“We have to put Sunderland under pressure” says Rotherham boss Matt Taylor

Rotherham boss Matt Taylor has called on his side to have a ‘belief’ when they come up against play-off chasing Sunderland at The New York Stadium this evening.

Speaking with Rotherham’s official website, Taylor said:

They’re a fantastic side. They’ve invested well and recruited well and got some good players for the level. They have a couple of loans in there as well who have certainly improved them.

We’re at home and we have to make the running. We have to put them under pressure. We know their style and what they’ll want to do when they come to our pitch. We have to make it ‘our pitch’ like we did for the first half on Saturday.

We put a good team [Coventry] on the back foot. We just couldn’t quite break through them. We have to try and do the same to Sunderland.

Photo by Kieran Cleeves/PA Images via Getty Images

It feels off the end of the last game and on the back of two losses that we could be in such a different position because the last six or seven games the performance levels have greatly improved from where they were, but we always want a point return.

We have to believe we can compete and show that. We have to be at our best if we’re going to take anything from any game at any level.

We have to make sure we’re fully charged and not only energised, but executing our game plan and our quality moments.

The fine margins that any games comes down to are just costing us at the moment at both ends of the pitch, but generally, from box-to-box, we’re structurally pretty good at the moment.