Agreed. It's all well and good having rows with your players but if you don't have the balls to drop them then the words start to ring hollow. If Colo's not doing the business then get Lascelles or Dummett in there and show you mean business.
For a while I could understand (and I thought too) that it was just a matter of time before McClaren had us keeping the ball better and everything would click into place. But I think it's pretty clear now that a few heads have dropped and that's not going to happen. Sometimes you just need to make a couple of changes, even if the alternative players are worse on paper.
Garde has dropped Grealish from the Villa team and banished him to train with the U-21 team as punishment for breaking club rules and going to a nightclub after their defeat last weekend. He's also refused to accept Steve Round as part of his backroom staff and changed the diet of the first team squad, the majority of whom he says are happy to accept the changes.
It's not necessarily going to keep them up, but he's hardly been a week in the job and he's showing signs of leadership and stating out loud that the team needs firm direction. With so many of our squad going through the motions, I'd say that we could do with a similar approach.
Didn't McClaren ban swearing and impose a strict lateness policy at the start of the season?
Certainly taught them a lesson