Barnsley FC manager Poya Asbaghi eager to find out what makes his players tick

He also values the importance of looking in the whites of their eyes and getting to know what makes them tick as human beings from a personal perspective.

Plus finding out who he can trust, who needs an arm around the shoulder and who potentially needs a kick up the backside.

In a relegation battle, which the Reds unquestionably are in with just two wins in 20 Championship matches to their credit in 2021-22 – and effectively being nine points adrift of safety – character and mentality is every bit as important as ability.

A week’s run-up to Saturday’s home derby with Huddersfield Town gives him more opportunity to do that and find out a bit more about his squad.

Asbaghi said: “Hopefully, in time, you get to know the players’ strengths and weaknesses and their personalities. The more time we have together, the more training (sessons) we have.

“You see the starting players in the games, but you don’t see as much of the players who don’t start because you need more training and I am looking forward to seeing all the players and how they adapt to what we want to do and see how they develop.

“But as well, I want to see the mentality and how they handle different situations. For us, it is important to create an environment where if you are playing or not playing, you are giving one hundred per cent to push your team-mates to create a positive atmosphere which helps each other to improve.

“That is just as important in terms of what they do as the players playing the game. Otherwise, we won’t fix this challenging situation.

“I have had a lot of individual talks (already) and every day we will have more. As well, we will also have collective talks with each other to see what type of environment we want.

“There’s a lot of jobs that need doing - mentally, tactically, technically and physically and we have to make sure we train all these four areas in an effective way.”