EXCLUSIVE!- Melbourne Supremacy's announcement
The team at TM Australia is proud to present an exclusive statement from the Melbourne Supremacy Captain/Manager Lee Waddel. This is Waddel's first public comment since his team's run of poor form.
"On behalf of The Melbourne Supremacy Football Club I would like to apologise to all of our fans for the recent spate of draws and losses. I would personally like to apologise to our fans for not undertaking this difficult period transparently, however at the time I felt that it was the best course of action.I chose to deal with our current issues internally and not needlessly attack the team. However, I have decided that I was wrong to do this. It is now the belief that all of the players (myself included) need to HARDEN THE f*** UP!
Our last eight matches have been nothing short of a disgrace. We have all failed to play 90 minutes of non-stop, attacking, hard at it football. There is not an aspect of our game that has pleased me during this period. Our defense has been crap, and leaked more goals than ever before. Our two best keepers have played a game of 'who can concede the most goals'. Our midfield hasn't been able to get anywhere near enough balls into the box, and once there our forwards cannot score for the life of them.Our lack of discipline and complete complacency astounds me.
We have either failed to even show up and played a complete 90 minutes of s***, or we have come and played 89 minutes of average football and conceded a late goal that costs us a pivotal point. Nothing represents this more than our insipid performance in the RoW Cup where we gave away a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 by full-time.The RoW Cup has been my biggest disappointment. We have not lost a game, but we should have won them all.
We cannot finish teams off, and I lay that blame solely on me and the rest of the leadership team. We have (despite our best efforts to the contrary) failed to instill a winning culture around this club.It has always been my policy to never publically single out players, but this season has been a shameful display of players that aren't trying. I have recently dropped Fred McDonald because his form has mimicked his attitude. His work rate has been a disgrace this season and unless he is willing to put in the hard yards, do not expect him back in the team. I am publically admitting that he is being made an example of. Players such as Panu Nordmark and others are on notice that they must lift or they will suffer a similar fate.In conclusion, I've decided to issue this statement because I will not accept our victory over Amiga Revival as a cause for celebration. We have won 1 out of our last 8 games.
My message to the players, the fans, the club, and to everyone in the Australian footballing community, is that that isn't good enough.I am positive this statement will make a few of my players unhappy, maybe even angry, but that's what I need, that's what The Supreme Team needs. We need some fire, and hopefully this sparks a flame.”
We would like to thank Lee Waddel for providing TM Australia with this exclusive. And we encourage any other managers or media pundits to offer their own opinions on any number of issues; because here at TM Australia we aim to provide our readers with up to date, exclusive and original insights into the TM Australia Community.
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