it’s a real good analogy, because world records are set with the best environment possible, but at the minute, our footballers are being asked to just trudge through the mud.”

The lack of time between games is also having a major impact on the amount of training and knowledge that Jones can impart on his players, denying him the opportunity to really attempt to improve them as well.

He continued: “We’re a club that likes to work with our players and make them better, but at the minute, I had this conversation with my wife this morning, it’s just never ending.

“You come off the back of one thing and yesterday (Sunday) you are solely focused on Coventry because I have to do my prep work today (Monday).

"So I literally have 24 hours to tactically be ready for Coventry City.

“After we played Norwich, I had 24 hours to get ready tactically for Swansea because I had to do my prep work on Friday.

“So everything is just so manic at the minute and in between me getting clear on how we’re going to play, I have to then get the knowledge and watch games.

“I like to watch five games, I’m not able to do that at the minute so you have to watch three games, then our game, to see what we did, to see what we can improve.

“Work is just never, ever ending and it just rolls into one and that is the difficult thing at the minute.

“Then when you go out and train, at times you can’t really do much because people are still feeling sore from the weekend.

“When you train them again and then play them, they can pick up an injury and then you’re without them for two or three weeks.

“So you have to get information in some other way.

"If we’re going to work on a certain press whatever it is, we normally have to work 15, 20 minutes on it.

"You line a team against them, you set them up, go at, be aggressive, we will pick points in it, pick holes in it until we get what we want.

“Right now we can’t because I can’t ask my players today to go 20 minutes aggressively, full throttle, then recover, then travel to Coventry tomorrow and then do the same to Coventry.

"You have to get the information across without giving them the physical volume, the physical load and that has been the case since we came out of lockdown but also when we came out of the international break.

“Then you get a little bit of respite where you get four or five days to work with them and then you are back into it again.

"The travelling doesn’t help either, but it’s crazy, I could paint the picture that this is professional sport now but it’s not professional sport.

“Professional, elite sport means you are playing at your maximum every single time you exit on to the pitch, that is not the case now and I don’t know what league is.

"The Premier League might be because they have less games, not the Champions League boys but the Championship at the minute is crazy, it’s bonkers.”

However, when asked if he thought the league could have done it any differently this term to ensure there was more chance of players being at their peak going into matches, Jones added: “I don’t think you could have.

"If you want to get the season finished, so that we can get hopefully back on track in 2021 for example, then I think it needs to be done like this, but it’s just crazy, it really, really is.

"I'm not sure we can do too much more, the authorities want to finish the season and that's what we all want, so it’s very difficult."