Clement

4 teams that didn’t want the international break

The Championship halts proceedings this week as the international break makes an untimely return in the eyes of most Football League followers. Even a couple of League One and League Two games have fallen by the wayside. We take a look at four teams who are most disappointed that the international break has some at this point in their respective seasons.

Derby County

The Rams now appear to have turned a corner this season and the victory against Brentford handed them their first home win of the season. That had only been the thing really missing for Paul Clement this season, as away from home they pose the best record in the league. They will now fancy themselves of putting a good run of results together and close that gap of five points to league leaders Brighton & Hove Albion. Derby will see a few of their players head off onto international duty and they’ll be keen for them all to arrive back in one piece. They could easily lose momentum in this international break, but Clement will be working his hardest to ensure that isn’t the case. Ideally they’d like to be playing this weekend, so that they can continue their unbeaten run of five games.

Reading

Defeating Middlesbrough in relatively comfortable fashion last weekend was the best result of the season so far for Steve Clarke’s men. They made it three wins on the bounce and they are another side that would want to be playing this weekend. Their next signings look to have settled in very quickly and the Madejski Stadium is now bouncing once again. They are another side closing the gaps on top of the table Brighton and in addition to Derby, Hull and Boro, Reading have the joint best defensive record in the league. As a team that are doing something which they struggled to achieve at the beginning of the season, and that is scoring goals. They now have the fourth best goalscoring record in the Championship and they simply want to be continuing this fine run of form. Players will return back after internationals at differing points, meaning training ahead of the Charlton game won’t be as ideal as it could have been.

Brighton & Hove Albion

Although Brighton are top of the table and remain undefeated this season, they’ll be ever so slightly disappointed heading into the international break. They have set the bar very high following their fantastic start to the campaign, but three draws in a row has set them back a little bit. They still maintain a two point lead at the top of the league, but drawing a lot of games can have a negative effect on any group of players. Whilst they aren’t losing, they aren’t winning and this Brighton side clearly have an appetite to win games this season. Their next game is away to Leeds, which will be a significant challenge for Hughton and his team. Having to wait another two weeks means that it will have been almost a month since they last won a league game. They will be a little frustrated during this international break.

MK Dons

It has been a shaky start to the season by Karl Robinson’s men, but considering they are a newly-promoted side, then they are perhaps forgiven for that fact. Nevertheless, Robinson is another who has set his side very high standards, so he’ll be disappointed to have only won two out of their 10 league games. They scored goals for fun last season as well, albeit in a lower league. So far, only Preston North End, another promoted side, has scored less than the stadium:mk outfit. However in their last game they earned a 1-1 draw to stop their alarming run of six straight defeats, which was a club record. It came away to bottom of the table Bristol City, scoring in the last minute. Scoring so late to avoid defeat would’ve gave the team a massive boost and would’ve been desperate to play this weekend.

 

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