Today's result and the results since January,are for those who have watched football a while,predictable. I understand totally the business model we are exercising,but it cannot sustain Championship football. Paul Heckingbottom admitted this week the squad is not good enough. We are not buying ready made players,we are buying potential,sadly they do not appear to be good enough.What needs to happen in this week is a system needs to be found where we will be hard to beat. Sod being entertaining,the manager has to stop complaining and get on with it and the players need to show they have some ability and fight. Hopefully come next May,you will all remind me of this post and how wrong I was. At the moment,we look weak and lacking belief,unable to win a football game.
I have not been today, but I certainly do not recognise that kind of team in the games against Coventry or Huddersfield.
The scoreline was a surprise to me to be honest. A win at Rochdale and a well made and finished goal from Ugbo was promising, as was the news that he had started similarly today by getting a few free kicks and a pen. Sounds like we missed a few easy ones as well today.
The business model can work in this league providing we get the right balance between young hungry players with no experience and players with genuine experience, experience of this league. Now I'm not talking about age here, it can still work if we put the age cap up a couple of years. 27 for example. Just signing inexperience will only lead us one way, down ️
The team seems to crying out for a few experienced players who maybe coming to the latter stages of their career. What they have is game management skills,even when we were doing well last season,we were prone to letting things slip. Also they tend not to panic or over react to results,either good or bad.
Agree. With the core of Davies, Roberts, Macdonald and Scowen we were never easy to beat and never would be. Macdonald is much less than the player he was with Robbo, the signs were very obviously there at the end of last season, and, of course, Marc and Josh have both been let go without anything like equivalent replacements brought in. Therefore in addition to the lack of goals in the post-Conor and Winnall part of last season we've given up our resilience now as well. It's heart-breaking to compare what we had just seven short months ago, when we were probably the permanent signing of Morsy, a full back to replace White and maybe one more creative wide man away from being a solid top eight (or above) side to now where, other than Adam Davies and Yids we have downgraded in every position. I'll probably get labelled moaner but I'm not one of the usual suspects, just someone who goes to every game if I can and look forward to each and every one. Every player crossing the white line in a red shirt will have my full backing 100% whilst they're out there and giving 100% but I don't think I've ever felt less excited by the suitability of our transactions during 2017. Maybe that's because of the complete dismantling of the 2016 team which ranks as one of the top 3 in my time of supporting BFC. It just feels so dispiriting that we didn't let the irresistible team we had through 2016 play itself out to a conclusion, that we got into the position where contracts were run down, offers were not made at sensible junctures and that only take-it-or-leave it under-priced offers (much less than 'affordable') were made to players at the last minute. For those that say we were in the same position last pre-season in terms of having players that were untried in the Championship, I respect your point of view but there are two massive key differences. Firstly, whilst they were untried in the Championship, we knew we had a number of really good, some outstanding, players who through the first part of 2016 had pretty much been untouchable in the league below. We all knew that Hourihane, Roberts, Mawson, Scowen, Winnall, Hammill, Watkins and Davies for a start were or were among the very best players in the league below. Secondly, and even more importantly, we had a team which was much more than the sum of its individual but wonderfully complementary parts, solid defensively, full of creativity and not shy on the goal front either, with a style and effective simplicity fostered by the uncomplicated coaching of Hecky. It was no surprise to me that once some lessons about the Championship had been learned the team went from strength to strength in the last part of 2016. So, where we were last pre-season feels very different to now, even if the players now are equally inexperienced. Until today I feared we'd be this season's Rotherham in the Championship. I'm worried we're not that good now. We do have one last difference to Rotherham in that we have a manager who, we know, when given some half decent tools, can do the job. Time for the club to listen to Paul now or that one saving grace will probably also be lost.
Agree, but saldy, it did, this is the conclusion now, we cannot afford players (at this level) like those who have gone I'm afriard, players who will give you solid 7/8 performances week in week out. So in a way, it did reach its conclusion.
Or Martin Taylor. The point being we've made a plan. It's flawed from the outset but at least we should be trying to implement it. For what it's worth I'd snap your hand off for an experienced player in the mould of lee carsley, Robbie savage or David batty. The key point being they must be hungry and committed as indeed John hendry was. Anyway obviously not that actual 3 I'm not dave Bassett!
the model works if the board dont lose the entire squad in 6 months. Unsustainable. Roberts should have been kept until we had bedded another player in and got some points on the board. As it stands i fear we will get battered every week and adrift by xmas u less we get some experienced heads in to balance it out.
