Players urged to nail down a regular place

PRESS YOUR CLAIMS: Lee Johnson has challenged his players to deliver.

LEE Johnson admits he doesn’t yet know the make-up of his ‘best’ Athletic team.

And the manager has laid down the gauntlet to his players to reveal the answer by picking up points.

While Bradford, riding high in sixth place in the league, have used only 13 players in starting line-ups in 2013-14, Athletic have already used 19. Not once this season has Johnson produced an unchanged team.

That’s a consequence of missed opportunities in nailing down a starting spot, the boss says.

“It is an issue,” Johnson admitted, ahead of tomorrow’s tricky clash at Crawley. “You know who your best XI is when they win every week.

“We have got a group of decent players who are much of a muchness; it’s not like there are 11 outstanding candidates for a starting spot.

“But somebody in the group needs to start saying ‘this is my shirt’ - and they do that by getting wins.”

Crawley are currently ninth, three points adrift of the play-off places.

Athletic’s manager feels that his team could easily be doing just as well, rather than languishing in 16th.

But while accepting the team’s points tally is a poor return, he feels that he is still on the right path.

“Seven points from eight games is disappointing,” Johnson said. “Everything else has been okay.

“You must have the belief that what you and the players are doing is correct and that things turn.

“I feel immense pressure to do well for the club, for myself and my family, for the chairman.

“It is certainly not pressure as in, ‘I’m going to lose my job.’

“But there is result pressure, of course. I am grateful for the opportunity and want more than anything to produce the goods for everyone.

“I believe we are doing that. There is no magic cure. We need to get this team blending and playing as a unit.”