This harks back to the Mick McCarthy ‘our players are not good enough’ mentality. We didn’t have it in League One or the Championship. If we had had that mentality, we’d still be there. “We need to get up to the level” was an acceptable mindset to have in the first few weeks of the season. It’s not acceptable a third of the way through the season. Nobody says that we have to get results against Liverpool or Chelsea but we have failed to beat any of Southampton, Palace, Leicester, Everton, West Ham or to win a single home game and for players earning the salaries these do it’s not good enough. If it’s okay to not compete then why are we paying players a fortune and £5m a year to McKenna? I don’t buy the ‘we haven’t been thrashed’ argument. Teams don’t need to put five past us to get the points. The lack of composure we show in front of goal week after week when we have created so many chances is a mindset problem, not to do with a step up. Enough of the excuses.
I don't think it's that mentality at all. The McCarthy 'we're not good enough' mentality never held water, at the time, because we were an established Championship club playing in the Championship. I got his point, back then, about how relegated clubs from the Premier League could spend more, but we had players during his peak years that were more than capable competing for the play offs. The whole mentality and culture of the club back then was markedly different. We had an absent owner who couldn't give a monkeys, hired the wrong people, and didn't invest in the club either on or off the pitch. A lot, thankfully, has changed since then. The context is different this season. It's a fact that we are a club playing Premier League football for the first time in 22 years. It's a fact we've only had one Premier League transfer window, compared to every other club that has had at least several Premier League windows in the last five odd years. It's a fact we're playing clubs with massive wage bills and with squads stacked with talent and top flight experience. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean we should accept failure. McKenna and the staff aren't starting team meetings by going through a club's net spend and clamouring over how many international caps each squad has got. But for us, as supporters, I think it's important context. For Mark Ashton and the people in charge, it's important context to set realistic expectations. I agree that results have been poor. We should have won a couple of home games by now. I take the point some clubs in some games have been able to keep us at arm's length and take the three points with a 1-0 win. I don't take the point that it's simply down to those teams having a better mindset. The old football cliché of a team 'wanting it more' is far too simplistic. We're not losing games through a lack of effort or commitment. We're losing games because the opposition manager - at almost every other club - can bring on two or three substitutions able to change the game. Because they've been recruited typically at great cost and have a proven track record playing in top divisions. Take the Bournemouth game yesterday as an example. Bournemouth were able to bring on: Philip Billing - 147 Premier League games Danga Ouattara - 61 Premier League games, 43 Ligue 1 games Enes Unal - 28 Premier League games, 201 La Liga games David Brooks - 66 Premier League games, (and would've had more had cancer not ruled him out for a couple of years) James Hill - 6 Premier League games, academy product = 552 top flight matches By comparison, we brought on: Jens Cajuste - 9 Premier League games, 39 Ligue 1 games, 26 Serie A games Wes Burns - 12 Premier League games Jack Clarke - 13 Premier League games Ali Al-Hamadi - 6 Premier League games = 105 top flight matches
Mentality is not just about effort and commitment. It’s also about composure and decision making. Our composure and decision making is too often that of a timid mouse, not a lion. Last season we had the mentality of lions and that’s how we outcompeted the likes of Leeds. The goalkeeping distribution alone is slow, laboured, awkward and fearful.
Lions are quite lazy and sleep 18-to-20 hours a day. That doesn't leave a lot of time for training and playing football.
Maybe that’s the solution. Force Jack Clarke to sleep for 20 hours a day, wake him up for training, then make him go back to sleep. Give him the rest of the season and he could catch Salah and Haaland in the scoring charts.
Most of us were over the moon with the new signings but now some are slagging them off, after about a dozen games ridiculous. What did you expect in all honesty, we have competed in all but a couple of games against squads of players valued and earning considerably more than us. I hope that fan stupidity doesn’t push out the best manager we have had for decades, but I won’t be surprised if soon some will slag of the owners and Ashton.
You can see it as slagging off and stupidity but that’s only your perspective. The owners and McKenna have got us out of League One and promoted to the Prem. Nobody is not thankful for that, but that’s in the past and now we have to keep moving forward. The new players, they earn a fortune compared to the average working person buying tickets and merch and we owe them nothing. They’ve achieved nothing so far. So if you have expectations not to compete in this division that’s up to you but for me, getting relegated would be a failure and I struggle to understand anyone who thinks it’s not.
As I said we have competed in all but a couple of games, I am realistic enough to understand that progress will not alway be as quick and obvious as over the last few seasons. We have brought in the best young players that we could afford/attract I fail to see how putting them down will help anyone no matter what they earn. You along with many others were over the moon with the transfers in August so have some courage in you own convictions and stand by the players. Jesus we have been actually proper **** in the near past, now we are competing against long standing premier league teams, we all want to be challenging for the title but that will take time.
That’s just not true. It’s not a rewriting of history. I was disappointed we let Hladky go - I think it was potentially a fatal error - and I’ve never been keen on Burgess or Woolfy losing their places. Some of the business we did - Delap, Szmodics, Hutchinson and Phillips I was delighted with. if you care to read back, at the end of August I said “The only area of weakness now is between the sticks.”
I think we’ve done far better than any of us could have hoped for. There were no guarantees we would even sign Omari. If it doesn’t work it doesn’t work but without the benefit of hindsight there are not many of these decisions we can question as things stand. Well done Town. your words not mine.
Clarke at RB over Johnson? Clarke struggled at RB in league 1. Johnson was okay the other day but he was up against a winger who'll be at a top top club one day. He's also had lots of injuries and not made many appearances this season.
