Mark Robinson felt that Wimbledon showed plenty of promise for the season ahead in today’s narrow defeat at the hands of Premier League new boys Brentford.
Speaking after the 1-0 loss at Plough Lane, Robbo said: “I thought all of the midfield combinations worked well. Anthony and Woody were really good in the first-half and Luke and ‘Marshy’ carried that on. ‘Chis’ looked bright and so too did 'Rudi'. It’s exciting and that’s what I’ve said we need to have - goals coming from all over the pitch. I think we will have that.
“There was a lot to be pleased about. I said to the boys before the game that what is key for us is that when we reflect upon this on Monday we want to have a platform to build from. Even though it was Brentford I didn’t want us to go out there and be worried about them. I didn’t want us to be passive and concerned about being carved open. I wanting us to get in their faces. With that way we can say, ‘that was good, but this needs to be better’. That was what we did for the majority of the game.”
Huseyin Biler’s second-half display really caught the eye as the teenage talent rampaged down the right flank at Plough Lane – and his performance has given Robbo a dilemma.
“The young man has given me a real headache,” added Robbo. “This is the dilemma with young players because I’ve seen good young players get in and around the first-team, sit on the bench, and they don’t develop. You look at Huseyin today and he has left me with a huge dilemma. I was due to send him out on loan, but when you look at him today the boy is infectious with his energy. That’s the decision I have to make, but whether we go with loaning him out and getting 40 games elsewhere or keeping him here the boy has got a bright future.”
Robbo switched from a 4-2-2-2 formation to a 3-4-2-1 formation for the second-half, and he believes that such flexibility is important for his side.
“I want us to have that formation flexibility because I think that unknown factor is going to be important. It’s not about tinkering for tinkering’s sake, but teams will do their homework on you, and you want to be able to change things around. I looked at Peterborough last season and they did that really well. They could flip formations and be effective. One formation can give you a threat somewhere and another formation can give you a threat elsewhere. I think we flipped really well between those two formations and there will be some more to come.
“In the first-half I felt we needed to carry more of a threat, but we’ve barely put any work into our on the ball stuff. Everything we’ve been doing is about how we are going to be off the ball with the work we’ve done in matches during training. I thought we carried more of a threat in the second-half, but there are details for us to look at. When you look at our squad and how young it was, plus we have no Will or Dan and Aaron is due to join us, there was a lot to be pleased about.”
Pic credit: Ian Stephen, Pro Sports Images.