Topic Originator: GG Riva
Date: Thu 15 Jan 15:25
The St Mirren manager didn`t miss his players after losing to 10 man Hearts last night. Rather reminiscent of John Hughes at Raith when the lost 5-0 to........ St Mirren. Hughes rant didn`t end well. Rovers lost the relegation play off to Brechin and he was sacked.
"Stephen Robinson appears to have had enough and has told his St Mirren players in no uncertain terms that their performance was unacceptable against Hearts.
He criticised their training levels and attitudes too, suggesting it has contributed to their downturn in results.
In a blockbuster interview with the BBC, Robinson said: “I’ve said how you train is how you play and some people haven’t trained properly.
“Some people have moped about a little bit because they weren’t in the team and have come in and played like that.
“That’s why we’re getting these results.
“If you’re not willing to put your neck on the line and your head on the line, we pull out of a tackle for the first goal.
“We lose the ball on the halfway line, we pull out of a tackle and we start walking to defend, it’s criminal decision making.
“Ultimately, I put them on the pitch, with what I have available, so I have to take the blame.
“We went to a [back] four in the second half to get more width and it looked like it was something foreign to certain individuals, even though we do it most weeks, where we step a centre-half in or push a wing-back higher.
“The mistakes are inexplicable. You can’t win football matches making individual errors like that.
“How do you get rid of them? Concentration levels, train properly, do the basics right. Stop thinking you’re a good footballer and taking chances when you don’t need to.
“We need to get back to basics.”
To sign off the interview, Robinson called out his players for what he felt was making him look like an idiot.
“I’ve been very, very gentle on them because we’re so limited in numbers and you’re asking boys to go again but I told them some home truths tonight and I’m expecting a reaction.
“I was expecting a reaction tonight and we got it to an extent in the first half but if you don’t do the basics right, if you don’t defend properly, clear the ball when you need to clear the ball, don’t be clever, don’t pull out of tackles, mark your man in the box, sometimes players make you look stupid.
“And certainly they made me look stupid tonight.”
In another interview with the club’s in-house TV channel, Robinson added further criticism about the players’ tactical awareness.
And he revealed he thinks some of them have “believed their own hype” after their Premier Sports Cup Final win.
He said: “It looked like some of them hadn’t played football before in our system in the second half.
“We’ve had loads of plaudits, maybe some people are starting to believe their hype now!"
Not your average Sunday League player.
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