After last night I feel the play offs have pretty much gone. We might be mathmatically still in it but we've showed no real signs recently barring Cardiff that we're good enough for the top 6. We've got 7 games left and can still make it, but I'm not pinning my hopes on us getting into the top 6. We'll probably finish about where we are now. Hopefully we'll come back stronger next season.
Interesting really. Even if we make the playoffs and lose, no one will take us seriously for next year, we'll still be little old Hull so signing proven players won't be easy. But players like George Boyd (who I'm sure will leave P'Boro this summer) are the kind of calibre we should be looking at. Teams around us will see us as a small club but with respect the likes of Boyd being at Peterbrough will see us as a step up. We wouldn't be the only team after him but you'd think it was worth a try. Another one is that Butterfield at Barnsley who Strov likes, but I don't know much about him. I just hope we can look at players of this calibre and don't just have to make do with scraping the barrel. You've asked for shoot downs so you're getting one. Firstly Chester, along with Hobbs could play in the Premiership today and wouldn't look out of place. Secondly I don't want to have a go at either of these two but if your list is only 4 players I don't think Fryatt would be on there and probably not Rosenior either. But despite what I've said I don't really agree with the concept of who is 'ready' for a step up and who isn't. Basically you never know, after Div 3 promotion who would have thought that Dawson would make the step up to League 1, never mind marking Walcott out of the game at the Emirates? Also you've gone on to say that if we did go up without a very good side that would almost be a bad thing. The fact is if we went up we would buy players, this wouldn't be our squad for the PL. We'd either buy relatively good players like Norwich have and have a good crack at staying up or we'd do a a Blackpool/Burnley and come down with more money and a better squad without bringing any shame on the City in the process. Promotion is never a bad thing.
I'm in a middle ground on it, it's partly the squad not being good enough (not the team, the squad) and partly some bad usage of what we have got. I've been saying all season that we're lacking depth in the squad. Now we can all reel off 4 or 5 players who aren't being involved in matchday squads, but they're all forwards or midfielders who can't tackle. Key players like Rosenior and McKenna we don't have cover for so to expect us to mount a promotion push we needed a lot of luck with injuries and suspensions, and a minimum number of games to be played, so the reality was always likely to be a top half but non-playoff season. We got away with the extra FA Cup game (in Hobbs' case an injury and a red card were escaped as well) due to February's fixture list falling apart cancelling out the fact we had a game on what was due to be a free weekend. We've paid in March for the Cardiff and Portsmouth matches being postponed from earlier in the season. Coming up to the end of it we've got some knackered players and the results are hurting us, but I'm not overly frustrated about that, I've been prepared for it for a while. We're likely to be poor on Saturday as well, and no doubt we'll have people complaining about the players and the pitch again (that is an issue as well but that's more for the manager to deal with), and then Millwall they'll have had a week off but how much attention will be put onto the more important game against M'boro with McKenna and Rosenior trying to avoid their 10th bookings (and Evans as well if he gets booked against Coventry)? Overall position wise I'm fine with things, the issues with the squad depth are ones that I know can't be solved instantly, so I only really bring them up when someone is getting carried away with themselves about our chances (or we're in a window and someone is asking about it). Manager wise I like that Barmby wants us to play nice passing football, but it isn't working so he should be changing his tactics because he's not getting the best out of what he has available. Earlier in the month he should have been keeping players like Evans fresh by playing Cairney whilst McKenna was reasonably fresh. Instead he let them both get shattered before bringing Cairney or Olofinjana in which left the defence too exposed. The wingers are not an attacking threat if everytime the full backs come forwards the wingers drop in behind them. Fryatt is not a lone striker, him playing that role just encourages the opposition to defend deep because he's got no aerial ability to threaten the goal with, and by dropping deep they take out the threat of the wingers' pace as they can't get in behind them. That leaves Koren as the sole goal threat for their midfield to deal with, and now he's injured and there's nobody to replace him. I'd like to see us try King up front with either Brady or Fryatt working off him, but we won't. While Koren was in the team persisting with 4231 was justfiable in that Koren was a threat and could set the others up. With him gone it's a formation that suits nobody in our side from an attacking point of view. As we failed to sign a suitable striker in January, I just don't understand why we're sticking with it when it's a formation that must be driving all 3 of our strikers mad. It's one thing to have a squad that needs luck to get in the playoffs, but to have a squad that needs luck and then choose to handicap all the attacking players with the tactics is just bizarre. It's his first job and he needs to learn so he can have time to make mistakes and sort things out, but if he hasn't solved our striking issues by October half-term week I'll be amazed if he's still in the job by November because he publically took responsibility by saying he chose not look for a striker and fans will take that and beat him with it. (Exception being if he signs a striker who gets injured, he'll get longer then)
