Matty Etherington has spoken ahead of Colchester United’s Bristol Street Motors Trophy clash against West Ham United U21s taking place at the JobServe Community Stadium on Tuesday night (KO 7:30pm).
The U’s had a week’s break since facing Doncaster and it’s been put to good use with some players getting rest followed by hard work at the training ground.
Matty said: “I think we've got a really hectic period coming up, obviously over Christmas, so I think it was important to get some kind of rest into the players but also get the right information over after disappointing last couple of defeats and I feel like we got the balance right.”
The Head Coach added that the time off has allowed him to drill some important information into his players.
“We had a really good day on Friday where I've got some things over to them in terms of what we think is needed, what I think is needed to move them forward way and identity about the way we want to play,” Matty explained.
He continued: “There's more of an understanding there because it's been game to game for a long while since I've been in the role.
“It was just a little bit of down time to maybe get some ideas over, talk about the set play situation defensively that we've got going on at the minute. There were some really good discussions had, really positive discussions and hopefully that can take us now into the next period.”
West Ham United U21s are on a fantastic run of form, having not lost a game of football since 11th August and Matty is fully aware of how good the youngsters from East London can be.
He said: “They’re a very good side and a really talented group. I think everyone at the club is really excited about what that specific group are going to bring in the years to come.
“But we've got to focus on ourselves and on our players and our young players and how we affect them tomorrow night. There are definitely ways we can affect them whilst being mindful of the ways they can hurt us as well.”
You can watch the full interview with Matty at the top of the page.
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