Steve Cooper braced for demanding schedule

Steve Cooper knows Swansea City are about to face a severe test as the Championship schedule intensifies following the international break.

The Swans host Huddersfield at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday looking to continue the unbeaten start to the new season which has seen them take 10 points from a possible 12.

However, the clash with the Terriers kicks off a sequence of seven games in just 22 games prior to the next international break in November.

To underline those demands, the period after the November window sees another nine games in 28 days.

All of which means – outside of that international break – Championship clubs will play every midweek and every weekend until the week before Christmas.

“We know it’s going to be demanding,” said head coach Cooper.

“We talk a lot about the Christmas period being busy, but this is like having that sort of schedule – where you play every three or four days – for a few months.

“It could potentially be defining times in a season, and these periods are going to be very important over the course of the campaign as there are a lot of points at stake in quite a short period of time.

“We had some experience of it when we started again after lockdown last season, and there are lessons we can take from that and things we can look to improve on to try and keep the players fresh and sharp, because we will need them.

“It’s been good to have got points on the board, as you’d rather be coming into this next section of the season in that situation, but things can change quickly so we need to pick up at the level we left off.”