Liam Manning looks for his Oxford United side to bounce straight back from an opening day defeat at Cambridge and make progress when they travel to Bristol City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening.
“We dissected Saturday but the players knew straight away hat they weren’t anywhere near the level we need to be at, you could tell that in the changing room immediately” he reflected in iFollow. “We now have to make sure that it was a one-off.
“The big thing is to work out why it happened and then to look for progress tomorrow night. We want a response from some of the guys who played but also have a balance and provide an opportunity for some that didn’t. Ultimately I want them to give me a headache in terms of team selection.
“The culture we want is that whether you are in the team or not, everyone wants the team to succeed, to perform and to win. We know with the additional minutes this season and the addition of multiball this season that it could work out at the equivalent of eight extra games if you average out the minutes added on. That becomes a sixty game season and we are going to need people, depth and we are going to need the changes in-game as well. We will need everyone.
“But the good thing is we get a chance quite quickly to get back out there and play how we know we can. Bristol have made progress and I usually enjoy watching them. The intensity and some of their attacking play is real quality. It’s a good game and one I am really looking forward to. The players are ready for it and now it’s a case of making sure they grab the opportunity they get.”
See the full interview, plus the thoughts of Jordan Thorniley, all in iFollow.