I agree if you mean he hasn't been given a chance to go for it. And yes, you are right that I was expressing concern during summer, not so much about the quality but about the quantity. IIRC we brought in 2 or 3 early on, but then it dried up ( with some on here telling me to stop bed wetting). The signings did eventually come. The point is, whilst he hasn't been given the chance to go for it (as in promotion push) he had and has been given more than enough support to be doing better than this, just like he had enough to keep us up the season before last. What is it, 15 from 105 and 5 goals in 14? The squad really isn't that bad, plus he's had his say in the many players he's been allowed to add to HIS squad. All irrelevant as it's almost certain he'll be gone very shortly. I guess the player mentioned is Smallwood?
It’s the same team as last year the only Additions are bowler and Keogh. No one here would have wanted either of them or thought they would improve our first XL. Critchley didn’t win the league tho did he. Mcann did.
Yes, I've watched us, including when we held unbeaten Bournemouth (who appear to be a better team than WBA so far) to a draw. My point is the team now seems to be not just failing to step up but actually going backwards under GM, and a new manager would I think make a big difference - potentially even away to WBA. Plus it would give a (caretaker) manager a few days at least to bed in before the Barnsley game, rather than come in completely cold for that one which is already looking like a 6 pointer.
If that's the case, and that individual is a member of McCann's coaching staff, then surely Grant is responsible for it?
That's not true. They've also added Lavery who scored 5 so far, Dale, Wintle, Sterling, TJJ and James. I'd have taken most of them. Critchley had a big restructuring job to make them competitive in L1, it took him a bit of time which cost them top 2 but he's undoubtedly a better manager than McCann.
I do actually agree with him on one thing. The performances haven't been been bad, we've been sloppy in defence at times but we just can't score and that's killing us and what will lose him his job. The big improvement I wanted from last year was proper competition for the front 3, and we haven't got it. In fact, I'd have taken Whyte and Crowley over Williams & Longman. That's highlighted Wilks' form even more. He's completely off it, but he's still a better option than the others. We just lack quality, and quality costs money. We didn't need to spend millions but there's plenty of players we could have got from L1 clubs for less than £500k who would improve us tenfold. We went for the cheap option and now it'll be a real dogfight to stay up
I think City’s ability to pass teams to death helped us last season at that level and a big squad . We lacked physicality and real mobility and that’s evident now , we are unable to attack at pace as we have very little. Blackpool had this last season and recruited suitably . A good number of their players had been together for a while . It doesn’t change what I believe has gone on first time and this time in this division and if I was running a business and the owner said I could buy or rent a half price machine after he’s sold it’s two better predecessors , but he expected the same productivity , I’d consider that mitigating circumstances for struggling. I find it hard to defend McAnns stubbornness and tactics , but I feel he not had enough investment by a long way at g r his level. By the way recruitment is always a gamble , Liverpool spent over £150million a few years back and got nowhere .
Who beat sheff u who made us look like clowns that’s down to the coaching Our team should and would be doing better and we will with a different coach.
I don't really get your point. The biggest difference is Critchley is a much better manager. That's why they're 6th. He'll be in the PL soon if he carries on
Our form dipped because those two knew they were on their way and is as usual with players they stopped getting into on pitch situations where they could get injured. It was very noticeable even Bowen started to protect himself more for a number of weeks before that window .
Of course there's mitigation. It could be argued that when given a competitive squad at whatever level he's performed with it. Obvs there was outright mutiny when senior pros realised the bowen/grosicki sales also signalled the end of their own hopes of renewals at the end of that season. Obvs he hasn't been backed with a mid table budget and this season was always going to be a struggle. I also think a more experienced manager would have got a little more in terms of results than Grant has in the last 35 championship games. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome, and that inflexibility has also added to his problems. I don't hold out much hope for the next few games however. He knows he's going, the players know he's going and are they really going to put their bodies on the line for yesterday's man? The team look under-confident at the moment but having the uncertainty of the takeover and inevitable change in managerial direction rumbling on won't be helping either.
I agree with this, although they might not want to put their bodies on the line but if the new owner is backed with plenty of money. Some/all of these players are playing for their futures and if we are honest not many if any are going to go up the ladder
The point is people are saying our squad isn’t good enough and we only bought league 1 players. Blackpool are in exactly the same boat and are doing brilliantly That’s down to mcann
I actually think Grant is a pretty good manager but he's very naive and stubborn. The 433 works great when you've got more quality, it's a very attacking formation and it does leave you open but you get plenty of players inside the box. But yesterday was a great example of his naivety. To match up with Coventry's 3412, we pushed our full backs into wing backs and that left a 3 on 3 with their front 3 and Smallwood Greaves & Bernard (plus plenty of space down the channels). It was ballsy from Grant, but it was reckless and left us wide open. In L1 it probably works great, but we should have been a bit more respectful to Coventry, they're a good team. We should've gone with a 352 or matched them with a 3412 but make sure we had 2 defensive midfielders and 3 CBs to give us extra numbers. Instead, we gave away a sloppy goal due to Bernard/Smallwood inability to communicate/positional awareness. PLay 3 at the back and we don't concede that goal. A point would have been great yesterday and there's nothing wrong setting up to be hard to beat with numbers behind the ball. Leave it to the attacking 2/3 to win you the game and if they don't, make sure we come away with a clean sheet and a point. We have to stop gifting sloppy early goals as it doesn't give us a chance.
