Plymouth Argyle head coach Tom Cleverley has accused his players of being ‘fragile mentally’ after his side slumped to a third successive league defeat at the weekend.
The Pilgrims began the campaign as one of the favourites to challenge for promotion in League One. Losing previous boss Miron Muslic in the summer was a huge blow, but that was softened following the appointment of the highly rated Cleverley.
They began life in the third tier with a 3-1 home defeat against Barnsley, quickly followed by a 2-0 reverse at Bolton Wanderers. An impressive 3-2 win over Championship outfit Queens Park Rangers in the Carabao Cup offered optimism ahead of their trip to Lincoln City on Saturday, but that proved to be short lived.
An early goal from Tom Bayliss gave the Imps a 1-0 lead at the break in a half which the home side dominated. It was more of the same in the second period and a brace from James Collins gave Plymouth a mountain to climb. Despite that, a grand finale was set up when Owen Oseni and Xavier Amaechi pulled the score back to 3-2, but it proved to be in vain as Lincoln picked up the points.
Cleverley Opts For Tough Love
A quick turnaround sees Cleverley’s team host last season’s beaten play-off finalists Leyton Orient tomorrow night in search of their first league win of the season. Speaking to BBC Radio Devon ahead of the clash, the ex-Watford boss admitted his players are ‘a little bit fragile at the minute mentally’:
“I’ve been a player myself, it’s fairly easy when the shackles are off at 3-0 down to start showing that you’re a good player, so I expect more in the initial 70 minutes.
“We have to work on that mentality because you can tell we’re a little bit fragile at the minute mentally, because we’re just waiting for something to happen in the game to maybe spark us into life or waiting for the moment where we feel there’s nothing to lose.
“You wait at any level of football, you’ll give yourself a mountain to climb.
“We have to really try and build confidence, build mentality and try and shift that into one of a team who’s trying to land the first blow to win games.”
Writer’s View
It’s been a worrying start for Plymouth but alarm bells won’t be ringing just yet. Cleverley is new through the door and still finding his feet, and he has the players at his disposal to turn things around. He will be concerned with what he witnessed at Lincoln though. The 3-2 scoreline flattered them somewhat, but they did show glimpses of what they can do in the final 20 minutes. The real task is getting the players to do that from the off and not when their backs are up against the wall.
