Coventry at home

Or Paul Hurst a couple of years ago?Who hasn’t wondered if we’d be in a better or worse position if we’d given him more time?I was no great fan of the guy but the ship we jumped to hasn’t exactly been a resounding success has it?

 

Completely agree. Fair, balanced objective assessment.

 

He was forced out by players who didn’t like to work so hard, the same players who sung the praises of this manager when he came in. If you go back and look at some of the player interviews in the weeks after Lambert joined it’s embarrassing for them given what’s transpired since.

 

I can see stark examples where I work, where the staff are split into teams. The most productive teams have experienced leaders, are better organised, follow process, communicate well with each other, celebrate successes and have a good time. The least productive teams have a lack of planning, take short cuts, are much quieter but can be heard moaning. Yet all the teams are composed of matching roles and skill level.

Underfunded yes, but with the talent at the club we should not have been relegated from the Championship and then go on to be the worst side in League One.

 

Who in that squad has proven they are of good Championship standard?

 

I could throw some names in there, Woolfy is the obvious one, but I think that’s entirely the point ptc.

Huws, Downes, Sears, KVY, Edwards are Championship players without a doubt. Jackson and Norwood in their early season form would be a handful at that level. Some of the young talent - Dobra, El Mizouni, Lankester, Morris will go on to bigger and better things than Town. We have even seen odd glimpses of Nolan, who has really not enjoyed his time at Town but could be a player elsewhere.

Three players - Chambers, Judge and Keane - should be nowhere near the first team. So even without investment we could be doing far better than we are this season.

Many players that we let go or sold for a pittance have gone on to prove themselves elsewhere - the latest being Ellis Harrison - and the same will be true of the squad now.

 

Sorry I'm getting confused as to the point of what you're trying to say? You said this squad should never have got relegated and then could name only 1 player (Who yes I think is talented but is playing his first season with us at the highest level he's ever played it's not really a justification to say we shouldn't have been relegated).

I also thought it was a mistake selling Harrison (albeit not a big one mainly just because we lacked numbers) although I heard he was a bad influence in the changing room. Harrison had scored 7 goals this season!!

 

Sorry didn't see your edited post, so out of those you name, I think we have talent and potential but the squad is massively unbalanced, inexperienced and injury prone:

Huws - talented but was basically injured for 2 years and hadn't found top form since. Before he came to town he was getting very little game time hence he was loaned to us. Meaning he's played very little football the past 4 years. The scary thing at 26 years old we are the club he's made most appearances for and we've seen barely anything of him.

Downes - again talented and could definitely handle Championship standard. But this is basically his first full season in the first team with us. Before this season he's made under 50 first team appearances

Sears - I like Sears but the big problem with him this season ... he's been injured for most of it. Plus I know he hasn't been used in the correct position but over the past 3 seasons he's scored 9 goals!!!

KVY - Looked a cracking little player but again the problem this season has been he's been injured for most of it. So far during his career he's made 9 appearances above league 2 level.

Edwards - Has been playing RB or RWB most of the season. Last season was his first season at Championship level and did okay (a bit like this season).

Jackson - I don't think he's good enough for the Championship but clicked with Norwood at the start of the season. Last season was his first season above league 2 level (of which he only played 1 season) and he scored 3 goals. We bought him off 1 half decent season at league 2 level where he scored 16 goals. If we were serious about promotion this season we would not have Jackson as our main striker. I think he's a good option off the bench.

Norwood - I really like the look of him (think with a fully fit Norwood we'd still be in automatic promotion contention) but again he's had niggling injuries all season. But again he lacks experience in even league football. We bought him off 1 very good season in league 2, which bar 4 appearances in league 1 is the highest level he's played at.

Dobra - looks a talented player but he's 18 and so far made 3 first team appearances.

El Mizouni - again looks talented but again is 19 years old and has made 14 first team appearances. Injured now.

Lancaster - talented but injured all season

Morris - injured most of the season

Of those 11 players you mention, 7 have had long term injuries in the past couple of seasons.

In terms of total career stats of those 11 players you have a total of 350 first team appearances above League 1 standard and 56 goals. Remove Freddies Sears from those figures and the numbers for those 10 players read a total of 180 first team appearances at higher than league 1 level and 26 goals.

I'm not saying we have bad players but we have a squad full of injury prone and inexperienced players the majority of whom haven't played consistently at this level before let alone higher. It's hardly surprising to me that we've fallen short this season, you can't expect to mount a promotion challenge with Kayden Jackson as the main striker and is why all season even when we were doing well I said PL was a miracle worker when we were top but we were only a couple of injuries away or loss of form to strikers who have very little experience at a high level for it to become very difficult for us.

 

You’re entirely missing the point, which is that a happy, well organised and successful club players will perform better. They will be inspired by and learn more from stronger peers and be more motivated and raise performance level by bigger games, bigger challenges and better opponents.

Also, that with better fitness personnel, coaching and facilities and for happier more challenged players injuries would be reduced. That said plenty of top players have their fair share of injuries.

 

Dancing around the same point I think. The players we have are not being managed in the right way, structurally or on the pitch. Could spend hours going over players who have found it impossible to shine here.

 

We have had long term injuries for the past few years, so it certainly precedes this manager.

With regards to underperforming players based on their performance history the only players I would say who have consistently underperformed this season have been Chambers and Nolan.

Since ME has come in we certainly have had a number of underperforming players who have gone on to better things or didn't achieve what they should have done with their talent. During Micks tenure it was mainly those with technical talent who underperformed in my opinion due to his style of play, since he has left the squad has been weakened so much and continued to have injuries I'm actually not sure you can say that anymore.

The same fact remains though I haven't completely enjoyed a full season here since ME took over.

 

The injury issues and chronic underperformance of players began with Mick McCarthy and Hurst’s efforts to remedy the situation were squashed pretty quickly. Certainly they predate the current manager, but he came to us with a terrible record and has gone on to be the worst of Evans’ managers, which is quite some feat.