• last week
Blackpool head coach Steve Bruce discusses his limited squad options ahead of the Seasiders game away to Shrewsbury Town.
Transcript
00:00Gareth Ainsworth spoke about you being a winner in your career and how you're going to try and drill that mentality into your players.
00:06From what you've seen, is that willingness to win there for your team, can you see that potential where they can win?
00:11We're not winning enough. We had in the league, we had a win against Bristol which hopefully can be the platform of what we can be over the next few weeks.
00:22What we have been is inconsistent. Now, I could level that at a few injuries and blah, blah, blah. I don't want to make that as an excuse because we've all got it.
00:32But what I've found is we've been up and down too quickly. We've played well in a lot of games and not so well.
00:39And on Sunday, first half in particular, really disappointed me because we're nowhere near the level of what's required to win a match against any opposition.
00:49We didn't do the basics well enough. We didn't approach it well enough. Second half, totally different ball game.
00:55Well played to the subs who come on. I don't think I've ever been involved in a game where I've brought on four people at half time.
01:03And to be quite honest, I could have made seven or eight. We were just nowhere near the level of what's required.
01:10So, the players have got to know me in that respect. And I think they know what we demand.
01:19And if we get beaten and we're not good enough on the day, then great. I'll accept that. That happens. It's football.
01:25But when we don't put enough endeavour and work into it and do the basics well enough, that doesn't sit well with me.
01:32Can you see a point where this current squad wins games even if they're not playing well like they've not been over the last few weeks?
01:38Yeah, yeah. Well, we certainly have to find a way. You can't play well every week. But what you have to do is do the basics to give yourself a chance.
01:46And that's what we'll try and hammer home to them.
01:48You mentioned a few weeks ago that talks about the chance of a winner would start in the next few weeks. Have they got underway yet?
01:54No, not at all just yet. There's still plenty of time. I think we understand where we are.
02:02I see David most days and we've talked about one or two individuals. It would be wrong for me to tell you, but we're always trying to improve.
02:10That will never change. And if we can improve and we can get one or two in, then we've got to try our best to see if we can happen.
02:18Do you have a clear idea in your mind of what you need? Or is it hard because you're missing so many players? You've not seen the full squad fit yet?
02:26There you have it. I haven't seen the full squad fit. I think I haven't been able to what I think in my mind is my best team yet.
02:35Because I haven't seen a few individuals and we're being racked with injuries. So we haven't been able to find that consistency.
02:44But I've got a fair idea in my mind of what our best team is, but I haven't been able to play it often enough.
02:50When the club need to buy for the worst case scenario, how do things currently look with all these injuries?
02:55I think the squad is a balanced enough squad to make a push from where we want to get to.
03:01What we haven't been able to cope with is the amount of injuries we've had.
03:05But then again, if I was taking away five or six of anybody's team where you think would start, I think you would have a little bit of a struggle.
03:16And that's the numbers we're looking at. We're not looking at one or two. I counted five or six today who won't be in Baltimore.

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