The gaffer looks ahead to the visit of Coventry City in the Sky Bet Championship.
ON PLAYER AVAILABILITY
“Mads Andersen is doing well, doing great. But it’ll take a couple more weeks. Hopefully he'll be back after the international break, but we won’t take any risk with Mads because he’s an important player for us.
“Obbi will not be ready for tomorrow, it's a little too soon for him but he might be involved on Tuesday.”
ON RECRUITMENT
“Myself and Paul (Conway) are always in dialogue and talking about what we might be able to do. But we won’t just rush in. We have a couple of positions we are looking at, and we are confident we’ll get there.
“There’s just a few ideas we have, solutions to find. And towards the end of the window we might be able to find those solutions.”
SQUAD ROTATION?
“In the past, I’ve always mixed things a lot. To give players rest, time and recovery. But in certain areas here, we have lots of quality so it’s more simple.
“In other positions, there’s not as much competition so that’s what we are working on right now.
“For certain games you need certain types of players. It’s all about finding the right balance, and it’s about some flexibility and trying to find the solutions, again, probably towards the end of the window.”
ON ODUOR, MILLER & CHRISTIE-DAVIES
“Clarke is an awesome player with lots of qualities. He is unbelievably creative, he knows the moves to make. He is something special.
“He’s had minutes already and he is definitely a player who can make a big impact for us this season. It’s a fresh start for everybody right now.
“George is a really offensive player, he’s unbelievably fast and in this position, it could be really good for him. That’s why we did it, to see how he’d cope. We have lots of forward players so there’s not much room there now.
“When our two Belgian forwards are involved as well, we will have to talk to those who aren’t playing and see what’s the best for them moving forward.
“When a team does as well as we did last season, it’s harder for some players to get their chance. It’s about talking to your players, making sure they understand your thinking.
“Isaac isn’t someone I plan to use at the moment.”
FANS' RETURN TOMORROW
“To go 500+ days without our fans here makes tomorrow such an important date. We want to go out there and show the fans just how much they’ve been missed this last year or so.
“It is always a thin line though. We can’t hesitate or get carried away. We have to remain focused on what we are doing, follow the process.
“We have to improve massively in term of our finishing. If we can do that, we can hopefully get off to the perfect start here at Oakwell.”
A FAMILY REUNION?
“I am in good contact all of the time with my family, except during the 90 minutes!
“It will be a big thing for me when soon, they can join me here. That will be something to look forward to. But we talk every day, and they are supporting me, supporting Barnsley from afar right now.”
ON COVENTRY
“We’ve watched their games, especially last weekend’s win over Nottingham Forest and the midweek defeat against Northampton.
“They have good centre midfielders, they can play from the back or go a little more direct. It’s another good team, a big challenge for us. But we will go into the game wanting to attack them, to find the right answers tomorrow.”
