Below are selected highlights from Wednesday afternoon’s press conference ahead of Town facing Wycombe on Saturday afternoon. You can find the full audio above or in our podcast feed - search for We Are Terriers wherever you get your podcasts.
Lee Grant
How have you looked to use this time between games after Thursday?
Firstly, it’s important that we rid ourselves of the anger and the frustration and the disappointment that we carried post-game because that was there’s no denying it, Friday morning was tough for everybody at the training ground.
It’s important that we acknowledge it, important that we don’t shy away from it, because despite the fact that we can see two really poor goals and the timing is as horrible as you can get, as tough to take as you can get, for all of us…I think it’s important for us to acknowledge the level of performance in the second half [was poor], and that we strayed away from things.
That’s firstly, the things we talked about, and secondly, from the things that we know give us success and have given us success in the first half of that game and at various other points across the season.
So it’s a tough lesson for all of us, but definitely important that we use that exercise and that time that we’ve had to make sure that we are clear about those things.
For you, is it a case of maintaining for a longer period of time the core principles of what you are as a team, as opposed to trying a completely different way and going into a different shape, system, tactical setup?
Yeah, absolutely. So they’re different things, by the way — so shape, systems, organisation, this player playing higher, lower, or more left or more right or more central…that’s different to mentality, attitude and principles.
Principles, mentality, attitude — in line with what the group believe in, what they want to be and who they are and what they’ve done best this year — that is what will give them more success more often, and help them to be more consistent.
We have to demand that from each other. We have to demand a more well-rounded, a more consistent level of attitude and performance, because they’ve shown it, because they’re good enough.
If they weren’t good enough, if we were sat here thinking ‘this group is short on lots of things, so we have to be thankful that we get this at some stages and not at others’…we’re not at that point. We’re at a point where we’re going, ‘we’ve got a group that we love and we like, and they’ve shown us loads of good stuff. So come on then, we expect a lot of you’.
And by the way, they there’s nobody externally that expects more of this group than than they expect of themselves. So the demand now is to show that consistently.
Can you elaborate on why you feel at this time that is the way that you want to go with Alfie’s position?
I think if you’ve watched all of our games this year, you’ll have seen Alfie play up front for the majority, and you’ll have seen him play slightly deeper for some.
We have to, and will continue to, in relation to opposition and in relation to where we are at and what we have available…what we think will be more beneficial for us in this particular game, with this particular dynamic and context and opposition…we will always adjust and tweak people’s positions accordingly.
So, can Joe and Alfie play together? Absolutely. Can Joe lead the line? Absolutely. Can Alfie lead the line, and can he be a nine for us? Absolutely.
We’ve signed Alfie to be a goalscorer, we’ve signed Alfie to be a striker, and whether Alfie plays slightly deeper or slightly higher, Alfie’s responsibilities are to be in and around the goal, be a threat to the goal, and score goals. That will always be high on his job spec, no matter where he is.
So one of the things that Alfie does so well is he has such good energy and dynamism, and he wants to help the team so much so that his his attributes really do lend himself to, at times, being a connector for us.
I still think he’s hit one of our best passes this season [against Peterborough, to set up Taylor’s goal], and we know Alfie has that quality, and he knows it. And if you talk to Alfie, he absolutely loves that. He loves that.
But my conversations with Alfie this week are: ‘I also love you being close to the goal and doing Alfie May things’.
So as I say, we think long and hard about that each and every week.
