Shaun Pearson and Ben Davies have managed to cultivate a feeling of positivity at Grimsby Town during their interim management period which has inspired the team to back-to-back victories.
It is not much on the grand scale of things but it could be a highly important moment for the team when they look back on this season at the end of it all – with Pearson and Davies beginning to build a platform for future success.
Speaking purely on footballing terms, which is what the pair are being judged on as coaches there is a greater energy and purpose to Town’s play, at least in the last two after a poor start in the first game against Slough Town.
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The enthusiasm shown by the coaching team is rubbing off on the players, and Pearson admits, that having prepared for this next stage of his career for many years
“I’m absolutely loving it I won’t lie and it has been a massive learning experience for me so far. For example, I would take ownership as a coach for Slough’s second goal [in the replay] in terms of the press being my responsibility to manage and get a bit more clarity to the players.
“They’re trying to carry out what we’re asking, and there was probably a bit of a miscommunication on my part there, which didn’t help on that goal, but we’re learning all the time with these things.
“It has been a really great experience so far, and hopefully we can continue to have a positive impact on the team for as long as this period lasts.”
Speaking to Pearson, it is evident that he is fully zoned in on his current task, alongside Davies, of getting the team back to playing football in a way that is enjoyable for both the players and the fans.
Above that even is showing the players how to win football matches again, which they are clearly capable of doing with a clear gameplan and playing philosophy. There are still things to improve on to make sure consistency comes, and solving these issues is a part of the job that Pearson is embracing.
“It’s not so much defensively what we aren’t doing,” he explained. “It’s when we’re attacking we need to have a mindset of getting our structure right so we can’t be countered on as easily as we have been sometimes.
“When we’re defending, which we have done well at times, I want us to be thinking about when we win the ball back, what is our transition going to be like to go and attack our opposition.
“Generally, when you are defending deep, the other team are throwing more bodies forward so there are spaces in behind to exploit when you get the ball back.
“It is the same when we try to pay out from the back, we’re not doing that to have a tonne of passes at the back, we’re trying to draw the opposition out and hurt them beyond that, and we just have to recognise a little bit better what the right thing to do is in those situations.”
Original story at https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/
