Hurst Relatively Pleased With Performances and Convinced Wins Will Come Thursday, 23rd Aug 2018 18:37 Boss Paul Hurst is convinced wins will come having been “relatively pleased” with his team’s performances so far, despite the Blues visiting Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday still looking for their first victory under his management. Hurst isn’t going to be making any hasty tactical or personnel switches ahead of the game against the club he supported as a boy. “Without giving too much away, I don’t think there’ll be too many changes,” he said. “I don’t think we’re in a position to do that. “People can perhaps look at results and I’m fully aware that that’s what matters but I think large parts of the performances I’ve been relatively pleased with. “I don’t feel a need to change too much. If Skusey’s out and if Nolan was out it certainly gives me a reason to change part of the team through necessity and that’s something I’ll have to look at.” While he says he won’t hesitate to make tactical or personnel changes if needed, he believes now isn’t that time. “I guess it’s my job to decide which way to go,” he reflected. “And if I strongly believe that playing a different way will benefit us then I won’t be afraid to do that. “But at the same time, we have to be conscious of the fact that we’ve gone through pre-season in general playing a certain way and we’ve started the season off playing in a certain way and all the messages we’ve been trying to get across [are about playing in a certain way]. “What I don’t want to do is screw that all up, throw it away and think, ‘Right, let’s set off another system’. “And then what if that doesn’t work or it’s not great? I think we have to give things a chance. “For me, and people might have a different view, a lot of it I think is working and goals change people’s views and opinions. “We’ve had more shots than other teams. If we’d have perhaps scored a couple of deflected goals, the points total is different and 100 per cent we wouldn’t be having this thought process or conversation. “I don’t think there’s enough wrong in our displays so far to really go too far away from them.” Does he feel if performances continue to be as they have been wins will come? “I believe so. I don’t think we’ve really been outplayed. The other night Derby did have more possession but certainly in the first 60 minutes until the goal, watching it back, I was probably happier than I was on the night, albeit knowing the end result. “But I think a lot of it, the organisation of the team and the discipline, was there. There are parts of it where positionally we could be more aggressive, that might give us better opportunities of winning the ball back or of having people in better areas that when we have won it back we can be a little bit more progressive quicker, which is something that Chris Doig has been through with the players this morning. I’m pretty happy with how the players have taken information on board.” Hurst says the summer signings from the lower leagues are showing they can cope in the Championship. “I think so,” he continued. “Maybe if we sat down and went through every single player I think the lads that have come in have done pretty well. “If I genuinely felt that the lads that I’ve inherited were head and shoulders above what’s making up the team in terms of lads that I’ve brought in, then I’d hold my hand up and think, ‘Right, maybe we need to revert and put more of those in’. “And that’s no disrespect to the lads that are here and that I’ve inherited but I haven’t seen that big a difference, it’s just about getting them all together as a team and trying to improve each game that comes along.” He says a win when it comes will do much to add to belief within the team: “We can keep trying to ram that message down their throats and get it embedded in their minds, but there’s no doubt results help everybody to buy into things. “At the beginning of last season [at Shrewsbury], even pre-season, we had a really strong pre-season, the season began and there were no question marks whatsoever, it was there, by looking at the table no matter how early it was, [you could see] by looking at the wins column. “At the minute we haven’t got that and that’s where it is more difficult. You’ve got to have a strong mind, be strong in your beliefs and hopefully… I say hopefully, I’m convinced that the wins will come if we stay committed to what we’re trying to do. “If we start wavering away from that, then we’ll have an issue. I’ve had enough people comment about our performances that are neutral, they’re not saying we’ve done pretty well to make me feel better, some people that I know that are very honest and they feel that we’ve looked a decent team. “A decent team is fine, we want to be better than that, but we also want to win games. I know already teams have played worse than us and won games of football. “That’s a bit of an art and a knack and it’s not the worst thing in the world to have but generally performances over a period of time will get you results and that’s what we’ve got to stick to and keep trying to churn those out.” Was there a specific moment when things started to click at Shrewsbury? “Certainly last season it was just getting results. I guess when I first went in there we had a kind schedule where we had a cup game against from lower down, we had a Checkatrade game that we won and then we had a defeat, and we had a bit of a honest discussion again in the dressing room that moved us forward. “We’ve had one of those already [after Exeter], which people for me made too much of, but I think the feeling was that there was a reaction in the Villa game. I’m not sure it was because of anything I’d said, the players put in a shift and stood up to be counted. “At Derby we lost the game, there’s no getting away from that. Did we really deserve to be beaten? I guess after the first goal it was hard to see that way back and that where that belief came in, but in the first 60 minutes I don’t think anyone could have said there was much between the teams and that’s a team where, while there are some changes occurring, expectations are a lot greater than we have. “As I say, it’s certainly not a time to worry too much or be thinking we need to have a sudden rethink, whether that’s tactically, personnel or whatever that is.”
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