Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.

The last game before the international break - is this a worrying trend?

NabySarr
NabySarr Posts: 4,402
in General Charlton

We have only lost 4 games this season which is great. One of those we were very unlucky against Leicester, the other 3 have all been the last games before an international break. Coincidence? I think maybe not

There being 3 international breaks from August to November splits the start of the season into 3, and in each of those splits we’ve started well, before getting slightly worse performance-wise and then losing the final game before the break.

This to me isn’t that surprising, at our best we play a very intense style, we’ve also gone up a level so it’s probably harder to keep that up in the championship. Therefore we keep dropping off at the end of each of these splits

This is now where I am slightly worried. 22nd November to 4th January is the busiest spell of the season, and there is no break every month to recover. I fear we are going to see a drop off

Thinking back to last season, we also struggled around this point of the season with injuries piling up, before finishing the season strongly when the games are much more spread out.

Is this a Nathan Jones thing? When the games are Saturday - Saturday with the odd midweek game his style delivers results, but when November/December come around and there’s little time to recover, results suffer and injuries occur? If so I’m expecting a drop off now, but the key will be not to panic, as we should finish the season strongly again with a less packed schedule

Apologies for the long post, but thought it was worth some discussion

Comments

  • ForeverAddickted
    ForeverAddickted Posts: 95,228
    On a plus note we dont have an International Break until March now, so means a nice unbeaten run... ;)
  • LargeAddick
    LargeAddick Posts: 32,759
    Think you are overthinking it 
  • WillmoreTheRed
    WillmoreTheRed Posts: 886
    edited November 11
    Think there are to many factors in play, difficult to pin point it to just the international breaks. Injuries, Opponents etc all play a part.
  • MartinCAFC
    MartinCAFC Posts: 3,252
    I’ve thought about this too and I think you’re right to an extent in that Jones didn’t change the team unless he had to which might factor into the point you make about tiredness but I think he’s also learnt from this and started to rotate more players about when we’ve had midweek games.
  • golfaddick
    golfaddick Posts: 33,902
    Causation or correlation ?

    Probably more likely this time we had a number of injuries & were playing TC in defence !
  • Kips
    Kips Posts: 696
    It's an interesting trend to highlight Naby,  especially as it's been an away defeat each time. It's certainly had a feeling of a game too far for us for v PNE and Wrexham, when both followed a midweek match. That did not apply  v QPR however.

    You might be right on the intensity being a factor. I think Jones knows his preferred starting 11 now with the exception of Burke and Ramsay who were rotated until Burke's injury.

    You are right, with less international breaks the need to rotate will be greater and the key to maintaining our top half position will be getting a tune out of those squad members such as Apter, Knibbs, leaburn and Tanto. None of these players have made compelling arguments for a run in the side when they have started lately, albeit that it must be hard to get up to speed with only the odd start here and there.

    I'm not being critical of Jones here either. The results we've had has made it difficult to give other players a run in the team and I don't really like to see a winning side changed.

    It will be an interesting challenge for sure and I too fear a drop off. You are right though, no need to panic as it would be a pity to turn the valley into a negative space should the drop off happen.

  • closet_addick
    closet_addick Posts: 209
    Valid point, but I think we'll be fine. We've got some major players coming back from injuries, too. Would like to see NJ utilise some of the underused fellas soon, since it's a looooong season. Apter, Anderson and the likes. 
  • se9addick
    se9addick Posts: 32,114
    golfaddick said:
    Causation or correlation ?

    Probably more likely this time we had a number of injuries & were playing TC in defence !
    The number of injuries have really piled up thick and fast. Just a few weeks ago I was thinking how much depth we had, with multiple options off of the bench every match. Now, only a short time later, we’re looking a bit patchwork.  

Categories

“Marketplace”