Chaplin: Stick to What You Know, That's What I Say!
Thursday, 7th Dec 2023 20:46

Conor Chaplin has admitted that he is unlikely to replicate the goal scored by teammate and friend Wes Burns in last week’s 2-1 home win over Coventry as Town made it back-to-back home wins following a 2-0 defeat at West Brom in which they surprisingly failed to land a single effort on target.

It’s said to be the measure of how good a team you are by how you recover from setbacks and the Blues followed a 3-1 midweek win over Millwall with another over the Sky Blues to reinforce second spot in the Championship table just a point behind leaders Leicester.

Burns’s goal has gone viral this week and Chaplin played a key role in a move which involved keeper Vaclav Hladky when he swept the ball out to left-back Leif Davis, who in turn found Burns to come inside and beat keeper Brad Collins with what is known as a trivela, using the outside of his right foot to curl the ball inside the far post for what proved to be the winning goal.

The Welsh international winger is now a huge favourite to grab the Goal of the Season accolade and when asked if he would be tempted to try something similar, 26-year-old Chaplin said: “No, I don’t think so. Stick to what you know – that’s what I say!

“It’s all been said about the goal in the last few days really. It was a top goal, so much quality in the finish. He's tried it so many times in training, so I'm glad it actually came off in a game.

“He’s got that, to be fair to him. He's really comfortable with the outside of his right foot and doesn’t like shooting too much with his left foot, which is fine. If you can do that, it's absolutely fine, it's the same outcome. He's really got that in the locker, to be fair to him and he tries it a lot, so it's nice to see it come out on game day.

“That's the unselfish running that you've got to do, the unselfish stuff.

“That's why stats are a big thing of the modern game, a big, big part of the modern game. They're looked into with a lot of scrutiny with goals and assists, not just attacking players, from full-backs, from wingers. It's a big thing of the game.

“A lot of people look at that first and make a comment on how you are playing just based on that, which isn’t right really.

“But then the be all and end all is end product, so I suppose that's fair enough on some aspects. That's where you can get Leif’s cross-field pass to Wes the other night for his goal was a good pass, although routine for Leif with his left foot, an easy pass.

“It’s not one that you’ll hear Leif shouting and screaming about but the run that Clarkey’s [Harry Clarke’s] made on the outside, which gave Wes the room to come inside, was probably more of an assist in a way. But as far as the stats are concerned you don’t get it as an assist, which is just the way it goes I’m afraid.”

Chaplin went on to give a detailed insight into how the goal came about and how it owed a great deal to the work the players put in at the Bent Lane training ground and especially his own key part in it, the ex-Portsmouth, Coventry and Barnsley player, Town’s seven-goal joint leading scorer alongside Nathan Broadhead this term, switching the play with one terrific pass from one side of the pitch to the other.

He added: “Working it out on the pitch for ourselves is a big thing, you can do patterns all day long but it completely depends on how the opposition press you.

“There were a lot of times in the first half that switch wasn’t on. I was out near the touchline and obviously scanning and looking around the pitch before I received the ball, and that wasn’t on.

“They were playing with three number tens – I’m getting a bit tactical now – and their right-sided ten was in between Leif [Davis] and Massimo [Luongo], our left-sided pivot, so that space wasn’t there.

“For that particular press when I turned around, they had gone more aggressive, they’d gone man for man and a midfielder was following me and another midfielder was coming across the pitch with Broady.

“One of the three tens was pressing Clarkey on the ball, one was on Skip [Sam Morsy], this side as well, and the other ten was on Mass rather than in between him and Leif.

“It’s about seeing the spaces at the time, which is off the cuff, definitely, in terms of how they pressed for that action but I think we were more than equipped because of the patterns we see every day.

“It takes one glance to look at where the spaces are, and where the press is coming from, to know. It’s almost a blind pass; I don’t really have to look to know that Leif’s there. I know he’s there – he’s there every time.

