In fairness to Martin, he can’t control whether players show up on the day or not. Too many yesterday were not contributing graft, and what talent they have stayed on the bus. A team doesn’t string a series of wins together against some tough teams especially away from home without having the basis of a good team. Martin has to be more ruthless and less nice as clearly some players don’t understand the duty owed by being selected to start.
The trouble with yesterday is that a number of the better performers in that series of wins didn’t start - Manning, Cooper and Cundle for example. Sorinola started the left side where he is distinctly sub par, and Lati played and was shown up badly. Couple this with Piroe and Ntcham instead of Cooper and Cundle and we couldn’t press for shit and had only two functioning midfield players in Fulton and Grimes (sub par). A recipe for a shit show. We conceded 2 goals with 3+2, and the other with a back four. We basically lost the game in midfield and in the transition. Burnley were a cohesive unit all over the field and made us look a man short even when we were not.
Martin has to take on board the lessons from this match. Who he can trust and who he can’t. Let’s see who he starts in midweek.