Manager Keith Hill says Saturday’s match against Bradford City will be a difficult proposition, but one his side are looking forward to.
Back-to-back wins have seen Dale take maximum points over the festive period so far, and Hill says they will continue being professional.
“We’ve been professional all Christmas and all year, and that doesn’t change,” said Hill.
“There has got to be a certain amount of downtime, you can’t keep shredding people’s brains with what you do on the training pitch from an analytics point of view in terms of preparing. Sometimes you’ve got to relax your mind and then you’ll feel fresh about football.
“We want players who can solve football problems, rather than the staff doing it for them. We find ourselves more prepared because of the analytics side of the game but we end up trying to pass on too much information.
“We’re all footballing experts who have had careers, but you’ve got to trust players to actually work problems out on the pitch instead of us doing it from the sidelines.”
Bradford’s narrow loss at Sunderland on Boxing Day saw them drop into the relegation zone, but that won’t come into consideration for Hill.
“It’s just another game. They’re a big football club – an ex-premier league club – and they find themselves in a difficult position.
“I believe they’ve got a team full of fighters and a manager who fights as well, but we’ll take this game at the weekend in isolation. We don’t play the league position.
“They’re a good side. They’ve always had good players. Unfortunately, football clubs are very good at orchestrating their own chaos and that’s out of a manager’s control.
“I think Bradford over recent months have created their own chaos and they’re trying to get back in a straight line again now.
“They’re a good football club and they’ve got a brilliant squad. It’ll be a difficult proposition, there’s no question about that.”