Burchnall: We must be better when we don’t have ball
MAGPIES BOSS KNOWS TOO MANY GOALS HAVE BEEN CONCEDED
IAN Burchnall says Notts County have conceded too many goals this season but believes defensive improvements can be made without blunting their attack.
The Magpies have scored a whopping 80 goals this season but have shipped in 52, which is the most out of any of the teams in the National League top seven.
But with a play-off place secure for the third consecutive season, fans are eager for Notts to tighten up at the back to give themselves the best chance of promotion.
Head coach Burchnall concedes that while there is a desire to keep it clean at the back, he says it can be done without detracting from their brilliance going forward.
“It’s generally a lot of off-ball stuff,” he said.
“I think in possession, we’re good. Certainly at home, we’ve been brilliant, we’ve scored in every home game, which is a great achievement.
“But defensively, you can see we’ve conceded too many goals this year. The way that we play is quite expansive but that doesn’t mean that we should just change the way we play so that we don’t concede as many goals because maybe that will have an impact on how many goals we score. We can do more of both.
“I think we can continue to be expansive but we’ve just got to be better when we lose the ball and better managing counter-attacks.
“When we don’t have the ball we need to be better organised in our pressing and defending the box.
“They’re just key areas that we’ve got to keep working at getting better. We know we’re going to play good teams that are going to test us more defensively. In the last two games, we kept clean sheets.
“That’s three clean sheets in the last four but we don’t really get carried away with that. I think we’re going to have much tougher teams to play against.
“But there are some of the areas you saw vulnerabilities managing counter-attacks.
“I think Aldershot scored with the first two shots when we played there. We had so much of the ball but we didn’t manage when we lost it.
“They’re the areas that I think we’ve really got to sharpen up.”
Notts will be looking to round off their league campaign with a clean sheet when they travel to Maidenhead on Sunday in a game that has plenty riding on it.
Burchnall’s side needs only a point to guarantee fifth position which will ensure their play-off quarter-final will be played at Meadow Lane.
But they face one of the in-form teams in the division in Alan Devonshire’s side and Burchnall says their results against the top teams show what they are capable of.
“You really want a test and going down there is not easy,” he said.
“You’ve seen Chesterfield lose there when they were right in their prime earlier in the season.
“Wrexham went down there and lost. I think Stockport lost down there.
“They’ve just beaten Grimsby away so they’re a team that’s caused a lot of the bigger clubs in this league a problem. And I think from that perspective, they’re going to be a real test.
“Even though we think there are players that are not playing for anything when we played Altrincham on Saturday, they’ve just announced that they’re going full-time, a lot of those players maybe want to earn contracts.
“If they’re going out of contract, they’ve got to prove something so what better place to do it against Notts County? I think every team thinks like that.
“So I don’t think we go anywhere and find it an easy ride. We’ve got to know that and I think that kind of competition is what we need before the play-offs.”