“If you’re in the shirt and you play well, then it’s yours to lose,” is manager Paul Lambert’s message to his players as he goes into 2020/21 eschewing last season’s controversial rotation policy.
The Blues boss is aiming for a more settled side - and system, having utilised a 4-3-3 formation throughout pre-season - this time around as Town look to significantly improve on last season’s disastrous 11th-place finish.
"The lads know how we want to play and how we want to try and do it and it’s their shirt to lose, that’s me being fair with everybody,” Lambert said.
Asked whether there would have to be some element of rotation with the Blues having two games virtually every week for the next eight months, the Scot responded: "Get in the team, play well, that’s my answer. Stay in the team, play well, players will become robust.”
Does he have any concern regarding fatigue if they’re playing two games a week? "You will get fatigue, but if you’re winning games, you’ll not get fatigue. If you’re winning games you won’t be tired, you’ll win and it’ll be a great feeling. That’s the secret of it.
"There are guys that play 60-odd games throughout the country, they’re more than capable of doing it. But you’ve got to play well.”
Asked whether skipper Luke Chambers, 35 by the end of this month, might not be viewed as a nailed-on starter this season as he has been during his eight years at the club up to now, Lambert says the same is the case for everyone in the squad.
"The lads know it themselves, it’s not set in stone for anybody, you have to perform well and if you’re in the shirt and you play well, then it’s yours to lose. I think that’s me being fair to everybody - it’s yours to lose,” he added.
"So if you’re in the team, you do your utmost to stay in it, then that makes my job a little bit easier to do. If you play well and you win games, it’s a bit easier.”
He says he spent the time away from football reflecting on where things went wrong last season: "Over the lockdown, you always reflect on what went right and what went wrong and what we can improve.
"And when I was sitting looking back on the season, I had things in my head that said ‘We’re going to play this way’.
"I said to the lads that that was how we were going to play and that was what was going to happen and I think they’ve enjoyed it. I think they’ve enjoyed the way we’re playing.
"It’s just a matter of trying to play the good football and turning it into results. And then let’s see what happens from there. Let’s see how it goes.”