Recruitment policy - straw poll

I wouldn't disagree. It's the worst part of the ground to make an assessment from. Jackson and MacDonald should just be cover. We should have spent 10% of the Mawson fee on an experienced replacement. Someone from League One, with plenty of games under their belt, who we thought capable of making the step up. Like we thought Bradshaw, Morsy, Armstrong and Moncur could. All good teams are built from the back. We've paid less attention to our defence than midfield or attack. Very surprising seeing as Heckingbottom was a defender. A lot of posters on here recognised this and said so on September 1st.

 

No I wouldn't change the policy. We don't need masses of changes in January as long as we keep our best players. Players can still be experienced without being too old, such as Kevin Long or White as mentioned already

Small margins are often costing us: bit of bad luck, missing chances, defensive errors. The key is that we are not being completely outplayed every week unlike when we were last in the Championship. If we can sort out the errors (let's not forget we kept 3 clean sheets in 4 games before Friday), and get the rub of the green like we were doing at the start of the season, there's absolutely no reason why we can't get a string of wins, and then all of a sudden we'll start looking up rather than down again

 

I like the way we recruit and I have no problem with the three centre halves we have. Nottingham Forest wasn't a fun watch, but we'd kept 3 clean sheets in the previous 4 games. I may be wrong, we may get hammered week in and week out from this point forward, but I think the game was a bit of a one off, a freak result in a game littered with defensive mistakes from us but where we actually played quite well for the most part.

I'm not saying we won't be beaten again, and sometimes well beaten, but I don't expect us to outplay the opposition but concede goals every time they venture in to our half like Friday. I think it was just one of those days.

I'm not worried and I think we'll win a few of the upcoming matches. I hope we continue with the recruitment policy we've adopted and I hope that unearths a big, strong, mobile centre forward and a big, strong, athletic central midfield player. I'd be tempted to see if Bristol City would allow Brownhill to leave on the cheap, what with him not getting in the side, as I thought he complimented Hourihane perfectly and they made a fantastic midfield pairing.

 

I'm flabbergasted that our centre halves are coming in for criticism. All three of them are in the top 15 players (statistically) in the division. And Yiadom's 9th overall too.

What happened on Friday was freak in nature, an anomaly in our season so far and I'd be looking at our two centre mids and keeper if I was blaming anyone for some of the goals. Which I'm not. Because sometimes **** happens.

We went to Wolves and trust me there was nothing between the sides. Until we scored our first goal, then had four more shots which all bar one went in (other hit the post).

Spoke to Wolves fans on the way out and they felt we edged it. Me too. But 4-0 was the score.

Forest had a similar evening Friday.

But some folk are now talking about relegation, Hecky and pressure, blaming Clapham, speaking about Tommy Wright like he was hard done to (really??), our players aren't good enough, and so on and so on.

Some folk don't have any perspective or work within context. It's black or it's white. Sadly.

We're doing well. #YouReds

 

My thoughts exactly, plus what other route could we afford to take that would make much of a difference considering the general quality of this division.

We were talking yesterday about Futch and his sad death, and how football at this level has changed. Back then we had lots of players with ability and experience such as him and Larry May and they didn't break the bank. We couldn't afford to buy in that experience and quality now.

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I like our transfer policy. It is identifying young players who can make a step or two or three up. That doesn't mean they have to be inexperienced. Three of our new defenders (Kpekawa, Jackson and MacDonald) have barely got a season of league experience between them. That isn't the right balance for a Championship team.

 

Amen

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Totally agree, Andy.

 

Agree.

And I'd much rather see our club develop and play its own players rather than someone elses, be they our academy lads or recruitments from down the league ladder. Our "older" players with limited, if any, experience at this level are going to be found out now and again, but if getting promoted and moving up a division isn't improvement by definition, then I'm left scratching my head to work out what is.

We've been hot and cold in parts of matches but competed in all of them. We've been a pleasure to watch in many of them. I've seen only two sides control us for 90 minutes. Brighton and Newcastle. The top two in the division. One was in the premier league last season, the other was one goal/one minute away from it.

There was some poor midfield and defensive play on Friday, but I thought we played well and were in the game until the 4th goal/sending off. There's as much of an argument to start with the same back four at Birmingham (let them make amends so to speak) as there is for wholesale changes.

 

As someone posted, prior to Friday we had 3 clean sheets from 4.

No need for hecky to start panicking and changing half the team.

I watched the game again last night and they were seemed very complementary of us on sky, and rightly so because we have some good players that play some nice stuff - dropping them isn't going to help their confidence.

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Fulham was freakishly similar in many respects. In the lead twice, a man sent off when 4-2 down and easily beaten in the end. The big difference was that Fulham were a different class and Forest weren't (except for their gift wrapped finishing).

 

That's the most disappointing thing about Friday. Forest were no Fulham, and earlier in the season we would have probably beaten them, but everything that could go wrong flaming did!

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