NACHO Novo has called for patience amongst supports to allow some of Pedro Caixinha’s foreign signings to adjust to the Scottish game.
While the likes of Alfredo Morelos and Bruno Alves have hit the ground running in the Ladbrokes Premiership, the same cannot be said for Mexican duo Carlos Pena and Eduardo Herrera, who have featured only fleetingly this season. Novo, who has been helping out with first-team coaching duties at Auchenhowie for the last few weeks, draws from his own personal experience of moving to Scottish football and feels the team which went down 2-0 to their city rivals Celtic on Saturday needs time to gel.
Even in the title season of 2004-05, Novo’s side under Alex McLeish won just two of their first eight games in all competitions.
“Players and managers always need time, they always need time,” said Novo. “It is too early. We have played seven league games. I remember in my time here we had eight or nine games without great results, that was my first year in 2004. To be honest, it is taking time.
“But I am positive that everyone will try and push through to get better and better and better.”
Compared to the 5-1 defeat in their previous meeting with Celtic in April, Novo feels there are signs of progress. “It’s a hard one to take but I saw some progression in the team,” he said. “I know people will always talk about managers but I’ve been with Pedro a lot in the past three or four weeks and have watched training.
“I know that’s an easy thing to say but if you look at the game it was a couple of slips that led to the goals,” he added.
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