Prior to Saturday’s home game against Bristol Rovers, Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray spoke with BBC Radio Lancashire about his thoughts for the upcoming game as well as reflecting on a week of football that saw the Blues score 7 goals in 2 games.
“The key for this weekend is to assess who we feel can play three games a week and where we need some fresh legs, knowing that there’s another game on Tuesday. We’re going to do our best not to wear the team out with the three games every week, in order to be consistent throughout; not to play well on Saturday then be timid come Tuesday night. We get the player’s physical data everyday of what they do in training and how much they cover in a specific amount of time. Each player’s different; some can run all day and not get fatigued whilst others need a rest after one or two runs, so it’s about getting the balance right.
“The Sports Scientists are respectful enough to understand that as the manager of the football club, I make the final decisions. However they’re here to support, help and show me the numbers, but I would expect them to flag an issue if they had real urgency against a decision I was making, such as an injury or a low energy performance from an individual. I would look at it, listen to their logic and assess their decision.
“We’ve been clinical, despite not being dominant in possession of the ball, the team’s developing and growing; however it’s not a side that prioritises ball retention. Saying that, I do see a team that can turn the ball over, that can be a threat on the break and can quickly get the ball up to the strikers. You can find the identity of a team as they evolve together and with this group of players, I don’t really see us dominating the ball and retaining possession. We threaten mostly during the transition of play, and we play well without the ball, whilst being able to ask questions of the opposition, which is a contrast to the identity that I’m more familiar with. An example I generally use is West Bromwich Albion, where we won the Championship playing a predominantly possession based style of play.”
Mowbray was asked in regards to Saturday’s opponents, Bristol Rovers and whether he believed they would be as easily conquerable as Bury and Oxford United were.
“I think all the teams are dangerous in this league, off the back of two good away performances earlier on in the week against Scunthorpe and Rochdale, we lost to Wimbledon at home, which shows that playing three games in a week is very demanding on the players which can lead to complacency, which we need to guard against. We’re expecting an organised team, a strong physical team and a team who we can’t take lightly. We need to make sure we transmit our away form into the home games, which could prove to be difficult due to the nature of the way teams’ line-up against us. We just need to go out there and ask some questions of Bristol Rovers on Saturday.
“It can be argued that we need to approach our home games in the same manner we approach the away games due to the way the opposition tend to shape up against us, however saying that, it would be nice to cap off the week by scoring four goals at home, which would help boost the confidence around the ground and the club, to show that we aren’t scared of playing at home.”
