Cambridge United head coach Garry Monk breaking season down into blocks ahead of League One clash against Wigan Athletic

Cambridge United head coach Garry Monk has worked to install a ‘short-term focus’ into his players’ mindset as they bid to ‘kickstart’ their season with the visit of Wigan Athletic tomorrow.

Not only have the U’s made a winless start to the 2024/25 campaign, they are the one club in the country’s top eight levels – from the Premier League down to Step 4 in the non-league pyramid (428 teams) – that has not taken the lead in any of their league fixtures so far this term.

The recent international break afforded Monk some additional time on the training pitch with his players, but the matches now come thick and fast with the visit of Wigan followed by a trip to Stevenage on Tuesday (22 October) and then a home encounter against Burton Albion – also without a victory to their name – the following weekend.

And Monk believes that rather than fixating on long-term targets, breaking the season down into smaller chunks is the best route forward for his bottom-of-the-table side.

He said: “It’s a chance to kickstart our season. The feeling within the camp is that apart from two or three games we’ve been right in the games and there’s been situations where we should have taken points. We believe we deserve more than what we have got but the reality is we have what we have – we have to change that.

“It’s the first time I’d looked at the league table during this international break. I didn’t need to look because I knew what we had, but it’s the first genuine time I’ve looked at it.

“You can all get down about the situation because we haven’t won a game and feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, but the reality is that there’s quite a few teams in there having difficult starts as well and we’re only a couple of results away from the whole perception completely changing.

“That’s our focus, that’s what we’re trying to achieve and do it as quickly as possible with this first set of games in the first week. That’s been our focus, it’s what we’ve psychology put our focus to and we’ve trained it. As poor results as we’ve had, we’re not far away from being right in the mix where we want to be and that’s the first step.

“We’ve tried to set a short-term focus rather than worrying about the complexion of the whole season and where we are right now and what that means for the rest of the season. It’s pointless thinking like that.

“We’ve got two three-game blocks coming up before another potential international break so we’re just breaking it down into these three games. That’s all we can do and the players have been really good and focused.”

Monk will be absent from the dugout on Saturday after he was handed a one-match touchline suspension for his conduct towards end of the 1-0 defeat to Rotherham United earlier this month.

It is a decision that has left the 45-year-old frustrated, yet he is determined to get on with the job in hand.

“I can’t say too much about it but I’m not happy about it. It’s a bit farcical how its come around but it is what it is,” added Monk, who has revealed that Kell Watts and Zeno Ibsen Rossi are set to return to the squad this weekend.

“I don’t want it to become a distraction and it won’t change our preparation. I’ve got communication with the bench and the focus will be on the players and this game against Wigan.”

Sixteenth-placed Wigan, who have not conceded a goal since the start of September, are the last side that Cambridge beat back on 1 April.