Measured style is preferred by McCormack

All the pain, frustration and anger that can be triggered by a defeat – and particularly a heavy one – is laid bare across Twitter, Facebook and a multitude of internet message boards.

This was certainly the case following Tuesday’s 4-2 reverse at home to Reading, when United were well beaten despite a rally that saw Matt Smith and Rodolph Austin net quickfire goals just after the hour.

The finger-pointing began soon after with everyone from the manager to the board and the players coming in for heavy criticism. Some chose to question the captain’s role, Ross McCormack’s failure to cajole and inspire his team-mates with a fist-pumping gesture or two being seen as a weakness in some eyes.

For the Scot himself, however, the days when such an approach was de rigeur for those sporting the armband are long gone. Instead, McCormack – yesterday named as one of three nominations for the 2013-14 Championship Player of the Year – prefers a more measured approach.

The 23-goal striker said: “Me as a captain? I am never going to be shouting and bawling. I am not going to be grabbing people by the throat at half-time and all that because that has gone.

“That might have been the way things were done in the Sixties and Seventies. But that has gone in modern-day football. Forget about it.

“Me, I like to speak to the lads one-to-one in the changing room, get inside their head and get the best out of them. Sometimes that works, sometimes it might not. But on the pitch I am always trying to speak. This is just how I am.

“Other than that, it is a very young team. But they are all leaders in their own way, everyone does things different.

“The bottom line is that things wouldn’t be coming into question if we were playing well and we are just not playing well.”

Burnley striker Danny Ings and Leicester midfielder Danny Drinkwater are the others up for the Player of the Year award.