READING FC defender Liam Moore insists the players are completely at fault for the team’s malaise not manager Paul Clement.

The pressure is mounting on Clement after Royals slumped to the bottom of the Championship following last weekend’s home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.

But Moore – who penned a new five-year deal recently – says his team-mates must carry the can for the dreadful start to the campaign that sees Clement’s men without a win from their opening six games and out of the Carabao Cup.

And the 25-year-old stressed Clement has the full backing of the dressing room.

“We’re right behind the manager, absolutely,” he said. “We were losing games under the previous manager. We’re losing games now, but we’re all behind this manager.

“We’ve got to look in the mirror. It’s easy to say we nearly did this or that, but we lost the game on Saturday and we’ve lost a lot of games recently.

“There’s no point looking at the manager, look at individuals, look at the players including myself.

“The manager tries to help us in areas where he can. Ultimately, it’s a team game, so you need individuals to tighten up.

“The old manager was let down by that and at the moment we are letting this manager down. We have to do more as individuals, there’s no point passing the buck.”

Reading Chronicle:

Leandro Bacuna sums up the feeling at the final whistle after Reading lost at home to Sheffield Wednesday last weekend.

He added: “You can’t sulk, there’s no point feeling sorry for ourselves. We need to keep working hard.

“I’ve been at clubs before when results aren’t going your way and form isn’t good for myself.

“The only thing to do is work, work, work and do everything you possibly can.”

Moore’s goal against Sheffield Wednesday was a mere consolation as Royals crashed 2-1 and were booed off by fans at Madejski Stadium after a fourth league defeat.

But the former Leicester City centre-back, who looks to have ousted Chris Gunter for the vice-captain’s role in Paul McShane’s absence, admitted: “The goal doesn’t mean anything, we lost the game.

“There’s no point standing here saying next time we will do this and do that. We’re not doing well enough as a team as individuals and myself included, that’s every single player.

“We lost the game because of two sloppy chances they put away. They put men behind the ball and we were clueless when it came to breaking them down.

“There’s going to have to be a lot of hard work and we’ll need a lot of characters to get us through the grind at this tough time.”

With two weeks between fixtures due to the international break, Moore is now determined to iron out the problems on the training ground.

“We’ve got a couple of big weeks which I’m looking forward to,” he explained. “I really want to get stuck into some hard work and come out the other end stronger. It’s got to turn around for us.

“If you look at our form something needs to change. We’ve got two weeks to work our balls off and train hard and maybe have a bit of self-reflection.

“We need to come back stronger and have none of this ‘next time, next time,’ stuff.

“The hard work has to start now.”

Reading are back in Championship action next Saturday when they travel to Preston (3pm).