‘You’re playing yourself in or playing yourself out’ – Crawley Town boss’s message to players after Oxford United defeat
Crawley Town boss Colin Kazim-Richards told his players that they must earn a spot in his team during pre-season after a 3-1 defeat at Oxford United on Tuesday night (July 28).
The League One side were too good for the Reds on the night as second-half goals from Gatlin O’Donkor and Tyler Goodrham earned Aaron Ramsey’s side victory in the pre-season friendly.
New Reds signing Malcolm Ebiowei scored a sublime free kick against his former club before half-time to initially cancel out Charlie Barker’s 11th-minute own goal.
It’s a first official defeat of pre-season for Kazim-Richards’ side after their 1-0 win at Eastleigh on Saturday (July 25).
The Reds boss spoke candidly afterwards and felt his side were largely ‘the better’ after an hour, but admitted they ‘needed to be better’ in the final 30 minutes, in which the U’s scored twice.
“It's something to work on,” he said. “It needs to be better when we make changes. “This pre-season is about playing yourself into the team or playing yourself out – I'll be really honest with you. I've said that to the boys, and it's nothing new that I'm saying to you guys that I would say on camera and not say to them.
“That's what pre-season is about. It's about making those connections and relationships, but it's also understanding you're playing yourself in or playing yourself out. I think [in] the last 30 minutes, we needed to be better.”
He added: “In terms of the fine-tuning and getting to those places and creating those chances, there's not much more in terms of getting there. Now we have to finish off.
“And it seems weird – we're right where I want to be, we're right where we've worked to be. OK, the result could have been better, but you're making 11 changes and it happens. In a normal game we wouldn't be making 11 changes, we'd be making maybe two, three, four, five – whatever it may be.
“I'm not trying to dig anyone out, but I'm just being honest and it's nothing I haven't said to the guys. The last 25 minutes can't go on like that, whether it's pre-season or not. But there's a lot of positives and I'd rather work and talk about the positives.”
One of those positives for Kazim-Richards included the ‘solid’ way his side defended the box, particularly from corners – an area that the Reds consistently struggled in last season.
He said: “We're trying to cut it off at source rather than it get to our box, so we're trying to be intense. We're trying to lock on higher up the pitch, as soon as we lose it.
“We're trying to be intense at winning it back rather than dropping back into a low block or a mid block and then defending just our box area.”
The Reds boss confirmed there would be a similar split in terms of players’ minutes when they face Reading at the Broadfield Stadium on Friday night (July 31).
Kazim-Richards also suggested he knows ‘areas’ of his starting line-up for the EFL Cup preliminary round tie against York City – now coached by former Reds boss Scott Lindsey – on Monday, August 3.