After the England display last night, I’m not sure why people hate the international break.
It’s really not so bad when the game is actually on, I think it’s more the gap between games that’s the problem, once the anthems get sung everything is hunky-dory once more.
Whilst we’re busy watching the games though, players at club level, or at least those who aren’t being called upon for international duty, are busy recovering from the trials and tribulations of their respective campaigns. And according to one member of the Leeds United team, this latest break couldn’t have come at a better time.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Patrick Bamford says that their displays in recent weeks haven’t been the greatest, and that they have earned this little bit of time off as they prepare for another long stretch of fixtures:
“I think you could see that legs were a bit tired with people misplacing passes and stuff but I think we have earned the break now. But when we are not playing well, we’ve learnt to grind it out and to make the necessary foul even though it might be dirty, to take the ball into the corner and just do all the little tricks that help us. It’s testament to the boys and to the effort they put in every week.”
Well he and the rest of the squad better make the most of it.
With the next international break not until late March, the next opportunity for players to rest up will be during the 3rd round of the FA Cup, and even then it’s a lottery that Leeds don’t end up drawing a big team, leading Bielsa to stick with his first-choice eleven. If these Leeds players have been finding themselves tired after the past month of club football, imagine what they’re going to be like come the next break if things don’t fall their way?
This is really just a way of sending a message to Marcelo Bielsa that the squad needs to be bigger and players need more rest. If their displays aren’t what they can be because they’re tired, then they need to be given a chance to recover and that means more rotation in the squad.
Do Leeds need a bigger squad?
Yes
No
If they are struggling with fatigue now, then what’s it going to be like at the business end of the season? Leeds need a bigger squad and they need to give first-team players more time off, or it could lead to them throwing away promotion like they did at the end of last season.