Boothroyd Preparing His Players For Their Hardest Match Yet
Last updated : 18 November 2010 By Covsupport News Service/RD
Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd is in upbeat mood as he prepares his players for the home game against Burnley on Saturday.
Coventry City have gone three games without a win and have slipped from fourth place in the table to 11th and Boothroyd is determined to stop the rot and to get his side back into winning ways.
He is under no illusions as to how hard the task is and knows Burnley will not be an easy team to beat, even tough they have not yet won a single away game this season, but they haven't lost many either.
Burnely have the unenviable record of being the only team in the Championship not to have won an away game this season, but they have lost just one and drawn six games on their travels.
Boothroyd said to the CT: "Stats like that are always awful to hear and I think every game is different and it will be very tough and we have to concentrate on ourselves. I think they are a good team who have come down from the Premier League so they will obviously be one of the favourites to go back up.
"They have got some very strong Championship players and a nice balance about them. They are physically strong and imposing but they also have a bit of guile and can score goals, and it will be a very, very difficult game, our hardest yet."
Boothroyd doesn't think it is a case of Burnley manager Brian Laws setting up his team to defend when away from home as they often score away from home, but they nearly always concede as well.
Boothroyd observed. "I wouldn't say it is a freak. They have been open games because they drew 2-2 at Norwich and 3-3 at Sheffield United so they are going to score goals, but it also suggests they are going to concede."
"So it all makes for quite an open game and depending on who's organised and who's the best on the day will probably decide who gets the result. But we know what we want to do and that is get back to winning ways."
Boothroyd has admitted that his team must get back to winning ways and said, "It is important to bring an end to the run."
"There are reasons for every single defeat but they are not extreme, they are internal ones that we can sort out and rectify, and put things into place that ensure that one or two things that have happened in the last two or three games don't happen again.
"Out of those three games there were some real positives and I thought the performance in the first hour at Palace is as well as we have played, but if you don't take your chances you get punished, sometimes by the opposition and sometimes by the officials, but on this occasion we have got to take it on the chin and get on with it. It is as simple as that."
Coventry City have problems in front of goal even though goals have been coming from all parts of the field and from a variety of players.
Some of Coventry strikers have been injured and have missed game, others are not quite match fit while others have been experiencing problems finding the net, but Boothroyd is confident this will come to an end sooner if not later.
He claimed "When you create chances and don't score you are disappointed but pleased because you know over a period of time that if you keep creating and we are creating a lot of chances, then you are going to score goals
"I've always found a certain formula for how you work with a squad over the season and you don't move too far away from that. The fundamentals never change and the important thing is persistence. We've got to keep calm and carry on doing what we have been doing."
Switching his focus from his own strikers to the threat the Burnely strikers will pose for his defence, Boothroyd commented on the players he has had experience of when he manged promotion winning Watford.
"I bought Clarke Carlisle from Leeds and I took Chris Eagles on loan from Manchester United so I know those two very well."
Chris Iwelumo, who has scored nine goals so far this season did get Boothroyd's attention and he said, "He is a good player at this level. He burst onto the scene at Colchester and did really well and got his move to Wolves where he and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake were a good partnership so he has got to be watched because he has got a lot of strengths and we have to make sure we sort him out."
