Christmas could be defining time of season - Steve Bruce

Nov 13 2011 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

STEVE BRUCE will be glad to see the back of the international breaks.

The Sunderland boss believes the international programme has disrupted the Premier League campaign, with three rounds of international fixtures in the first three months of the season frustrating fans, players and managers alike.

And the three blank weekends in the domestic calendar mean that Premier League clubs have played only 11 games by the middle of November, while they will play a minimum of 11 games in December and January alone.

But when the Premier League season resumes next weekend, there will be no more international interruptions until mid-February.

Bruce said: “It’s been very stop-start so far because of the international breaks.

“It’s quite incredible really – we’ve only played 11 games in three months up to now, and yet there could be 11 or 12 games in December and January.

“Those months around Christmas can be the defining time of the season, and yet the fixture list is piled high.

Clubs have seen their international players called up for Euro 2012 qualifiers in September and October, and then again this month for either Euro 2012 play-off games or friendlies.

Sunderland have eight senior players away on international duty, with Phil Bardsley (Scotland), Nicklas Bendtner (Denmark), Ahmed Elmohamady (Egypt), Ji Dong-Won (Korea) Seb Larsson (Sweden), David Vaughan (Wales) and John O’Shea and Keiren Westwood (Republic of Ireland) all absent from training last week.

And Bruce is praying they all return to the fold unscathed ahead of next weekend’s game against Fulham at the Stadium of Light.

“The biggest problem you face is that you worry about the fitness of the players who go away with their countries,” he said.

“You wonder if they are going to come back with knocks or niggles.

“After the last lot of internationals, two of them came back with problems.

“You just have to keep your fingers crossed that they will be OK.

“And, assuming they do come back fit, then you have to get them refocused on the job in hand again.”