Sky Sports' David Simms believes that a lack of leadership is the root cause of the Sheffield Steelers' problems this season.
Pundit blames Sheffield's woes on absence of big characters
Sky Sports commentator David Simms believes that a lack of leadership is the root cause of the Sheffield Steelers' problems this season.
The reigning league and play-off champions have started their title defence in awful form and currently sit seventh in the Elite League table.
A couple of wins over Edinburgh at the weekend gave David Matsos' team a confidence boost, but they have been a shadow of the side that dominated the EIHL last season.
The Steelers have already lost more games in regulation through mid-November than they did in the entire 2008-09 campaign.
And Simms believes that Sheffield's poor form is because of the failure to replace key leaders in the locker room.
"Sheffield have struggled from a lack of leadership, which has turned into a lack of confidence," Simms told
skysports.com.
Unacceptable
"They've lost a lot of character. Steve Munn, Ashley Tait and Jody Lehman were massive character players and they've replaced them with good players, but they didn't replace their character.
"Perhaps David Matsos underestimated the quality of the leadership he had in Tait, Munn and Lehman. I'm sure he'll put that right and will make some more changes in the days and weeks to follow."
Saturday's 6-1 win over Edinburgh ensured that Sheffield advanced to the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup, but they only managed to scrape a victory in Sunday's league fixture, winning 3-2 after penalties.
There is a clear gap between the top five and bottom three and Sheffield are trailing fifth-placed Cardiff by nine points.
"Bridging that gap to the top five is going to be hard enough, but Sheffield have got to challenge and finish in the top three," Simms told
skysports.com.
"That means they've got to put a run together that's better than any other team. They've got to put together three out of four - four-point weekends. And only after that can they start to feel relatively comfortable that they're on the right track."
"What's happening in Sheffield is unacceptable for that organisation and a couple of wins against Edinburgh Capitals papers over a few cracks - that's just getting the job started. I'm sure that David Matsos and the players know that."
