Jody Morris believes a lack of quality has been Swindon's biggest problem in attack

Jody Morris put his side’s attacking woes down to a lack of quality and decision making in key moments. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam spoke to the head coach ahead of the Rochdale game.

Since Morris took over eight matches ago, Swindon have scored nine goals and wracked up an expected goals of just 5.46, according to FotMob, and they have only exceeded one xG in one match, against Harrogate Town.

Morris believes that his team have had more than enough openings to be more efficient in the final third but have not had the required quality to make the most of them.

He said: “For me it is not about taking more risks [to improve attacking output], it is a lack of quality that is coming out.

“We have had plenty of opportunities to turn defence into attack pretty quickly and it was the quality that has let us down.

“There are periods where I have picked an extra defender because of injuries we were lacking bodies, we were forced to play with a three.

“But we played a back four the other night, Marcel [Lavinier] was at left-back, but as far as taking risks, we have had more than enough attackers and had more than enough opportunities to be able to create, but we haven’t executed well enough.

“Expected goals is what it is, looking at those things is neither here not there for me, I can tell how we are performing from an attacking aspect without seeing that.

“We do have to improve on our attacking aspect, but that isn’t just the attacking players or when we get in the final third.

“We have had some really good opportunities to attack that are breaking down in midfield or even in defence.”

Morris said that he feels his side are adapting well without the ball to what he is trying to get them to do, but still doesn’t know when they will show the offensive improvements he desires.

He said: “I like some of the stuff I am seeing off the ball, but we are still not where I would like us to be and getting the most out of the players from an attacking aspect.

“That can’t happen overnight, but there are aspects of the defensive work where I am certainly seeing more improvements of late.

“We have to wait and see how long it will take, we might walk onto the pitch on Saturday and things could click.

“At the moment when you are juggling injuries and suspensions, it is not a settled team at the moment and that makes it hard.

“When you have settled teams you can build confidence for people who are playing regularly and you can bed players in and become comfortable in a formation a little bit quicker.

“The players know what I want, I don’t like to sit behind the ball and camp, the whole reason I like to get after the ball and put pressure on is to then be able to attack straight away.

“There are improvements to be made all over the field, but the attacking side needs to come up levels.”