“There is no short-term fix here trust me, there just is not” was Darrell Clarke’s harsh assessment of the long road the Cheltenham Town players face.
As the Robins are preparing to entertain Cambridge United on Saturday at Whaddon Road the Cheltenham Town manager met with the press. He explained what he expects from the upcoming game against the U’s.
“I went to the Burton game; they have an incredibly talented manager, but they are just in a bit of a dip in form right now. That can happen in League 1 it is a tough league teams go on good runs. It is about how we perform and build on that point we got off derby”.
The new manager went on to explain “what we have to do is give the players that are in the building the work to enable them to work the way I want them to work” Clarke is hoping the players will up their game over the next few games.
“Players need to step up to the plate in the second quarter of the season as they did not do that in the first quarter, we are hoping for a lot more positive performances and positive results”. The 45-year-old is confident he can turn the season around, but it is only hard work that will get it done.
Clarke believes it is “about chipping away, getting my ideas across and showing how I want the players to move during training. Assessing the players, the group. Because there is nothing better than having a feel for your group in matches and being able to assess what is going on as games play out”
When starting the job Clarke highlighted a lack of fitness amongst the squad “Your most valuable time at the start of a season is your 6–8-week pre-season. I have not had that with this group so not knocking anything that previously went on. I have a way I want to work and numbers I expect to see and numbers of meters that I want to be doing each week”
Replying to comments from the United camp Clarke said “He (Mark Bonner) is right when new managers go into clubs you never know what they are going to change we must find ways of winning different football games in different ways. When a new manager goes into a new club other managers do not know what he is going to change”.
“You will see we have worked on a lot of things, but we have also worked on plan B and plan C because one thing is for sure in these remaining 34 games, we are going to have to come from behind to win games. The best football teams come from behind to win games. It is the mentality of the group I will be looking for and the implementation of plan b and c” Darrell Clarke confidently rounded off.
