Coventry City manager Tony Mowbray has warned that the return of Reda Johnson in the next week or so will put pressure on Arron Martin and Chris Stokes, who are now in a battle to keep their places in the squad.
Mowbray told Andy Turner of the Coventry Telegraph: “For me, footballers have to stand up and be counted, if that’s the right term.
“I think as a manager it’s a balance. It needs identifying and it has been identified to the individuals in the group.
“You can mollycoddle, hide and brush over things but at the end of the day when I look back on the game it is really poor mistakes that cost us two goals.
“Even if we didn’t play well in the second half, which we didn’t, we still might have got something from the game. We can’t carry individual errors like that. They have to stop and I have said that to the boys, bluntly.
“I like them both because they are honest, hard-working professionals and yet the team, the club, can’t suffer mistake after mistake after mistake.
“My philosophy has always been everyone makes mistakes, we’ve all done it and you can ride that. Two mistakes and you start getting a bit nervous. Any more and I think the team is suffering, so don’t knock on my door if you get left out of the side. It’s football – it’s our livelihoods.
“So I think that message is there, loud and clear. Of course you have to look at what options you’ve got and I would suggest to both of those lads that Reda Johnson is a week away from playing, and because of his versatility they are both under threat really, which is a good thing for me because it makes them, hopefully, extra focused with their concentration this weekend, if selected.
“And let’s hope we benefit from the fact that Reda is putting extreme pressure on players in the team to produce the goods.
Andy Webster is another defensive option and Mowbray said: “I think Andy Webster. .
“It’s a balance with central defenders. Matthew Pennington has shown that he’s a focused young guy who is learning his trade every day. And yet Webby is in my thoughts because I can’t have such crucial positions on the football pitch making such elementary mistakes."
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