I would think that man for man (or on paper) we have the best squad in this league. We also have everything in place(stadium, academy, crowd and so on) to go straight into the premier league. So why are we keep seeing poor displays. It’s not that we’ve been unlucky or anything, in fact we’ve often come away with more than our play deserved. When did we last score from a set piece, Philips or Quinn maybe? Our free kicks usually go back to our goalie or we pass into some tight position and lose possession. Shrewsbury scored from a great free kick yet we seem unable to do much with any we get. We dilly dally so much in possession and seem to invite opposing players to crowd us out. We give the ball away very easily. A good spell in the second half today does not make up for a dire first half. Are they being told to play a certain way with lots of passing back and then from one side to the other. I can’t understand why we don’t seem able to take control of games considering the quality of players we have. Do we need to change the way we play, be more direct, faster, press more or what. I keep waiting for us to ‘click’ and start bossing games, for the players to gel but they’ve had about 5 months and we’re not there yet. I expected a slow first half season and a romp home in the second half. It may well happen as we do have the players capable of doing it but they are underperforming at the moment. Individually there are some fine examples of what we could do (Watmore for example) but as a team we are less than the sum of our parts. Let’s hope they will ‘gel’ sooner rather than later and, if we go up, we can have more confidence that we will stay up.
We have a third rate team working to get the points We are better than some but not great It’s not going to be easy to walk promotion These players apart from a few are not championship players I’m sure Ross will get us promoted and sort out a team good enough to perform in the championship
“and seem to invite opposing players to crowd us out” My nephew came to the Bradford game. He’s not a football person ( think he’s seen about 3 games of football since I took him to Roker Park once !). He said almost verbotim your comment above .
Well put, some of our lads are punching above their weight to be where we are, if the new owners are serious about going up (and have any money) bring 3 lads in who can make the step to the Championship this window. As long as Cattermole and Oveido are on big bucks we will struggle to improve the squad, we so need a centre half with a bit of pace. I still think we'll have a stronger second half of the season with the two strikers back but if McGeady gets crocked we will have no creativity.
I still think we should move Cattermole and Oviedo on ASAP because of their wages and because we could lose them both without suffering much. I don't think Catts would be good enough for the championship and if we can cash in now and sign a couple of players as a result we should do it. As for gelling I think we gelled almost in the first game of the season. It happened remarkably quickly as a result of good recruitment and management, that's not our problem our problem is a lack of quality and still a lack of physicality. Not that we're far off in quality don't get me wrong.
I’d agree with this. Jack has done a great job of moulding a team but for all we have probably higher quality players than most, they don’t compliment each other naturally. He will be aware of that and I’m sure it’s something we are working towards, there was going to be compromise this season whilst the club is being paid for etc but we all have to appreciate that as an almost Phoenix like club the league position is fantastic. In perspective, Barnsley are pretty settled and they are 2 points back having played a game more, they came from the Championship, with a solid squad and didn’t have our upheaval. I wouldn’t say this team will ever fully ‘gel’ as such as the CBs are too cumbersome to play fast attacking football, that Ross is noted for from Scotland. We are restricted physically and we do lack a spark when teams flood us, as is reflected in away showings being generally better, but we are 3rd, 2 games in hand, and the lads, gaffer and owner deserve great credit for at times forcing boulders through letterboxes and digging in. We will go up, I’m confident of that, and we will be prepared for the major overhaul then required, we will need 2-3 years of excellent, quality recruitment to get out of Championship but I imagine we all would rather have proper foundations before we went into the big league. The season is certainly a success, we probably just have to remember where we were at the end of last season, without much hope. I certainly do cos I get the frustrations that we’ve never taken advantage, gone top, ripped a few teams at home. We are doing great from nowhere in reality. We were ****e today though
I still think we will go up automatically. We have a decent 1st 11 complimented by game changers on the bench. Wyke came on yesterday to good effect in my opinion. We now have a big lad upfront who isnt afraid to put himself about. To be fair to JR he has had to mould a team together quickly and through injuries has still to find his best 11. Nearly all the teams we have played this season have big physical players and pacy players. Personally we cannot defend set pieces so f*ck defending. Stick more men upfront and play high tempo attacking football like Luton. Have a Keegan (sorry) mentality in that if they score 3 we will score 4.
Top of our shopping list needs to be a decent centre half in January. Also if we can, I'd sell Oveido and Matthews (large wage bills) and mould O'Nien as our RB. I'd also be looking for another forward as I don't think Maja will sign a new contract (Defoe on loan please AFC Bournemouth).
I’d say a CB with a bit more pace would change the whole complexion, allow the wide players to push on more, that’s the key area. I think Maja will sign, but I think he will sign once we are looking a safe bet to go up. Wouldn’t hurt to have another striker in though.
I think it'll come together at some point. Wyke and Watmore still to reach match fitness so up front we'll be fine with McGeady and Gooch doing the supplying. CM is where we need a bit of a change, as noted above, but even there we're not desperate. Frankly, after what the club's been through in the past few years, what we've done so far is remarkable. Forget all the "biggest budget" crap. It's not what you've got, it's what you do with it, and we're doing quite nicely, thank you very much.
Well Charley I think you have got your answers in the above posts. Personally think you are overvaluing our current squad slightly, and that although limited, we are not too far away from our objective.
