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 the fitness of Erhun Oztumer, Beram Kayal and Tomer Hemed...
"They need to get fitter. That’s not their fault they’ve just not really done much in pre-season. Kayal has just come back from injury, we had a game behind closed doors on Tuesday and he played 75 minutes in that. It was baking hot and it was difficult to get anything out of it apart from the minutes under the belt. He stood out for me, but he’s only just come back. The other two, slowly but surely, are getting fitter. Again, we’ve just got to keep working them and get them up to speed as quickly as possible.
"[I’m saying to my players on the training pitch] go out there and be the best player. When they’re all doing that it makes my job a lot harder because they’re all good in different ways and they all bring different things. It makes it harder but I’d rather that than be having to scratch around and try to put people out of position… it’s a good problem to have."
On trialists Tyrone Mears and Adam Matthews...
"Tyrone [Mears] has gone now but Adam Matthews is still here, like I say we played the game on Tuesday and he did really well in that but we’re not going to get too far ahead. We’re happy with his progress because obviously he hasn’t done anything on pre-season so we’re not going to be too harsh on judging him but what I’ve seen so far is promising and he’s doing well."
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.