Sheffield United - Aston Villa 3-1 Del2
Här följer del 2 av Petes rapport
So here is the roll call of dishonour:
Tommy - 5 - one good save, tried to keep play going. Should have saved at least one of the last 2 goals, and probably both. Effort & character OK.
Mark Delaney. 5 - still half in Centre half mode. Confused positioning. A mixture of decent defending and offering nothing going forward.
JLloyd. 4. Slack, poor passing, gave up.
Olly - 6. Character was there, defended OK. But as Captain I want to see him doing some sorting out of underperforming colleagues.
Liam - 5 made mistakes. Head dropped. Young lad learning, benefit of the doubt.
Gav. 6. went off after about 50 minutes. Nothing special while he was on, but has the necessary "heart".
Nobby. 4. AWOL most of the game. Doesn't seem to turn it on away from home. Not good enough from someone as good as he can be.
Lee. 5. Got more involved as the game progressed. No problem with his head dropping. Kept trying.
Gareth Barry. 7. Our only threat and only creator. Scored, tried, played well. Let down by his team mates. He's not in the best form of his life, but the will was there, where it was so absent from others.
Well done Sir.
JPA - 4. Never remotely looked like scoring or even even a threat really. Seems to be content with "link up play". Little service, mind.
Carlton Cole. 3. If it wasn't for the fact that there is no-one else I'd send him back to Chelsea forthwith. Look interested? No. Hold the ball up? No. Pass to team mates? Once or twice at most. Work back and help? No. Be ashamed, Carlton Cole.
Subs
Stevie Davies. Well done. You cared. 7
Berson. Quite good for 15 minutes. Poor for the other 25.
luke 5. Had a half chance, or could have passed to Barry, but mishit an attempted shot on the turn. A bit rabbit in the headlights, I thought.
But he's a kid. 18.
And the manager? says he's got an honest bunch of lad's. He's lying. They cheated us and him today, most of them. He did sort out the problems at half time - preventing Sheffield from having as much of the ball in midfield. The tools he has to work with are those of an unambitious mid table club. The lack of strikers is a massive handicap, There's no back up left back, other than moving someone out of position. We need another centre half.
The deep rooted long term problems of the way the club is run are getting to him as they inevitably would. He's looked after his staff, protects his players in public and has my support. nevertheless I want to see us turn it round. He struggled to do this at Leeds when they went on a bad run, and appears to be having the same problem at Villa.
It's a concern.
It's also true that largely the players are the same ones who were so poor away from home under GT, too. He sorted it out last season, but the meekness has returned.
I don't know the answer, but I pay to watch, I'm not paid to sort it out.
At the end of this bluster what I want to see is improved character and fibre from the players, No strolling about, seemingly uncaring or unwilling to work hard on their own games and to help their team mates.
I want to see DO'L make changes earlier when things go wrong. He needs, in my view, to lay the law down to a number of them. Stop talking down those not in the team, make the ones in the team afraid for their places.
And Ellis stand dwon, appeal for new people to come in take the club forward. You have failed, and failed and failed. Get out.
Pete
Lytham
