Plymouth Argyle Daily News - Saturday 21 September

“We speak to the players every day, we’re all for the boys. A lot of coaches and managers are not, they’re all for themselves.
“We can make sure that the lads are right but in terms of niggles, they can come and tell us and we sort the issue out. I was never one to miss training and a lot of our lads don’t, but I have to make that call whether they train or not.

“We have to see if there’s any sort of fatigue creeping in and it’s funny, because you can see which lads have had a good sleep or not from how they look when they come in.
“I feel as though I’m a good observer of players and feel that there’s loads to notice.”

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“Look at TAA and Robertson, they have a bit of a competition with each other. Fadz and Joe Edwards will do that, they’re getting goals but I want assists more from them. In terms of the overall package, if you can contribute with goals and assists, then I’ll be very happy.

“They probably have to be taught the role, Joe Riley played it for Mickey Mellon a few years ago at Shrewsbury, and contributed a lot of assists, Joe Edwards played there for Walsall last season, Fadz played there for myself last season at Bury, George Cooper can be there or Byron Moore can play there.
“The problem is that going forwards is great but defending and going the other way is the hard part. If you’ve got willing people who are happy to do that, you’ve seen Fadz, the energy levels, the two of them the other night were terrific.”

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“We’ve lost to a decent enough team in Cheltenham but I felt we were better in all departments.

“But they were better at finding that yard in the six-yard box for the first goal and finding that yard in our 18-yard box for the second goal.
“The mentality of the lads, and the desire and the work-rate and everything they give us has been different class, but there is that final little bit of ruthless edge that I need to get out of them.

“As a former striker, I’m working that keeper; I’m making sure he’s picking that ball up out of the net. At this moment in time, I feel that there’s a few of our lads who haven’t got that desire and that ruthless edge.
“I’m not saying we won’t have it; we certainly will. I’ll make sure we get it.”

“It’s our problem; we’ll deal with it; we’ll make sure we put it right – we’ve got to score goals and we’ve got to keep the ball out of the back of the net.
“Everything else around it – the build-up play, the football – is fantastic, but I don’t want to become a possession-based team that looks nice and looks the part every week but just can’t put the ball in the net and can’t keep the ball out of the back of our net.

“We feel we’re creating chances but we say ‘if you can’t score, keep the back door shut’ and we’re not doing either at the moment.
“Once it clicks, we will start scoring goals, but that needs to be now.”

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