Plymouth Argyle boss Derek Adams came in for criticism this weekend after making a series of changes during the defeat with Oxford that infuriated fans.
He got a rendition of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ when taking of Ruben Lameiras but as he explained the decisions often make themselves whether he likes it or not.
Adams confirmed that Ryan Edwards had been substituted for performance reasons, whilst Ashley Smith-Brown came off because he was close to being sent-off.
“As a manager, then you have got to put a winger to left-back and that’s not something I want to do,” he told Plymouth Live. “I had to then take Lameiras off to put Canavan at centre-half, which is another change I didn’t want to do but sometimes your hands are tied behind your back.”
Yann Songo’o was also sent off which the pushed Adams to bring on Canavan for the attacker Lameiras.
“I couldn’t put David Fox to the back. I couldn’t put (Stuart) O’Keefe to the back, I couldn’t put (Graham) Carey to the back. That was the only option.”
The result leaves Plymouth bottom of the table with seven points, two adrift of Oxford in 23rd.
Our View
It is easy for a manager to take stick from fans who don’t understand a situation, but Oxford’s win isn’t just any result. It was an early relegation six pointer and the anger is as much about the whole season as one change.
Adams did so well with Plymouth last time out, but their method is not right this season and he’s under a lot of pressure already.
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