Why Training Time Explains Our Form

The short version: a heavy schedule and new faces make it easier to shore things up at the back than get slick going forward. Give the boss a few proper days' training and patterns of play start to look different.

Why time on the grass matters

Coaches can install defensive shape relatively quickly. It’s about organisation, discipline and routines players can fall back on. Attacking patterns need repetitions, combinations, movement and understanding. That takes more deliberate practice and match-like drills — and you can’t cram those into a recovery day between midweek travel and a weekend kick-off.

Fixture congestion has a real effect

We were carrying a three-games-in-eight-days rhythm for much of the season and that restricts what coaching staff can do. The supposed benefit of exiting Europe was more regular weeks and fuller training blocks. For a while that promise wasn’t realised by the fixture list, so the squad didn’t get that breathing space to work on the attacking identity Danny wants.

New signings need patience — and pragmatism wins points

Four January arrivals change the chemistry. They need time to learn teammates’ tendencies, and the manager has to weigh up whether to rush fluidity or prioritise results. To be fair, reverting to a pragmatic approach — tighten up, concede fewer goals and grind out wins — is sensible while those new players bed in. We’ve all seen clubs panic only to stabilise later; Motherwell’s early-season wobble is a useful reminder that progress isn’t always linear.

So yes, the form isn’t ideal right now. But the explanation is straightforward: limited training time, a need to install attacking patterns, and fresh faces to integrate. Give things a bit of time and the football should follow, but for now pragmatism is a defensible route.

Written by Angus1812: 19 March 2026