To my mind successful football teams need 'leaders'. These are usually older, more experienced players with a natural authority who are vocal on the pitch offering encouragement or, where necessary, an earful. Leaders are particularly necessary to help dig a team out when things are not going so well. In my opinion, only Austin, Livermore, Gibbs, Bartley and maybe Hegazi could be considered as such. However, because other footballing skills are also required, they cannot all be automatic first team choices. Brunt and Barry are clearly also in this category. Leadership qualities in a goalkeeper are especially significant, and that was most obvious in the case of Foster.
Last night the lack of enough leadership qualities on the pitch is one of the reasons we were beaten.
