Joey Barton has put his struggling Bristol Rovers defence on notice with time running out to secure their place as the end of the transfer window edges closer.
Barton is running out of patience with a leaky rearguard which has shipped 43 goals in 26 League One games. With one of the most potent attacks in the league under his stewardship, Barton knows Rovers' inability to keep clean sheets – they have kept just five this season – has held them back.
Despite failing to keep a clean sheet in their past seven games in all competitions, Rovers have continued to pick up points and they are within touch of the play-off mix with 20 games to play.
As a result, Barton intends to bolster his defence this month to boost their chances of bursting into the top six, with three additions desired in that particular area of the pitch.
And he has warned his team he will be ruthless if required, demanding improved performances in the weeks ahead.
He said: "We are getting better but it’s just not good enough, so I can wait and these lads can learn on the job and it is probably going to cost us a chance of getting promoted this year, or we can go ‘Lads, thanks for your work to this point, but we are bringing in men to do your job, unfortunately. You’ve had 34 games and you are conceding north of one goal per game’.
"This isn’t a charity or a development group and we’ve got to shake up the backline until we get the right method. For me, method and motive is key. If you’ve got the motive, you will find a method. The method could be wrong and you get it wrong, and at this moment in time our defensive method is wrong, we haven’t got the right components.
"Now what we have to find out is if the players in there do have the motive."
Rovers' defeat to Plymouth Argyle in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday was the latest cause for concern. Soft goals were shipped, with Ben Waine and Ryan Hardie both capitalising on flimsy defending that cost the Gas a chance to chase a Wembley final.
He says the Gas are a more appealing proposition for prospective signings now they have 37 points on the board and sit eighth in the third tier and he believes they need to capitalise on the market opening up for them.
"I look at them now and the goals they conceded (against Plymouth) are really soft," the manager said. "We got pushed around and nudged about, so it starts to ask questions for me about motive because I guarantee you if you were in the street and you had your wallet and somebody came and started pushing you and nudging you in the back and you are 6ft 4ins like Bobby Thomas is or you are 6ft 3ins like James Connolly is, they wouldn’t be pushing you for very long.
"I do put that at the door of being young and naïve, but also I haven’t got time to waste while you learn. We’ve given you enough opportunity.
"There are a lot of players out there going ‘OK, I’ll come and play for Bristol Rovers, you’ve got a chance of being promoted’ that were not interested in coming and signing for us in the summer because League Two sides trying to establish in League One were not really for them.
"Now we are a League One trying to get into the Championship, all of a sudden agents are on the phone and there is a different market available to us. That might not be there in the summer and as unfortunate as it is, you have to move quick.
"If we were trying to stay in the division, we might be able to persist with a few of these mistakes because we are going to stay up with what we’ve done, barring something insane happening.
"But that’s not the goal anymore, the goal now because we’ve got a chance of it is ‘Let’s go get in that play-off picture’. I think it is possible and a very quick way to do that is by getting rid of the people that aren’t doing it and bringing in people that can do it.
"At worst, we’re bringing in another defender and he can only be as bad as what we’ve got. They concede a goal a game."
Rovers' defence is among the most inexperienced at the level, with the regular starting back three of Bobby Thomas, James Connolly and Lewis Gibson all aged 23 or younger. James Gibbons, 24, is the oldest defender in the squad.
All have impressed at different moments of the campaign so far, but the raw numbers cannot be ignored and Barton's comments at Thursday's press conference ahead of the trip to Accrington Stanley echoed the firm message he sent to goalkeeper James Belshaw via the media last month.
Barton has liked the idea of having younger, more athletic players at the back, and it served him well in League Two last season with 20-year-olds Connor Taylor and Connolly forming an excellent partnership in the heart of the back four in the second half of the campaign.
But with the second half of the season full of opportunities for Rovers, he is prepared to make tough decisions with no account for any sentiment.
The manager implied the two-and-a-half weeks before the closure of the transfer window could be a defining period for some of his players.
"I am not putting it at any individual’s door," he said. It’s a team sport and it’s a collective, so you haven’t cared enough about your position to get the people around you on the same page.
"The goal Ryan Hardie scores against us is just a communication error. Nobody has shouted that there is a runner going through there, so people are blind through people’s mistakes or lack of alertness or competent skills for the job.
"People are costing us and if I allow that to continue, it will ultimately cost me, it will cost the football club, so in that case, I would rather nip it in the bud now while we can.
"The lads have had ample opportunity to show me how they can defend and they’ve got another 20-odd days until the window closes. I am here to get the club into the Championship and we’ve got an outside squeak of it this year.
"I might have to light a fire under a couple of the young defenders in our team currently because at this moment in time they can’t do the job I am requiring them to do, which is keep the ball out of our goal, keep danger out of our box and make sure when we go out on a Saturday that if we score one goal, that should be enough to win the game."
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