Mowbray: We Cannot Keep Flogging Armstrong

Last updated : 07 April 2016 By CNS Staff

Coventry City manager Tony Mowbray has said that he cannot keep flogging Adam Armstrong to play every game.

Mowbray told the Coventry Telegraph's Andy Turner: “I had a chat with Arma this week about how he’s feeling because I am conscious of the amount of football he’s played, not just here but with England as well with two 90-minute games and a 25 minute run. That’s 40-odd games in total and it’s a tough, mental drain on him.

“You could see that when he went on at Gillingham – it wasn’t the Armstrong of the first three or four months of the season who was running through the middle like a whippet to score goals.

“We can’t keep flogging him – he could do with sitting on the bench for a few games, going on for the last 30 minutes to see if he can find that spark.

“When he came off the bench at Chesterfield he was on fire. So rather than the mundane nature of another 90 minutes, sometimes it might be an idea to leave him on the bench.

“We’ll see how the next few games go but he always wants to play and when you’ve got somebody with that ability to score a goal out of nothing you’re always tempted to start him.

“So I’ve taken a little bit of intensity out of his training and I am not going to drive him with a big whip. I just want him to get through it, enjoy his day off and then ease him into the weekend.

“Bottom line for the boy, he wants to score another goal because it’s a bit of a mark for him to reach 20. And yet I don’t want to keep driving and driving him and see him pull a hamstring and miss the end of the season. So it’s a balance, but he’s quite positive at the moment.”

More on this - http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/coventry-city-boss-tony-mowbray-11152903