United manager Stuart McCall is looking forward to the first home league match since being appointed when his side face Rochdale on Saturday.
After a 1-1 draw at Accrington Stanley last Saturday was followed up with a Checkatrade Trophy victory by penalties against Wolves U21s in midweek, he is looking for further improvement from his side when Dale come to Glanford Park.
“Hopefully we can put on a really good performance which in turn gets us three points,” McCall told iFollow Iron. “There were some positives (on Tuesday night) but it’s a work in progress, we know that, and there are things we can do better.
“I’ve watched all the games (from this season), and I think we’ve been slightly too easy to play against, with teams having too many opportunities against us. On the other side, we’ve not been creative enough. There were times on Tuesday night where we got in good areas and then came back out. It’s alright keeping possession of the football but we’re here to put shots on goal and get crosses into the box.
“We’ve worked on that on Thursday and I think we have to find a system that suits the players we’ve got and enables us to create more opportunities, which will hopefully result in more goals but also keep us a little more solid because we’ve conceded too many. There’s a lot of work to do but we’re looking forward to doing that.”
There were changes in midweek as United rested some of the players who were carrying a knock after the Accrington game.
“Most of them will be in contention and, both in terms of personnel and formation, we have some decisions to make,” added McCall.
“Certainly at home the onus is on us to excite the fans and get balls into the box and shots on goal. We’ll try to work things but I’m also aware, because we have a young group, that we don’t overload them with too much information. We will try and help them individually and collectively.
“We were disappointed that Ike (Ugbo) couldn’t play on Tuesday after playing for Chelsea in the competition earlier on but, in the main, we’ve seen the majority now, which gives us plenty of food for thought.
“There are certain things we’re asking of the players that haven’t been asked of them before, but that’s what we’re after. It’s really early stages, and there’s a lot more we want to put into them, and we’ll see a lot more in the coming weeks and months.”
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