Gillingham’s youth players will be called upon by the manager if he doesn’t get the right response from his senior professionals.
John Coleman’s determined to turn Gillingham’s form around and hopes a few new faces in the January transfer window will help.
Goalscoring remains the main problem for the Gills but Coleman doesn’t think the team lack the quality. It’s the mindset that’s got to change.
He said: “I get that the fans will think, ‘Oh, we haven’t been scoring enough goals and we haven’t signed a striker’.
“We have signed two attacking players in the window in Asher (Agbinone) and Jimmy-Jay Morgan. Also, Dominic Corness is an attack-minded player, although he can play defensive midfielder as well, as is Nelson (Khumbeni).
“I don’t think our problem with scoring goals is down to personnel. I think our problem with scoring goals is the philosophy we’ve got at the moment, the identity we’ve got at the moment, and the over-reliance on going backwards rather than going forwards.
“I’ve been trying to change that since I came here. I thought I’d be able to change it quicker than I have, so I’m not going to give anybody any toffee that I’m this and I’m that, I’ve been trying as hard as I can.
“The fact of the matter is that if we don’t start playing the type of football I want to play, there has to be drastic changes and we’ve got enough of a squad to make drastic changes.
“If we make those drastic changes and that still doesn’t work, then we’ll bring in the youth players.
“Gillingham Football Club and Gillingham fans deserve a team, certainly at home, who attacks teams, that gets forward, not just once or twice.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all backward, but the feeling for me is we’re not dominating games, we’re not getting on the front foot, we’re not sustaining enough attacks.
“We’re not getting (at teams) like we did the first 20 minutes against Doncaster, where we keep them pinned in until they’re getting suffocated. We’ve got to play like that, we’ve got to play on the front foot.
“We could have signed 10 strikers in the window. The top strikers who could make a difference are not going to be available in January.
“You could fall down the mineshaft of signing players and spending money on players that aren’t really worth it.
“You’ve got to be mindful, we’ve got wonderful owners here in Brad and Shannon (Galinson) and they deserve to have the money used wisely, and that’s not saying it hasn’t been used wisely in the past. But all I’m saying is going forward, every signing we make has got to make a difference.
“I get that the fans would have liked to have seen a striker. I would have liked to have seen a striker that I thought would make a difference. I don’t think there was going to be one available in the window.
“I was definitely not just going to sign a token one, and sign someone for the sake of saying I brought a striker in and then be reluctant to use him.
“If we’re going to score goals, we’ve got to change the way we play. That’s the brutal truth.
“That’s what we will continue and continue and continue to focus on. We’ve spent a week training at it, doing that. Hopefully we’ll get the results that we think we can get.”
Coleman’s overseen four games so far, two draws and two defeats, with three goals scored. The Gills head to Barrow this weekend sitting 18th in the table, a long way off where anyone expected the team to be at this stage.
The manager said: “I’m not happy with the way we’re playing. But I can still see signs that there is something there. We’ve just got to get that out of them.
“I’m not beating around the bush. We haven’t won in eight. That’s not good enough for the club at this stature full stop. There’s nothing to be added and nothing to be taken away from that.
“We have got to get on a winning run.
“You can keep doing the same things. We’ve got to change that approach. It’s got to be getting on the front foot and playing forward. Playing forward, attacking football that I know our fans crave.
“You saw the shoots of recovery again towards the end of the game (against Notts County last weekend) when we’re knocking on the door with ten minutes to go. You see how the crowd responds.
“The difference in walking off the pitch having lost to Doncaster (in his first game) and the difference in walking off the pitch and losing to Notts County. The fans stayed with us to the end.
“I spoke to quite a few of the fans in The Factory after the game. I think they can see what we’re trying to do. It doesn’t happen overnight. We’ve got to change this attitude that when we get the ball we protect it.
“Let’s go forward, let’s go and attack and let’s try and score goals.”
