Barrow looks for a '˜happy medium'

Barrow has eight games of the campaign remaining to address the seven-point buffer that currently stands between second-bottom Latics and the safety mark.

Having worked under both Caldwell and Joyce, he had a bird’s-eye view of how Latics have found themselves in this predicament.

And the interim boss says he’s been trying to pick out the best bits of both regimes and mould them together into a successful formula.

“We’ve had two managers this season, one of whom I was involved with quite a lot in Gary,” assessed Barrow.

“You’d almost say it was total football at times, although you could question that on some days, like the away game at Nottingham Forest (Latics lost 4-3).

“We then had the change of style under Warren, and in fairness the club obviously felt neither of them worked, we didn’t get enough results under either.

“There has to be a happy medium somewhere, which is what I’m trying to install.”

Part of that brief is to encourage Latics to play out from the back, while also being far more of a threat in the other half.

“If you look at our defenders, Dan Burn in particular is on the ball a lot, but there’s not enough happening in the top end of the pitch,” Barrow acknowledged.

“That’s what we’ve been working on a lot over the last week or so.

“I felt against Aston Villa before the international break, we created so well a space in between their midfield and their backline, but only Michael Jacobs was using it.

“It needs someone else to make the most of that space, and we have to search and search for that player.

“We have to learn to mix up our game a little bit, and not just have this one style.”