Dave Edwards: Wolves players must take accountability for dismal day

It was a dismal day down on the south coast for Wolves.

Rob Edwards has come out, unusually for him but I think rightly so, and put a little bit more emphasis on the players being accountable for the performances.

He's protected them in the past but he's seen a decent response at times and it looked like he was moving in the right direction, but since that enforced break what we’ve seen from the team has been very poor.

Edwards is right and he can't defend the players because people are looking at him.

Fans can't be kidded, they know what they're witnessing with their own eyes and as much as he wants to try and protect their confidence, the blame is shifting more and more towards the manager.

It's unfair at times for the manager to take everything. He picks the players, he picks the shape, the tactics, but then you have to trust your players to go out and do it and performances haven't been great of late.

I don't think there was a lack of effort in other games, but for the first time on Saturday, I thought the players looked like they were disengaged. They looked like they lacked focus.

I'm sure every single one of those players will be saying they tried as hard as they can but it did look like there were more than a couple of players who weren't giving everything, which is a big worry.

Then when Edwards starts to talk about what happened with the set-piece for the second goal, that really hammers home the point that some of the players are going on their own agenda and that's not a good sign for anyone.

No player tried to grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

No players stepped up and it was a team which defended naively from start to finish.

The two early goals killed the game completely. It's an impossible task after that, but that defensive naivety continued throughout the game.

On the ball we lacked confidence and that culminated in a very, very poor first half where we didn't have any shots of any note.

It's a point now where players have got to play for personal pride. It's obvious that there's going to be huge changes in the summer, and there has to be.

But the players deserve to give this football club absolutely everything until their last game.

They're very well paid. The facilities are unbelievable at Compton and they get treated like royalty.

I've been down there, it's amazing. You've got a group of staff who are doing absolutely everything to get the best out of the players and for them to perform like they did on Saturday was unacceptable.

You have to come into every game in the absolute best mindset possible to help the football club. You are paid to do that and have to take criticism on the chin.

Brighton is such a long way away and the players go down the day before, stay in beautiful hotels, are fed stunning food to prepare right for the game.

Whereas the fans are spending all their hard-earned money travelling all that way and not getting to see a performance that they can be proud of.

I feel very disappointed for the fans who have aired their concern in recent weeks, especially because the players have shown on some occasions this season that they are capable of big performances.

There are just two games to go now before a massive summer and Edwards has got a lot of work to do.

A lot of the recruitment is going to be key and it's important, I think, that the club stick by Edwards and the fans stick by him as well.

Right now, at least we are ahead of the game because Edwards knows where the improvements need to be made in the squad, who needs to leave because it's not right for the culture of the team.

Whereas if you change managers mid-summer, then all that work has to start again.

I've been a part of a relegation from the Premier League where Mick McCarthy got sacked and Terry Connor took over, before they appointed Stale Solbakken.

There was lots of players in the dressing room who were still trying to get out of the football club going into the start of that championship season and we never got going after that. The culture was all wrong.

So the sooner you can get all that business done, the better. Obviously, some of it's going to continue into the summer, but you have to clear the decks as quickly as possible because you need good characters in the building.

Edwards is the best man at the moment to know exactly what Wolves need because he's been in there and he's seen it and he knows the club inside out.

He needs backing for a proper rebuild because right now the club is as low as it has been since that double relegation.