Ahead of his side’s Checkatrade Trophy encounter with Shrewsbury Town, United manager Graham Alexander revealed he’ll freshen things up in terms of team selection.
Alexander revealed he wants to give minutes to those who haven’t featured as much as they’d have liked so far this season, but admitted it’ll be tough to decide who to leave out of the starting line-up.Speaking to The Iron PlayerHD, Alexander said: “We’ll change a few players, and give the lads an opportunity who have been banging on the door, and rest a few of the lads who have been playing game in game out.
“Everyone’s itching to play, and everyone wants to stay in the team. Playing at Glanford Park is something the lads want to do and enjoy.
“However, we’ve got to pick a team which we feel can go and win the game. We’re focusing on Shrewsbury, and we have to put out a team that we feel can win, and you’ll see with the lineup that’s what we’ll do.”
The Iron boss stated that despite league matters being on the back burner until Saturday, there won’t be any let up in terms of a will to win from his players, who all desperately want to carry on their fine start to the campaign.
“It’s a professional game of football, you’re out there representing your club, you’re representing yourself, and it’s important you approach that in the right way,” he stated.
“We have prepared the same as we would do for the cup final. We’ll be talking and acting like it is, because it’s important we have that mentality and, to be fair, I can’t question my players on that in any way, shape or form.
“From what I can see, every game they’ve been at it, and we have to maintain that.”
United go into the game off the back of a fruitful week of league action, culminating in a 2-1 victory over at the time second placed Bury - a win which really pleased Alexander.
“It was a great victory for us. It’s a tough place to go, and it was a really competitive game, with two good teams going all out for the win. It was a proper top of the table clash I thought,” he continued.
“Sometimes those games are that tight that it takes one bit of magic to win, and we had that one bit of magic, which was the main difference.
“I thought we played the game really well, managed it really well, and we managed Bury’s threats as well as we could. It was disappointing to concede the equaliser, but the mentality of our players wasn’t to sit back and take a point - we continued to attack.
“When you see Josh’s (Morris) goal, I think we’ve got seven up there attacking, including both full backs, going out all for the win. That’s what it takes, you’ve got to be brave, and we have to go again.”
On the injury front, Alexander revealed Tuesday’s game will come too soon for Josh Morris, who sustained a slight knock in Saturday’s victory.
He also provided updates on the fitness of Luke Williams and Jordan Clarke, with both stepping up their returns from injuries.
“Josh (Morris) has a bit of a niggle from Saturday, which is a slight concern for us, so we’ll so how he is during the week,” he revealed.
“Luke (Williams) and Jordan (Clarke) are the only ones really missing, with Jordan being out for a couple more weeks, so we’ll just go with the squad we’ve got.”
See much more from Graham Alexander and Stephen Dawson on The Iron PlayerHD.
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