Nicky Barmbys Interview - Tackling the Boo Boys

Obvious questions like that he shouldn't have to think on his feet. We've been struggling for goals from the strikers for months, it's transfer deadline day and we haven't signed a striker what does he think Humberside are going to ask him after the game with an hour left til the window shuts. He should have had an answer prepared for that, and he could have had one of the diplomatic answers ready. He hasn't confirmed the midfielder/winger because he hasn't been asked about them.

 

Right now they'll be decent because he signed a permanent deal with a club taken over by a billionaire. A week or so earlier his situation was he was doing nothing for the rest of the season so Blackburn would have...hang on, I'm sure I just explained why he'd have been much cheaper once, and said if we had big money to spend on Hamill looking at a relatively cheap package for a proven goalscorer should have been looked at.

 

John makes some good points, I think a lot of fans have been spoilt in recent years and have over-high expectations, we are in a brilliant spot right now no matter what happens and we have made it with the strikers not scoring, maybe the best is yet to come.

 

its a tough one this , the club could spen 3-4 mill on a striker finish 3rd in the league and lose out in the play offs ,
same as getting one loanee in , finishing 6th and pulling off another Wembely win.

theres also the argument of slowly building for the future , footballs always full of twists , so you have to take that chance when it arrises .
City could still finish in the top two and maybe the lack of action and Barmbys steadfast loyalty to the players will help galvanise the team even further.

Barmbys played with these players he will know more than a manager whos heart is in it and i dont think he would want any player near the dressing room who was justr along for the ride .

Keeping hold of the XI was always number one priority for most fans - the players must want to play for NB and vice versa , so hopefully the core of the team wont be unsettled.

 

5th in the league.

 

Yes Nick chose not to go for a striker in the transfer market - but he may have chosen to wait until the loan market opens next week. There may be players from the premier league that need to go out? Time will tell!

 

I honestly think we should play Cam up front. His crossing is his weak point and we have plenty of wide players available in Koren, Brady and Garcia.

 

The problem with that is that playing Stewart as a striker will nean you have to completely change the formation we have been playing with for the last 4 months.

Stewart is not strong enough to play up front in a 4-2-3-1. We would have to change to a 4-4-2. That would mean either weakening our defensive capabilities or weakening or creative capabilities as you would either lose a wide player or a holding midfielder. I think the better option would have been to replace the one striker with a player who is better at performing that role in the transfer window, but Barmby has chosen not to do that.

 

The question at the root of the comments/boo boy chants is what do we want from the end of the season:-
Promotion - would the majority of our current squad be good enough to finish 15th in the PL next season.
Play-offs -
Another season in the championship with our current squad (which we managed to stop any club nicking any of our young prospects like Stewart) and building on that squad with better players in the summer ready for an assault on the promotion places next season.

I would prefer option 3, I know there is the "We want things yesterday" brigade but stabilty and building slowly to make sure when we next get promoted we do not make the mistakes of last time (and we all know - barring a few dullards, what those massive faults were)

 

I didnt for one minute think of playing him as a lone striker. That would be mental - the ball would come straight back to us every time! I meant as 1 of a 2 with the other playing back to goal (McLean) and Cam being on the last defenders shoulder.

Line up:
Back 5 takes care of itself
Garcia McKenna Evans/Oli Koren
McLean Cam

3 from Brady, Fryatt, Adebola and Simpson is a strong attacking bench!

Edit - actually that really is a bloody strong team for the Championship. The more I think about it Nick is right that we shouldnt - and I stress shouldnt if everyone performs - really need to strengthen.

 

Had we been in the position we are now 4 years ago before the whole Premiership experience, been 6th in the league would feel different to what it does now. I guess that's to be expected, but expectations aside 6th in the league is 6th in the league, we're in a great position and I don't think many of us expected to be in the play off places at the start of February after the first 4 games of this season. I would however agree with the premier league tigers point that our lack of proficency in front of goal is going to undermine a promotion push, especially when the likes of Birmingham and Cradiff are coming on strong. It's been said before but one day we'll give soemone a good thrashing. Look at Ipswich last night, there was no sign that they would go and put 5 past West Ham. It's fustarting at the moment that we can't get the results to represent our hard work and performances, i'm hoping it'll come good in the near future.

 

With Zamora going to the Dramas there could well be a chance to get one of their strikers on loan.

 

I'm not a boo boy but they have paid their hard earned cash the same as us all. I do not think it does the team any good but there was some justification last night. That is the first game I have seen for a about 6 weeks, it was poor, they were a very, very bad side we should of scored 4 or 5 past them. Definitely 2 points dropped and for Nicky to say he was pleased with the performance is really naive for me because it was terrible!!

 

If you were there in the days of 'Fish out, Dolan out' you would not be booing off a team who are currently the 25th best team in the country (based on current standings).

 

I'm afraid that I don't understand fans that boo their team that are 5th in the league, are playing well and battering most teams. I could understand it if the players were not putting the effort in and were getting ripped to shreds week in week out.

Granted last night was a game that we could and should have won but we had 57% possession, 20 shots (11 on target), and 12 corners. You can hardly say the players weren't putting the effort in.

Our strikers are no doubt feeling the pressure as they haven't scored for 2 months but booing them will only put more pressure on them to score resulting in them maybe trying too hard and their drought continuing.

I hope that all they need is for one to go in off their knee, arse, whatever and they will start to get their confidence back and more goals will come - maybe that's what NB sees in training day in day out?

 

The performance was far from terrible, the finishing was poor but the general play on the whole was decent. I can only assume that some of the newer fans have been season ticket holders at one of the top 4 Prem teams until recently as their expectations can sometimes be absolutely wild.

 

I despair at our fans sometimes.

Cheers when Stewart got subbed were embarrassing.

 

I never heard any booing.