“I know where Broady’s going to be, I know where Hirsty’s [George Hirst’s] going to be, that’s sort of second nature, but it more depends on the press that’s coming, so if I see all of their players inside the pitch then I know there’s no one that can possibly be with Leif.

“So, it’s a blind pass, I’ve not seen Leif there but I know he’s there and I know their players aren’t, so it’s simple in terms of that aspect.

“It’s just about seeing the pictures. You’ve obviously got to make that decision and that’s a long-winded way of explaining it. But you’ve got to make that decision in a split second and that’s why you train, that’s why you do it so much just because if you see someone there you have to do something else.

“If they’re not there maybe Massimo’s on to play instead of Leif; it just depends how the press comes.”

Chaplin, along with goalkeeper Hladky, is the only outfield player with an ever-present record in the league this season and he highlighted how playing such a pivotal part in Burns’ goal also gave him a great deal of personal satisfaction.

“Yes, but you probably don’t realise until afterwards to be honest,” he added. “As soon as I switched the ball to Leif all I was thinking about was getting into the box. Whenever Leif’s on the ball I just think about getting closer to the goal; generally, that’s what’s in my head. Leif finds me a lot of the time and that’s because I know what he can do.

“Also, it probably comes off the back of me trusting him as well if I get into the areas, so as soon as I played the ball I sprinted forward and was probably the highest player on the pitch when Wes got the ball, just because Leif had it and if Leif’s got it he can definitely give me a chance. That was my thought process and I wasn’t thinking too much about the pass.”

Chaplin knew what was needed after the temporary setback at The Hawthorns and Town duly delivered with maximum points at the expense of Millwall and Coventry, making it eight home wins in a row – and nine from 10 altogether – for McKenna’s men.

Chaplin said: “They were two really good wins. I’ve always said we would lose games but the important thing was how we recovered from a setback and the reaction was not only positive but just what we needed. The way we react is going to be key and we need to keep it going throughout the rest of the season.

“In the last 18 months or so we’ve been built on that. There have been phases when it hasn’t gone our way for maybe five or six games, when we were conceding early goals rather than scoring them, but overall we’ve had quick starts with a lot of early goals and gone on to build on that, especially at Portman Road.”

Asked how he rated his goal that put Town on the road to victory over Millwall last week, Chaplin modestly stated: “Routine, I’d say. It was a good move from what I can remember, a great knock down from Hirsty and a decent finish from me. Hirsty is so reliable in those areas and so unselfish too. He’s such a good team player in everything he does and massive for me as well.

“You wouldn’t football if you don't know what Hirsty brings to your team. Scoring goals, first and foremost, he brings us – five goals he's scored now, that's a good return but he brings so much more.

“Obviously he's a goalscorer, I know he’s a goalscorer, he wants to score goals, he wants to score more goals definitely, but he knows how important he is for us.

“We all know how important he is for us an it’s good that the fans can see that as well. The work he does for the team, for such a big guy, for such a handful, his workrate and the way that he presses and the way that he doesn't stop running is the best that I've played with in terms of a frontman.

“It’s a joy to work and play with him, a joy to work with him out of possession as well.

“That out-of-possession unit that we rely a lot on, the four or five front players, it’s a big effort which is probably why we make a lot of substitutions between 60 and 70 minutes in games. Hirsty’s incredible about leading that from the front.”

Photo: TWTD

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MK1 added 20:50 - Dec 7 And you do it so, so well.
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WestSussexBlue added 21:23 - Dec 7 Absolutely love that insight into certain things on the pitch that as footballers they instinctively know and we as fans clearly don’t. Even as Chappers says, Coventry playing in effect with Three number 10s at times to nullify our play. However when that chink in the armoury appears, they are coached and drilled so well they know exactly how to exploit it.
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DBaldy added 22:00 - Dec 7 Where he talks about the pass to Davis that is just brilliant insight & shows how much the players are learning under McKenna & are "trusting the process". Brilliant stuff.
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