DARRELL Clarke says his Barnsley team needs to play ‘a hell of a lot better’ and is demanding more consistency.

The head coach has been disappointed with aspects of his side’s performances in the opening nine games of the season, which have yielded 15 points and left them seventh in League One.

He has been particularly frustrated this week following the home draws with Stockport County and Wycombe Wanderers, saying the players must be better on the ball.

In midweek, Clarke – who has never managed a side competing for promotion to the Championship before – said ‘I expected more at a club like Barnsley’.

Asked to elaborate, he told the Chronicle: “I expected more quality.

“You come to Barnsley and should be working with better players who make better decisions under pressure.

“The players do have more of that but I haven’t seen it enough. Players, if they want to stay around here, have to perform more consistently – not just on a game by game basis but on a minute by minute basis.

“Some of the decisions I have seen have baffled me so they have probably baffled the supporters well. We have to get better, and work hard on the training pitch to do that. But it’s not all a disaster because we have some talented players.”

Barnsley are currently seventh, having finished sixth last season despite a late slump. Clarke said: “We only have four or five players who were consistently starting last season, and the team won three of the last 14 games. I was never coming into an environment that was going to be full of confidence. There have been a lot of changes as well. We’ve done reasonably well to graft out the points we’ve got but we have to get hell of a lot better and more consistent.

“It’s not all fantastic but it’s not all bad. We have to stay positive.”

Clarke has said that he is ‘searching for answers’ in terms of formations – using several in each game recently.

“I am a manager who likes to be adaptable and, if things aren’t working, I change things early.

“I want a consistent 11. Of course I do. But we have to get results in the meantime. There are not enough players showing me they can be consistent in a shape and formation to be able to say ‘this is us and the way we go forward.’

“Adaptability is the key issue but we would like to settle it down a lot.

“If the game is not going well, I have got to change things. The three games we won on the spin, I made three changes every game.”