Its not a football club for them though is it, its a business venture, and JQ has said that a number of times. As somebody else said, its like they are playing a 'real life' game of Fifa footy... and they just aren't very good at it!.
I can't remember the last time I've seen a Barnsley side as unfit as this, nearly all of them were blowing out their arses after 15 minutes, people are screaming for Keillor Dunn when we should be screaming for their manager. We got exactly what we deserved tonight, Mansfield were fitter and dar more productive with the ball and far more energetic without it, it's looking like this is the squad for the season. GOD HELP US!!!!
So when we win 7-0 on the opening day of the season, it means nothing. But when we lose 1-2, it means we're going to struggle.
Desperate for some more attacking options ASAP as ours clearly aren’t up to it. Hope they’ve got a couple lined up though, because I wasn’t overly impressed with DKD tbh.
For me, watching that tonight was evidence that we haven't addressed our obvious weaknesses of last season. 1 We lack pace throughout the team. 2 We lack any attacking width in the final third. 3 We have no one who can beat a man. 4 We have little creativity in the final 3rd. 5 And we lack strikers. The signings so far haven't addressed any of them and until we do, we will do well to make the top 10
Genuinely thought we were the better team for 50-60 minutes. The huge problem is quality in the final third. Woefully lacking. We had enough chances to win that game easily. I don’t think we only need 1 striker. I think we need 2. And I’d still be saying strikers coming off the bench were a weakness.
We made plenty of chances today, just our strikers didn't make most of them. Watters, Cosgrove & Marsh all should have had at least one goal. Signing 2 players up top is non-negotiable for me mate. We NEED them. Watters just isn't good enough and Cosgrove misses too many sitters despite his presence. I know a lot of people wanted Russell, Hourihane, Craig etc to start, but there's no way we can drop Connell. He's head and shoulders above any midfielder we've got. Finally, on Earl, I really just do not rate him anymore. Since giving away that Bolton penalty he's been a shadow of his first few games. Stupid passes, stupid touches, stupid fouls. He has not and isn't good enough and I'm not sure he will be, I think he just had a purple patch for us. Cannot wait for Pines' return
Lighthouse looks a decent prospect, I liked the look of him when he came on. Connell played quite well, he just can’t shoot. I am trying to find positives.
Aye I really wanted him to start over Okeefe today. I think he did enough in his cameo to warrant it next match mate. Loves to beat a man or 2 (sometimes at the same time!)
Hourihane looked a mile off it. But in my opinion, Roberts had a more than acceptable game, one stray pass in the second half, everything else he did was fine. You could also see him trying to marshall the midfield (to no avail) in the first half. Hourihane needs to buck his ideas up, sat far too deep when he came on.
I can't spend another 90 minutes watching Cosgrove with his arms in the air moaning at the ref that a decision has gone against him. I just can't. Please Chelsea, loan us a striker and wide man as well.
Thought we did well moving ball forward through the gaps. Not a fan of the long ball diagonals we did quite often. Best game Watters has had for us, clearly Collins viewed him as a target man like Cosgrove and he was so wrong. O’Keefe has never taken a man on his life, just drags it back and goes sideways. Connell must have had more shots in one match than all last season. Plenty of options off bench compared to last season. Their goals were very well taken, no complaints there.
Early doors yet but the lack of decent strikers is massively evident......as we all knew of course. I'm sure the suits know that and will try bring someone in. I thought we would draw tonight (pe kick off) but we did play marginally better second half but other than Luca no one can shoot.
I think we are quite an easy team to set up to play against, especially when we play 352. Teams happy to sit deep knowing dont creat much in the final 3rd and we don't attack with wide wingers. And we are susceptible to pace at the back if teams break quickly on us, especially down the channels. Plus we often don't pick up midfield runners and we are slow to react on clearing set pieces into our box. We will sometimes get away with it against the weaker teams (like Mansfield) but there will be too many teams in L1 this season better than we currently are.