Chris's Twitter thread on him yesterday was a perfect summary of the situation. The 'spreadsheet' doesn't seem to take into account the adverse impact of playing in a team like ours will be having on some of these young players. For some, their careers might never recover or they'll at least need to make a fresh start with another club at some point. Regardless of what anyone thinks of Andersen as a player, it seems to have taken a huge adverse reaction to his error on Tuesday for Struber to take this decision, when it probably should have happened several games ago. The timing of it now looks like a knee-jerk reaction from him, rather than pro-active man-management. Given Diaby's ongoing absence, the freezing out of senior players, and the baffling decision not to bring someone in (either in January or as a free agent) it leaves us alarmingly threadbare at the back on Saturday. However, it's undoubtedly the right call for him not to play on Saturday. I'm not so sure about the wisdom of publicly stating that he needs a rest. He's seriously lacking form and confidence. 'Needs a rest' make it sound like he's lazy and/or unfit, which isn't the case. A model which relies on you selling these young players at a profit also requires that you continue to develop them. Andersen is one of several who we've probably devalued this season by continuing to throw them into games with little thought or concern for the long-term impact it will have on them.
I agree. I dont like this way of doing things at the club. Just make the swap without all this hoo Hah if that's what you as head coach want to do.
you really do like to be supportive. He has the ability to be a professional footballer and had he been playing alongside Pinnock last season in a settled defence and decent keeper I think he would make far fewer mistakes - there is a footaller in there but see the tweet at the top of this thread - he hasnt been nurtured very well He does need a rest but I wouldnt be surprised if he became a decent player for us next season a level lower
I believe that there is a good footballer in him , he should have been rested earlier in the season after it was obvious to everyone he was struggling with this level. Should have been sent out on loan a division lower
I saw that Twitter thread yesterday and I found myself agreeing with lots of it. But then I also thought that it doesn't matter how nice of a bloke he is, if he can't do his job then he should be open to criticism. I'd rather have a complete **** of a bloke who can defend. He should have been taken out of the spotlight weeks ago though.
One interesting outcome from today's news is that, as far as the official website goes, our available defence for selection for Saturday has now become a numbers round in Countdown. "I'll have one from the top, two from the middle and three from the bottom please, Rachel."
What’s interesting is a few week ago on the website Cavare, Pinillos and Thiam were in the under 23s section.
His confidence must be totally shot. Regardless of the things said about him you've got to feel for the guy. It's not something I could handle, paraded in font of 12000 expectant fans, you make mistakes, you're only human, you're even more scared, you make more mistakes.
They were moved back pretty quickly after Pinillos' Twitter post about being disrespected. Struber then clarified in interview that they wouldn't be selected again this season.
Ah. Still believe that interview was a bold move by Struber, to ostracise 3 players who were in the starting 11 last year is very risky and could (and maybe is) backfire on him.
Which if you think about it is bizarre - what Struber has said is no matter what they do or how well they perform in training he wont pick them That must be totally demotivating to the players concerned and seems a strange way to manage a team of players as that sort of man management cant help but affect the other players as well. Its also daft as a couple of injuries and he would then have no choice - unless he thinks the U23's have better players than those 3
I'm sure we'd love to concoct a conspiracy theory around this But the reality is that its automatically created from an Opta feed. What that means is that when a player plays for the U23s he will appear under the U23s. The club have some manual control but they are battling against the automated sysytem. The website people are trying to provide a fix for this. (Info from Whitey)
It's a bizarre approach made to look even more bizarre with each passing defeat, and defensive error. While Pinillos might not be good enough for the Championship, I wager that he's currently a better centre half than Andersen, even allowing for the fact that he's never played there.
I hope so, been told that he is not very approachable and not willing to listen to anybody ideas, that comes across in is desisions he make and is demena, aragant comes to mind, time 2 pay up is contract and move on now.