Ahead of the Sheffield Wednesday fixture, Michael Appleton explained that focussing on individual matches rather than generalised targets is more relevant at this stage of the season.
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Sheffield Wednesday: There will be a full house, a raucous atmosphere and that could actually help the younger players,
“I expect all the players to be highly motivated for this one”.
MA will naturally be looking for a reaction following the Gillingham defeat. Prior to that game, the Imps had consistently been getting ‘out of the blocks’ starting games strongly. That didn’t happen against the Gills.
“Against a side that are flying high – they’ve won eight out of ten recently, we’re going to have to start quickly because we don’t want to give them an opportunity to get the first goal”.
Darren (Moore) has got Wednesday in a really strong place, being difficult to play against also hard to beat. MA has been impressed not only by the way the Owls are playing but they are also capable of digging in for results.
Player Matters: Adam Jackson has been training and is expected to be in the squad. The only recent change to the injury situation is that Jamie Robson will be out for several weeks with a shoulder injury. It’s a real shame for Jamie as he has been performing strongly in training and was pushing Cohen (Bramall) for his place.
MA doesn’t see any reason why Tom Hopper and John Marquis cannot forge a good partnership if he decides to play with two strikers. Both players are highly experienced and more than capable of knowing when to remain high or drop a bit deeper if the opposition deploy a deep-lying midfielder, in order to counter that.
It is important for the Imps to be able to call upon different options and types of set up against assorted opponents.
Managing Targets: “Without sounding like a boring old fart, I think we’ve got to be careful thinking too far ahead. I think we know what we need to do in the medium term between now and the end of the season. I think it would be really silly for me to start thinking beyond tomorrow’s game and the players too”.
MA is not therefore focussed on setting targets over a period of time at this stage of the season.
Writer: hulloutpost
Have a go at our Lincoln City v Sheffield Wednesday Quiz:
Michael Appleton: "Without sounding like a boring old fart, I think we've got to be careful thinking too far ahead."https://t.co/roGscv3jmc#ImpsAsOne #SWFC
— Vital Lincoln City (@VitalLincoln) March 4, 2022
