‘We’re not far off’ - Jason Euell on the small ‘change’ needed during Preston North End interim spell
Euell gave his thoughts on what is needed to turn the side’s poor form around.
Preston North End’s interim manager Jason Euell doesn’t want to change too much during his temporary spell in charge.
North End take on QPR away from home on Saturday in their eighth league game of the season. PNE sit 23rd in the Championship, having lost six of their opening seven games.
It was a run of form that ultimately led to the club parting ways with Paul Heckingbottom and Stuart McCall on Sunday.
However, Euell believes that results have not matched the level of performance produced by the squad, and is aware he won’t be able to change too much during his short spell as a number one.
“I think sometimes it's knowing what's ahead of you first,” Euell said in his pre-match press conference on Thursday.
“From me getting a call on Sunday, knowing that there's a game on Saturday, yes, you want to change something, but you can't change loads of things in a short space of time.
“You've got to be mindful about what that change is and what it looks like. Also, is it a change that's just for me or is it a change that's going to benefit the players?”
He added: “In terms of where we are now, I said to the players, we were probably in a worse position in February, once we started that losing run in January.
“So I know it looks bad in terms of how this season started, but we were in a worse position at that point in February when we didn't get the results, we didn't have the performances, we weren't scoring goals and we were losing games week in, week out.
“Where we are now is not a great position, a position we don't want to be in, but the performances have been there, showing that. We just haven't been better, or better than the opposition at the times when we needed to, to get those performances into results.
“So we're not far off, but we need to show that we can now turn those performances into results because we know how important results are.“
Heckingbottom often spoke in press conferences about games of football being a story of ‘both boxes’, stressing the importance of efficiency at either end of the pitch.
That is clear to Euell too, and he knows exactly where PNE must improve - and how.
“It's how the game is and it's how you want to break down a game, and if the goals we were conceding were 25, 30-yard shots on goal and [they were] going in, then we wouldn’t be talking about both boxes.
“But what it is, is the opportunities that we're getting in our attacking box and what we're conceding in the defending box.
“It’s not necessarily within the open game. It's down to the set pieces, it's into the final third. We have to recognise that, again, we need to be doing better in both scenarios.
“Yes, we have been good at defending our own box for periods of time, but it just takes one lapse, two lapses, and you end up picking the ball out of the back of your net and you're not getting any rewards from it.”