Le parole di Westley

Nel dopo partita di oggi Graham Westley ha rilasciato un'intervista pubblicata poco fa da PNEFC.net, nella quale cerca di giustificare la sconfitta con le assenze di Keane, Laird, Holmes, Wroe e King che lo hanno costretto a mandare in campo dei giocatori giovani con poca esperienza che hanno commesso oggi degli errori importanti.

Sicuramente le assenze sono pesanti; da quando abbiamo perso Laird e Keane in difesa le cose vanno male e GW spesso deve reinventarsi i ruoli, oggi erano inoltre assenti Holmes, Wroe e King, tutti giocatori molto importanti.

Però dare parte delle colpe ai giocatori giovani schierati, come Monakana e Hayhurst mi sembra ingeneroso ed una giustificazione assurda.

Westley dovrebbe prendersi le proprie responsabilità ed ammettere gli errori commessi, ed invece si nasconde dietro agli infortuni che, seppur importanti, non possono essere il problema di tutti i mali.

E prendersela con Monakana e Hayhurst è una cosa senza senso.

Queste le sue parole:

“We have those two, Nicky Wroe, Lee Holmes and Jack King went down over night. With those five lads missing we were dependant today on two or three young players.  

“You don’t want to pin their learning as the only reasons for our failures. When young players are coming in and don’t quite get things right such as a man getting free which young Will Hayhurst should have stayed with for the corner.  

“Jeffrey Monakana naively gave away the free-kick for the second goal and the penalty for the third goal was debatable. The penalty put the game to bed but it wasn’t really the issue, at 2-0 we were already struggling to get back into the match. 

“Doncaster have an experienced side and they made it difficult even though we showed the desire to get back into the game in the second half.  

“They tightened up their back four, they had players sitting in midfield and they made it difficult to break through.  

“In the end with four or five big players out we are showing that the squad hasn’t got the depth to win these games. Any squad at our level with four or five players out missing is going to struggle to some degree. 

“That was the order for today, we had a couple of young players make important mistakes and they cost us. Providing the lads learn, grow and develop then that is the most important thing.  

“When you are tested against the top sides then your limitations and your weaknesses can get exposed too much more of a degree. Doncaster were always going to be a dangerous side from set plays, I have watched 

them win points this season where they have been nothing more than dogged and a set play has suddenly pulled the game out of the bag for them.  

“It is the nature of the type of team that they are; they have two six foot six defenders at the back. They offer a lot of threat from set plays and they have good delivery from David Cotterill.  

“We always knew it was going to be important to be switched on and not to give set pieces away and young players can sometimes find it difficult to remember all of the details of their jobs and execute the right behaviours in the right areas of the pitch.  

“I don’t want to pin it on the lads but it is important to recognise that we have 18-20 year-olds within the side and you are always susceptible to making mistakes and oppositions are always going to look to play on those young players.  

“The other side is that you go with your experience and play players out of position to keep the youth out of the team and I didn’t think that was the right thing to do.  

“We have to get ourselves back together now; the boys will want to react in the right way on Tuesday afternoon.  

“It is more important than that, we are looking for the right reaction to all the little things that have ended up costing us today.  

“We can’t afford to go onto the pitch and play with a lack of self-confidence or tactical awareness. We have to go on the pitch and make sure those players learn quickly and bring those attributes forward which they are more than capable of doing.”

http://www.pnefc.net/news/article/manager-looking-for-right-reaction-567488.aspx?pageView=full#anchored

GW