A lot of games in June

[Scary Bear]

1st June - Ukraine (home) WC play-off

5th June - Wales (away) WC play-off (if we are good enough to beat Ukraine)

8th June - Armenia (home)

11th June - Ireland (away)

14th June - Armenia (away)

That is a tough schedule. I can see patchy form and call-offs aplenty. When are the players meant to get a break?

From a quick look at Wales fixtures I see we’re not alone in having 5 fixtures in a fortnight, but that seems a pretty intense run of games.

Thoughts?

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by Scary Bear

[2426255]

To be fair it's not anything the players aren't used to - it's weekend + midweek matches which is the norm at the highest level of football so I don't think it's a particularly big deal.

I wonder if we'll carry a bigger initial squad than normal. The schedule in terms of travel could have been horrific, but it's good with most of the games in the UK and ROI.

[Donathan]

That Armenia game should be pencilled in as one for mass rotation 

[invergowrie arab]

The players will get a break on the day between games.

If we are to win the World Cup that's the sort of schedule we will need to be coping with. 

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

It’s similar to the number of games played during a World Cup or European Championship tournament.  Five games would take you through the group stage and be knocked out at the quarter final.  For every EC and WC, 8 teams have to play games in roughly this period.

Those sides also only have 23 players.  I suspect we will have closer to 30, and we won’t be the only side doing so.

It’s pretty tight between the League season ending, and the first match, but it’s all a result of a) COVID, and b) FIFA making a mockery of the entire World Cup

I don’t imagine we’ll have too many call offs, but there will be rotation, and we’ll likely lose three or four by game 5.

Winning the playoff is all that matters.  After that, we must avoid relegation to Group C, but given the quality of ROI, Armenia, and the unknowable level of Ukraine, I should imagine that is fairly unlikely.

[2426255]

39 minutes ago, HuttonDressedAsLahm said:

Winning the playoff is all that matters.  After that, we must avoid relegation to Group C, but given the quality of ROI, Armenia, and the unknowable level of Ukraine, I should imagine that is fairly unlikely.

Agreed, winning the playoffs and finishing 2nd or 3rd in the NL would be an acceptable return.

[craigkillie]

There is no reason we shouldn't be winning that Nations League group.

[queenslad]

Hopefully have 5 matches but equally may only have 4 with a 7 day gap between first and second matches if things don't go well

[Scary Bear]

How many wins are we getting out these 4/5 games?

[RobbieD]

Love it. Going to the lot of them.

[Scary Bear]

To be fair, i’ll take whatever results we get in the Nations League. I just want us to get to a World Cup. Even a shitey one in Qatar.

[Donathan]

The nations league is important but Armenia are a gang. We should be turning them over at Hampden with the likes of Jack, McLean, Armstrong and Brown in the starting XI.

 

Squad management is incredibly important and if we have played two huge playoff games in the previous few days and have two more tougher UNL games coming up in the next week, that game should be earmarked for rotation. 

[Scary Bear]

I did think a load of the games in the summer wouldn’t go well for us. What’s the excuses this time?

[Scary Bear]

Are Scottish players just more tired come the summer?

[Gordopolis]

I honestly think it has been a factor. Not an excuse though.

[2426255]

That's how the squad was used over the four games, well done in particular to Callum McGregor - some effort.

Edited June 17, 2022 by 2426255

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

On 11/06/2022 at 18:56, Gordopolis said:

I honestly think it has been a factor. Not an excuse though.

It does seem that England's players were knackered and struggling.  I do wonder if the English league particularly struggles with burnout - that naturally has an impact on us given the number of players we have south of the border.

A cursory glance between England/Scotland players and their European counterparts show a slightly higher number of games, but not considerably so. 

• Gnabry/Muller: 45 games; Benzema 46 games
• Kane/Rice: 50 games
• Robertson: 47 games
• McGinn: 36 games
• McGregor: 52 games

Obviously, injuries to Robertson, McGinn and McGregor limited their games, but they wouldn't have been wildly higher than the European standard.

I wonder if England is unusual on the basis of limited winter break, and the higher speed and physicality over other European leagues.  That's probably true of Scotland as well, with the exception of McGregor who just seems to have both excellent stamina and is pretty resilient to injuries.

The other countries involved in English football haven't performed particularly well either in the Welsh, Irish, and Northern Irish.

Not sure what the excuse is for the French or Slovaks!