Richard Walker wants his players to “feel comfortable to express themselves” ahead of Saturday’s U18 Premier League opener on Saturday.
Wolves under-18s host Blackburn Rovers at Compton Park in their first game of the 2023/24 league campaign and head coach Walker is expecting a stern test. Speaking ahead of the weekend, Walker has expressed his thoughts on a pleasing pre-season, balancing development with winning games of football and his expectations from the group of players.
On the progress made in pre-season
“It’s been a really pleasing pre-season. From a staff point of view, I’m pleased with how we’ve worked together as a team and how we’ve brought together every discipline – from match analysis, medical, sports science, psychological and the technical and tactical side of it.
“From my point of view, I’m happy with the programme the players have got. There’s a large emphasis on the physical aspect in pre-season and I think we’ve integrated that well within the football side of it.
“We’ve been able to get the tactical returns we want, while making sure the players are getting fit in a football manner.
“On the pitch, the lads have been really receptive to my ideas and how I want to go about things. They’ve shown good steady progress throughout pre-season and now, in my experience, they look like they’re in a really good place going into the season.”
On facing a variety of opposition
“We’ve had the international experience and different opposition in Bratislava in terms of the Hungarian teams who posed different challenges.
“The programme, on a more domestic level, has seen us play against category one, two and three opposition, all of which have posed a different threat and style of play.
“We’ve played against a back three, a back four, a diamond, a more conventional 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1, so we’ve had a real good variety.
“The boys have dealt really well with what they’ve faced and ultimately, posed our game plan on whoever we faced.”
On balancing development with winning games of football
“First and foremost, it’s about us developing players to play in our first-team. That doesn’t mean that can’t be done in an environment that emphasises trying to get three points.
“I want the players to be competitive in every aspect of every game and want to be winners.
“Hopefully we get the nice balance between a competitive environment that shapes them for the next step when, ultimately, three points is the be-all and end-all. We want to create that environment where development is at the forefront of that.”
On facing Blackburn on opening day
“We’ve got a bit of an understanding of what they’re about, but the priority will be us and that will be the same in every game.
“It would be naïve of us not to utilise certain bits of footage that we get. Even that is done with the focus of how our game plan will impose itself on the opposition.
“In terms of Blackburn, they’re always well-organised. Ryan Kidd and Darragh Tuffy are good coaches and they’ll set them up well.
“We know they’ll be very hard working and they’re usually a good academy side who will pose their own challenges.
“For me, it’s about imposing our own game plan and if we do that then I’m sure we’ll be successful more often than not this season.”
On what he expects from his players
“The main thing is to follow the process of training hard every day and being the best they can be in all aspects.
“The key for us, when we go into games, is to make sure the players feel comfortable to express themselves.
“They’re all really good players and they’ve got to start believing they are. I think they can really go and express themselves like they did against Norwich last Saturday.”
