John Robertson: Inverness Caledonian Thistle have become soft
Caley Thistle manager John Robertson says lack of game time is no excuse for poor performances on the pitch, as he branded his team “soft.”
The boss was annoyed that Inverness failed to hold on to their lead in the 2–2 draw at Morton on Wednesday night, after having a man advantage for 60 minutes.
It was the club’s first match in 29 days due to having suffered a number of postponements, either due to weather or Covid-19.
But Robertson did not accept that the lack of game time was the reason for a disappointing second-half showing.
He labelled his team “soft,” saying that Inverness have been guilty of letting in too many goals this season, conceding 14 in 10 matches.
While still having a positive goal difference thanks to finding the net 17 times in the Championship, Robertson says his team has to be much tougher to break or they face falling out of the play-off picture.
Asked if the lack of games had an impact on their performance on Wednesday, Robertson said: “That is an easy excuse and I am not accepting that.
“We should have been fresh, it wasn’t rustiness that cost us the points.
“It was the fact that we didn’t work hard enough against 10 men.
“Against 10 men you have to work them even harder and tire them out and put balls in good areas.
“We did put good balls into the area but didn’t get on the end of them.
“We created good chances in the last 10 and 15 minutes to win the game.
“But to be a goalscorer or striker, to win games, you have to want to get into the box and in front of defenders.
“We ambled behind the defenders and allowed them to clear it. We were hopeful rather than incisive and that is what annoys me.
“We should have won the game and we were in a good position to attack the top of the league.
“But we didn’t see it out and the problem is we’re too soft.
“Not in a physical manner, we’ll score goals, but we’re conceding too easily.”
Caley Thistle face a tough run of five matches in the next 14 days starting with Queen of the South tomorrow.
He says players will have to show that they are worth a place in the starting line-up as they look to keep pace with the top four.
“There is no point feeling sorry for ourselves, there is a tough run coming when we play Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday in the next few weeks.
“Some boys will have to prove they are good enough to play at this level.
“Our players decided they wanted to do their own thing and that is not acceptable. “We should have beat Alloa away and saw it out against Morton.
“But Morton gave everything and I saw their players come off with cramp, I didn’t see any of my players come off with cramp.
“That is the annoying thing, we have good players but you have to do the hard yards and we didn’t do that.”