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West Brom fixture pile-up angers Roberto Di Matteo

West Bromwich Albion head coach Roberto Di Matteo
Di Matteo is concerned by the workload placed on teams in the Championship

West Bromwich Albion head coach Roberto Di Matteo says fixture congestion in the Championship needs to be addressed by the football authorities.

The Baggies are in the middle of a spell of seven League games in 22 days.

Di Matteo told BBC WM: "It's incredible, we have played four games in ten days.

"It's not right, for me, to play so many games in such a short period of time. It increases dramatically the risk of injuries."

Di Matteo has been managing with a growing list of injuries in recent weeks, extended further by Jonas Olsson's calf problem sustained at Swansea on Tuesday.

We've added a few loan players to our squad otherwise we would have been a bit short

Roberto Di Matteo

He added: "I don't know whether it's the [46-game] league or the period in which you play those games. They will have to look at that, it's just too much."

Di Matteo says he has had no choice but to make more changes to his side than he would ideally have wished.

"I think my hand has been forced by two factors; the amount of games in a short period of time, and the injuries and suspensions.

"We've added a few loan players to our squad otherwise we would have been a bit short there.

"I don't think our squad is very big, to be honest. We had some youth team players on the bench not long ago, and it wasn't just an exception, we had youth team players on the bench in a number of games.

"At the moment we've got a few loan players in, which are helping us to achieve our target."



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see also
West Brom 3-2 Preston
20 Mar 10 |  Championship
Swansea 0-2 West Brom
16 Mar 10 |  Championship
West Brom's Koren eyes promotion
10 Mar 10 |  West Brom


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