Michael Skubala has named an unchanged Lincoln City side for six matches in a row now, starting against Luton Town on January 17th.
None of those games have been as tight a turnaround as tomorrow against Northampton Town, and he may be tempted to make changes. The obvious players to come in are Ben House and/or Tom Bayliss, but with 14 points from 18 with the same XI, there must also be a temptation to stick, rather than twist.
When asked by Callum Davis of BBC Radio Lincolnshire if he intended to make changes this weekend, Michael explained how he would arrive at the outcome, but didn’t confirm whether it was a yes or a no.
“Only if it’s right,” he said, firmly on the fence. “I think there’s lots of things that go into that. Saturday to Saturday games is different from Saturday to Tuesday to Saturday games. Individuals within that deal with that differently as well.
“There’s so much detail. I know it looks like I’ll just pick the same team because they’re doing well. It’s never been that and there’s been changes within that. So, I’m not averse to changing and tweaking if we need to, but at the same time that means sometimes not changing.”
After a gruelling 90 minutes against Bolton, where City worked as hard as ever to claim three points, rather than just protecting one, there may be some tired legs. With groups of games coming up, such as Cardiff, Exeter and Stockport in eight days, or the Easter Weekend with two games in four days, there is likely to be a period where change is needed.
“I think we’ll get to a period or we’ll get to games where we need to, and that’s to make sure that we keep the lads fresh that are doing very, very well. But also, you have to understand that players need to play sometimes to stay strong as a group.
“Sometimes when players don’t play for long periods then they need friendlies, they need more work behind the scenes.”
Players such as Dom Jefferies, Alfie Lloyd, Ryan Oné and Ryler Towler are getting minutes, but perhaps not starting, but as Michael explained, if they were needed around the starting XI, he believes they’re strong enough to be trusted.
“We’ve got a really strong squad and I trust anybody from the squad, even the lads that are not even in the 18. I trust everybody who can start a game for us. We’re a solid squad.”
“We’re in a good place. We just got to keep making sure that we make the right decisions from a physical point of view, mentality point of view, and hopefully we can keep the performances going.”
That leaves supporters no clearer on whether there will, or won’t be changes for the match on Tuesday night. Given we need to break down a resilient Northampton, one would imagine attacking flair will be required, so the likes of Hackett and Moylan are sure to start.
It could be lucky match seven in terms of successive starts, and one wonders when the last time an Imps side was unchanged in seven was.
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