No taking it easy for the Blues squad
WHILE many clubs will give their players extended time off over the international break, Birmingham City won’t be one of them.
Blues’ 2-0 defeat at Barnsley on Saturday saw them slip into the bottom three and go a fourth game without scoring.
Indeed, they have won just three of their 16 Championship matches so far this season and the pressure is building on new manager Steve Cotterill.
Which is why he won’t allow his squad to ‘take a foot off the pedal’.
“There are a lot of teams that probably have quite a lot of time off next week,” he said. “That won’t be for us, because we won’t have a lot of time off because we will be working.
“I always think that after you come out of this weekend’s game, probably the Monday certainly for the starting XI that’s your second recovery day and the day they’re most at risk of injury.
“Certainly, those who have played three games in a week. Monday is a real tricky day, that’s the day where you can pick up your most injuries. The Monday for them will be very light to medium.
“The others will do a medium day on a Monday and then the rest of the week will probably be quite high days. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
“We’ll then see how much work we’ve got done, because you can’t run them to death.
“There also needs to be some time at the end of the week where they can rest and recuperate from what you put into them.”
Cotterill admitted the club’s injury problems will not help the situation. Blues have Isaac Vassell out long term, Carl Jenkinson rehabbing his dislocated shoulder, David Stockdale sidelined and Maxime Colin the latest to be struck by the hamstring curse.
Blues’ next match is at home to Nottingham Forest on November 18.