Source: FOOTYMAD
Thorn to continue with attacking football despite Preston loss
Thorn to use international break for intensive training Coventry City's stand in manager Andy Thorn has revealed he will continue to play attacking football despite losing to bottom placed club Preston last Saturday. Thorn will use the international break to put his squad through an intensive pre season style training camp to prepare them for the final eight games of the season. The Sky Blues are perilously close to the relegation zone, just two places and seven points above the bottom three places and the two week break from competitive football is ideal for Thorn to sit down with his players and to work out a strategy for avoiding the drop. “I’m glad this week is out of the way,” said Thorn. “We’ve only had a couple of sessions to work on the shape but we’ve got two weeks now so we’ve got the opportunity to get some proper work done, get everybody back on it." “To concede as late as that was a real kick in the teeth and that’s two goals in two games that we’ve conceded from corners. That was down to individual errors, people marking players let them go, so it’s something we’ve got to learn from, but I’m not going to start pointing fingers because we’re all in this together." "I want them to play a certain way and we’re not going to change those principles because if we keep doing the right things, the results will come. The most important thing is getting the boys gelling into what we want to do” Coventry City made a poor start to the game as Preston dominated possession for much of the opening exchanges, but City were much better in the second half and could have come away with maximum points if a few decisions and shots had been better. Thorn admitted, “They pressed us in first half and it was difficult for us to get any space in midfield. There’s a lot of experience there and Phil Brown’s got them well organised, but I wanted the boys to be brave and positive." "I didn’t want us to go long, I wanted us to keep getting hold of the ball and playing, which I felt we did although nowhere near as well as we did at Burnley. We tweaked it a bit when David Bell went on and I felt we started to get a foothold on the game." "Belly’s a clever player with good feet, and their two central midfield guys were aware of him so they dropped a little deeper which allowed Sammy Clingan to get more of the ball a lot more. When we scored it opened up a little bit and we started to flow." "Richard Keogh hit the bar and Michael McIndoe had one go just wide so maybe we could have nicked it against the run of play and perhaps we would have deserved it for the way we came back.” The game saw the maligned winger Michael McIndoe make his first start for Coventry City this season and his first game since September when he was a substitute in the Leicester game. “Michael’s a good lad, who’s kept his head down and worked hard in training so he deserved his chance,” said Thorn. “We wouldn’t have heard the last of it if his shot had gone into the top corner, because it was a hell of an effort. We were right behind it and I thought it had gone in.”
