Wayne Rooney urged his troops to “become men very quickly” and demanded Plymouth to “show more resilience” after a third-successive Championship loss.
The Pilgrims fell 2-1 to Swansea City at Home Park, a result that left Rooney deeply frustrated by the nature of the goals his team conceded.
Despite working in training on improving their defensive organisation, particularly in stopping crosses and protecting their penalty area, Rooney admitted his team fell short in execution.
Swansea capitalised on their only two shots on target, with goals from Jay Fulton and Liam Cullen.
What Rooney Said
“I felt first half we were the better team. After maybe 10 minutes, we played some really good stuff actually, had a few chances, a few half chances, and didn’t take them,” he told reporters.
“Then we get hit with a sucker punch of them scoring just before half-time, which was really disappointing because a lot of the stuff we have been working on over the last 10 days is getting to the ball, stopping crosses and blocking shots.
“We allow the cross to come into the box too easy, we don’t deal with it well enough, a poor clearance and they score.
“That obviously makes it more difficult.
“The goals we conceded were naive to say the least so that was really disappointing from our point of view.”
Mustapha Bundu provided a glimmer of hope for the home side with a goal in the 79th minute, igniting belief in a late equaliser.
Rooney’s Admission
However, despite mounting pressure and several attempts to create chances, Plymouth fell short of their typical late heroics.
“There is no denying, we know we are going through a difficult moment, and sometimes when you are going through a difficult moment them small things become big things and seem to go against you, and certainly they have tonight,” Rooney admitted.
“We have to do better.
“We have to show a bit more resilience.
“I know we have got a lot of young players in there as well but we have to become men very quickly because it doesn’t get any easier.
“We have got a really tough game Saturday (away to Sheffield United) and then a really tough fixture list over Christmas.
“We need to find that resilience, and dig in and stay in games more than what we are doing.”
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Plymouth’s poor form is underscored by a dismal record of just one win in their last ten league games.
However, their run is not going to get any easier as the Pilgrims will face a stern test against promotion-chasing Sheffield United next on Saturday away from home.
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