Managing the Unusual International Break: Strategies from Premier League and Championship Clubs
The domestic game has hit the brakes – and this time, it’s not the usual quick pit stop.
For the first time, the Premier League and Championship have shut down for three weeks, not two. Four international fixtures, once split awkwardly across September and October, have been crammed into a single window. On paper, club football gains a week back across the season. In reality, managers now face an unfamiliar problem: how do you keep a squad sharp when half of it is scattered across the globe and the rest are staring at three empty weekends?
Different clubs have come up with very different answers.
Brentford: A week off, then back to work
At Brentford, the training ground is quiet. Too quiet.
Most of the squad are away on international duty. Around 12 players remain, including Callum Wilson and Igor Thiago, plus five more working their way back from injury. With the Bees having played Chelsea on the Friday night before the break, they now enjoy one of the longest pauses of any Premier League side.
Keith Andrews has used it to draw a clear line.
First-team players have been handed a week off, but not a free pass. They’ve gone away with individual training programmes and a clear expectation to return in shape. There are no hard bans on leaving the country, but nobody at Brentford is about to sign off on long-haul travel that eats into recovery and conditioning.
The group will reconvene on Saturday, 26 September. From there, the intensity ramps up again, building towards a behind-closed-doors friendly against another English club on the weekend of 3 October.
That game matters. It could mark a return to action for the likes of Nathan Collins and Sepp van den Berg, easing them back into match rhythm. Under-21s will fill out the rest of the squad, giving Andrews a chance to assess depth and fitness without the pressure of points on the line.
The next international window will feel very different in west London. Brentford play Brighton on Sunday, 8 November and are back at it against Everton on Saturday, 21 November. With league fixtures bookending that break, there will be no extended shutdown, no extra friendly. Players might get the odd day off, but the rhythm will be far closer to business as usual: train, recover, prepare for the Toffees.
Liverpool: Thin group, tight turnaround
Liverpool will not be flying anywhere or staging special fixtures. Their approach is stripped back.
With the bulk of the squad away, Andoni Iraola will work with a small core of players who remain at the AXA Training Centre, mixing sessions with a few days off to manage loads. It’s not ideal preparation for what comes next.
When the internationals return, Iraola expects “no more than three days probably to prepare” for Manchester City’s visit to Anfield on 11 October. Three days to rebuild connections, reset pressing triggers and re-establish the tempo required to face the champions.
The break gives bodies a chance to breathe. It gives the coaching staff time to plan. But the real work, for Liverpool, will be crammed into that frantic final stretch before City arrive.
Aston Villa: Emery goes back to Sevilla
At Aston Villa, the pause has a very different flavour.
Unai Emery is heading home. The Villa manager will return to former club Sevilla, where he carved his name into European history by winning the Europa League three times in a row.
Villa will face Sevilla in the 15th edition of the Antonio Puerta Trophy on Friday, 2 October. It is no ordinary friendly. The match honours Antonio Puerta, the Sevilla wing-back who died on 28 August 2007 after suffering multiple cardiac arrests during a La Liga game against Getafe.
For Emery, it is a reunion. For his players, it is a high-level test in a charged, emotional setting. For Villa’s season, it is a chance to keep the competitive edge alive while the Premier League sleeps.
Championship clubs: A chance to reset
Drop down a division and the picture changes.
Championship squads are not gutted to the same extent by international call-ups. Many sides lose only a handful of players. Blackburn Rovers, for instance, have just four away.
For Tony Mowbray, that’s an opportunity.
Rovers have been hit hard by injuries in the opening weeks of the season, with more than 10 players ruled out at one stage. The break gives them breathing space to rebuild. Gady Beyuku and Moussa Baradji have already made their comebacks; Scott Wharton is among those edging closer to a return.
After their trip to Portsmouth on Saturday, Blackburn headed back to Lancashire for a stretch of solid work on the training ground. The schedule is deliberate. The early part of the campaign has been hectic, with league fixtures and Carabao Cup ties packed together. Mowbray, who returned to the club in the summer, now finally has time to drill his ideas without the constant interruption of matchdays.
But he knows players can’t live in a loop of double sessions and video meetings.
He plans to give them a few days off towards the end of the week. Some, like Yuri Ribeiro, will be able to fly home to Portugal if they choose, recharging mentally as well as physically.
The pattern will repeat. Train hard in the first half of the following week, then another short break over the weekend. Week three returns to the familiar pre-match routine, building towards the home game against Cardiff.
Mowbray is also hunting for a behind-closed-doors friendly against a Premier League or League One side. The aim is simple: minutes in the legs for those returning from injury, and a competitive edge for those not seeing much action.
When the shorter, two-week international break arrives in November, Blackburn’s plan will tighten. Players may still get a brief spell off, but any matches are likely to be internal, with senior and under-21 players mixed into in-house games.
League One: Playing through the silence
League One sits in an awkward middle ground.
The division does not automatically stop for internationals. Fixtures are only postponed if a club receives at least three call-ups that meet the EFL’s criteria. That rule has bitten hard this time: only four of the 12 league matches have survived on each of the two affected weekends.
Many clubs saw this coming and moved early. They scheduled Football League Trophy ties during the three-week spell, ensuring the calendar did not fall completely empty. Rotations are standard in that competition, so even if league games vanish, the Trophy fixtures go ahead, stocked with fringe players and youngsters.
Twelve clubs will end up playing two Trophy matches in this period. Ten more will play one. That careful planning left just Leyton Orient and Reading at risk of staring at a blank three-week wall.
In the end, neither will be fully idle. Both have had only one league game called off, so they will not face a complete three-week shutdown. There will still be something to prepare for, something to anchor training.
The shape of this international break feels different. Longer. Stranger. Some managers are treating it like a mini pre-season. Others are clinging to rhythm with friendlies and Trophy ties. The question now is simple: when the league roars back into life, who will look refreshed—and who will look like they’ve been standing still?
