Out of the loan players we’ve got, I’d send all of them back except for Bernard and Baxter. The others have been a huge disappointment.
By that measure you'd have done the same to Slater last season? Personally I've see more from Cartwright vs Leicester 23's (or whatever game it was) than I saw from Baxter vs Wigan
Slater didn’t play until towards the end of the season. The ones this season have had opportunities, they just have not been good enough.
Think Longman has something. Smith looked okay early doors too and Bernard is a squad player at the mo with bags of potential. We needed an experienced centre half and a proven No9. Instead they signed a load of midfielders, replicating what we already have, a MU loanee out of league 2 and a traditional no 10, again straight out of league 2 (via a parent club) but just doesn't fit the 'masterplan'. That is on Darno and McCann. Finances are one thing. Sheer arrogance, naivety and the same level of utter incompetence akin to Darno's earlier signings (when we did actually have a budget) is entirely another.
I don't think Longman has shown anything. I'd send Bernard back mind, he's got bags of potential, but he's a defensive liability and regardless of whether we play a back 3 or 4 we can't have that. I get that we signed loads of midfielders but we're still massively missing Slater. I said all through the summer how important he was to us but the number of people on here who said we've signed M Smith so we're fine. M Smith hasn't played a minute for us in weeks and looks to be way short. The summer has been completely f'cked up, the squad from last year was older and more experienced and I can't believe that all the recruitments brought in were so young. It's naivety from McCann again but he never seems to learn from it.
He has spells where he's done really well but his positioning and awareness are awful. He got done at the weekend for the Coventry goal and he got done for the P'Boro winner too. It's becoming way too frequent. We looked miles better without him tonight. I'm sure he'll be a good player but he's got lots to learn and I don't really see why we even bothered taking him on. He'll never be ours permanently and he needs a lot of work, so what's the point
We got done today with a defensive lapse too so I'm not sure we were that much better. I think we need an experienced CB to protect the kids though.
Yep I think this is spot on. I'm surprised how few people notice how poor his discipline is in terms of holding his position. Loves to storm out towards the man with the ball, which people maybe like because it looks aggressive and on the front-foot, but it leaves gaps behind him. I think your summary there makes him sound like another Hector or Tomori in terms of pointless loans that we won't be signing, which is probably about right.
Not really, we got done today because we tried to play it out from the back when we shouldn't have. Considering their attacking prowess, the only proper chance they created tonight was when they hit the post & Ingram made a top save. I can't think of the defence being breached at all. McLoughlin made some really good last-ditch interventions and had a good game. I'd much rather stick the time into him
In the same way you could say that other than the goal scored by Coventry and one other chance that Ingram did well to deal with, we weren't opened up much either. I think you're being incredibly harsh on Bernard when it's more an issue with the structure around him. He was playing L2 last season so is doing remarkably well. I didn't think we'd see him as much as we have, courtesy of Jones' injury, but we still need an experienced CB to help with his development.
I know, me too. It was definitely the right call to take him out the firing line tonight though. I think he is a bit like a Hector or Tomori, but he's not a patch on Tomori. I think it's really bizarre that people think he's been better than Greaves, I don't think it's been close & Greaves has handled the step up pretty well on the whole. He still makes the odd mistake, but some of his defending is great & he's becoming a leader too. With streaming, I pretty much always end up with the away commentary and he's often picked out by them as one of our standouts. Despite being a local lad, I don't think he's appreciated as much as he should be. He's had tutelage from the Utd academy, his positioning should be significantly better than it is. It's no surprise that last season Salford played him a fair bit at RB. I couldn't care less about his development, he'll no longer be a Hull City player come May at the latest. If we send him back in Jan, no other Championship club will take him.
Graves' form has been spiralling the last few weeks and actually it was his poor positioning (not stepping up in line with the rest of the defence) that directly led to the Cov goal. I'm a big fan of his but finding this narrative from you a bit surprising. I care about the potential for picking him up again next season and potentially permanently after that. I think there's a player there and would be quite happy to see him flourish at City. If you took that attitude with all loanees we wouldn't have seen Chester, Brady, Elmo, Meyler, etc. sign permanently with City after successful loan spells.
It was Smallwood who didn't step up for the Coventry goal. Greaves had already been pulled out to the right wing to make the tackle just before they crossed it. He was out on the wrong side covering for Bernard who had dived in on the halfway line and left a gap behind him.
Firstly, a far better performance than Saturday, we at least looked as if we had played together before unlike the weekend. Having said that we shouldn't be surprised as it was more or less the same team as last season. I, like one or two others, feel we look better without Bernard. Jones & McLoughlin look much steadier defenders. (It really is remise of the club not having an experienced centre back alongside Greaves, who would have benefited enormously from having an Elphick or Jagielka like alongside, as would the team. At this level to have 2 inexperienced centre back is bordering on insanity). Again, until the last 5 minutes we didn't look like scoring. It's not surprising, as this insistence on playing 3 along the front, with only 3 in midfield at this level it just put too much pressure on the defence. Last night both Wilk's to a large degree and Magennis to a lesser extent were passengers, didn't really contribute much to the game, because they are isolated. Whether we play 352 or 442 I don't mind, but we just have to get 4 in midfield to counteract what the opposition is doing. We are constantly outnumbered in midfield, which is the reason the defence gets too much pressure and why we don't create anything going forward. Big game Saturday and no mistake, lose that, and we are starting to become adrift.
Okay ... had a night to mull it over, last night's showing wasn't awful, we held West Brom quite comfortably for large parts of the game, and could and should have at least scored one late on, Longman, and KLP should have at least tested the keeper. I thought Honeyman was the difference in midfield, and Jones/ McLoughlin definitely made a difference. But for the love of God just what does Magennis or Wilks bring to that team ? At least Magennis was useful defending set pieces I suppose, but Wilks, what a lazy twat he is, numerous times I watched him as he was just stood around, or jogged bag with no urgency while their players ran past him with ease, given last season form he is a rough diamond who has potential but he is like these female celebrities that are too posh to push ffs, no effort whatsoever. I know West Brom weren't brilliant last night, but it showed that we were more then capable of giving these teams a game even using the 433, but yet again a mistake costs us, and the blunt forward line are incapable of getting us a goal. Confidence is obvs very low, and I say again, the only way to get a shift in their mentality is a change at the top, an injection of new ideas and enthusiasm. But my god we need something up front, be it new players or the ones we have being coached properly.
Experienced centre backs like Jagielka. And even Davis are still way out of City’s pay levels anyone we were allowed to afford would be in the same or lower division , and as I’ve said you don’t uproot for about the same money - kids settled in school etc . This is where Mcann has been shafted . His decision to buy numerous midfielders is weird or incompetence. Godden who scored for Cov was at Scunny , Ebbsfleet etc !!! Yet we are stuck with two players up front who don’t close down always 10. Yds short . And are incapable of keeping the ball . I’d put Longman in because he’s better than both and one of the youngsters who’s strong enough plus change the formation . Actually Emmanuel could do Wilks job and he would keep the ball . Where’s Williams?
