Everton manager Sean Dyche has called for the Premier League's winter break to be scrapped.
The current format will see the next set of fixtures played over two weeks, with five matches on the weekend commencing January 13 and a further five on the weekend commencing January 20.
Everton face Crystal Palace in a rather peculiar slot of Thursday in the FA Cup third round, before there is a 10-day break until they face Aston Villa in the league.
After the clash with Villa though, Everton may not play again until January 30, depending on their FA Cup exploits, and Dyche has been critical of the format currently in use.
The Everton boss highlighted the fact that the hectic schedule in December, followed by a rather quiet January, can be set up better.
Highlighting the fact that Everton played eight games in 29 days during December, Dyche believes that spreading the games out more evenly across the two months will help the players manage their workloads better.
Speaking ahead of their trip to Palace, the manager said: "We have a break this weekend but that is just because of the Palace game [being on a Thursday], after the Villa game is the actual winter break. I don't see the point of it when you have just had so many games in December."
"It's not that beneficial. It would be better to lose one or two of these games in December and put them in there to spread it out, that is a better scenario." Dyche added.
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The Everton boss was also keen to stress that, in his opinion, the current scheduling favours the bigger, richer clubs in the Premier League, who have much larger squads to pick from.
"It's a more level playing field then [spreading the games out]. With more games, the big clubs are bound to gain because of their big squads." Dyche stated.
Dyche also hinted that injuries and suspensions during the hectic festive period took its toll on his Everton side as they fell to three successive defeats to end 2023.
"When you haven't got a big squad, like us, and you get injuries, you're bound to be stretched. If you put a couple of games in that break then it is more level across the season. I'll be surprised if that break doesn't disappear, just from the scheduling." Dyche revealed.
Idrissa Gueye has been one player that the Toffees have been without for the past few weeks, and he is now unavailable due to his call up by Senegal for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Abdoulaye Doucoure has been the huge miss though, as the highly-influential midfielder has missed Everton's last three games, all of which ended in defeat.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin has also had niggles to deal with over the course of the season, while defensive trio Seamus Coleman, Ashley Young and Vitalii Mykolenko all missed portions of the festive period with injury.
While those players are set to be involved in the squad at Selhurst Park, Doucoure remains an absentee, having only returned to training this week.
Andrew Delaney
