Ryan Lowe is looking for his Preston North End side to find the balance between when to attack and defend against league leaders Burnley this weekend.
North End will head to Turf Moor to take on Vincent Kompany’s side in a Lancashire derby on Saturday, which will see the Clarets go in search of their tenth successive league victory.
They’re comfortable leaders in the Championship and remain well on course to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking, while for PNE it’s a case of looking to continue their good form away from home.
Ryan told iFollow PNE: “I know there’s a rivalry, but I think between the coaches and the managers the respect’s obviously mutual.
“They’ll know what we do and what we’re good at, and we certainly know what they’re good at and what they do.
“It’s that balancing act of how you go about your business on the day and what we’ve got to do is make sure we go there, and we’re solid, we’re resolute, hard to beat and create opportunities.
“I think you’ve obviously got to get off to a good start at Turf Moor, of course you have, because they’re a good team and they play on the front foot. But that’s what we’ll be looking to do.”
Burnley are a side who have been revamped – both in style and personnel – since the arrival of manager Kompany last summer.
They’re a team who keep a lot of the ball, averaging 64.5% of possession in the Championship so far this season, so that’s something PNE may have to adapt their game to.
Ryan added: “Sometimes we have to show teams respect with what they do and how they go about their business, and that’s the gameplan for us to get after them at the right times and defend at the right times, but theirs will be the same.
“You’re not going there just to sit back and soak up the pressure. You’ve got to go there and give a good account of yourselves and that’s certainly what we’ll be trying to do because it’s important that we do that.
“As I’ve said, it’s a derby. We’ll have our end full with our fans and theirs is sold out, and we did have a good game against them at home and we’ve got to put that performance in again to try and get a possible result.”
The manager also confirmed that Ben Whiteman and Troy Parrott are now back in training after missing last weekend’s defeat to Bristol City.
Josh Onomah – who made his PNE debut off the bench in that fixture – has also had more time on the training pitch to build his fitness up, following his arrival on deadline day.
The manager said: “We’ll have a fully-fit squad to pick from which becomes a selection headache for me.
“How fit Troy and Ben are remains to be seen, but we’ll see how they go today [Thursday].
“Josh is working his socks off. He’s working hard, he’s doing double sessions with John [Lucas, Head of Physical Performance] and then afterwards we’re taking him off his feet.
“You can see the quality in him of course, so I’m sure he’ll be up to speed. He’s definitely not going to be up to match speed in the next couple of weeks, but the more minutes he gets and the more training sessions he gets and the more afternoon sessions he does then he’ll be a lot fitter for us.”