You have to cut young players a bit of slack until they’ve played, let’s say, 20 games. Both Styles and Palmer have played many more games than that and neither have ever produced a dominant midfield performance. All the evidence suggests that they never will so let’s stop trying to make excuses for them. I hope they both go on to make a decent living out of the game but I just hope it’s not at our expense.
Reading this thread with increasing incredulity. How on earth can one young lad who was part of such a well drilled side last year be dismissed as a disappointment and failure when the whole team is a pale shadow of last season’s side. Just glad he’s part of our squad moving forward and pretty sure attention should be directed elsewhere to come up with solutions to BFC’s problems.
There’s a case for putting him on the bench, and starting with the 11 that started the Fulham game. Then if Wolfe has to come off, he’d be a better alternative to Palmer or Benson.
I wish I could have come up with your post , I could not agree more with you , it seems when the knives are out it is always the better players that cop it ,whilst the average to mediocre escape simply because nobody expects them do anything anyway , well said .
Of course not. The thing about Styles is when he is playing poorly he never hides and always presents for the ball.
for me, styles and brittain have both gone massively backwards this season. brittain's game seems to have been reduced to step overs and flick backs that go nowhere, needless free-kicks and smashing the ball into the first defender's shins. got slightly more sympathy for styles, as he seems to have been played consistently out of position. both players have been getting a pass because of how they did last year.
Some of the comments defy belief. The lad has been messed around. absolutely no doubt about it. The year we stayed up under Struhber. Styles was one of the main reasons we did. Only getting in the starting line up for the last few games. (Styles was being overlooked for Ritzmair and Bahre by an incompetent Struhber. Comments abound on here about his relationship with a very poor Ritzmair). The calls for Styles to be starting weeks if not months before, were plentiful. Especially on this site.
Struber incompetent? Come off it. He did an incredible job. Kept us up with players like Simoes, Palmer, Ritzmaier, Chaplin all players who got / get slated on here.
Decent championship player who’s struggled a bit this season having not had a set position in a struggling side. He’s not doing badly for his age & experience, it’s just many on here drastically overrated him & had him down as a far better footballer than he is & likely ever will be. It got a bit daft with people saying he’d easily replace Mowatt when he’d barely played as a central midfielder never mind replace one of the best we’ve ever had. He (& Brittain) had simple jobs last season, with the high pressing & crossing early. There was no confusion, he knew exactly what he needed to do & what his team mates would do. He also had Anderson & Mowatt next to him all season where as this he’s had different players next to him almost every week.
If he hadn’t persisted with Ritzmair and Radlinger. (Radlinger replaced by Collins but Walton was better than Rads despite his age) . As long as he did, and brought Styles and Walton in much earlier. I believe we’d have been safe. earlier than the last kick of the last match. But for that. I reckon you’d be talking differently. Chaplin had his critics but I would hardly say slated. I for one would have kept him. Simoes and Palmer started less than 10 games between em. Saved by the bell. Not an incredible job imo.