With Rovers heading into back-to-back home games, with the first being tonight against Reading, Tony Mowbray detailed his thoughts to the club’s media team, regarding the health and depth of his squad, his reaction to Saturday’s victory away at Hull City and what he expected from his side against Reading.
“In terms of the injuries, we just have to wait and see. Bradley (Dack) didn’t train today (Monday), as he was getting treatment, but we’re still hopeful that he can get his boots on for Tuesday and participate in the game preparation, but we’ll have to wait and see. He suffered a kick, which has caused a bit of swelling, meaning that the treatment he’s received, will see us reassess on Tuesday morning, whether he’s able to make it for Wednesday. Derrick (Williams) isn’t quite ready to come back from his foot injury yet, meaning Amari’i (Bell), who I thought was really good at the weekend against Hull, will continue in at left-back, but generally, apart from Bradley, Derrick, Jacob (Davenport) and Ben (Gladwin), we’re looking okay on the injury-front.
“We’ve got a big couple of weeks coming up with a lot of games in a short space of time. We go from Saturday, to Wednesday, to Saturday, to Tuesday, which is what you get when participating in both the league and the cup. All the games are tough, meaning we’re going to have to utilise the whole squad in order to try and get victories in every game. I said at the start of the season, that the left-back spot in our team is going to see a lot of competition, because we have 2 fantastic full-backs in Derrick and Amari’i. Coming in, in January, was hard for Amari’i because we were already functioning well, and Derrick had nailed the spot down for himself. The new season brings a fresh start for everybody, meaning everyone has to do their best in order to re-earn their place in the side and Amari’i, at the moment, has his opportunity, due to Derrick’s injury, to show me what he has to offer. I don’t sit here pre-meditating the team, as if the team keeps winning whilst Amari’i keeps performing, then he’ll remain in the side, by virtue of earning his place.
“Another factor that determines who’s in the team, is the opposition we’re up against. Derrick is probably the bigger human being, meaning that, if we were playing against a direct side, who played a lot of long-balls and utilised set-pieces, Derrick may get a recall on that basis, but otherwise, footballers understand that they have to grab their opportunity when it falls to them. There’s a similar debate with our forward line, as if we need a platform to bounce balls off, Danny (Graham) will come in, whereas, if we need to work the channels and get beyond a big, slow, central defender, Adam (Armstrong), will more than likely get the shirt.
“I think Saturday’s victory saw a whole host of good performances from the lads, and it would be unfair to single out certain individuals for praise. I think the team functioned well, despite not winning by as many as we probably should have or would have liked. We could have made the last 20 minutes a little less stressful by making sure our concentration was high, but overall, I thought it was good away team performance, as the honesty, hard-work and intensity was there for everyone to see. The team have talked about staying mentally strong, even when they’re not being selected, but now, we’re all pitching together to try and continue our decent start to the season, in order to build some momentum.
“Coming up, I see 2 tough home games. We have to be very guarded against Reading, because they’re going to be like a wounded animal, who will be desperate to get the 3 points. As we’re at home, we have to try and force the game onto them, by trying to be positive, saying that, we also have to be aware of their threat and prepare well in order to try and deny them any points. I’m in no doubt that Paul Clement, who has a great CV and a lot of experience, will be aware of the fact that he’ll need a performance and a result.
“We always intend to start brightly, but sometimes the opposition don’t allow you to get a foothold on the game, which is something Millwall did in our last home game. In an ideal world, we start Wednesday’s game in the same manner that we started the second-half against Milllwall, by replicating the tempo and the interplay we showed. Despite that, however, we’ll do our best, regardless of what Reading have planned, in order to do as well as possible.”
