I think any of us on here, who have played football would agree that you would rather start a match than be sub or not selected at all, even if it meant playing in a position,you have never played before. I,m sure Aaron Mclean might like to be the striker playing up top with others linking with him, but Fryatt has played really well lately, I just wish more his time on the ball was in the box facing goal instead of 40 yards with his back to goal or out wide.
Agreed. A player who is fussy about his position when he isn't even playing doesn't sound like one you want in the team.
Might as well shut this site down then if no ones allowed an opinion. Barmby might be one of us, but it doesn't mean he can escape criticism when things go wrong. We've had the same problems for months, and he's done nothing to sort it, and is even saying in the media we don't have the problem. Maybe that's why people are getting a little bit impatient with him?
He shouldn't have said we didn't need anyone in the first place. Unless our players are all convinced they're Lionel Messi there shouldn't be any harm in the manager saying that he's been looking to see who's available, in fact I bet Guardiola wouldn't turn round and say that he hasn't even been looking. If he then follows that up by saying that to get better than we have we'd have to sign PL players on PL money and we're not going to do that until we're in the PL it should serve as a confidence boost to the players we've got, because he'll be saying they're the best players you can get in the Championship. Praise is always worth more when you've been compared to somebody else rather than being given to you blindly. Plus if he is actually looking (which he all know he actually is even if we're annoyed about missing certain options), the players will know he's looking. To then be telling the press he hasn't been makes it even worse for the players, because they'll know he'd be replacing them if he could, but he's pretending he doesn't want to because he can't and the reason is something he doesn't want to tell the press (ie it's not because he's decided they're better than what's available). Fans who boo are an inevitability when you have a management in place who are publically deny failings where they are blatantly obvious because it's the only way they feel they can make clear to them that there's an issue they're not being seen to be addressing. It was inevitable as soon as Barmby made the comment about not looking because we don't need anybody that if things didn't turn right with our proximity to the playoffs it would start to become a rod for his back because the failure to sign a striker would be seen as the cause of our failure to get in them. Admittedly it wasn't inevitable it would be compounded for him by us going on a club record clean sheet run that coincided with us being unable to capitalise on the other sides around us dropping points by dropping them ourselves. Now I think it's too early to be turning round and saying he's the wrong man for the job. I think we've missed the boat this season as far as the striker is concerned, but in the summer we've got Adebola and Cullen out of contract, and Simpson likely to be flogged. If there isn't an acknowledgement of the problem by replacing 1 or 2 of them* with a significant signing he'll be lucky to last to Xmas. And a significant signing is either a "name" or some lower league gamble that pays off for him. *I expect Cullen to be given a new contract since Barmby likes him and he's come back looking better than he had before. As far as the earlier comment someone made of "and he's one of us". I couldn't care less. He says he doesn't care what the fans think so bollocks to any "special treatment". And even if he hadn't, I don't see why that should get him special treatment. His job is to get results, it doesn't matter who he supports. I'd rather have a Leeds fan managing us and be winning games than have a City fan managing us and be getting relegated.
We're not going to get relegated but I take your point. On your point regarding Cullen, how has he looked better since he came back?
It appears just because Cullen was on the pitch when we equalised at Blackpool he is really good now. Not having a go at you Ricardo. He did nowt in either game so dont get your hopes up.
Cullen was very good when he came on in the Blackpool game and regardless of what anyone on here thinks, Nick's a big fan.
Simpson will be lucky to get a game for the reserves at the moment. Saw him last week against Jeff Stellings mob. OJ was lazy - slow - ponderous and showed no ambitions to show what he can do against poor players. NB was being kind to Burnsie with that explanation. The truth is that OJ does not care about being here. GET RID ASAP.
Well I'm assuming from people wanting to see him come off the bench again that on at least one occassion the ball went from his feet to the feet of one of our other players. Compared to last time I saw him that would probably represent an improvement, but like I say I want to see him for myself.
Cullen has done pretty well since coming back into the team but I thought he was alright before that. The main criticism seems to be being offside too much, but he's only offside because he makes a lot of aggressive runs and he certainly isn't offside any more than Fryatt or McLean who, as I keep saying, can somehow manage to be offside while dropping back for the ball. Cullen has the air of a natural striker about him to me, the ability to get in good positions and he's a good clean striker of the ball. He probably couldn't hold it up like our first choice strikers but for natural goalscoring ability I think he is the man. EDIT: This is not a slant on Fryatt or McLean by the way, this is me saying I like Cullen.
