Wellens admits 'unbalance' in current squad as January transfer window looms

RICHIE WELLENS stated ‘it hurt’ to be on the end of a four-nil drubbing by Carlisle United in his first game at the helm of Swindon Town. TotalSport Swindon’s Ryan Walker got the thoughts of the Robins manager following the defeat.

Having been appointed manager four days ago, today’s defeat was the worst possible start for Richie Wellens. Speaking after the match, Wellens admitted it was going to be an uphill task turning Swindon around this season.

“I knew it was a tough challenge. You never really get a job and everything is all rosy,” said Wellens.

“Today obviously highlighted a lot of things that aren’t right at the moment.

“There were a lot of good things in the first 35 minutes putting some great balls into the box and getting in good areas we didn’t have that poacher who probably would’ve got three or four tap-ins today,” he added.

“We conceded goals at bad times, especially the one straight away in the second half.

“I think the biggest thing for me today is James Dunne going off.

“That absolutely killed us. He had the energy in midfield and started really positive and that just sucked that bit of life out of us. He’s had a bad family emergency and had to head home,” he said.

Conceding just one goal in the first half, Swindon went on to concede three more within the space of twenty minutes of one another. And Wellens was honest in his appraisal when asked for his thoughts on the concerning defensive display.

“The first one, Dion [Conroy] doesn’t need to step in because Matty Taylor is covering,” explained Wellens.

“He steps in allows space in behind and they play the ball in the channel where Dion should be and then they pull it back and score.

“The second is a straightforward diagonal ball, which you’re going to face a lot of in this league and we didn’t track the runner inside.

“It was a great finish but we shouldn’t have allowed it to happen. The free-kick we should’ve just gone and headed it. 

“There’s three goals there you can cut off and when you’re the manager sat down with half an hour to go and the game’s gone it’s tough,” he said.

“I don’t know the character of the players that well yet and I was looking for body language at that stage.

“Some of it came, some players came out of today with real credit. The young lad Twine comes on and he’s enthusiastic. He wants to get on the ball and is trying to make things happen,” he added.

“It does scare me a bit though that we’ve done ok in a game and still conceded four when they probably only had five shots on goal.

“I might look back on this team in four week’s time and think why did I pick that team, but I had to go with the team that got a good result against York.

“It’s difficult with the personnel that we’ve got trying to work out the best system, so I’m going to have to get out on the training ground next week and really work out what we can go with next Saturday,” said the manager.

An away trip to the high-flying Port Vale awaits Wellens in his next match, but when asked whether team changes would be made, he said injuries to key players restrict squad selection.

“I could make multiple changes but we’ve got injuries to important personnel such as Doughty and Kaiyne Woolery,” stated Wellens.

“It’s more about now finding the shape that can get the best out of the players that we’ve got. When we play three at the back, we haven’t got one out-and-out wing-back. 

“Ellis and Jermaine are both wingers so, therefore, you get the positives going forward and I thought Jermaine was excellent for the first forty minutes but he also has defensive deficiencies as well and we saw those.

“We are going to have to work on a lot of things this week to try and get it right,” he said.

A new manager often brings with it a renewed sense of optimism and Wellens was emotive when describing his feelings for the Swindon fans after failing to get a win in front of the home fans.

“It kills me [not getting a result for the fans] and I thought the fans were good,” said the manager.

“It was difficult but they didn’t get on the lads back too much when they could of. I will work as hard as I possibly can to get the very best out of these players and see what we can do going forward.”

“I need to get on the training ground now and I need to work to try and sort out our problems.

“We don’t score many goals, so it’s about working out how we can get goals, making sure the runs are in the box.

“We need to sure up in defence as well. We can’t have good periods and then a dodgy period for two minutes and concede. That can’t happen,” he said.

Failing to score extended Swindon’s disappointing statistic of now having only scored three goals in their last nine league games. And Wellens was honest in his squad appraisal highlighting the lack of a potent goalscorer as a big issue.

“I don’t want to say too much but if you’re a Swindon fan at this time, I’m the manager and my staff look at this squad and it is unbalanced,” said Wellens.

“I think anyone would admit that.

“Let’s try and improve the players we’ve got and pick up a few wins between now and January. We’re going to pick up points and I want us to score goals,” he added.

“If you’re asking me whether we have an out-and-out goalscorer at this club at the moment then the answer is probably not.

“If we had one then we would’ve scored some goals today and the result may have been different,” he said.