Coventry City manager Tony Mowbray has told the Coventry Telegraph's Andy Turner that he is looking for the right balance for his team to win away matches on a regular basis.
City are unbeaten at home but they have not been having the same success on their travels and Mowbray said: “I’m still searching for the right balance to win games away from home. And that might be, moving forward, more experience in the forward areas.
It might be that somewhere down the line some of these young players have to sit on the bench and wait for the game to unfold in front of us,” said the manager, who will check on the fitness of centre-forward Fortune today after he missed Tuesday’s JPT clash at Yeovil with a foot injury.
“For instance, if we can get in front and teams have to gamble a bit more, to bring Murphy, Kent or Armstrong off the bench as they are pushing on might be pretty worrying for opposition teams with us on the counter attack.
“It’s a process you have to go through to find the formula to win both home and away. And we’re still working our way through that. But I’m sure we’ll find it and get there.
“What happens is someone gets injured or suspended or goes on international duty and you’re always waiting to get that perfect 11 on the pitch.
“It very rarely happens but all I try to do when I go to clubs is give them an identity really. So people recognise a team and the way we play.
“So many clubs haven’t got an identity; they just go and get stuck in and fight every week and you’re not sure what you’re going to get week in and week out.
“Some weeks you win because your big centre-half scores a header and everyone cheers and it’s great, and other weeks their centre-half scores or someone slips or the ref gives a dodgy penalty. You want to get past that if you can, and that’s what I’m trying to do.
“But it’s a process which you have to go through and you have to work every day on the training ground at the same stuff, the same voice with the same messages - ‘Stop, why are you doing that?’ - telling them where they need to be and putting them in the right positions, and in the end they do it.
“So in a year from now I won’t have to get off the bench and shout because they’ll know what to do, when to play, when to sit deep and counter attack. They know when we have total domination of the game just keep the ball, move it around and wait for the chances. And you get there in the end.
“I have done it in the past. We have to build from a solid base and that’s why we’ve built the team with a bit of experience at the back but then have the legs and athleticism and speed to break away and hurt teams. Sometimes it’s counter attack and sometimes it’s possession based.
“I think we are just building the DNA of our team. You can’t do it in a month or two, you have to do it every day on the training pitch, day after day after day where they keep believing and people look forward to every game because they know how we’ll play and they’ll know what to expect, home and away.
“We might not win every game but people will know that we’re going to have chances and threats, and if the opposition are too open Kent is going to run through them or Murphy is going to go past them or Armstrong take one of his chances.”