It didn’t take a brain surgeon to work out that if you have the odd player with experience the younger ones will benefit. Sollbauer was excellent today and so were the youngsters around him. Pity we don’t have a brain surgeon on the board though, because it could and should have been so much better.
Couldn't agree more. Did a great job of marshalling the defence and steadying the younger heads around him. My MoM by a country mile. And that's saying something because the other players were all on the money today.
Thanks for that. For the record, and to put right those who don't follow the nuances of this board, this is by no means anywhere near the worst team we've ever had. It's hard working, often pleasant on the eye, it passes the ball rather then hoofs it. It's quite enjoyable watching them. Recently it was being posted that it was actually the worst. Well I don't think it is. And my eyes today, just like my eyes last week, and indeed quite often when we've been the superior footballing team but have been let down by individual mistakes, tend to confirm this.
I'd say that for the majority of this season we had the worst defence I can remember and certainly the worst centre back pairing. I'd also say it's possible we have the worst overall squad as there is very little adequate cover in certain areas but the actual team? It was just missing a few changes. Had we signed two or three experienced players including a centre back in the summer. Mid table.
I remember Brentford away when Crooks played midfield and Mike Gibbs was at left back. Woe. Was. Me. This team is nowhere near the worst team, like you say it's actually a pretty good young team let down by individual errors. To look at it another way - if we could have avoided just 3 of the many individual mistakes all season we'd be 9 points better off and 18th in the table. Sadly small margins add up.
The defence looked even worse, because they were being told to play (suicide) football out from the back. Without enough skill. Plus when the centre backs got near the ball from an attack, they didn't just clear it, because they've got this idea that just booting it in the stand is contrary to their footballing philosophy. Suicide again.
I didn’t mind him, seems strange to pick on him when Tom Kennedy and Frimpong have played for us since.
Once again, he was proving to be a good and vocal leader. At one point when Cayley had the ball a few of our players (including Cauley) were specifically looking at him to see what they should do. It’s good they now have someone experienced they can look to when they need some guidance.