Coventry City manager Tony Mowbray feels that his side need to adapt their style during matches, especially if they are losing or are holding on to a 1-0 lead.
“It’s difficult for the players,” Mowbray said to the Coventry Telegraph's Andy Turner, “because we’ve spent six months preaching to them week-in week-out about a style of play that has brought us a relative degree of success, but when you’re chasing a game you have to be able to adapt.
“I’m not saying lump it into the middle and hope for the best – I’d never say that – but there are times when you have to be slightly more direct, especially against a team like Burton who are so well drilled and always have eight or nine men behind the ball.
“Above all you’ve got to utilise the players you’ve got on the field at the time. When it was 1-0 against Burton we had a target man, Marcus Tudgay, who is very good at using his body and with somebody like him you can take those eight or nine defenders out of the equation with one pass to your centre-forward in the final third rather than trying to play your way through the lines, move it from side to side and get runners in. Your No.10 and your high midfield players can get around him and the game doesn’t get too stretched.
“It’s not a crime to hit a long ball in to a centre-forward yet for their second goal we were going backwards and backwards, we put our goalie under pressure and ultimately the ball ended up in the net again.
“That’s my one frustration with the group, that we don’t change when we’re protecting a lead or chasing the game – but you can stand on the sidelines and shout yourself hoarse yet they still do what’s been indoctrinated into them about keeping the ball.”
More on this - http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/tony-mowbray-tells-coventry-city-10752457