Darren Sarll said Yeovil Town may have to change their system to accommodate a players who are feeling the strain of playing so many matches.
The Glovers’ boss said he would assess the situation following the 2-1 defeat at the hands of Gary Johnson’s Torquay United at Huish Park on Sunday.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
He told BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins: “We are maybe going in to another period where we have to change. We definitely have a group of players that are putting so much effort in and maybe they are at their ceiling, they might need a bit of a break.
“We might need to change that system to get that freshness with the players that can come in, but we have to make sure we are hard to beat.”
The boss said the loss was a poor last 15 minutes when goals from Connor Lemonheigh-Evans direct from a corner and a late winner from substitute Dan Holman saw the visitors complete the double over Yeovil.
Sarll described defending for the second goal as “absolute crap” and pointed to errors from midfielder Dale Gorman and debutant on-loan goalkeeper Dillon Barnes for the first goal.
He pointed to having to shuffle his defensive unit to accommodate for suspended goalkeeper Grant Smith and right-back Dan Moss and the late loss of captain Luke Wilkinson, who was missing having a COVID-19 test.
Morgan Williams moved from left-back to right back and on-loan Middlesbrough defender Jack Robinson returned for his first game in two months on the left side with Josh Staunton dropping in to the centre of defence alongside Max Hunt, the only constant from the 3-0 defeat at Torquay on Boxing Day.
The manager said: “We go back to where we were last season, making four changes in the five defensive positions, even if it is Williams to right back and Robinson at left back.
“There are players out there who looked tired because they are having to play a lot of games for the first time in their careers for some of them – (Charlie) Wakefield, (Tom) Knowles, players like that.
“Then there were a little band of players who, having come back from injury, they suffered with fatigue.
“But the last 15 minutes was poor and we are going to have to address that, the last half-an-hour last Sunday and we blamed poor old Sonny (Blu Lo-Everton, who was sent off on Boxing Day), but today all we can do is blame ourselves.”