Ahead of our early Sunday afternoon tie at Norwich, the gaffer sat down and spoke about several topics, including our tough upcoming run, whether any U-21’s could feature and our injuries.
TOUGH GAME
“We have doubled down on what we feel we are good at, we have to keep going. I don’t think you have a result like we did last week and throw everything in the bin, because there are so many good things that have happened this season and we need to keep believing in what we do and how we play. Norwich is obviously a tough game, they are in the top six now and they are a team that have been in the Premier League. I expected them to be as they have been over recent times, they come down and they bounce straight back. But, now they have pushed themselves into the playoff positions, and we know it’s a tough game away from home, but we’ve faced these games in the past and we’ll hopefully go and make a good account of ourselves and make life difficult for them.”
TEST OURSELVES
“If you look at where we are we need to test ourselves, I think Norwich away will be a good football match. They are a good footballing side that like to play with the ball, and it will be a good test to see if we can compete at the level that they play at. I’m sure we can, this morning I told the players that I watched some of the chances we created away at Fulham, and the energy, drive, and number of bodies we got forward into the box was great. In all due respect to Norwich, Fulham were 7th in the Premier League, so we shouldn’t really fear anybody who claims themselves as a football team. So, we will look forward to the challenge of that game. After that we have two home games against Sheffield United and Luton, both of which are in the top four of the division. They are good tests for us. I know that we are a bit under strengthened, but at home we should feel with our crowd behind us that we can create an environment where the teams know they are in a real football match, so hopefully we can do that.”
U21 HARRY GARDINER
“I haven’t seen Harry Gardiner since he scored that brace, but he hasn’t been up training with us. He is a part of that development program that the club is trying to push hard, and hopefully there is some young talent coming through. We know there are the likes of Rigg, who played against Stoke under 21s and did very well, but you have to be careful when it comes to throwing young players in the team. So, we will stick with the group we have got. It’s a difficult time at the moment because we are playing the same players, who are becoming vulnerable to muscle injury, muscle fatigue, stresses and strains on their bodies. So, we are trying to get that balance right of keeping the ones we’ve got fit, and being able to put out a team without dipping too far down the age groups.”
PUSHING TOO HARD
“I think you have to break our injuries down one by one, because we have to look at whether or not we are pushing players too hard. Are the players breaking down through muscle injuries or game injuries? We are trying to get the balance, they are playing at a level they haven’t played at for four years, and this is way different than League One. Some of our players have played in 30 plus games consecutively, so it becomes really difficult. Did Ross Stewart play every game in League One, I think he might have and since I’ve been here he has picked up two injuries. One in the warm up against Middlesbrough, where he tore his thigh muscle, and then at Fulham he damaged his Achilles tendon. They were both injuries that didn’t take place in training. Maybe their bodies are realising that the extra intensity that is required in this league is really difficult. I don’t want to give too much away, but there was an incident in training today, where an important player for us came off with a muscle injury.”
FRUSTRATING
“It’s frustrating because we want to try and be competitive as the season comes to an end. But, if you can put back to back wins together your right in the mix and it’s not as if we have to make up a dozen points, it’s very unlikely that anyone will do that unless they win six games on the bounce. That’s really hard to do in this league. Whilst we have to believe if we do win a few back to back games it can happen, one time when I was at Blackburn we fell away, but we won the last four games. Sometimes teams have nothing to play for at the end, sometimes the anxiety of getting out the bottom three or getting into the play offs, creates an issue in their team and you can find ways to win games. We have to keep going and keep doing what we believe in, and we will see where the season takes us. The frustration is the availability of the team to do that, and yet there are enough young players in the background who believe they should be playing anyway. Their opportunity is probably coming, so we will keep at it and keep going.”
TEAMS THAT WANT TO PLAY
“It gives you an opportunity to play your own game really, and yet these teams are good footballing sides. I’ve studied Norwich, they build up slowly and put their players into attacking positions and ask questions of your defence, whether you're playing deep or tight with them. If you go deep, there is generally a runner going into the space you leave. So, they are good teams and you have to find a way that’s all. But, they are all in possession football teams, so if you have the ball you should be able to find spaces and give them problems. Some teams in this league are very out of possession teams, who just stop the opposition and work off the back of that, and find ways to score goals on the transition. If we play well against these teams, and find ways to score goals the game should be open. They should be good games of football and hopefully we can come out on top in these games.”
LIMITED OPTIONS UP TOP
“Ever since I’ve come into this club, we have been short up top. We played with Ellis Simms for a while, but he went back to Everton. We then brought young Gelhardt in to play alongside Ross Stewart, and play off his touches and physicality. Cardiff City was the last time we didn’t score a goal, so we’ve scored a lot of goals. Sometimes the balance of how many men you have to play in front of the ball and attack, potentially doesn’t keep you as solid and defensively sound as you want to be. Genuinely we haven’t got the balance too bad this season, but last weekend we got the balance wrong and got punished.”
