Regis Le Bris made a joke in his press conference about having too many strikers at his disposal, with Aaron Connolly looking sharp and mentally in a good place to provide competition for Wilson Isidor and Eliezer Mayenda.
AARON CONNOLLY
“We knew before that we needed at least three or four weeks to assess his physical level. He was really fit at the beginning so that was good news for us, and then he needed to have practise with his teammates and he had two opportunities to play with the under-21s where he did very well. 45 minutes in the first game and 75 or more in the second one. He scored and that is good for a striker. He needed time to connect with the structure of the team, his new teammates and so on, and now he is ready.”
MENTAL STATE
“Obviously the final test is always the game. The competitive game. But we can see every day his mentality on the training pitch is very good. He is in a good place, yeah.”
MAYENDA
“He should be ready for next week. Maybe, I am not sure for Luton but for Oxford he should be ready.”
THREE STRIKERS...
“We have too many strikers. That is a new problem for us!”
GOALSCORING OPTIONS
“As I have explained before, it is not only the responsibility of the number nine. The number nine can score and it is very nice when that happens, but it is the responsibility of the whole team. Riggy has scored, Jobe has scored, Browney has scored, Eliezer has scored, Wilson has scored, Romaine as well. So, if we have many options for the opponent it is so difficult to manage. We can score from the left side, the right side or with the striker or with the midfielders. So the responsibility is at that level, and then I think we have many talented strikers."
CONFIDENT THE GOALS WILL FLOW
"I am sure, 100% confident, about those options. With time they will improve and they will be more linked with the team. At this moment if you look at the pass maps, the striker is alone. We play very well on the sides and sometimes the triangles are good as well, but our striker is alone."
INVOLVE THE STRIKER WITH PLAY
"We need to create the relationship with him. It is the last layer of building the game. We start with the goalkeeper and then we progress, we can play very well on the sides so now if we can create that link we will have another option. It is a question of time, confidence, practising and experience.”
Comments