Much has been made of the demands of the Europa League and the impact of extra games and travel on Swansea's league position, it's purely speculation and maybe a bit biased but I'd argue that our level would be closer to that of Southampton without the extra games (Swansea have played 10 Europa League games but 2 fewer matches in the League Cup compared to Southampton).
As at end of Jan 2014, Swansea have already played 36 competitive matches (23 League, 10 Europa League, 2 FA Cup and 1 League Cup) with late Nov until early Jan being particularly busy with the absence of any international breaks and 2 games a week for 5 of the 6 weeks.
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Swansea Minutes Played per week - All Competitions |
The chain arguably starts with Bony having a succession of injuries early on in the season ranging from Ankle/Foot (Aug 25th) to Rib (Sep 15th) injuries combined with a lack of a full pre-season and then suffering a hamstring injury in a Europa League game on Nov 28th.
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Bony - Minutes played per week. |
The reasoning that some games you'd need 2 and others 3 of the central midfielders was why Ki was loaned out to Sunderland as unless there was a run on injuries he'd get very little game time (I know there are other conspiracy theories around his relationship with Laudrup but apart from the issue of helping a potential relegation rival, Ki is better of this season at Sunderland).
The gradual build up of injuries meant that instead of a regular rotation that happened earlier on in the season, Shelvey and Canas in particular were called on even more during the Nov/Dec period which may well have had an impact on their fitness.
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Shelvey has possibly been Swansea's player of the season so far but a heavy schedule in recent weeks had arguably knackered him out to some extent |
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As with Shelvey, Canas has gone from playing equivalent of around 1 game per week to regularly playing 2 games a week |
Pablo has gained a reputation this season as being 'made of glass' but last season was an almost ever-present. This season maybe he's been pushed backed too quickly only to relapse.
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Playing 2 matches in a week might not seem the greatest hardship in the world, but going from nothing to multiple games may be too much of a rush for some players |
Over the season so far Chico has played by far the most minutes (Williams was often rested in Europa League games partly due to a niggling ankle injury but also to give Amat experience).
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Chico has played 2745 minutes this season, 489 minutes more than Ashley Williams in 2nd. |
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Pozuelo's been regularly involved, if not as heavily as some but played an important role in keeping things going during late Nov/early Dec |