Gillingham manager John Coleman has identified a habit he’s determined to eliminate from his newly inherited team.
Coleman took charge of the Gills for the first time on Saturday and watched his side fade following a positive start, losing 1-0 to Doncaster Rovers.
He wants a forward-thinking team and playing the ball backwards is something he’s no fan of.
Coleman, speaking after his first game, said: “I probably feel the same as the fans in the fact that I thought we went backwards too much.
“After the first 25 minutes, after they scored really, we went backwards quite a lot in the first half and we went backwards quite a bit in the second half.
“I’ve spoken about this since I’ve come here. I’m a football fan and I know myself I don’t want to see the team playing backwards.
“I don’t want us to have the ball 20 yards outside their half when we’re in comfortable possession and end up with it going back to our keeper, kicking a long ball. That will be hammered into them throughout the next couple of weeks.
“I’m not saying everything’s got to be done to please the fans but at the end of the day we have got to please the fans because it’s an entertainment industry. They’re the paying public.”
The Gills conceded after 33 minutes against Doncaster and found no way of answering back.
Changing the mentality could be key to turning things around.
“I’d like to see us attack more,” said Coleman.
“I’d like to see us go forwards a bit more and I’d like to see us eliminate going back to the keeper a lot more.
“We’ve also got to cut out the elementary mistakes.”
It was a header back towards goal from Armani Little that put Rovers’ Luke Molyneux in on goal to score the opener.
Coleman’s already noted the amount of goals conceded from individual errors.
He said: “If you go through the last 12 goals we’ve conceded as a club, probably nine of them were down to individual errors.
“That’s something that we’ve got to try and eliminate as well.
“Again, they don’t do it on purpose. Players don’t do it on purpose. There was no-one more upset than Lits and he ran his heart out but that’s football.”
Coleman will just hope the Gills can reproduce a bit more of what they did at the start of the game.
He said: “The signs were there so let’s hope another week’s work and we can start to get it right.”
