Barnsley remain in good heart for survival mission

It is a common problem in football – Carlos Corberan has been talking in similar terms about Huddersfield Town lately – but Asbaghi’s novel answer speaks volumes about him.

Whereas most managers would understandably be focused on trying to get into their players’ heads, Asbaghi thinks tactical work on the training ground offers a solution.

“A lot of it comes from tactical work that puts players in good positions,” he argued. “With good tactics and players understanding tactics you can put them in a situation where they have more time (on the ball). Hopefully, we can give the players half-a-second extra or an extra metre’s space because that does a lot for your confidence.

“On Friday, we didn’t get that extra second they (West Bromwich Albion’s players) were always tight to us, ready to take the duel.

“But it’s also about not being afraid of losing the ball. If you are more afraid of losing the ball than you are (thinking) about creating, you will have nothing in games.”

If Friday’s 0-0 draw with West Brom showed pitiful little attacking threat from hosts, there was some heroic defending to take encouragement from.

“We put our bodies on the line. I just think we need to be a bit more fluent at times and believe in ourselves because at times we did play well, we just needed to try and play out of their press,” said Williams, who was playing at right wing-back.

Barnsley look increasingly doomed in the Championship relegation zone but have confounded dismal forecasts before in recent seasons and most importantly are not playing as if they think that way.

“It’s easy in situations where you’re not winning and people almost expect you to get relegated, you can act like that, you don’t act like a winner sometimes,” acknowledged Asbaghi. “But our players are not showing those signs, they are keeping up the fight every day in training. They are killing it for each other and it’s a good foundation for us but we need to mix it with better offensive play.

“But at least we have something to fall back on.”