Steve Cotterill: Tom Bayliss needed a Shrewsbury break
Steve Cotterill said it was a tough decision to leave out Tom Bayliss – but he says it is a long season and every now and then a player needs a break.
Town have been in great form of late, winning their last three League One games, but since the arrival of Killian Phillips on loan from Crystal Palace, Bayliss has found himself out of the starting XI against Burton Albion and Cambridge.
But the decision proved to be the right one by the Town boss because when Bayliss was introduced at half-time against MK Dons on Tuesday night, he produced the match-winning moment with an 89th-minute winner.
And Cotterill said it was hard to leave the 23-year-old out, but he said sometimes players need to ‘recharge their batteries’.
He said: “It is always a tough decision to leave someone out, but you have got to do what you think is best and what is right for the team.
“I think there could have been times before now where I could have left other players out to give them a break and let them recharge their batteries.
“Let them get their mojo back a little bit, it is a tough old slog the season in England, you have not got a league game you have a cup game.
“All in all, it gets difficult to churn out the same mentality for players week in and week out, it is difficult for them.”
Town have had serious injury problems for the vast majority of the season, which has meant the boss has not had the luxury of changing his team around too often.
And he says the post-Christmas period is always challenging, and he would have liked to have given other players a break at different times, but he has not had that option.
“We come to a flat time of the year when it comes into Christmas and the New Year, whatever it is it seems to be a bit of a flat month in January doesn’t it,” the boss continued.
“That is when you have got to stay tough through things, and stay focused, and you hope other teams you play are not so focused.
“It is a long old season that we have and it is a time where you think ok this one needs a break or that player needs a break.
“I would have liked to have done that more times this season, but with the injuries, we have had we have not been able to do that.”
