Chazz why do you continue to do this then sook about snarkiness? We need players who can finish the chances we create. I don't think that's much of a shock. It's incredible people whinge that I could 'argue all night' about something when others keep re-engaging/bringing up a discussion that had well and truly run its course.
It's called lacking basic comprehension that we can have a good performance but not finish them. We had 8 shots on target not to mention chances like Coyle's he hit over the bar. We have a group that creates a lot of chances but can't finish. We clearly need players who can finish. This is nothing new nor is it idiotic.
I get what you’re saying but me, Chazz, Howden and others have said the same all season but because we were flubbing chances under Walter, it was somehow the manager’s **** style of football that was at fault and we’d fly up the table with someone who ‘knows what they’re doing’. I think Sellés is an improvement in terms of morale and togetherness in a relegation fight but the problems now have been the problems all season. We play well, we create chances, we squander said chances. The main people at fault are ultimately Acun and his ‘brain team’ for over-promising on a top striker in permanently since 2022 that never materialised. It was promised again last summer and we got Burstow, Bedia and a Pedro, who whilst good, is past his prime. Even this January, I don’t think we’ll get a good striker.
To be fair I think the biggest argument around Walter v Selles was that we should be getting more out of the players we have, and we've already seen that with players like Burstow and Pedro contributing far more under Selles. Let's not forget just how anonymous Pedro was in a lot of Walter's games.
That's your opinion chazz, it's not a fact. We dominated the game and created more than enough chances to win but didn't finish them. The end.
Selles football is better than under Walter, it’s daft to suggest otherwise. For one, we don’t seem be at our most vulnerable from our own corners.
The issue with Walter wasn’t so much the style - but the refusal of the manager to tweak enough things to keep afloat. Selles has come in and with a bigger injury list still managed to win two thirds of the games Walter did in his entire reign. As soon as we lost Belloumi and Millar everyone knew we’d need to adjust or get left behind. Under Walter we were getting left behind and January would come too late. Selles has kept us in touch but we are now in January and expectations of the club will change. We all know we need attacking recruits - it would be the same no matter which manager was in charge. Today’s performance, as Syd correctly says in my opinion - was ok. We switched off once and got done and that is a credit to Donny. But we controlled the game and there was no shortage of effortbut didn’t take or create our chances. Everyone knows this is nothing new but Selles has done the work to keep us in it. Walter wasn’t doing that. He was crap at adjusting.
We was proper **** under Walter, defence was a total clusterfuck. We’d be adrift at the bottom of the league now I reckon if he was still here, genuinely.
Beginning to feel a bit immune to it all. We weren’t awful awful but it wasn’t much better than that. Every ‘ok’ performance reinforces the fact that ultimately the players simply aren’t that good generally bar a few. I’ve been in the camp of relegation looming ever since we lost Belloumi and Millar. Haven’t seen anything yet in the transfer side and I’ve not seen that much on the pitch really to feel we’ll get out of it. Maybe just about getting out at the very end. Tim was right that the players he had available weren’t good enough. Ruben is better at mitigating that but I’m not sure he’ll have enough.
Selles hasn’t really tweaked things though. Giles and Drameh are **** full backs but would probably be half decent as wing backs. The only winger we have is struggling so badly for form and confidence, to the point this run could ruin his career. Burstow and Omur aren’t wingers. Pedro isn’t a lone striker by any stretch of the imagination. He’s come in and organised them so we’re not conceding 500 chances per game but I still think we could adapt a lot more and make better pit of the players we actually have available.
He's absolutely done more than tweak things. He has Pedro dropping deep and getting involved in the play, he actually uses the midfield and we have seen a marked step up in performances from Puerta for instance. He has integrated Alzate who was injured under Walter and got him playing as one of our better players. Burstow is another who basically didn't get a look in under Walter but is now looking an effective (if a bit limited at this stage) forward option off the bench. These are all improvements to players we already have, let alone any additions we can make this month.
Sunderland said about Burstow that he didn't really look "ready". I think he looks decent and certainly promising, but nowhere near the finished product.
Burstow needs to be out on loan at a level he’s playing every week, this is the issue. He came in to be a third choice striker and he’s somehow ended up as our best left winger available.
He's playing every week for us but out of position, and doesn't look effective enough to impact games from the start, but rather to use his energy off the bench to run at tiring opposition. Agree he should have been out on loan but it's indicative of our delayed business in summer that a fair few players who should have been loaned out were kept at the club to their detriment.