You look to the bench...

...and see Kyran Lofthouse.

It's about time folk looked further afield than the manager when stuff isn't going right. Great performance today full of heart and the odd bit of quality. They're not far off.

 

I looked over my bench and saw "The Plough".

 

Bang on

them pillocks in board room need to be made accountable

 

Agreed that we've got poor depth on the bench. However, still can't see how Nwakali hasn't started any league games, especially when the midfielders have been hit and miss lately. Looked really good again today when he came on.

 

Hopefully gets his start at Exeter.

 

Not sure why you have singled out Lofthouse. On the odd occasion we’ve seen him he’s looked decent in my opinion. Despite being played out of position.

 

I spent all day watching a bench and missed the game.

 

I'm not singling him out, but it's a sign of the quality we've got - he's a full back who gets asked to play left wing because we've no other options.

 

I think we look far more cohesive than we did under Collins, and we're far more enjoyable to watch. Reckon we'll give someone an absolute shoeing soon.

 

I just don't see how he fits in the system though. He needs runners left and right to find and unfortunately we don't have them.

 

But you did single him out just by mentioning him didn’t you?

 

Yep don't disagree. We look like we're close but also like we're down to the bare bones.

 

Because he's a right full back who's our best back up option for left wing. You're making out as though I'm saying he's ****. I'm not. I'm saying he's not a left winger so when you look to the bench and think let's change it, it's not really gonna work.

 

But you did single him out. The fact that you didn’t explain why in your original post runs the risk that it is interpreted in a different way to the one you intended. Anyway, I agree that he’s not a left winger, but having a right footed player cutting in from the left is fairly common these days. In fact, it’s probably the only thing I’ve seen DKD do.

 

I thought he looked great playing deep at Cambridge. He was regularly finding the wing backs with diagonals time and time again. But that would mean swapping him for Connell and I can't see DC dropping his captain.

 

Expected this to be a Hourihane reference.

 

He is **** though, so it would have been fair enough if you had. Which you didn't.

 

Strange. He did well last season in league 2 with mk dons.

 

Oh dear.

 

I think the point Dyson is making, is that you look at the teams in the top 6, and the options they have on the bench, e.g. Lukas Jutkiewitz, who's played 400+ championship games, Paul Mullin, who's scored 20+ goals for 4 seasons in a row, Richard Kone who has 9 goals already this season etc. And to try and change the game, we're bringing a right wing back on and playing him out of position. That isn't a slight on Lofthouse, it's a criticism of the lack of strength in depth we clearly have at our disposal. You could argue that Lofthouse was the best option in that situation, which is arguably more worrying. We were forced slightly by the red card to make a more unorthodox change, but still.

The issue for me is that we're still top heavy with the punts we made at the start of last season, when we signed a dozen or so inexperienced players, and bloated the wage bill with players not ready for the level. I think that's why we were slow at doing business in the window.