The more top-notch players Neill Collins can have pushing his seasoned first-team players, the better for both the here and now and the bigger vision.
Given that it has been about a month after the Reds were eliminated from the League Cup, the Football League Trophy is typically a platform for unproven players.
Theo Chapman, Aiden Marsh, Kyran Lofthouse, and newly acquired Jamie McCart, who was signed on loan from Rotherham United, will likely be looking to earn some playing time against Grimsby Town at home in the opening match of this season’s championship.
The few devoted spectators may be rewarded with a glimpse of Fabio Jalo, a 17-year-old striker from Portugal who reportedly received a six-figure offer from Serie A last month.
“We need to have good players that don’t start all the time,” added Collins, who is hoping to get Corey O’Keefe back during the international break, the rest of which his team will sit out due to Portsmouth call-ups. “That is the strength in depth principle.”
Collins has only been in the position since the preseason, so he is always learning more about his team and vice versa.
He said, “I’ve got to see it and I’ve got to believe in what we’re doing. “There are definitely things I want to do that are a little bit different, but the fundamentals of how the club wants to play are the same,” she said.The only thing that takes time is managing the team and cultivating connections with the players.
“appropriate now, everything is about trying to strike the appropriate balance between needing to win games and wanting to attempt to build for the long term. It’s a perpetual equilibrium.