PL2 preview: Keeping cohesion and adding clean sheets

Our Under-21s have been in good form since returning from the Academy’s Christmas break and recorded back-to-back victories going into this match, coming out on top in a five-goal thriller with Manchester United in the Premier League 2 before a dominant 4-1 win over Colchester United in the Premier League Cup.

Mark Robinson admits there are likely to be a number of changes to his team again when we return to PL2 action against Reading tomorrow, having fielded and especially young side against Colchester on Monday.

However, he hopes the Blues can continue our momentum uninterrupted through those changes, despite players moving between squads often to aid their development.

‘It's always a balance as you want to have that cohesion because it gives the boys a platform to perform,’ said Robinson. ‘It’s great that everyone’s starting to win games through the age groups, but you also don’t want to forget about the individual development.

‘The environment feels great when everyone’s winning games but at the same time you’ve still got to remember we’re all here to develop the individual, and that’s not only the ones who are playing but also the ones who maybe need some more game time.

‘So it’s a constant balance and wanting to keep that momentum obviously. Although the styles may vary slightly between age groups, we’ve all got the same values and we all want to play a possession-based game, so the players fit in quite seamlessly.

‘When we have the players step up we keep the messages very short and concise for them so they’re not overloaded. It’s a good thing, you want players to have opportunities to step up and rotate and experience Under-21s football. So far that’s gone really well this season.’

Robinson is also pleased with the way his team is developing as a unit, especially going forward, having scored seven goals across the two wins in our last two matches. Having ruthlessly pressed home our advantage in the 4-1 victory over Colchester, the Under-21s head coach has identified the defensive side of our game as the next area for improvement.

‘We’ve started most of our games really well but we put the chances away on Monday. What was also pleasing was we didn’t have the lull at the start of the second half where we ended up on the back foot. We continued to stay on the front foot and we only got one more goal in the second half but could have got more, so that was pleasing.

‘As coaches we thought about how we reframed the half-time team-talks, so psychologically we put them in a place to stay on the front foot. The boys responded to that well and it was nice to see us go out in the second half and keep the control that we had.

‘It was pleasing to see us scoring goals, but the goal we conceded against Colchester was disappointing. Clean sheets are a great habit to have. There aren’t many guarantees in football, but one thing you can guarantee is that if you don’t concede you don’t lose.

‘So that’s one thing we would definitely like to add. We want to be free flowing, we want the lads to express themselves, but at the same time we don’t want that to be a reason we aren’t able to keep clean sheets. That’s something we would like to add and nearly did on Monday, so hopefully we do that soon.’