McLaughlin, Flanagan, Willis, Wright, Xhemajli, Hume. all been out for extended periods. Thats an entire defense. To still be 3rd in the league at this point of the season is incredible, I think we have done remarkably well to be where we are.
Sanderson out too last few. Struggling in the goalkeeper department until Burge stepped up. Wyke couldn't score for love nor money. Mcgeady frozen out earlier.
A knock on effect being that we had to fill these defensive positions with midfielders like Onion and Max leaving us short in midfield. We only have Grant, Scowen and Winchester to choose from. LJ will not play Neil for some reason. The only place we are ok is wingers with McGeady, Gooch, Diamond and Jones. Wyke and Stewart seem to be our only choice for strikers with O’Brien and McGuire supporting them. Have I missed anybody from our first team squad?
Considering how long 09 has played at RB for us before we had a crisis at CB then I hardly view him as a midfielder any more - mind, given the way he put the ball past Burge yesterday perhaps we should try him at CF?!
by christ lad, reading that makes you realise just how low in options we have been...people also forget LJ has had to work with two games per week, a covid outbreak, not having first team players available, very little to no time between games to work with the squad, the constant 'will it happen or wont it' takeover, to be where we are or even that we were so close to auto promotion while not being at our best is damn good...yes, i do realise other teams have had similar problems but how many of them managed an unbeaten run like we did? time to look ahead to next season, hopefully the manager will have exactly the right players in place...whichever league we are in.
By your reckoning no players are any good except Maguire. Yet we are third.after half a season of Parkinson.
I also rate, Sanderson, Jones, O’Nien, Mcgeady, Hume, Diamond, Neil and Wyke. I wouldn’t lose any sleep if the others got the boot in the summer regardless of what league we are in. It’s just a shame two of those I’ve named aren’t ours and aren’t likely to be if we don’t go up.
Fair enough although you've called out O'nien and Wyke before to name two. Agree with possibly losing Sanderson and jones if not promoted also, how long can mcgeady carry on. ? No doubt there will be new players coming in during the summer whether we get promoted or not. One thing we know now is the takeover is complete and that puts us in a much better position in either league.
Personally I'm buzzing for the future, the club has a clear structure and plan in place. Can't wait to get back to the SoL, league one or championship. Johnson has done remarkable to get as close as he has because of the defensive injuries and we were way off under Parky
Whilst there is general agreement the Mcfadzean is poor, the left winger who should be helping him out is Mcgeady... mind Jones is not that good at defending either. Imho Gooch's best position is WB, he defends okayish.
We’ve conceded the least amount of goals in the league, or at least have done all season not sure if that remains the case .... scoring goals Has been the issue. This is a simple rewriting of history. To fail to get promotion THREE times is the biggest failure in the history of football I would argue. The players we’ve had in that time, the size of the club, our relative budget .... as a club we are done for.
Burge should only have come out if he was confident of claiming the ball and if he was he should have shouted loud enough for onion to hear. That said its always a risk heading towards your own goal without knowing where the goalie is. Communication breakdown
I’m just pointing out that the oxygen thief in goal is dreadful. Worst goalie in our history. That second goal was an embarrassment, didn’t even run back. Pathetic.