At the end of the day if the players Bruce picked for both the Orient & Wendies game had performed to their ability then we would have won both games. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Stockdale back would indeed be a blessing
agree with this 100%. I give you the following examples: 2003/2004: Cruising. We have are on a 15 game unbeaten run. We dick around with the team for an AMC game (1-3 defeat) then a cup game (1-3). After that we have our worst performance of the season in the league - the loss at Huddersfield - and its 3 more games before the next win. 2004/2005: Cruising. 9 (nine) wins on the trot. Change the team for the cup, 0-2 defeat followed by 5 league games without a win. Changing teams wholesale for cup games destroys momentum, loses continuity and the lack of matches makes players lose their edge. It simply doesn't work and I despair at managers who think that it has any benefits.
Basically, what we are saying is that the FA Cup is an unwanted distraction. Very sad for a historical competition
unfortunately, that is one way of looking at it. until something changes it seems that (some) managers seem to try to deal with it by making wholesale changes and that is counterproductive. best to grow some cojones and actually try to win. for Tuesday I humbly suggest that we field the 1st XI (more or less) and use it as a way to get some form and confidence back.
After Saturday evenings crap performance the whole team should be dropped and SB should then pick his reserve team to play Orient ie. the same team that played on Saturday
Or we could give the reserves another run out as we dont compete in a reserve league and the players need an element of match fitness should any of our 1st eleven become unavailable
At the risk of going against the consensus, I'm really not convinced Stockdale is the answer to our keeper conundrum either. Everyone seems to paint him as a saviour and yes he's probably better than what we already have but I wouldn't want to spend more than 500k on him.
Simply for the sanity of this board - I hope we do beat Orient tomorrow. And ideally we could sweet-talk Jol and Fulham into signing Stockdale on a fee which is benefical to both us and them - as let's not forget he has been named in the England squad so must really want to not be bench-warming when he could be impressing Roy as a first-teamer
Blimey they are interesting stats - The FA Cup in Jan in particular does however puncture the league programme and teams lose momentum as a result - for me though my main concern in playing the first team is the risk of injury and fatigue in what is a demanding league programme anyway.
I know what you mean. He's good but at Watford he was too scared of getting hurt to stop them scoring, which is the exact problem we had with Amos and Jacko.
Probably a bit more well thought of now and with Arsenal running good in cup competitions I reckon we'd struggle to get him
I don't agree with that, in fact I thought Stockdale was clever not to get himself crocked as the game was won already despite the goal going in
Do you really think he sat and considered all that when the ball came in? The game wasn't won, we were only two goals up and they had another attack after the goal. It was his ball to take and he bottled it, no different to Amos' mistake at Cardiff which got him dropped and eventually sent back to Man U, and Jakupovic's revent mistakes have been of a similar nature in that he wasn't brave enough.
If we spend that then they've robbed us just as much as they did with Jimmy Bullshit. He's a decent keeper, but £3m is ridiculous. I bet we could get Robinson for £300k on a 3 year deal with a signing on fee of £350k. Much better value.
I think we WILL get Stockdale but the price won't be anywhere near £3m, nobody in their right mind would pay that.
