Following Saturday’s defeat to Walsall, Manager Keith Hill says the players have to be strong enough to bounce and believes the current squad have it in them to turn things around.
“You’ve got to bounce. You’ve got to be strong enough. You’ve got to take the pressure. I talk about the pressure being visible as well as felt. You’ve got to confront your demons. It’s just a game of football,” said Hill in this post-match interview.
“We’ve got four points from five games and we’ve got 41 games left. I still believe this squad can turn it around but there’s going to be more pressure on, because there was a lot of optimism and I believe that optimising should remain.
“It is what it is and we’ve got to deal with it. You’ve got to pin your shoulders back, [stick your] chest out and have an ego and a presence about you. If these players do that then there’ll be conviction in their own individual performance.
“I can be psychologist, I can be an ex-player who’s a manager now - barking, shouting, coaching from the side lines, but ultimately those players have got to accept responsibility and I want them to accept it with a freedom where they can express themselves but nail down individual responsibilities.
“The way that we’re playing doesn’t absolve them from responsibility. If we’re going to play expansive football and we’re going to try and play, it doesn’t mean ‘if I make a mistake it should lead to a goal’, and that’s the mentality we have at the minute and it shouldn’t be like that.
“We try and coach in possession and out of possession, but then it’s got to be translated and transferred to the pitch. That’s what’s difficult at this moment in time.
“I’ve experienced a lot of success with this group of players in pre-season leading up to the point that we’re at, but the ten goals conceded in the games prior to this and now another two [today], is too many. We’ve got to stop that by being individually more responsible for the way we’re conceding goals, because, for me, it’s not a unit.”
Watch the full interview on iFollow.