Listening to this week’s Bladespod made me think about this as
Beans &
Roygbiv said on the international break problem that “there’s definitely something”.
Is the problem that we simply don’t rotate players that have been away?
We won every league 1 game we played after the international breaks, so let’s look at the games since we were promoted to the Championship.
2017-18
Sunderland (a) 9th Sept 17, won 2-1. 0 players that started played in the international break the week before.
Ipswich (h) 14th Oct 17, won 1-0. 0 players that started played in the international break the week before.
Burton (a) 17th Nov 17, won 3-1. 0 players that started played in the international break the week before.
Brentford (a) 30th Mar 18, drew 1-1. 0 players that started played in the international break the week before.
2018-19
Bristol City (a) 15th Sep 18, lost 1-0. 3 players that started played in the international break the week before: Stevens (119m played), Egan (90m played), Norwood (135m played). Who on the bench could have started? Stearman and Johnson.
Derby (a) 20th Oct 18, lost 2-1. 2 players that started played in the international break the week before: Stevens (44m played), Norwood (148m played), Egan unused sub. Who on the bench could have started? Stearman, Coutts (maybe, he wasn’t long back) and Johnson. Lundstram, not in the squad, would have been fit to deputise for Norwood.
Rotherham (a) 24th Nov 18, drew 2-2. 3 players that started played in the international break the week before: Stevens (114m played), Egan (90m played), Freeman (12m played). Who on the bench could have started? Stearman, Baldock and Johnson.
Bristol City (h) 30th Mar 19, lost 3-2. 1 player that started played in the international break the week before: Stevens (180m played), Egan unused sub. Who on the bench could have started? Stearman and Johnson.
Southampton (h) 14th Sep 19, lost 1-0. 4 players that started played in the international break the week before: Stevens (104m played), Egan (90m played), McGoldrick (89m played), McBurnie (90m played). Who on the bench could have started? Osborn, Sharp, Mousset, Robinson (though he was away with Ireland too). Jagielka & Stearman, not on the bench, were fit and could arguably have deputised for Egan.
It’s noticeable last/this season that no player you’d expect to start a game for us was rotated out for the next league game after being away with their country, with perhaps the exception of Robinson on Saturday. You can argue that in some cases that’s because the replacement really was a big step down. This season we do have more options and I do reckon Wilder may need to think about using them where we have a good number of the team heading off for two international matches.