Mark Bonner is happy with how his side have begun 2020/21, but is not getting carried away at this early stage of the season and feels there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
Reflecting on the opening two weeks of the new campaign, the U’s Head Coach who has led his team to three wins from four and three clean sheets, has been delighted with United’s doggedness and robust defence, but is asking his squad to show a willingness to constantly improve particularly in their creativity on the ball.
He said: “It’s early stages of the season still, so you can’t look too much into anything that has happened so far. Everyone in the division is still finding their rhythm, their form and their best teams, so it is still very early.
“From our perspective, we know we have got a team who are getting fitter and more organised with every game, and we’ve looked very tough to beat and tough to create chances against so far. We need to keep doing the same again and again.
“We know an area of improvement is to carry more of a threat when we have the ball, and look to be more creative with possession, whilst trying to dominate for some spells ourselves. So overall we still have plenty to do, but there has been a lot of encouraging signs during these few weeks of the season.”
Cambridge United make their first away trip in Sky Bet League Two this weekend, with the journey north to Morecambe. Whilst keen for the U’s to focus on how they can best impact the game, Bonner highlights one of the early season challenges of the unknown factor of what to expect from upcoming opponents and how they may approach the fixture tactically.
“Theirs is a little uncertainty early on, because you don’t necessarily get the number of games to draw those conclusions (Morecambe playing a back three or back four). They certainly surprised us last week with the shape they played against Cheltenham, but it bear fruit for them in the game where they match them up. Against Oldham in the week, they reverted back to a more natural shape for a Derek Adams’ side and for Morecambe.
“So ultimately we have to be ready for both, and having played against a back three this week that will help us going in to that.
“But we mustn’t get overly concerned by them, because we’ve got to make sure we carry our own threats and look a difficult team to defend against, whatever they throw at us on Saturday.”
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