that is the harsh reality. Hard to admit but it's the truth. Watch any other championship side, Rotherham included and they have pace,direction and a plan. Look at our strike force for instance. How many goals would the likes of Polter score in league 2? Not many. How many champ sides would have the likes of Perch ,Polter, Henry, non scoring Luongo as first choice or even in their squad? The true test for me today was when I was thinking who would I be sad to see sold/given away. Apart from a couple that have come through the youth set up, none was my answer. Smithies, aside. How sad is that? Possibly a new manager may be able to get a tune from the current squad but I doubt it very much. If anyone honestly thinks that to be the case then JFH needs to go now, before its all too late. See you all at Forest.
Agree Stan I won't knock Polter for his commitment but he really isn't very good. The team and manager are poor. Only 2 bright sparks have been the Polish lads. I said once that we have gone from Harrods to Poundland, however i think we have gone even lower than that.
I think there's a good team within that squad but the coaching / management isn't adequate. We haven't played well since the first day of the season and the run of games coming up has me fearing the worst. The Christmas turkeys will outlast Hasselbaink and he can't say he's not had sufficient time or money to get it right. Unless performances improve markedly in the next few games, the only argument for retaining him is that we can't attract anyone better.
But my point is that the squad isn't any good. Who would Brentford take off us, for eg? As I say, who would you be sad to see leave the club. Not many.
All just my opinion: Smithies is one of the best goalkeepers in the division. Defence: I don't trust either Onuoha or Caulker to concentrate for nine minutes let alone 90. Of the two I'd have Onuoha every time as Caulker has no interest and will hopefully find a club stupid enough to take him in January. I don't think many sides have players as good as Hall or Lynch as third and fourth choice. Bidwell has shown before he's a very capable, unspectacular but dependable full-back. I like what brief glimpses I've seen of Robinson. Perch is and always has been awful. Both Kakay and the Finnish kid look promising as does Furlong. Cousins has looked crap for us but he's young and did well in a **** Charlton team. Bigger clubs than us have an eye on Luongo. Borysiuk seems good to me but perhaps it's just years of being used to Henry. Wzolek hasn't had much time but has the makings of a better than average Championship winger. Shodipo looks very good whenever he plays. Chery will look great for ten minutes then disappear for three games but gets played regardless of form. Washington I like on the left but it cries out for a proper winger on the other side and an attacking full-back behind him. Sylla was awful against Brentford but has generally looked promising. Polter is comfortably good enough to be a squad player if not more- I've no idea why his good facets are ignored but his negatives are commented on so frequently. It's really not a bad group of players for this level but the tactics seem so basic.
So ,in a nutshell, you feel a new manager could get a tune out of them and possibly finish in the top 8/10? We'd better hurry up because, at the moment, I am looking down, not up.. Forest away, 3 consecutive defeats. are we likely to make that 4 or break their duck for them ,as is often the case. I will be there to witness it ,but definitely not looking forward to it. Did JFH ply and or manage Forest or have I just imagined that?
I think the squad is at that level, yes. Much would depend on who that new manager is. I can't think of anyone I'd really want. Hasselbaink never played for Forest. Are you thinking of Van Hooijdonk or Bryan Roy?
Not much to disagree with there - Caulker and Hall looked awesome early on, but Caulker looks very much a confidence player - which appears a bit shot at the moment - but I do think he is well capable or even better than this level. Bidwell and Shodipo were great as a pairing - would like to see that again, and yes there are 2/3 other left backs who are young, but capable - and 2 seasons without a proper right back is simply laughable - I'd like to think we might see Furlong back at some time, but it looks increasingly unlikely Cousins is competing with several other players to play in the middle, and while JFH maintains his insistence on playing Chery he is unlikely to get in ahead of Luongo and Borysiuk who for me should be first choice. As was pointed out on LFW, JFHs reliance on Chery has been spotted and dealt with, and if he can''t offer more than dead ball situations, perhaps he is better suited to a 20 min cameo that a starting berth. I think Wzolek should be starting - he may not be fast, but he knows how to cross a ball Sylla, Polter and to a degree Washington will benefit from wide men - it seems utterly incomprehensible that we expect the long ball to work for our strikers when they have no-one to work with - Washington is a goal scorer, but (in common with many Rs signings) he is either player out of position, alone up front or in short cameos which don't seem to be working for him - I'm entirely sympathetic to his plight because that criticism he is getting seems utterly out of proportion to the amount of time he gets to play in a striking pair. Sylla and Polter have shown that if you get the ball in from the flanks they can deliver - Polter has been excellent at holding the ball up, but players need to be quicker to get up in support.
For sure, the manager has made a hash of team selection and tactics over and over again and it's very difficult to judge the full capabilities of players in that situation. I think our midfield in particular is awful right now but has potential with the right coaching (e.g. including a rocket up Luongo's backside). Up front I am far less optimistic as I'm now fairly certain that Washington simply can't step up to this level and Polter is always going to be a useful option but never your go-to striker. At the back the lack of consistency is quite shocking - you just know that Warnock would have had that sorted by now. In short, the manager just has to go, his replacement needs to reorganise to keep us up this season and then we somehow need to find new attacking players by next summer.
I genuinely don't think so - but I do think he has either big confidence or attitude issues that impinge on his abilities as a footballer. he has had a couple of well publicised incidents including the 'shoplifting' that wasn't, a brawl in a pub and a run-in with a doorman that suggest he might just be one of those players that struggle to keep their mind on football. I have been doing some reading on the Spurs boards, and the consensus is that he might have upset someone high up in the club by saying something about a family member and was shipped out sharpish At the beginning of the season I seem to remember he said in a interview that he had been struggling with applying himself for a couple of seasons, but he said he was enjoying his football again for the first time in a while. He appeared to be leaner, fitter and and his early season form was excellent - something seems to have changed.
But surely that is the hallmarks of a CB - rock solid week-in-week-out; not a flighty confidence player, with personal attitude problems, that has lengthy periods of being out of form ??
He was young and English and looked physically like he should be good so it was sort of assumed he was while his weaknesses were never improved. He has problems mentally on the pitch (in terms of concentration rather than being a genuine nutter) and his decision-making is appalling for someone who has been professionally coached for twenty years. Not to mention his liking for a pint or ten.
Can't disagree with any of that, but the reply was to the accusation that he was a fraud - I don't think he is... but I do think he has issues that are getting in the way of him performing. Somewhere in there is a decent player, the sad fact is that many managers have seen it (he simply wouldn't have got the loan moves to Liverpool and Southampton if he was a fraud) but none appear to have managed to get any consistency out of him.
Perhaps we could trade him in and get the centre back from Wycombe , Matty Taylor and an old pro, currently warming a prem league bench . Cattermole type. Look how he changed the game v Sunderland. Poss even Crouch if Stoke pay some of his wages.
