Elliot Watt Refuses to Make Excuses as Burton Albion Struggle for Form Amid Record Summer Signings
Elliot Watt refuses to blame Burton Albion's record-breaking 23 summer signings for their early season struggles, urging the team to focus on improving key moments in matches.
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Elliot Watt has insisted Burton Albion cannot use their record-breaking 23 summer signings as an excuse for their early season slump.
A Record-Breaking Transfer Window
The Brewers broke the record set by Nottingham Forest after their spending spree in 2022 saw them recruit 21 players.
Albion have, understandably, struggled to gel early on in the campaign and are still searching for their first league win after four draws and three defeats in their opening seven outings.
“It’s difficult when you have so many new players,” Watt, one of club’s many new faces, told SportsBoom.com.
“But I think there are many teams who have had new lads come together this season.”
We’re not the only ones who have had a high number of lads come into a changing room
Elliot Watt
No Excuses, says Watt
“We can’t use that as an excuse. We’re quite a few games in now.”
“Of course it’s going to take time for us to gel, but we can’t give excuses and use them.”
“We’ve got to start looking within ourselves and finding the answers.”
“Ultimately, we’re got a lot of players who haven’t played at this level before and we’re finding out what it’s about.”
“If you don’t take your chances at one end you get punished at the other end.”
"It’s the key moments within games that just aren’t going our way at the moment.”
Ultimately, we’ve got to find a way to turn these moments into our favour.”
Learning the Hard Way
It has been a tough start to the season for the club, but they have played some of the league’s heavy hitters.
Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Blackpool came at one of the promotion favourites, who are flying under new boss Steve Bruce.
They have also played Rotherham, who were in the Championship last season, Lincoln, who missed out of the play-offs on the final day last term, and Stevenage — who looked destined to go up before the wheels came off from March onwards.
But Watt added: “We’re hurting, the lads are hurting.”
“We’re a team who wants to win every game. We believe we’ve got the capabilities to win every game in this league. We’ve got the quality in the changing room, but we just aren’t finding the way at the minute.”
“We’ve got a mentality in the group, we call it the Brewer mentality and there are certain things you need to have everyday coming into the building.”
“We don’t want people to have a victim mentality or a cynic mentality. It’s a we, not me, attitude in there. You can feel sorry for yourself when you’ve got your days off, but ultimately you have to be ready to go again to put in performances.”
Watt’s Own Journey Back to Form
Watt was named in last year’s EFL and PFA Teams of the Season as well as being picked as the PFA’s Fans’ League Two Players of the Year for his exploits at Class of ’92 owned Salford City.
On his own early-season form, the Scottish midfielder added: “I feel as though I’ve found my rhythm in the last two or three games.”
“I’ve always been a player where I need to play games to find my rhythm. I had an injury in pre-season which knocked me back.”
“We didn’t play many games in pre-season as a team and we’re starting to find our feet together.”
“We’re beginning to gel individually and as a team.”
“I feel as though I’ve done okay the past few weeks, but I’d happily have a stinker every game if we came away with three points if I could.”
Shane is a respected journalist who has covered a range of sports for a number of years.