Whenever a player is out of the team they just get better & better & the lads who play get worse & worse. They almost seem to think that there’s some conspiracy & that these players who aren’t playing are been deliberately sidelined by managers who for some reason don’t what to pick their best teams. Moncur starts, everyone on forums & Twitter, ‘he’s ****, get him out of the team’. Fast forward to 3 games later where he’s not played & its ‘why isn’t he playing Moncur, Williams / Gardner / Isgrove / whoever the hells in the team instead is ****’. For Moncur you can replace him with Potts or Mallan. Adam Jackson had a month or so of decent performances & has gone from been seen last season as Jim McNulty at his worst to now been seen as a prime John Terry. Hedges is another one, poor whenever he starts, has a good cameo off the bench or has a few weeks injured & all of a sudden it’s a disgrace he’s not starting. Baffles me to see Williams & Lindsay who’ve been our 2 best players this season (Yiadom not played enough) taking so much stick. Lindsay’s now had 5 different centre back partnerships & has managed to form good partnerships with Jackson, Pinnock & Mills & is the one organising the back 4 & taking responsibility for playing out from the back despite him been in his early 20’s & having his first season at this level. Williams was our best player up to Christmas, he’s gone off the boil but is it any wonder? It’s his first season playing mens football & he’s had to play virtually every game due to Gardner been crocked until December & the standard of our other central midfielders. The pair of them should’ve got injured & had a couple of months off since Christmas & they’d be getting talked about as top class on here for not playing. There is no conspiracy, the players who aren’t playing aren’t world beaters. Managers don’t want relegations on their CV. We’ve got a few defenders who are championship standard & that’s about it. Whoever fills the rest of the positions in the team will struggle at this level as they are either not good enough yet or never will be good enough for the championship. We should be getting behind whoever gets picked. There’s no point berating every decision by a manager & pretending these players who aren’t playing are so much better than the first team. You’re kidding yourselves.
And now everyone wants Davies In after booing him and sarcastic cheering when he kicks the ball to one of our players, now everyone wants him to start again ??
I agree with this largely. The real issue is we signed a lot of players who were not ready for this level. We do have a big squad of players, but three quarters of them are coming to terms with playing at this level. That said, the difference between yesterday's first and second half performances was huge. First half was negative and lacking in any passion. One miss hit shot from Williams was all we could muster. 3 players introduced during the course of the second half and two formation changes 4-2-4 briefly and then 4-3-3 and we had 18 attempts on goal. Two of those were the previously maligned Potts and Thiam. Thiam didn't look interested in the last home game. Yesterday he worked his socks off. Was that because he'd been dropped and needed to impress? All managers rotate players.
Pretty sure he crocked himself just after coming on last home game which would explain why he didnt do anything
I honestly think the fans would have criticised no matter what team JM picked last night. If there is a best XI out of the dross we've got, it's been kept well hidden. I think some of them just expected him to wave a magic wand.
Yes I hadn't realised that at the time. I think he looks better out wide in a 4-3-3. He's best running at defenders, ball at his feet, rather than chasing through balls (not the pace), or back to goal (lack of height, like Bradders).
Great post, Django. Agree with everything, but the, "whoever fills the rest of the positions in the team will struggle at this level as they are not good enough YET" is the key to our survival. In some cases, this is a matter of confidence, as the class is there & the form is just temporary.
They usually panic more than the players, especially when a centre half is on the ball. Absolutely no need to panic but the crowd groans like it's a hospital ball, or they shout man on when he's got 20 mins.
I posted something along these lines about a month ago and i couldn't agree more. Debating players and tactics endless is pointless. We have a poor squad. We might be able to finish 4th bottom with some luck and hard work. There is no magic soloution.
Lets be fair , one penalty at Millwall pretty much sums up his contribution so far & yes he performed a lot better last night but I do not get this love affair with him . I always get behind the lads & always will & I hope Thiam turns out to be a world beater, but so far he has been very disappointing to say the least
Id probably agree but then Bradshaw springs to mind.. would you also agree the managers here have been picking the best possible striking option in Bradshaw cos I certainly feel he should be 3/4 choice. I think Id rather give the u23s striker a game over him.. but thats my opinion cos I havent liked Bradshaw for most of his career here.
This is why I don't have too much of a downer on players. Admittedly not a huge fan of Tommy tap in, but players can leave you with egg on your face so best to praise when they do well, but not completely write them off based on half a dozen or less performances. To be fair to our fans though, Hecky was no better. He chopped and changed so much and rarely gave things chance to work.
To be fair he kept picking Bradshaw, Williams and Gardner despite the evidence that all 3 have contributed jack-all for at least 10 games.
I think Bradshaw was the best striking option up until McBurnie & Moore joined with Ugbo not been up to it & Thiam not been fit enough. My guess is McBurnie is now first choice & it’s up to Bradshaw, Moore & Thiam to battle it out to get a start with him which I thinks fair enough. I think Bradshaw’s perfect at the role he had last season which was one of four strikers where he was rotated in & out of the team, he’s not good enough to be the main striker with nearly all the responsibility put on him