What is Josh Benson?

I mean, I’m sure he’s got technical ability.

But he’ll not achieve anything in the game if he doesn’t get a bit more about him.

The lad has the heart of a pea and looks about as tough as wet toilet roll.

 

With his lack of goals and assists I think he's a defensive midfielder but without the ability to defend. He is Frimpong level of useless.

 

He is weak tackling admittedly but I'm not going to write him off.

 

A young lad trying to find his way in a poor team, attracting the same criticism that Hourihane and Mowatt did early in their Barnsley careers.

 

He has played games in the premier league for Burnley, clearly he has some talent. The fact he looked good when we first got him and now looks like Frimpong speaks volumes as to what the coaching staff and game “plan” this season have done to him.

 

Disappointing. He fooled me into thinking he was going to be our star player (in a pitch black galaxy, admittedly) .

Now I yearn for the twinkle that was Herbie Kane.

 

Hourihane and Mowatt never lacked heart or effort. Hourihane needed to add more to his game to be become a more rounded midfield player. But he had the attributes to do that. Mowatt had the weight of expectation of replacing Hourihane and coming from Leeds with a bit of fanfare - but eventually became a talisman in his own right. Both had poor games and spells.

I’ll excuse anyone playing badly. That will happen. I won’t excuse someone not putting a shift in when the chips are down.

 

You must ******* hate Woodrow then.

 

In all competitions Conor scored 9 in his first 20 games for us.

 

He was still labelled as soft as ***** and a show pony/luxury player

 

He did. He had a good scoring record.

But we got beat a lot as we were soft in the middle. He needed to become a more rounded player - I said that at the time and a fair few jumped on my back because he was scoring. We were carrying him through games and losing because of it though.

One prime example - he ended up scoring twice at home in a game against MK Dons. After being mullered all afternoon and we’d gone 5-0 down. Ended up losing 5-3, young Mr Cole scored as well. The scoreline flattered us hugely. MK could have had double figures and we scored three in the last ten minutes.

He added a lot to his game - didn’t score anything like the nearly one in two he used to - but was an infinitely better player and in a much better team. He’s gone on to have a premier league and international career.

I doubt Josh Benson will ever do that - but he needs to have a look at himself and learn that he needs to earn the right to play, he needs to do the dirty work. He can’t just turn up and ping balls around. We can’t afford passengers - and he isn’t good enough to do it anyway

 

Hate is a strong word. No. I don’t hate Josh Benson either. I’m just not convinced he’s what we need at the moment.

As for Cauley, I’d be utilising him in a prolonged investigation into how comfortable the seats in the dugout are. If ever a player needed a run out of the side it’s him.

 

More on the level of James Bailey useless. Frimpong had at least 1 decent game for us.

 

No he didn’t.

 

He isn’t a strong enough tackler to have any impact in this team. I would also say that both him and Styles would need two ball winners behind them in midfield to be effective.

 

Why are we picking on Benson? None of them gave a toss last night. Utter dross the lot of them. Couldn't be bothered to put any effort in from 1 to 11. Even Collins was wasting time, even at 0.0. I'm sure that contributed another 10% possession. The other 10% was us kicking the ball back to Swansea

 

I was genuinely excited at the prospect of benson and Gomez running our midfield. I think they are 2 good players but our confidence and everything is shot. Id pack out the midfield next match with Hondermark and those two...play two up top and another body in midfield.

 

Got to be worth a try.