ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – If the pitching is poor, it must be the pitching coach’s fault. If the hitters go into a slump, it has to be the hitting coach’s fault. And if the team nosedives, it must be the manager.

Whether the above statements are true, false, or somewhere in between, it usually doesn’t matter. Players never seem to take the fall for being lousy. So the manager or the coach is fired and then you realize they weren’t the reason after all.

Former Red Sox pitching coach Juan Nieves is a perfect example. He took the fall for pitchers who were underperforming at the start of the 2014 season after he had overseen the pitching staff that won the 2013 World Series. Did he become a poor coach in a few months? Probably not.

Red Sox manager John Farrell let him go because he didn’t believe Nieves had a game plan for fixing the pitching issues and replaced Nieves with Carl Willis.

Well, here’s what we have with Willis: first-inning pitching woes, pitchers who can’t seem to improve. Eduardo Rodriguez is lost. Joe Kelly started out poorly. Clay Buchholz has been in a rut. David Price hasn’t truly pitched like an ace who makes $30 million a year.

Willis helped to fix Rick Porcello’s problems the second half of last season. The only one really on course is Steven Wright, and how much help is Willis or any pitching coach, with a knuckleballer?

Ultimately, Willis has to come up with a magic potion to solve each issue, if it’s solvable. Sometimes you just to have come to the conclusion that your personnel isn’t that good. And sometimes that’s the biggest hurdle. While president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski correctly identified the need for an ace and got one, he may have come up short in terms of obtaining that solid No. 2 guy.

While we wondered whether the team should opt not to pick up the $13.5 million option on Buchholz and perhaps devote the money to another pitcher, the Sox believed picking up the option was a no-brainer. However, Buchholz has certainly not been a No. 2, 3, 4, and sometimes not a No. 5 guy.

The Giants had the foresight to obtain two top pitchers in Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija, knowing there was very little pitching to be had in the free agent class in 2016. Now the Red Sox will be scrambling to find someone and likely will have to give up major talent to do so. Right now, the only possible guy could be Oakland’s Sonny Gray, if the A’s give up on him. The Rays may deal one of their starters, but it always cost more within the division. There’s certainly a sentiment about the merits of Atlanta’s Julio Teheran, who pitched well for former Braves GM Frank Wren (now the Sox senior vice president of baseball operations).

So given that there may not be a stud pitcher walking into the Red Sox clubhouse any time soon, it’s vital that the current pitchers perform at their peak level. Obviously a pitching coach’s role is to fix deliveries and mechanics and get the pitcher throwing at his optimum capacity. He presents a game plan and hopes the pitcher can execute it. Sox pitchers have fallen short of that.

How much of that is the pitchers’ responsibility? Obviously it should be mostly on the shoulders of the actual players. If you’re capable of making a major league starting rotation, you should know how to fix things yourself. But again, it will come down to Willis and whether or not he can find and fix the flaws to help each pitcher turn his season around.

So if Nieves was fired, is Willis also in trouble?

Farrell and Willis are old friends, so this one is harder for Farrell. Farrell mentioned that he’s been more involved watching video and keeping on top of things with Willis and bullpen coach Dana LeVangie.

“The involvement is there,’’ said Farrell of his role with the pitching staff. “But we have guys where this is their primary role.

“I’m not deflecting any responsibility because ultimately it falls on me. They go out with a game plan and they need to execute the game plan. Go out and make pitches from the get-go. So often we find ourselves with a crooked number in the first inning. To continue to rely on our offense to get us out of it — that’s a short-term solution. We need that starter to keep that game under control every night.’’

Willis said the team addressed the first-inning woes (being outscored 29-6 in the first inning in June) Monday. Rodriguez didn’t get the memo as he allowed five first-inning runs and was demoted after the game to Triple A Pawtucket.

“We addressed it yesterday in our advance meeting,’’ Willis said. “It makes it difficult on the offense to start off in a hole and suck energy out of the dugout. They’re [the pitchers] aware of it. We’re also looking at everyone’s routine. Some guys have good routines and are dedicated.

“We had done some work redefining Eddie’s routine as well. We wanted to establish most of his sequencing toward the end of his routine to prepare him for the first couple of hitters. You have to be on from pitch 1 to 100. You can’t be starting at pitch 20.’’

Willis thinks the staff will turn it around.

“I am confident of it because each of the guys have done it before,’’ he said. “We know that ability is there because they’ve done it before. Because of that we feel they’ll return to what they’ve done in the past.’’

On Rodriguez, Willis said “There’s a possibility we’re going to have to make an adjustment just with his hands, where he sets them, where he keeps them throughout his delivery, maybe to eliminate some movement. That’s going to be something that will definitely be difficult to take place here.

“He’s an intelligent kid. He’s aware. It’s just the ability to maintain focus and make it a new habit so he doesn’t have to think about it. When his focus turns to the glove, it obviously takes focus from pitch location and attacking the hitter.’’

So the possible solutions to the problems are in place. Willis can identify the problems and offer solutions. But ultimately it’s the pitchers who will sink Willis or save him.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.