I'm certainly of the sentiment that McKenna could've done things a bit differently this season but also very much this is such a tough league and huge step up. I think we're all generally being harsh on certain players who haven't stepped up yet either from last seasons team...you mention in particular Woolfenden who hasn't played since the Fulham game where for me he was MoM. Also some of the other players have had injuries or not had consistent minutes to build any consistency. For me Delap and Hutchinson have shown a lot of potential but they still are what they are young players with little mens football experience and for all their brilliance it shows in their decision making. Delap is a superb player but currently he doesn't bring the best out of those around him. Hutchinson for me has on the whole disappointed me this season, he's lost the ball a lot and often holds onto it for far too long. It's no coincidence for me that we looked our most fluid attacking best against Brentford with Hirst as the striker and Chaplin as the 10. Whenever I've seen Chaplin start this season he's been on of our better players and for me he along with Burgess and Morsy really seems to have upped their game and quality this season. It's fine margins and we haven't been on the right end of hardly any all season but the majority of games we could've won if things had gone our way but we don't have the quality or depth other teams do but where we've come from to compete and dominate teams in spells this season must be seen as progression. What could've been different, like others I've never been convinced from day 1 about Muric. There's alot to be said about momentum and I do feel Mckenna tried to bring in many new players into the first team too quickly especially when players who were in the team were showing form. He's also changed too many players from game to game, we've been best under him when he's had a consistent line up with 1 or 2 tactical changes a match. To a lesser extreme this also reminds me a bit of the Paul Cook reign, so many new players come in, good players but not linking up very well, not getting the best out of them and making mistakes because of that unfamiliarity. McKenna came in and made us defensively more sound but it took a good year for us to become the promotion winning team. We've tried to integrate 12 new signings into the team in the toughest division in the world. I like Burns and Al Hamidi but no other team has subs like that to bring on in the Premier League. Throughout McKenna's reign we always seem to be desperately short of a striker.
It's interesting this season how quickly we write players off after a bad performance. Earlier in the season Burgess was not fit for the PL and Greaves was the best thing since sliced bread.
Also worth remembering very few if any players under McKenna show good form straight away which is part of why I felt maybe he introduced too many too soon. Momentum and being a strong team are huge in this game, it felt like that was disrupted with all the changes (including GK).
Yes. I’m not sure what your point is? Do you think I don’t back the team anymore? Do you also think they should be immune from any criticism?
Johnson is a horrible defender on performance so far. Every winger in this league is good. His best performance has come on the right wing in front of Tuanzebe so let’s try that again.
Yeah, there's still over half the season to play. Hopefully we can build on some positive team performances and start turning them into good results. To do that, we've simply got to see games out. We've dropped 15 points from winning positions so far this season, the highest in the league. Is it a strength in depth thing? I can't think of a single substitute this season who has scored or assisted (apart from Delap vs Brentford). Is it a mentality thing in recent weeks, where we subconsciously expect to concede? Is it McKenna not substituting centre-backs - something he rarely does? A point I forgot to raise earlier on the Bournemouth match, but both goals conceded against Bournemouth stemmed from our defence leaving massive gaps. First goal - Johnson and O'Shea's side (assisted by a terrible Muric gaffe). Second goal - Davis and Burgess' side (where Muric actually makes a good save, but two/three Bournemouth players free at back post for rebound). Was the defence mentally and physically drained after too much defending? I'd argue there are about nine players who have stepped up and generally play positively. But with one win in 15, it's clear nobody's been consistently good game-to-game - with the possibly exception of Tuanzebe (who's had prior Premier League experience at this level) and possibly Cajuste whenever he's played in recent months (again, a player with experience playing top-division football). Burgess and O'Shea have been really solid over the last six or seven games - agreed with you that was one of Burgess' best performances, and probably the best individual defensive performance of the season - but that's come after some poor performances from both earlier on this season - Everton the most notable example. Hopefully a sign all our players can embark on a similar journey and really get to grips with this division and we start to see games out as a team. I get the point about McKenna chopping and changing, but injuries are playing a fairly big factor in this. Tuanzebe - as touched upon - is a massive miss. Neither Johnson or Harry Clarke have really stepped up to make that position theirs. We've struggled for goals in recent weeks and McKenna's trying different solutions to find an answer - let alone juggle a festive fixture list that always means rotation to keep players fresh. Delap has obviously impressed and scored several goals - but recent weeks shows he needs a rest and better support, as teams are doubling up on him. If we had Hirst fit, I'd bet McKenna would've started him against either Palace or Bournemouth. Without him, we've got Al-Hamadi who - I'm sorry - is not Premier League quality and can't lead the line. With an attacking trio of Szmodics, Chaplin, and Hutchinson - arguably our preferred line - we've got three attacking players who feel most comfortable playing the ball centrally, making us a bit predictable to defend against. Jack Clarke and Wes Burns have struggled, so the players happy playing out wide haven't made an impact yet. Hopefully they can improve - and they will need to improve soon. Otherwise, reinforcements will be needed in the transfer window if we want to score the goals to stay up.
I thought he was average against Bournemouth, lost his man - a tricky player - every time they switched play with a long diagonal ball. Johnson did grow into the game though, until the last few minutes where he - like most the team - were knackered. I also like the idea of Johnson in the right-wing back/wide position. He provides more of a threat on the wing, as he doesn't naturally cut inside. Frees up both Hutchinson and Chaplin (possibly Szmodics too) to start in two central number 10 positions. Problem is, Tuanzebe is out - possibly long-term - so who do you play there? One solution could be three-centre backs - as that's essentially our shape off the ball anyway - where O'Shea, Greaves, and Burgess could tighten us up a bit. Allows Johnson at right wing-back, possibly his best position, and gives Davis a more licence to go forwards.
