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Michael Appleton: “He’s much better on the pitch for us.”

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Image for Michael Appleton: “He’s much better on the pitch for us.”

Michael Appleton took stock of a few areas both collectively and in relation to some individual players ahead of the latest encounter with Accrington Stanley.

You can discuss what Michael Appleton said earlier today HERE, as well as many other topics on our 100% Imps forum! We have also published a Lincoln City v Accrington Stanley Quiz, which can be found just below the summary. Every page view helps raise money for Lincoln City Football Club!

Accrington Stanley: MA on John Coleman declaring he is coming to Lincoln looking for all three points, “I’m glad that’s his attitude and thoughts going into the game because that would suit us”.

MA went onto say there had been in a difficulty in some home games this season whereby the opposition had scored the first goal and defended in blocks for 60 minutes or so; Doncaster being a good example of that.

Accrington have lots of quality in forward areas and having watched their game versus Plymouth in midweek it’s a game they should have won. Accrington now have the option to play a 4 or 3 (at the back) so MA will wait and see how they set up.

MA on Accrington’s recruitment and ethos, “They do quite well, certainly picking up players from lower divisions or Conference and integrate them into their group. Because they’ve got a tight-knit group you can tell there’s a real togetherness, a team spirit. Almost an us against the world attitude which makes them quite dangerous”.

Squad Rotation Ahead: MA emphatically declared that going forwards full use of the squad is inevitable. Rapidly changing pitch conditions (hard frozen to soft wet) are a factor now. There are also a number of players that deserve to get game time which has to be factored in with workload remaining a defining consideration.

“There’ll be lots of rotation and it won’t be one to be clever and trying to outsmart people….The reality is if we don’t do it we’ll pick up a lot of injuries and that is the bottom line”.

Tayo Edun: Although Tayo has played a lot as a midfielder MA identified a lot of attributes in his game which would allow him to kick on as a fullback. Naturally, there were aspects of his game that he needed to learn in that position but over the last month, his performances have stood the test of time.

Tayo has been really good, consistent and looks like he has enjoyed his football. He is finding quality in the final third and goes on some marauding runs.

A good example of his progress came in the recent Gillingham match whereby he probably restricted about 80% of crosses from Jordan Graham, their most dangerous player.

Now Cohen Bramhall has signed he can share the load with Tayo. There will be times when Tayo is pulled out from playing and he will want to play but it simply won’t be physically possible for him. When Tayo does play he just has to remember the concentration levels he has displayed for the last month.

Liam Bridcutt: He will be going for a scan this morning now that the calf swelling has subsided. Liam is more susceptible to injury due to his age but he doesn’t seem unduly concerned about this injury and as an experienced player he can possibly read it quite well. Getting him off the pitch quickly (Hull game) has probably helped mitigate the damage. Whilst he will be out for an unspecified period, the timescale cannot be speculated on.

MA reflected that Liam continues to have a significant positive off-field influence but rued, “He’s much better on the pitch for us”.

Promotion Target?: MA laughed and stated he naturally wouldn’t be disclosing anything publicly. The little targets that keep getting set are being hit and it is a case of so far so good.

Keeping the targets to small clusters is no doubt helped in preventing anyone from thinking too far ahead.

MA did intriguingly say any team can lose five games but didn’t clarify the context of that statement before going on to finish, “We want to make sure if we have a poor result we bounce back quickly like in the past”.

Have a go at our Lincoln City v Accrington Stanley Quiz below:

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Who scored his first goal for Lincoln in the 4-0 win over Accrington in the Papa John's Trophy last month?

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