Manager Keith Hill has told Dale PlayerHD that he’s pleased with how well the players have performed in the side's three opening fixtures.
Games are coming thick and fast for Rochdale, with Dale having already played three games in eight days. A trip to Port Vale follows on Tuesday night before Keith Hill’s side host MK Dons at the Crown Oil Arena on Saturday.
Dale go into the midweek match at Vale Park on the back of Saturday’s draw at Bramall Lane.
“I’m pleased that we’re performing well.
“The players are certainly getting up to league speed. The three games in the first week have taught us a lot.
“I don’t see a lot of fatigue - I see a lot of good things that are happening.
“Our game plan went according to plan on Saturday. We probably needed the second goal and we didn’t quite get it, but we did more than enough to get all three points.”
Rochdale kept the Blades quiet for the majority of the match, after nullifying their attacking threat, something Hill is pleased with.
“I don’t think anyone could argue with that. We suppressed a front four who can create goal scoring opportunities in abundance and who have got goals in them in abundance. We had 60-percent positive possession in the first half on Saturday and we nullified the opposition, who were at home, to two shots on target, so I’m really pleased.”
There have been changes at Vale Park over the summer, with new manager Bruno Ribeiro recruiting 14 new players since arriving at the club. 10 of the new additions have come from abroad to join up with Ribeiro and Hill believes the Valiants, Tuesday night’s opponents, are still a bit of an unknown quantity at this early stage of the season.
“Port Vale are a bit of an unknown quantity because they’ve got so many players who aren’t accustomed to League 1.
“That has changed, so with respect to us being able to profile, we’ve got two or three pre-season games to profile these players from. That's profiling the way that they play and the way that the manager does things.
“I think it’ll be after around 15 games that we’ll get an idea of how things are done on a regular basis at Port Vale.
“They’ve started the season superbly well but it is only a start and we’ve got no fear going to Port Vale. We’re really looking to embrace the three very good performances that we've had so far this season.”
The full interview is on Dale PlayerHD.