Sky Blues defender Kyle McFadzean is looking ahead to the next one hundred appearances in his career, as he gets set to make his 600th this weekend.
A career spanning over 17 years sees the centre-back prepare to make his 600th appearance, with this weekend’s trip to the Cardiff City Stadium his next opportunity.
At 35-years-old, the defender has started every game this season and continues to be a mainstay at the heart of defence, helping City keep three clean sheets in their last four games.
McFadzean looked back on the most recent outings, whilst also looking ahead to the next run of fixtures before the World Cup break.
On three clean sheets in the last four…
“I think we’ve shut up shop a little bit so it’s been a bit better, but obviously we need to get the balance better going forward and if we do that it will help us moving forward.
“We’ve had new personnel at the back and getting used to playing together takes time. The new lads haven’t been in long in pre-season, so they have had to get up to speed.
“Then games getting called off and play once every two weeks doesn’t help, but we’ve had to deal with it and now we have games every Saturday, Tuesday now until the break which is really good for us.”
Partnership with Doyle and Panzo…
“They’ve got better and better as games have gone on which is really good. It can only help them going on.
“I’ve done the same with what I always do I’ve had to get to know them and know what their strengths and weaknesses are so it’s a little bit different.
“Doyle is playing on his right side which he’s done really well, and he’s stepped in really well.”
Closing in on 600 career appearances…
“To make 600 appearances is really good and I’m really happy.
“To say I had three years out of football it’s quite nice and it’s something to look back on, but now I want to get to 700
“I think I can carry on, but it’s not always what I think, it’s about performances really, I don’t think it’s anything to do with age.
“If you keep performing and playing to a high level I don’t think anyone can say anything but as soon as you start drifting away and not being able to do what you could do, you start to know.”
Changing formation during games…
“I don’t like being brought off like last week, but it helped the team and I thought when we changed the formation last week it really gave us a boost and it looked like we were going to score, but it wasn’t meant to be in the end.
“We’ve got to be ready to change in every game because every game is different. It helps having five subs as well so it can freshen it up.
“With all these games coming thick and fast you’re going to need everyone in the squad.”
Callum O’Hare and Liam Kelly returning…
“We’ve got Kells and Callum back training now which gives everyone a boost around the place and it’s nice to have them back.
“We’ve got a fully fit squad now which is something we haven’t been able to say this season, we have a lot of games coming up and hopefully they can take part.”
Catching up with fixtures before the World Cup break…
“We have meetings all the time and we talk about stuff and we will have caught up a little bit by the World Cup break.
“We should have played half of the games at home and away, so we will see where we’re at and the league will show that a bit more then.”
Upcoming run of games…
“I prefer it like that because you don’t really train, and you just play games.
“Obviously it’s better when you’re winning so it would be nice if we can get our first away win.”
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