Manager Chris Hughton has been speaking about his plans for the international break with real football now stalled.
With a few players out on international duty, Hughton has a mixed camp at the training ground and he explained this week that his main focus was getting players back up to speed who have been carrying injuries, and then making sure players who haven’t got much game time so far continue to be in peak condition.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media, Hughton explained that he even prioritised training over giving a few players a run out in the Under 23 EFL Trophy.
‘We have a mixture of players and we don`t have too many going away. If anything, this week probably becomes a little bit more important for the ones that haven`t been playing regularly. We made a decision to make good use of these three days, as opposed to playing any of the players in the Checkatrade Trophy game at Oxford. We will have three tough days of training, but there is a balance and the ones that have been playing regularly won`t do all three days.’
Hughton went on to say.
‘The ones that haven`t been playing will get three really good days of training and there are a few players that fall into that category. Izzy Brown has been out for a while and it`s a good opportunity to get Glenn Murray close to where we need him.’
With a two nil defeat to Arsenal in the final game ahead of the international break, Hughton was again singing the positives that he could take from our performance on the day.
‘They had a lot of possession, which we expected, but they didn`t create many clear chances. I was a bit disappointed with the goals we conceded, but with the second one you have to hold your hands up and say it was a bit of real quality and genius. We were in the game and broke into some really good areas and maybe the only disappointment was that we needed to show a bit more confidence once we got into those areas.’
Wuth U23 duo George Cox and James Tilley signing two and three year extensions earlier in the week, the gaffer also had praise for them.
‘Those two players signing new contracts is a consequence of the form they`ve shown. We`ve known of Tilley for some time, and he has played at a good level for a while now. George has made really good progress and it just goes to show that some players develop a bit younger, whereas others can improve over a period of time. That`s certainly been the case with Cox. Tilley is going through a really good phase and I thought he was our best player against Oxford, so I`m really delighted to have both of them here.’
