Walsall

Jon Whitney not making it easy for his team

Walsall head coach Jon Whitney has told the Express & Star that while it is difficult for his team to play the way they do, it is worth it.

For the last few years, the Saddlers have been known for playing some very attractive football and it was almost rewarded last season when they reached the play-offs after narrowly missing out on the automatic promotion places. While that didn’t end in success as they were beaten by Barnsley in the play-offs, it still gave fans plenty of hope that they could eventually get promoted in the future.

This year is yet to show that potential though as Walsall currently sit 16th in the Sky Bet League One table, far off what they wanted before the season. Many have put this down to the fact Walsall have lost many of their key players and Whitney was forced to replace them all and it will take a while for everything to fall into place.

Whitney agrees with this assessment, as he says that getting a lot of new players to adjust playing attractive football Walsall is known for is very difficult and takes a lot of time to perfect.

He said: “We are a technical team and we want to play high-tempo football,”

“It’s a difficult style to master. We want players to be able to decide between four or five options every time they are on the ball.”

“The easy option is to go route one.”

“When we signed players in the summer, we made sure we brought in people who were open to learn.”

“It takes time to build but you can see we are getting there.”

“The great thing for me as a manager is that there is no lack of work ethic or desire. They are such an honest group and that is why they deserved to beat Bolton.”

“They have resilience and willpower and they are starting to get rewarded for all their hard work.”

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