Senior players need to step up for five games that will define our season

In the minds of some any 'honeymoon period' enjoyed by new gaffer Roberto Mancini is now over. We'd all agree that the side has offered some particularly lifeless showings in recent weeks, admittedly generally getting results, occasionally not doing, stuttering through what on paper was supposedly an easy run but being found out during the real 'tests'. However, i feel that criticism of the Italian is premature as he tries to learn on the job with another manager's squad.

Mancini will need time, and not just a few weeks, but a season or two, funds to bring in his own men, opportunity to assess what's here now, to try out formations, tactics, learn about opposition and the league in general, to school his troops on the training ground, and in order to to put his stamp on the squad and make it his own. The initial boost that tends to come with a managerial change aside, setbacks were always going to come, but i think he's done okay thus far.

In my opinion, the problem, not that there's a huge one as we sit on the verge of a top four place, is simply that the first few games aside, when people began to think we were much better than we are, we've never really got going all season, and assembling such a turnover of players into a side virtually overnight has proved as difficult as people told us it would do.

We've never really begun to build the side into any sort of framework, the defence has been cobbled together, suffered a staggering number of knocks, systems have been fiddled with under both managers, and we've pretty much been winging it all year. It shouldn't come as a huge surprise then that as we approach the business end of the season we're becoming increasingly wobbly.

Both our cup chances, already slim now we have two tricky away ties, and our hopes of finishing in the top four will all but be decided over the next three weeks. All five of the especially testing upcoming fixtures will require improvements in terms of effort, organisation and leadership. So far we've had no problems at home against the big teams, beating Chelsea, Arsenal and United, and the upcoming game against Liverpool is at least as important.

In truth, everything has been lacking of late, and the games in which we have managed to win we've tended to ride our luck. We spoke recently about results being more important than the performances themselves, that's certainly true, but when playing better sides we won't get away with the kamikaze defending that's began to haunt us again, or be able to grind out victories half-heartedly. Liverpool and Spurs won't dither around in possession showing us respect, they'll soak up what we've got and hit us when it matters.

The two trips to Stoke will also be huge tests of mettle and resolve. The Potteries side have failed to win half of their home games so far this season, but there's absolutely no question of them not being up for turning us over. They played very well yesterday, and Pulis fielded a strong side, but survival, although more or less guaranteed already, will be their primary target, and they'll see it as a chance to rattle a side who from the outside appear to be a bit too big for their boots.

To have any chance of winning at the Britannia, even earning a point, which wouldn't be a disaster, we need to prove ourselves to be more than an expensively-assembled set of players occasionally capable of playing pretty football. Games like Tuesday's are the sort which will ultimately decide our fate, and those players with experience of playing in and winning these sort of crunch encounters absolutely have to step up and scrap for the shirt.

As fans, though the hope of winning trophies is the pot at the end of the rainbow, you can ask nothing more than for people to give their all. If we go on to exit the cup and fail to finish fourth you take it on the chin providing the players have tried. Of late some of them haven't been doing. I don't think it has too much to do with the way the manager sets up the side, people aren't pulling their weight; Stoke, Bolton, Hull, Pompey, Everton - same story, and there are countless examples of it happening under the previous boss.

So far as the FA Cup goes it's black and white, we have to go to Stoke and not get beat. That done we have the near-impossible task of doing likewise at Stamford Bridge against the side who will almost certainly take the trophy for the fifth time in recent memory. Should anything unexpected happen then it would be a bonus, but i feel we ballsed up our big chance yesterday.

Stoke, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs are make or break, our season will be defined by our points return from those games. Anything less than six or seven and the campaign would begin to look like one of wasted opportunities. It's time for the senior figures in the changing room; Toure, Vieira, SWP, though having gone through different kinds of turmoil of late, Adebayor, Bridge, and even those who may not have led quite as decorated careers but are big players at the club; Barry, Shay, Zab, etc, to stand up and drag us kicking and screaming to a positive end to the season. I'm beginning to wonder if we've really got the bottle.