Western Morning News

Grecians are a long way from what Caldwell wants

Manager continues to implement his style but sees improvemen­t at St James Park

- STUART JAMES stuart.james@reachplc.com

EXETER City manager Gary Caldwell says the Grecians are a long way from being the team he wants them to be as he continues to implement his style, ideas and philosophy at St James Park.

Having taken over from Matt Taylor, who left for Rotherham United in October, the former Wigan Athletic, Chesterfie­ld and Partick Thistle manager has been in situ for just over a month now and, faced with a daunting run of fixtures, the Grecians have won two, drawn one and lost three, including Saturday’s disappoint­ing 4-1 defeat to Oxford United in the second round of the FA Cup.

Just to rub salt into City’s wounds following that abject display, Oxford’s reward in round three is a home tie against Premier League giants Arsenal on the weekend of January 7. City will now be without a game, due to Barnsley progressin­g in the FA Cup, so Caldwell will at least have time to work on implementi­ng his methods, as well as some defensive work with Exeter now conceding 14 goals in their last five matches.

However, this is far from a problem that has reared its ugly head since Caldwell arrived. Exeter have been leaking goals all season with 29 in their 19 league games so far.

“I have always said it is going to take time for us to be the team I want us to be both in and out of possession,” Caldwell said. “We have worked on that, but we have also worked on other areas as well. We don’t need to become overly concerned with it, we just have to be clear individual­ly and collective­ly with what we need to do to improve that area of the team.”

Caldwell has often stated that he wants to play a more possession­based style compared to his predecesso­r but as the old saying goes, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day.’ Generally, the Grecians have a young and a talented squad high in technical ability, but it seems having the confidence and belief to play that way is where the work needs to be done.

“I think we have a lot of good players at different stages of their career but, mainly the younger players that are here, the potential that these younger players have is phenomenal,” he said.

“I am excited to work with everyone and try and improve everyone in all aspects of their game, so that is the challenge at the moment as a coaching staff… how quickly can we make it happen and how can we speed up those processes so the players improve day in, day out.

“I want us to be a team that has no fear and can press full pitch and really go after teams and have that confidence in how we press and defend from the front.

“In possession, I want us to be a team that can play from the goalie, through the thirds and have many different aspects of how we go about that, so we are not a predictabl­e team in how we play, we have many ways of attacking whether that be from the goalie on the ground, or play up to strikers.

“We have speed in wide areas, so a real flexible, adaptable team that plays on the front foot, that plays to win, but plays dynamic, exciting football. I think we have seen aspects of that, but we are still a long way from where I would like us to be.

“That is going to take time and that is time on the training pitch, time with the players analysing to get where we want to be, but I have seen lots of progress in the weeks I have been in, in many different areas and we will continue to work hard to improve on others.”

Since taking over the job, Caldwell has largely stuck with the three-man defence that has served Exeter will in the last 18 months or so. That is largely due to the fact the Grecians have been beset by injury problems in the backline, but it would not be a great surprise if he reverted to a fourman backline when some of those injury issues have finally cleared up, or he has delved into the market.

“We obviously have to have an identity and a way of playing but within that, there has to be stability in formations, flexibilit­y in how we press, flexibilit­y in how we build from the back and that all takes time for the players to understand that,” Caldwell added.

“I have seen a lot of improvemen­t in the players over the weeks and different things; how we switch the ball now is so much better than before and how we press in different ways is better than it was before, but that will be a continual process that we will always work on. We will never be the finished article, we will always try and improve in every aspect of how we play.”

 ?? ?? Gary Caldwell
Gary Caldwell

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