Erol post-KV Kortrijk | A better game for us
EROL BULUT SPOKE TO CARDIFF CITY TV AFTER THE BLUEBIRDS’ PRE-SEASON VICTORY OVER KV KORTRIJK ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON.
“If we compare today to the last game, I think this was a better game for us,” Erol began. “We had more of the ball in the first half. Then in the second we didn’t have it as much, but we also had a lot of young players in the team.
“The first half was really good. I liked how we came out from their high press and got some chances immediately, but we still have to work a lot before the start of the season.
"In general, I can be satisfied with how things went. But, I’m still not satisfied with the finishing percentage. That has to be a lot higher, and we have to work on it.
"We will have more difficult friendly matches ahead, especially in Austria, and we have to see whether we can do it against stronger teams.”
Several senior players got more pre-season minutes under their belt, including Aaron Ramsey, who played in a slightly different role against the Belgian outfit.
“We used Aaron as a second number six alongside [Manolis] Siopis, and from there, we tried having him dictate more of the game with his passing range - that allowed David [Turnbull] to play a little bit higher. From game to game we can change it, and today we saw that we can use Aaron in a different way sometimes.
“Aaron hasn’t had much of a summer holiday. He trained a lot to be ready for this pre-season. Right now, he is doing everything well and we have to manage his playing time in order to protect him and be ready for the next games.
"The best management comes from himself, so he has to make decisions also, but we always talk about that and talk with the physios. Hopefully we can use him more this season than last season.”
Rubin Colwill shone in the second half, with the gaffer confident that the attacking midfielder can hit the ground running this season.
“Rubin had a really good season last year, and it’s important for him also to be fit for the whole season.
“He still has to work on his issues; he wants to be everywhere, so we have to control his game better from the position that we want to have him. When you’re young and have power, you want to be everywhere, but we have to control it.”
Erol concluded by explaining how his side will spend the next few days ahead of our next friendly match against Penybont on Tuesday night.
“We have a lot of games coming up,” he concluded. “So, I want to see my players use what we give them in training during a match, because the best training you can get is a game. Even if we have some issues to fix, we can see in the games how we’re solving these problems.”