Balancing act as Hill calls for creativity
KEITH Hill was planning on fielding a strong Dale line up for Tuesday evening’s clash against Stoke City under 21s at the Crown Oil Arena.
However, he is also mindful of the fact several players were looking fatigued during the weekend’s goalless draw at AFC Wimbledon.
With that in mind, Hill said he wanted to use the Checkatrade Tropy match as an opportunity to improve the squad’s fitness.
“I was making a substitution because Joe Bunney was running the risk on a yellow card and I was trying to get Joe off, but Calvin, who is always no surrender, couldn’t continue, which is why he came off instead,” said Hill.
“It’s important that players like Calvin find their fitness quickly.
“There are one or two players who maybe found this game to be one too many.
“Callum Camps, for example, looked very tired and I think that’s the result of playing the last three games after having been out for such a long period of time.
“We’ve got a very important game on Tuesday, which I want to win, and I want to play a strong side.
“We’ve got to make sure that we use the game as a competitive game but also a fitness game to make sure that we’re improving our fitness.”
Dale have kept four successive clean sheets since Hill called on them to become more solid – now he wants to see an increase in creativity.
“There has been a lot of concentration on keeping clean sheets and being assertive against the opponents, but when we’ve got the ball we’ve got to be more creative,” he said,
“You can see the desire in the players to try and keep clean sheets and they’ve done it again, so it was a positive point away from home again.
“I just feel that if we’re better at retaining the ball so we can get into the final third through passing instead of direct balls down the pitch, then I think we win that type of game, and that’s the next step for us.
“The progression has got to be our creativity. We’ve got creative players and we’ve got players who score goals, so we’ve got to find that balance.”