This talk has crept into football fans chat for far too long now “Not playing for the manager”…..you can perhaps make a case for multi millionaire footballers or the odd one but to be a pro footy player most will not down tools im sorry it’s BS.
If a manager /coach doesn’t rate or pick you the odd one may have the hump but at our level players just cannot afford to say they can’t be arsed they do not have the financial security to do that.
Football is more data driven now there is no hiding place so stats will show if players are slacking off ALL clubs can see this data.
I would say it’s a combination of players out of form, no squad depth to change things and coach instructions not working or not good enough.