Nathan Jones has had a chat with Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu to help him focus on improving himself rather than lifting team-mates’ morale after a below par spell in recent weeks.
The manager admitted that, while the midfielder rarely lets him down, dips in form are to be expected, as they are with all his players, but that he’ll regain it.
Jones said: “I trust my players, I trust Pelly phenomenally, because he doesn’t often let me down.
“We’ve had a talk to him this week because he does (lift other players), but I want him to concentrate on being better, not just on lifting everyone, because he does that and that doesn’t change.
“He’s a phenomenal human being and that’s a big part of what we do and why he’s at the club. The Fulhams and Bournemouths don’t tend to have real big dips, and if they do, it tends to be catastrophic because of what their expectations are.
“But with us, we know we’re going to have that, so it’s important we have characters to keep us moving forward, to keep everyone bubbly, keep everyone in a good frame of mind because we know we’re going to bounce back.
“So, in that interim period, we need people like that and it’s important and he is, but he works hard at his game. I want him to be more diligent as I want him to fulfil every bit of potential he has, because he has raw attribute which are Premier League, he has other attributes which aren’t.
“So, it’s about brushing up on those, but he’s a big, big part of what we do here.”
Mpanzu, 27, has played in all but three of Town’s Championship games this term, including every minute of their current four-game winless run, with him one of a group of players that Jones criticised after the dismal 2-1 home reverse against Cardiff at the weekend.
“Pelly never lets me down,” said Jones, adding: “If he has a tough time in games, that’s again to be expected because a consistency is what we want to add to him, and we’ve asked him to do a number of things. He gives us good energy, big outputs, (we’ve) asked him to play defensive and an attacking one and he gives us things.
“There’s certain stuff he can be better at, and I understand that, and sometimes he has a dip, but let’s not forget where Pelly’s come from, what Pelly’s done for us, and how he’s joined along the journey.
“Sometimes he’ll have a dip in form, it’s up to me then to manage him, what I tend to do with Pelly is play him through things and and he comes through the other end, so I understand he may be getting a little bit (of criticism) at the minute because of certain performances, but they’re probably the same people that were desperate for him to sign and when he did sign he was a big player.
“So, he is going to have a dip, so will Henri Lansbury, so will Allan Campbell, so will Jordan Clark, so will Luke Berry, so will Elijah Adebayo, it’s how we manage them from there.”
