Of the new players I like Alcaraz, Soulemana, Lavia and Edosie. As for the others, I am far from convinced. They are a combination of inexperienced and journeymen and you can appreciate why they are not getting a run. I would concede that Onuachu has not had a chance to shine yet you wonder what our scouts were thinking of when signing the likes of Larius.
To me it was just arrogance from SR/recruitment/Hassenhuttl in the summer about how good our current squad was. I don’t think many of the 10 players we signed in the summer are bad players, they were just generally young and inexperienced and need some time to get up to speed. Which is great if you already have a good team that can help these guys, we didn’t. They went all in on their strategy early and rolled the dice on it either working immediately and these young, undoubtedly talented, players hitting the ground running, or there being 3 worse teams than us. It looks like it’s going to backfire. I still have the same attitude I did then though tbh. I’d rather have tried something like this than just signing a few experienced heads and finishing about 15th again. The risk reward was way higher the way we went, and ok we probably are down, but the squad we now have should be good enough to bring us straight back even if the better players leave, not taking into consideration any signings we make (which we obviously will do).
Sort of agree but unfortunately we’re just not a “nick a 1-0” team. What we saw today was very “Saintsy”. Very slow, predictable going forward, without much / any goal scoring threat & defensively, always capable of conceding. We go 1-0 down & considering we’ve only scored 2 or more, 5 times this season, it’s was always going to be neigh impossible. We got what played for imo.
We are a big fan of a 1-0. It's just we're invariably on the wrong end. That was our 11th 1-0 of the season, of which we've lost eight. Eight.
I think the harsh reality is that anyone who can, will want to leave without a backward glance. The big worry for me is that Elly, Mara, Caleta-Car and the like, might be big players for us next season.
Dunno didn't buy anything in the ground as I'd have not got home after selling my car to afford it It really is a terrible ground for football. Feel sorry for the West Ham fans having to go there every week. Don't think you could pay me to go again for a league match tbh. Knew there was a reason I left it til last.
Maybe, I mean we did reinforce. 10 players is a lot in one window and we obviously had a fair bit to spend. We couldn’ve spent £150m and brought in 3/4 players who were more experienced and seen how it went. But we went for the quantity option (which we also needed as the squad last year was poor as well). I don’t know how much input Hassenhuttl had into the signings, and as you say he definitely wanted a striker. From comments from the fan forum it does seem like SR were going into this season expecting to struggle and hoping to just survive, blood the youngsters and push on next year.
This just underscores the scattergun approach of SR. I have no idea as to what data they were using but it is clear that they did not have a proper plan or realised that the summer signings did not have the desired result. Buying players like Orsic whoappears to have been a poor fit just strikes me that they had not done heir research into what a particular player was like. The recruitment this past 12 months has been amateur at best.
My biggest issue today was the lack of bravery in the team, which I put down to them playing to orders. I posted at half time that we were getting good possession around the edge of their box, but the number of players we were committing to attack was basically 4. Theo, Mara, Stuey and Moi, with a cameo from the full backs. JWP in recent games has been getting forward to support and to offer passing options for whoever had the ball, but today he was entrenched in a defensive role. I said I would give Selles until the end of the season, and I will, but he has to be braver than he was today. If we go down then let’s go down fighting.
I’d say the recruitment in the summer wasn’t particularly scatter gun. Naive? Too much too soon? Yes, but they clearly had a plan to buy youth and undoubtedly promise them game time. I don’t see this plan changing whilst they are here. The worst/most disappointing signings in the summer would be the experienced ones (Aribo and DCC) I agree about Orsic. Again without knowing how the transfer committee or whatever you want to call it works, I think at the start of Jan they were behind Jones so signed some players he wanted. Selles clearly doesn’t rate some of them (Bree, Orsic and Onuachu) so these look like poor signings, but again you can see a plan behind them.
I agree give Selles to the end of the season (but only out of necessity) I don't want him anywhere near the dug out when we're championship.
Just going to throw this out there. Given how high we were “defending” that free kick, could Bazunu have taken a better starting position to give himself a chance to come out for the ball? Just watched it back on YouTube, and initially Baz is just outside his 6 yard box then stepped back when the free kick was taken. The header was pretty much from a central position, no more than 12 yards out. Should Baz have given himself a better starting position, maybe 8 yards out, and then committed to attacking the ball rather than backing off? I don’t think that if he had taken a more positive position that he would have been beaten by a direct shot from that distance
Rodgers and Potter available? Really don't know, it doesn't matter who at present. Disappointed but pretty sanguine, this calamitous state has been coming for a long time, still just hoping though, yes I know etc etc etc!!!
Rodgers or Potter would be insane coups if we were relegated, both above our level now even with Rodgers being sacked where he has. Cooper probably more in our league if Forest drop him and would be a good appointment imo.
