Barnsley midfielder Joe Williams is confident the team can progress following the arrival of Head Coach José Morais.
The 20-year-old, on loan from Premier League side Everton, insists that morale in the camp is high and feels that the Reds will turn things around on the pitch - starting with the visit of Burton Albion on Tuesday.
“It’s been really good so far; a few little tweaks here and there on the training ground and how he wants us to play,” said Williams on his new Gaffer. "He’s had us in and it’s been a good week; all the lads have enjoyed it.
“I think he can just put a positive influence on the group, which he’s done. He’s talked to us - he got us in in the morning and had a chat with us to get straight out there and put things right on the pitch.
“He’s a really attacking coach; he likes us to play and get the ball down. Hopefully we’re expecting to score a lot more goals. We want to be better in the final third as a team so it will be good to get him in and hopefully he will work on us going forward because we’ve been good defensively. So, hopefully, going forward we can get a few more goals.
“The lads are confident in every game we play. I can imagine why people would think confidence is low and why we’re not picking up results, but when we’re actually watching the performances back we’re picking up a bit of confidence from them. It’s just the final little bits now and we need to start being a bit more ruthless and putting teams to bed.”
Morais arrives at Oakwell with a wealth of experience having worked alongside José Mourinho at Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Chelsea.
The Reds’ Head Coach has a number of honours to his name, including the Champions League and Premier League title, and Williams is relishing the prospect of familiarising himself with Morais’ philosophy.
“Obviously all the lads have been speaking about it,” continued Williams. "His background is really good; he’s worked with some really good people. His Assistant [Dimas], as well, has played at a very high level in football, so you can always learn off that and we respect both of them a lot. So we’re looking forward to working more with them.
"He’s mainly been on the pitch with us coaching, and he’s been really good. All the lads are impressed by him, so we’re all looking forward to it. It’s been mainly coaching and how we want to play.
“I’ve only worked with him for a few days so I don’t quite know how he handles man management stuff yet. So far he seems like he’s a good coach, so I’m looking forward to seeing how he is and the way he handles different things."
Williams bagged his first senior goal the last time the teams met with a thumping 30-yard strike as Barnsley ran out 4-2 winners at the Pirelli Stadium back in October.
Lloyd Isgrove, Brad Potts and Harvey Barnes were also on target for the Reds, who are unbeaten against the Brewers in competitive matches (won three, drawn three), and Williams wants that run to continue.
“Hopefully I can do that again, but I’d settle for anyone scoring - just as long as we get the win tomorrow,” said the midfielder. "It’s the only goal I’ve scored so far, so it was a good way to get it last time.
“They are big games, they call them six pointers because they’re around you. You need to be beating those teams around you if you want to be finishing above them; you can’t be getting beat or getting turned over so we don’t want to draw or lose, we’re going to win all three of them. Then we’re looking to kick on and finish as high as possible.
“Everyone’s fighting for their place. New Head Coach, everyone’s on a fresh start. It’s a big, big three games coming up, so we’re all ready. We all know anyway how big the next three games are so we’re all working hard and we know what to do.”
