Below are selected highlights from Thursday morning’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed, including Bali Mumba’s thoughts.
Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): I’ll start with team news first of all, please, and in particular, Ryan Hardie. How’s he doing after his knock the other night?
Yeah, he’s still a bit sore, feeling it, so we need to have a look this morning and assess how he is before making a decision.
SC: It would be a shame if he missed out, wouldn’t it?
Yeah, of course. I think you look at the impact he’s had in recent weeks, since he came on in the Barnsley game, and since then, he’s obviously been building up his minutes and his match sharpness, and you see his goal the other night, we’ve seen him do that many times at this level.
He gives us a real threat. I think there’s a few other moments where actually he got him down the side quite well, like the cross early on that he flashed across the box. He’s so intelligent with his movement and he’s done really well, and he’s someone that hopefully we can keep available.
SC: Are there any other injuries to be aware of, or any players you might be able to welcome back?
Nothing in terms of when you look at new injuries or anything, I think it’s probably more just seeing how people are in terms of physically going Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday in what’s been quite demanding games.
So we have to assess, see where the lads are at, and then obviously make a decision on that balance of keeping bits of continuity, but also freshness as well, which is hugely important. So it’ll be a good opportunity to see the lads today.
SC: When we spoke the other night, reflecting on the Lincoln game, you obviously had mixed emotions because a lot of the performance you liked, but obviously there’s the disappointment at that late equaliser. Now you’ve had a chance to reflect on it, ow do you see that one?
Yeah, I think, especially in the first half, there were some good moments. In terms of how we defended, I thought out of possession—defending the box, defending crosses, dealing with that side of it — we did well.
I think we caught them a little off guard, actually, when you look at how they’ve had a lot of success, it’s teams getting after them, opening up spaces for second balls and exposing people to direct play. Whereas, because we had a lot of bodies in the middle of the pitch, I thought we dealt with it quite well.
The first half we showed some good moments attacking-wise. We’ll always want more control, and again, I thought we had a couple of phases, especially in the first half, where we sustained it in their half, got into good areas, and found that right blend and balance of attacking quickly and playing territory, but also keeping the ball in the right area of the pitch, which is in and around their box.
Then, second half, naturally, you come out and it felt like we got pinned back in. They were chasing a goal, so they commit bodies further forward and become even more direct. We probably didn’t look after the ball as well as we’d like, or progress it up the pitch as well as we’d like. But to get so close is obviously why you get the other emotion on it as well.
SC: I don’t want to make it sound like there hasn’t been a whole load of hard work over weeks and months that’s been put into it, but it did feel like, in the first half, things just seemed to click after a few games where you’ve been disappointed with some of the work on the ball…it just felt like it came together on Tuesday. Particularly against the league leaders, that must have been a relief, and encouraging for the rest of the campaign as well.
Yeah, I’ve spoken about it a few times. We want a team that’s adaptable, that has variety, that’s unpredictable in how we play that. I genuinely believe it’s one of the hardest ways to coach teams, because you’re empowering the lads to make decisions and feel it in-game.
We don’t want to just be a team that goes long, and we don’t want to be a team that just plays short. You want to make the right decision at the right time, which, when players have the licence to do that, naturally they’ll get it wrong sometimes. It’s our job then to coach them so they make the right decision more often than not, and to keep pushing them to do that.
I think that’s what then becomes hard to play against. If you’re just direct, or you just play short, eventually teams will find you out and find a way of stopping you. For me, it’s that variety that I enjoy watching, that I think people enjoy watching, and that’s what we saw in the first half the other night—a real variety in what we did.
SC: And as you sort of touched on, is it just a matter of having that little bit more composure on the ball if you’re under the cosh, if you’re ahead in the second half against a good team—and you’ll be playing plenty of good teams over the next few weeks — is it just a matter of keeping that composure and having the confidence to try and relieve the pressure when you get the ball?
Yeah, definitely — and that is easier said than done sometimes, especially because they commit so many bodies forward to press, leaving spaces in behind them, so we end up countering quite quickly. Then, rather than maybe coming out, allowing people to join the attack and slowing it down a bit, because you’ve got lots of space and opportunities to go to goal, we go early.
There were a couple of instances — Kas, Marcus, Alfie— where there were counter-attacking moments and, because they’re such a hard-working team in terms of getting back behind the ball, we’ve then lost it and ended up defending the counter-attack.
So I think it’s one of those: the lads put in the right shift the other night, and it’s about how you manage those moments when you’re ahead a little bit, or when the opposition change what they do, how do you adapt what you do to keep controlling the game in the way you want, which for us is primarily with the ball?
