Manager Keith Hill spoke to Dale PlayerHD following his side’s 3-2 defeat to Sheffield United at Bramall Lane…
“We score two goals at Bramall Lane and, to be fair, we played OK and we played well in patches, but we didn’t defend well from the front, in midfield or in defence. You look at the goals and arguably blame the defenders, but there’s a collective effort and a collective defensive unit. I wrote it up on the board before the game – our front five defend first.
“I’ve got sympathy sometimes for defenders. A goal starts somewhere and especially for the first and second goals our offensive players didn’t help our back players.
“I’m really disappointed with the timing of the goals, but again, we can’t be to charitable like we have been today and like we have been in recent weeks, and it’s up to the players to find themselves.
“We’ve got the squad of players that we’re working with. I was down on numbers but I was more than happy with the set-up of the team, more than happy with the plan that we had, but again, it comes down to individual responsibility and when you’re dealing with players that we’ve got, then we have to allow them to make mistakes, and at the minute they’re coming thick and fast.”
Hill continued: “Nothing has changed with respect to our preparation – we’re still working on things in training, but there’s a little bit of anxiety and there are too many mistakes out on the pitch, whether it’s a passing mistake, a re-gain mistake or a positional mistake, that’s what happening at this moment in time.
“We have to reset, we have to re-find ourselves as players because it’s tragic to come here and score two goals and not get anything from the game.”
The full interview is on Dale PlayerHD.