Mayo face Derry in physical encounter on St Patrick's Day

There has been a lot of talk recently about what Mayo want to achieve out of the league, about finding that sweet spot between playing well enough to ensure they're not in a relegation battle but at the same time not so well that they end up in a league final.

However, if that background noise seeps into your mindset as a player at any stage then you're in trouble, because it's hard enough to compete at a high level playing against quality opponents without being conflicted about results.

That's definitely the case if players are trying to break into an inter-county team or trying to nail down a first team squad spot or players who have only been on the fringes in the past. They cannot be thinking about 'We don't want to win this game because we don't want to be in a league final.' All you can be thinking about is you doing your job to the best of your ability so that next time when Kevin McStay is sitting down to pick his team he can't leave you out.

So if you're a player, let's forget about whether you want to be in a league final or not, just focus the mind on the next game.

THE DERRY CHALLENGE

The next game against Derry is a really good opportunity for Mayo to test themselves against a well-motivated opponent. Derry will want to get to the league final because, at this stage, they have won Ulster titles but they haven't got to Croke park and taken a big scalp. That's the next step for them because they've been so consistent in Ulster over the last two seasons, so this league is an opportunity for them.

For Mayo, this is an opportunity to put in a 70 minute performance, play a bit better upfront and get a couple more forwards operating at a higher level as opposed to just relying on Ryan O'Donoghue and Fergal Boland.

The big thing for me, is that Mayo will be playing against a team that has a really solid, deep-set defence, that can soak up a lot of pressure and when they counterattack they have an excellent long range scorer in Shane McGuigan. They also have one of the best midfielders in the country in Conor Glass.

Mayo haven't really coped well with these challenged in the last number of years, whether it be trying to break down a deep-set team or trying to physically match up against a really dominant midfield. If you look at the difficulty Mayo have had against Tyrone in the last number of years, efforts at breaking them down and dealing with the physicality in the middle of field hasn't gone well.

Ideally, I would like the team to be flying over these next two league games with players coming into form at the right time and bouncing into the championship with a lot of confidence. Don't be trying to avoid anyone. Don't be trying to avoid a league final. It will have been the goal for the Mayo management team over the last number of weeks to improve, get more players playing better, get some players back from injury if that's possible and see where that takes you.

INJURIES A CONCERN

It's a shame Diarmuid O'Connor is injured. An experienced player, he always plays a valuable role in the middle third. Eoghan McLaughlin is a big injury concern because I think he's a player that's built for Croke Park. He's built for the summer on the hard ground and he's a player that's probably more important than people realise in terms of creating that sort of breakthrough in the middle third with speed and straight running lines, even though there are question marks sometimes in relation to his ball control and his skills. We all recognise that McLaughlin on top of his game, creates overlaps and busts through the middle, which creates opportunities for goals.

When you think about Mayo getting goals over the last number years, a lot of them have come from their half backs driving forward whether it be Hession, McLaughlin or Paddy Durcan. When any of those players move forward into the opposition half there's always the possibility of a goal.

Scoring goals is never easy and scoring against blanket defences is even more difficult. It takes smart combination-play between three and four players and we haven't seen that from the Mayo attack recently, primarily because the Mayo forwards haven't been playing that well..

It's also worth mentioning that probably the best forward we have to score goals is James Carr and we've missed him in the league so far. He often takes teams by surprise in terms of the time he takes shots early.

MIDFIELD PHYSICALITY

I've been quite critical about Mayo not being physical enough. I've seen a lot of potential in Bob Tuohy in midfield, no doubt about that. I've seen a lot of good football this league campaign as well from Jack Carney and Jordan Flynn and I'm positive in terms of their development.

I think these two are getting better and better all the time. Both get forward and get a score and both are really hard working, Flynn in particular. I'm looking forward to seeing how they can perform against a really solid Derry midfield. It is a good opportunity for them to continue their positive development.

I want to see more physicality in midfield on the 50/50 balls. I want to see us having real physical presence out there, really knocking players around because you still have to do that. It doesn't happen as often as it used to, but it's still important.

If your own kick out is under pressure and you can't get the short ones away, you have to go long, you better be able to fight for those balls and we haven't been to be able to do that as much as I would like over last couple seasons.

I'm looking forward to seeing an improvement in this department on Sunday.