Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk has admitted his players are not playing for themselves – and a number are “hiding”.
The Owls are on a dismal run of just one win in their last 10 in the Sky Bet Championship, which has seen them slip to 15th in the table.
Saturday’s 5-0 thumping away to promotion-chasing Brentford – the second time they’ve been beaten by that scoreline in those 10 games – was another chastening afternoon for Monk.
It may well be a perfect time, then, for Sabri Lamouchi and Nottingham Forest to make the trip to Hillsborough on Saturday.
The Reds are on the back of a poor 3-0 home defeat to Millwall on Friday night, and will be looking to get their promotion push back on track next weekend.
Monk was far from impressed ahead of that game.
“Number one, they are not even playing for themselves,” Monk told Yorkshire Live when asked if the players were still playing for him.
“Regardless of playing for a manager or a football club, your number one fight is to fight for yourselves and show that pride and strength of character.
“One thing you can never, ever, ever do on a football pitch is hide...today we had players hiding on a football pitch.
“You need to fight for yourself before anyone else and they are not even doing that.”
How do Wednesday turn it round in time for Forest’s visit?
“Good question,” said Monk.
“It is a question I have been asking myself quite a lot in this period.
“I am doing everything physically possible to help them to turn it around.
“It has not been good enough results wise.”
