Express & Star

Sean O'Driscoll: Saddlers told to take more risks in the final third

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Walsall boss Sean O'Driscoll wants his players to take more risks in the final third.

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O'Driscoll's side, who have scored eight goals in their last eight games, fell to a 3-0 defeat to Millwall on Saturday despite enjoying long spells of possession.

This weekend the Saddlers travel to League One strugglers Crewe with O'Driscoll believing his team can do more to unsettle opponents.

"We get a lot of ball in the final third but we need to be a little bit brighter up there," he said. "Unfortunately, it means you've got to risk giving the ball away because you're not going to score the perfect goal every time."Probably about 90 per cent of the time you will lose possession in the final third.

"You need to get people up there because if you've got no one around the ball, you're going to be vulnerable for the counter-attack.

"So when you stop the video and think 'we've had really good possession but there's only Tom Bradshaw in the box', then that's something you've got to look at. When we're at home, teams set up to make things difficult for us so we need to get the ball in the box earlier and get more people in there."

Meanwhile, development coach John Ward has revealed he was impressed with trialists Ellis Plummer and Josh Wakefield.