That's a fair point, I can accept that we took a gamble and it's backfired, all I'm saying is it was a mistake.
The mistake was putting all our eggs in the one basket. So when we couldn't find a way around the loan we were left short.
Was fairly obvious it could have happened tbh. Both have spent a fair proportion of the season out due to injuries. Very naive not to think it could happen.
Miller was our number one signing apparently. Not sure many clubs would sign a player knowing they couldn’t play for them until 9 months later. Daft, Poor and naive. They have let Stendal down on that front.
The board have let the Coach down. IMO If we get up it will be down to him and a seriously depleted set of players who have given everything. We’ve been short up top since the start of the season when we let Bradshaw go. It’s nonsense to say ‘we couldn’t have foreseen that a striker could get injured’. Really! Why not. They were both injured in the first half of the season. It didn’t seem like ‘rocket science’ in January. Plenty on this Board, and outside of it, could see the gamble. Why couldn’t the Club. What’s the guff about ‘we’ll who would you have signed, no-one would come’. It’s the Club’s role to find and sign players, not the fans. And I thought ‘we always had players lined up to replace departures’. The success or otherwise of this (very familiar) scenario will be decided at the end of the season. If the gamble goes wrong the Club will deserve to get it ‘in the neck’. And no amount of ‘we have a long term plan’ will change that. I sincerely hope Stendel pulls it out of the bag and if he does he deserves the freedom of the town.
Another one talking absolute toilet. Yes the club will identify players but the players they would’ve identified would not have come to play 3rd choice. How is it so hard to believe.
How exactly do you know what every player we could possibly sign would do? Moreover if we play 2 up front in a way you a 2nd choice for one of the 2 positions in the team. So the summary is we couldn't sign another striker because we can only have 2 decent strikers at the club because no player would back themselves to be able to get into the team. But despite that we spent all January trying to get the lad who is on loan at Bradford here.
Statistics are the work of the devil. But make of these what you will... Pre KM Injury: Played 31 Won 18 Draw 8 Lost 5 Points 62 average 2.0 per game Scored 57 average 1.8 Conceded 27 average 0.9 Post KM Injury: Played 9 Won 4 Draw 5 Lost 0 Points 17 average 1.9 per game Scored 10 average 1.1 Conceded 3 average 0.3
One thing not mentioned here that, whilst not a striker, Thiam at one point was creating havoc in defences creating a real threat and making space for others as well as chipping in with goals . For whatever reason, of late he seems to have lost some of his mojo, which may explain, in part why the goals have dried up. That said, and it has been said often, one of the main differences these past couple of months compared to the earlier part of the season is that, although we are still creating lots of chances whereas previously we were putting them away, of late, even Woodrow has been guilty of wasting guilt edged chances. Our finishing at times has been woeful and frustrating in equal measure. In a way that is a positive, since we are still creating several chances in every game and still, in the main, playing good passing football. We just need more composure when the chances open up. That, I suppose, is the price of having a talented, but inevitably inexperienced, young squad.
By that logic, we should have a squad of 11 - because no one signs here unless they are guaranteed 1st team football. Are you six? Still coming to terms with life.
It was Bradshaw or Woodrow and personally I prefer the latter.Losing Moore has been a big blow. However, Sunderland spent a lot of money replacing Maja and he's hardly on fire is he? And as a club we haven't got that sort of money to spare.
Totally agree with the above and also if we got anymore injuries we also had the likes of Victor who was scoring goals early season
A lot of truth in the OP.. but this is not the time. Wait until the end of the season, when we all can have our say, when we know what the outcome is, of the decisions made by the owners on the full season have come home to roost
I think playing two strikers helped Thiam aswell as it created more space for him to do his work, we made a real balls up not signing a striker in January, well a striker eligible to play for us.
Agreed, Woodrow had already missed 2 and a half months so it wouldn't have taken much foresight to see that one of our only two strikers might get injured.
What planet are you on? I agree we could’ve done with a 3red striker. The point I’m making is who on earth could we have signed in January that would either be better than our 2 strikers or that would be good enough for us knowing he would be 3rd choice. I actually don’t understand where you are coming from.
Your question should be "who could we have signed in January to enhance our push for promotion?" This "what planet are you on?" stuff is odious unnecessary and indicates an inappropriate approach to discussion. Stick to the point. I reckon that we could have found someone in January within our budget and (youth) philosophy who could have come on late in the game to replace worn out forwards. Someone who could have the ambition to push for a first team place, as well as cover for the inevitable injury. Someone to push and perhaps eclipse Victor. Someone who would no doubt already be on our radar. Someone who we'd be thinking about recruiting in the summer, but we decided to get in earlier because we were doing so well in the league and it was worth the gamble.
