A Greater Tempo

Burton’s form of late has been disappointing; a good start to the season has seen the club suffer a number of defeats in recent weeks.

In fact we’ve suffered three defeats on the bounce, which include successive setbacks at the Pirelli Stadium including last weekends 2-1 defeat to Portsmouth.

Why is the form suffering?

The loss of Billy Kee hasn’t helped, with the form during the strikers five-weeks out to date being poor, but the main reason behind this as far as Gary Rowett is concerned has been a tendency to become too cautious in games.

Rowett wants the tempo at the start of games to be higher with more caution thrown to the wind.

He told the Derby Telegraph: ‘I don’t think we’ve started games terribly – we’re being a little bit cautious perhaps.

‘I think, in some ways, we’re being a little bit cautious as a whole. It’s not intentional but, as a team, we’ve not quite been full-blooded enough.

‘The tempo is not quite there. We’ve got to come out of the blocks quicker.’

This tempo and a sign of greater intent needs to be something that all show, this can be something as simple as a striker chasing down a ball into the corner. Doing this puts the defending side under pressure and shows that sign of intent, even if nothing comes of it.

You’ve got to get the balance right, and not be wasting energy unnecessarily but Rowett’s wishes should come into play from this weekend on.

At least you’d hope so…