Ahead of this Saturday’s clash with Reading, Lee Bowyer sat down with the press for his regular pre-match press conference.
Lee Bowyer's full pre-match press conference will be available on Valley Pass. Valley Pass costs just £6.50 per month or £60 for the year and you can sign-up here.
Below are some of the talking points…
On player fitness ahead of the game against Reading…
"Chuks [Aneke] is okay now and Deji [Oshilaja] is going to miss this game, he should only miss this game though, it’s not too bad. The international break is helping us there, it’s probably a two-week injury but by the time we come back from the international break he’ll be ready for the next game."
On having a large squad to choose from…
"That’s at the moment, we’ve only played five games and there’s 40-odd to go. We’re going to pick up injuries, that’s just the nature of the game, hopefully not as many as we did last season. We had some freak one’s last season, hopefully we don’t go down that line again. It makes my job harder [having everyone fit] because I’ve got to pick a team and I’ve got a lot of numbers and everyone wants to play.
"I am thankful that I’ve got that difficulty because I want that competition, I want everyone to push each other every second of the day because that makes us better.
"We’re in a good place at the moment, we’ll keep working hard and we’ll improve – and we will improve as the season goes on just as we did last season.
"Remember that we’ve brought in a lot of players, 14, so they’ve got to blend and some of the new ones have got to take on board what is expected of them. They’re doing it quickly and you can see from the result. It’s just added to the lads that have got us to where we are now, and they’ve been great as well. We know what we’ve got to do and that is just try to stay in this league and if we do that it would be a great achievement but we’re only five games in. We can’t get carried away."
On players going out on loan…
"Some of the younger lads will be going out on loan. There’s been enquiries about a couple of senior-ish ones, who have been in and around the first team. But like I said I just want as many bodies around the building as possible because you just don’t know what is going to happen. Last season we had the two shoulders in one day, you just couldn’t write it. It’s going to be a tough decision to either let them go and play 20 games between now and January or to just keep them around in case.
"They’ll be decisions that I’ll be making in the next few days, the window closes on Monday or Tuesday so that’s when they’ll have to go."
On being linked to the vacant position as Huddersfield Town manager…
"I’ve heard about it, because as soon as something happens everyone starts panicking. Just because odds have been slashed, people think all of a sudden that I’m leaving and it’s crazy but I do understand where people are coming from and saying these things but it’s not different to last season when there was interest. It’s just people recognising what a good job we’re doing here so it’s nice to be noticed.
"We’re happy. We’ll just keep working hard and trying to win games. That’s my job; to improve the players and then improve as a team.
"We’ve got a [team] meeting this morning and I’ll just say [to the players], ‘ignore it, it’s a load of rubbish’. I’ve not heard anything. It doesn’t interfere with them and it doesn’t affect them in any way because they’re going to train today just like they do every day and we’re preparing for Saturday. Nothing’s changed."
Lee Bowyer's full pre-match press conference will be available on Valley Pass. Valley Pass costs just £6.50 per month or £60 for the year and you can sign-up here.