Allardyce: these things take time

  • by Staff Writer
  • Saturday, 26th July 2014

Sam Allardyce believes last night's 3-1 defeat against Sydney was a result of the new expansive tactical approach he and his team have been asked to implement.

At the end of last season Allardyce held on to his job by the skin of his teeth having been ordered to deliver more aesthetically-pleasing football, following a drab 2013/14 campaign.

The result of that has been two draws against Stevenage and Ipswich plus defeats to Wellington Phoenix and Sydney FC - something that the manager attributed to the change in style, which he has had less than three weeks to work on.

"The football was not good enough to get results, but we're experimenting and working on more open attacking play," he told the press following the surprise reversal. "It hasn't worked well from a defensive point of view.

“We have to be more open and expansive. That’s what is demanded now so we are working on that side of it, we just lost the defensive resilience that we had last season. Today we got caught on the break twice in the first half; we’re trying to play and open teams up so we left too many spaces."

Meanwhile Graham Arnold, the far-happier Sydney boss, revealed that despite running out 3-1 winners his team were far from fully fit.

"I think we are only at 30 per cent physically where we should be and I thought we played better against Newcastle except we got punished for our mistakes," he said.

"I've been saying to the boys that results don’t matter at this stage of the season. Of course it’s great to win the game but there are no points or trophy for it. It's about us getting better every time we step on the pitch and playing to the game plan and progressing as a team."

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