We explore why Gary O’Neil was right to state his concerns to the Premier League over Wolves’ heavy fixture schedule.
O’Neil confirmed after the Everton game that he had gone to the Premier League to see if he could get the Everton game moved to Sunday.
The fixture was Wolves’ third in six days after they controversially played Chelsea on Christmas Eve before following it up with a trip to Brentford on December 27th.
It was a hectic schedule for the side and fatigue was clearly coming into play for many of the squad.
However, the three impressive victories that the side oversaw in the festive season overshadowed how hard the period was for Wolves.
O’Neil shared these concerns as he discussed after the 3-0 win over Everton.
Gary O’Neil wanted to his protect Wolves squad
The manager confirmed after the game that he had approached the Premier League in search of pushing back Saturday’s game versus Everton at Molineux to Sunday.
However, the league confirmed that this decision was not possible at the time resulting in the game taking place on December 30th.
He stated on the BBC: “ ”I’m risking players getting injured by asking them to go again.
“The league are always fine, there’s normally a reason why they can’t do it.
“They were open to listening to what I spoke about and they looked into it as much as they could but said it was, unfortunately, not possible.
“Three games in six days is tough. You are always playing with someone hurting or not fully recovered.
“It’s excessive, to expect them to be at the level they are supposed to be at.”
Wolves players could have easily been injured
The schedule for Wolves was beyond reasonable. Due to the highly controversial Christmas Eve fixture, the players had the second-least recovery time for the festive period in the league at 73 hours. Only Chelsea had less. At least 11 over sides in the division had 20 hours more than O’Neil’s men, a massive difference.
Fatigue clearly was an issue for Wolves as well. This was most evident in the Brentford game where O’Neil’s side had two days to recover for the game whereas the Bees had 10.
This was obvious in the second half as Wolves became more defensive to try and hold onto what they had. Few players were also joining any counterattack until substitutions were made later in the half.
The Everton game once again put the squad through a tough physical test as the side looked to end the year on a high. While the performance was highly memorable, a great deal of needless risk was placed due to injury.
Many players were only just recovering from being on the sidelines as well with Rayan Ait-Nouri, Jose Sa and Craig Dawson all missing games in December.
Gary O’Neil was therefore well within his right to explore moving the fixture as he needs to look after the safety of his players.
Luckily after Friday’s FA Cup fixture away to Brentford, Wolves don’t play against until January 22nd, giving the squad a well-deserved break.