Boss Paul Jewell says young striker Connor Wickham is up there with The King’s Speech and Colin Firth when it comes to award nominations but believes the youngster has been taking all the plaudits he has received in his stride. The 17-year-old is on the shortlist for the Young Player and Apprentice of the Year gongs at the Football League Awards in London on Sunday.
Jewell said: "He’ll probably get a BAFTA as well! He’s in for that many awards that I lose track - Young Player of the Year, Apprentice of the Year, Chef of the Year, everything. It’s a lot for him to take on but I think he takes it in his stride and he’s a very level-headed lad.”
Despite employing the England U21 international out wide rather than in his preferred central role, Jewell says he was disappointed that Wickham didn’t get his name on the scoresheet during Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat to Watford: "He will be a striker eventually.
"There were one or two he should have got on the end of on Tuesday. I think the one that Andy Drury put in in the second half and the one that came off the post, they were chances that if Connor’s got that belief, he scores, and goals change games.
"In the last three home games we’ve conceded the first goal and were then chasing the game and haven’t looked like creating too many opportunities for all the possession we’ve had.”
Jewell has said in the past that he prefers a 4-4-2 formation but believes the current set-up with a single central striker suits the players he’s got and is also the approach currently taken by most other sides at this level: "That’s what I said when I first came, but I did also say that I’m starting to be able to be flexible with [the formation] because there aren’t too many teams that play a straight 4-4-2 now.
"4-4-2 is the formation that I’ve had success with in the past, but I think that the moment the formation that suits us with the make-up that we’ve got is 4-3-3.”
The Blues boss is happy with his side’s possession but feels they need to make more of it: "I think we keep the ball enough. I think we probably keep the ball a bit too much at times without going forward.
"We don’t get the ball in behind teams enough with quality. We don’t get enough men in the box at times.
"We’ve got good footballers in midfield. Jimmy Bullard, Grant Leadbitter and Andy Drury can all deal with the ball, we’ve got footballers in there that can keep it, but sometimes maybe the runs from the strikers aren’t clever enough.
"We don’t get the ball forward with enough quality at times. Look at their second goal on Tuesday. I think the crowd are shouting ‘Ole’ — pass, pass, pass, pass — but it didn’t go anywhere, we lost the ball in midfield and all of a sudden we’re 2-0 down."
Jewell says he knows what has to change in his squad: "I’m not knocking the players, they’ve been terrific, but I just think, to be brutally honest, this team needs more desire, belief and confidence in certain areas — desire to score goals, desire to stop goals, desire to stop crosses, desire to work hard without the ball.
"The players are working hard, there’s no doubt about that, but I just think we’re lacking that belief. When things are going against us, that’s when you’ve got to really dig in and you find out.
"At the moment, as we have been all season, we’ve just been a little weak at times and we’ve got to change that.
"We need at least one goalscorer," he continued. "We need good energy throughout the team, we lack a bit of pace in the team, so we’ve got to get more pace.
"We’ve got to get more aggression, we’ve got to get more desire where it matters in both boxes, and those are the areas that we’re going to be targeting in the summer."