England’s decision not to rest players at Euro 2022 backed by team data provider

England go into Wednesday’s Euro 2022 quarter-final against Spain having decided against resting players – with the backing of the team’s data provider.

Coach Sarina Wiegman named an unchanged side for all three group games despite securing top spot after the second, citing a desire to keep players in “rhythm”.

With the Spain clash coming nine days after the 8-0 win over Norway that clinched the group, the decision to keep players “topped up” was supported by Barry Watters, CEO of STATSports which provides GPS tracking devices to the England team.

Watters told the PA news agency: “When you come to a big tournament like this, they want to be prepared optimally to perform in all the games and then in between games, you’re using our equipment and data to help monitor the volume and intensity of training to prepare for the next game.

“Everyone always thinks about people doing too much but there’s also the point that they could do too little and be undercooked. There’s been some studies around that and players like playing games to get into that rhythm.

“In the build-up, the Lionesses had a number of warm-up games and probably rotated a lot more, obviously (Wiegman) was trying to see all players at that time and give everyone optimum minutes coming into the tournament.

“As they progress through the stages, they’re going to want to keep the players that they want topped up and be ready for a quarter-final game.”

STATSports has provided tracking devices to the FA for 10 years, across men’s and women’s teams from under-15 to senior level, with the data helping Gareth Southgate and the men’s side as they reached the final of last summer’s European Championship.

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