Danny Livesey after the Leicester game
Defender Danny Livesey spoke to us after the disappointing defeat against Leicester City in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday evening.
"We're all gutted,” he said. “We played reasonably well in the first half, and I think we deserved the goal, but we conceded a soft goal just before half time.
“I take full responsibility for that one. He managed to get turned and I didn't close him down, which I was very disappointed about.”
"Their second goal was soft as well and I think they picked up on our weaknesses,” he continued. “After that they just ran riot for 20 minutes. They were enjoying it and making every pass, and it became really tough for us.”
"It's another bad scoreline that puts us right back where we were before the improved performance at Colchester,” he admitted. “It's up to us to bounce back on Saturday now. It’s getting frustrating to have to keep saying the same things so I can understand why the fans are finding it difficult as well."
"People have accused us of playing like we don't care but that couldn't be any further from the truth," he insisted. "None of us ever go home and forget about the game. It seems like the harder we try the more things go wrong at the moment and that is a difficult cycle to get out of.”
"We’re going under far too easily at the moment,” he said. "Teams always seem to score when they're on top but we're finding it very difficult to do that.
“I can't tell you how angry it makes us because we thought we'd put this to bed towards the back end of last season. Unfortunately it's happening again. This has been one of the worst runs in terms of conceding goals I can remember.
“It's comfortably one of the most difficult times I've ever experienced in my time here. We need to address it. The only ones who can do that are the players and we have to go out and perform better than we are at the moment.”
"This is our job at the end of the day,” he told us. “Nobody wants to be in a team that is conceding this many goals. A lot of people point the finger at the gaffer but it's only us who can stop this.
“We're all behind the manager and we're all trying to put this right. We thought we made a good step towards that on Friday. We keep saying it but we aren't a bad team. This isn't far off the team that played well at Doncaster and Sheffield United towards the end of last season. We need to start showing how good we can be and get our confidence back.”
“It's difficult to put your finger on why it's going so wrong at the moment," he said. "We're training well but it seems to be that when we concede we completely collapse and, before you know it, we're three goals down. That isn't acceptable. We can train as well as we like but you don't win any points in training sessions.
"The back four will get most of the criticism and rightly so. You can't concede as many goals as we are and not blame the defence. We need to take responsibility all over the pitch though, because it needs to be a team effort and we all need to put it right.”
"We'd love nothing more to keep winning and to work our way up the league,” he added. “We want to send the fans home happy for a change because they haven't really had too much to smile about this season.
“We need the fans to keep coming but we need to give them a reason to come. I can totally understand why people aren't coming to watch us get hammered every week. We aren't just getting beat - we're getting hammered. Who would want to watch that?
"It's something that is haunting us all at the moment and we need to address it. I know I've said it before, but it has to come from the players. Blaming other people won't get us anywhere. We need to take the feeling we had on Friday into the Brentford game. They are another good side but we need to be much harder to beat.
"We have to come together as a team more than we have ever done before. We do have a lot of leaders on the pitch and we talk just as much as we ever have. It's more constructive rather than screaming at each other – maybe we’re all being too nice at the moment.
“We now need to regroup and do the simple things better. We hear the criticism from the fans and it's totally justified at the moment. Like I've said, we need to take some responsibility because we're the ones who need to put it right.
“We have to turn the corner on Saturday. We need to want it more than them, we need to be stronger and we need to keep our goal intact."
United Player subscribers can see a video interview with Danny Livesey now. Click HERE to go to the Player platform. Follow the same link for more information on United Player, and to subscribe.
