Injured U's skipper Kemal Izzet spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at the Weston Homes Community Stadium tomorrow afternoon, Izzet first talking about a different style of play under recently appointed boss Joe Dunne:
“The style of play under Joe Dunne has been good, the only problem we have got is mistakes at the moment. But, the more confident the lads get with the style of play then the less mistakes will happen, it is just brand new to everyone really. Not many do clubs do it anywhere at the moment, there are probably a handful of clubs in this division that try to play the way that we are trying to play. It is new and people just need to adapt to it, and I am sure that we will do it sooner rather than later.
“He wants us to go forward as quickly as possible, but sometimes keeping the ball and killing the team off is just as effective as trying to get forward as quickly as possible. Whilst you see us pass it round the back quite a bit there is a reason for it, you are shifting their unit constantly, and while it looks quite easy for the opposition there is nothing worse than running around without touching the ball. So, there is a plan behind keeping the ball and it seems to be working.
“You want to get on the ball and you want to pass it and keep it nice and simple. It is definitely working with the lads that he has brought in, everyone seems to have taken to it very well. If we fail doing what he wants then he hasn’t got a problem with it, it is if you start going against what he wants and then you start failing as well and making mistakes is when he gets annoyed. But, he constantly wants you to try, keep getting on it, keep doing what we have been told to do, and he knows that we have got the players to do it. So, he knows that if everyone is capable and is at it basically then we will get results, and we are.”
Meanwhile Arsenal-loanee frontman Sanchez Watt told the East Anglian Daily Post:
“It is good how the gaffer (Joe Dunne) has got us playing and when we defeat a team like Stevenage it gives us more confidence. We should be higher in the league and people are willing to show that. The gaffer is playing a different style and he should be backed for letting us play that way. He wants us to trust each other in passing the ball. Anyone can kick it long and run up and down but we are doing both and we have a plan A and B.
“I spoke to (Arsene) Wenger and my agent and they told me to just do the best I can at Colchester. As long as I do well, the football will come easy for me. People from Arsenal come to watch me play and watch you off the ball as the TV only usually shows the goals, The manager (at Colchester) wants me to go forward but he also wants me to help defensively too. I did that on Saturday and that gave me confidence when I went forward as I knew I was helping the team.”
In team news for the U’s tomorrow afternoon they have five players missing, four through injury and one through suspension, with the bad boy being veteran striker Clinton Morrison who is serving out the second game of a three match ban having recently been sent off at Northampton Town for elbowing Cobblers defender David Artell in stoppage time. Meanwhile the first of the injury absentees for Colchester is centre-half Matt Heath who suffered a slight hamstring pull in a 2-1 reserve team victory over West Ham on Tuesday.
Midfielder John-Joe O’Toole playing an hour in that match on his way back from a groin injury, but he is still a week or so away from first-team action. The final pair of players sitting in the stand then being midfielder and skipper Kemal Izzet who has missed the last three Colchester games with a hip flexor strain, and full-back Jackson Ramm who injured his knee in training in early September. That then leaving the U’s squad for tomorrow’s match as follows:
Goalkeepers – Mark Cousins, Carl Pentney.
Defenders – Tom Eastman, Bradley Hamilton, Magnus Okuonghae, Michael Rose, John White, Brian Wilson.
Midfielders – Marcus Bean, Karl Duguid, Craig Eastmond, Alex Gilbey, Jordan Sanderson, Anthony Wordsworth.
Attackers – Ian Henderson, Jabo Ibehre, Gavin Massey, Freddie Sears, Sanchez Watt, Drey Wright.
The referee for tomorrow's match is Steve Rushton from Stoke-on-Trent and he will be assisted down the lines by Stephen Ross from Boston in Lincolnshire and Alan Young from Ely in Cambridgeshire. Meanwhile the fourth official is Adrian Sannerude from Lowestoft in Suffolk.