Should be noted that much of this bad run of fixture congestion falls on the shoulders of our own FO. Each team is allowed to veto a certain number of dates/weekends to play on if they coincide with international fixtures. The last two years we've opted to take multiple bye weeks early in the year so as to play the fewest amount of games where our best players are unavailable. This usually just applies to Altidore and Bradley specifically.

Neither situation is totally ideal but i get why they make the choice they do.