‘Keep on going’ is attitude to have, says JFH
JIMMY Floyd Hasselbaink wants to see his Burton Albion players replicate the mentality as much as the performance that they showed in beating Accrington Stanley 4-0 on Tuesday night.
The Brewers go into another game against an out-of-form side, Doncaster Rovers, today at the Pirelli Stadium looking to build on a first win in five League One matches.
Doncaster have taken only one point away from home this season and are suffering a hangover from a poor second half to last season, when they slid down the table from a promotion-challenging position after manager Darren Moore left to join Sheffield Wednesday.
Former Swindon Town and Salford City boss Richie Wellens was appointed in May but has so far struggled to make an impact and Rovers are only a point ahead of bottom side Crewe Alexandra.
“We don’t want to give any team anything, whatever their record,” said Hasselbaink.
“We want any team to have to work really hard to get anything from us. And we need to work really hard from second one to make sure there is nothing to get for them – we have to earn that.
“We don’t want to wait and react, we want to be proactive and make it really difficult for them.
“It was a good performance (against Accrington) and, obviously, a good bit of weight off a few people’s shoulders but it’s about being level-headed as quickly as possible – can we replicate the performance and bring the good things into the next match?
“We’re always looking for consistency and to see good things returning in our football, in our idtentity and how we play. That’s what we’ve been thinking about the last two or three days.
“We have to be on our game again. We may do it a little bit differently but we have to show the same intensity and hunger.”
It pleased the manager that his team kept going after Accrington at 4-0 up, even though they were unable to add to it after the fourth goal came in the 50th minute. He likened the attitude to Manchester City’s approach.
“If you look at Manchester City, they keep on going,” he said.
“If you remember them playing Burton in the Carabao Cup, they were six or seven up and they kept on going.
“Then, when they came here, they were winning 9-0 on aggregate but they kept on going.
“They did not care about the opposition, they only cared about themselves, to be professional and do it right, to keep on feeling good.
“That’s the mentality that we need to have. You keep at it until that last whistle is blown and that was really good on Tuesday.”
It was also a game in which – for the first time since Hasselbaink returned – Burton won with more possession than the opposition.
“If you want to become a better side, you have to boss both sides of the game, without the ball and when you have it,” said Hasselbaink.
“Can you pass it, get through the thirds with the ball?
“We know that we have to work a lot harder on that.
“Everyone needs to make angles for each other, then can we find that final pass, get a cross in, so that someone can have a shot?
“That’s where we can improve and we’re working hard to improve.”
Hasselbaink had made five changes for Saturday’s defeat away to MK Dons and four for the Accrington game and says he recognises that is not ideal. He would like to move towards a more settled side.
“We don’t really want to keep on changing five players, four players, three players but when you have three games in a row, you will make changes just to freshen it up here and there,” he said.
“But I would like to have a settled side, a settled core, definitely.
“It doesn’t help at all that we have had a few injuries, a few red cards and five yellows (bringing a suspension).
“But we have to overcome that, we can’t keep moaning about it.”