Oxford United return to Sky Bet League 1 action on Saturday when they travel to Fleetwood.
With six players away on international duty The U’s had a weekend with no game but as Liam Manning told iFollow today, the break has given them a chance to come back strongly as a group.
“We varied the programme because some were away with their countries, some came back early and some were given a little bit of time off including staff and that’s important because we work quite intensely and do have high standards. We work extremely hard so to get the opportunity to shut down for a day or two was very welcome, but we came back on Monday and I have to say that the week has been good so far.”
United will be without Greg Leigh and Mark Harris after the pair were shown red cards in the last league game, at home to Port Vale, but as Liam said there are players waiting in the wings for their chance.
“We said at the time that discipline is key. We talk a lot about ‘Team First’ and that was a really good lesson for the group. It’s about the team learning together, going through different experiences, and the Port Vale game just highlighted that a couple of small moments can have a much bigger impact. We are disappointed to lose those two on Saturday but it opens up opportunities and highlights the strength and depth that we have”.
Fleetwood have a new Manager in Lee Johnson and Liam is well aware of the effect that can have:
“The New Manager Bounce isn’t a secret from anybody. There will be a group of players up there ready to impress the new Manager, you will have fans getting behind them and those things will play a part but it all comes back to us. We don’t know what team Lee is going to pick but it is more important that we control what we can, including how we want to play and what we want the game to look like.”
See the full interview, along with the thoughts of Elliott Moore, in iFollow right now.