THE English Premier League may be providing the most players at the World Cup quarter-finals but Germany coach Joachim Loew believes its detrimental for the England national team.

The Premier League sees 42 players taking part in the last eight of the tournament with Germany’s Bundesliga coming second with 25 followed by Italy’s Serie A (18), French Ligie 1 (16) and Spain’s La Liga (15).

But Loew believes the fact that England are already out and Germany are still in the running shows that its due to the strong numbers of German players in the Bundesliga.

“I believe we have a good blend,” Loew said at Germany’s official press conference ahead of their quarter-final against France on Thursday.

“These players have a lot of experience in tough competitions. I’m not unhappy if players are abroad.

“We can benefit from [Real Madrid’s] Sami Khedira and [Arsenal’s] Mesut Ozil having different influences and cultures and coaches. They benefit personally as well and it helps players to mature.

“If other countries like England have a problem, their league has a disadvantage because of a higher percentage of foreigners so it becomes difficult for the national coach to get things moving.

“We have changed over recent years with lots of young German players in German clubs, given an advantage over foreigners and we’re benefiting from that. In England there are many foreigners and perhaps that is not always beneficial.”

Only one-third of the Premier League players are English and Brazil’s 1970 World Cup winner Carlos Alberto believes that is too much.

“The English team is the reality of English football. If they do not change the rules of the Premier League they won’t go far,” he told reporters at the international broadcast centre late on Thursday.

“There are so many foreign players playing in the Premier League they don’t give a chance for the young players to be in the first team.

“Go to Arsenal, how many foreign players? Go to Liverpool... go to Manchester City, how many foreign players? They don’t give a chance to the young players.”

Roy Hodgson’s England were knocked out at the group stage, drawing one of their three games while losing two.

Published in Dawn, July 5th , 2014