2 week on Sat

Problem is, you can’t shift players that nobody wants. We’ve plenty of those. Maybe we can loan them out but that’s best we can hope for.

 

Look on the bright side at least dkd Russell and Phillips are still here.

 

For now…..

 

True lose dkd or Russell and I can't see us really struggling next season. We have a habit of selling and replacing with alot worse. See j williams, cadden, Cole, Brad Collins.

 

I've long said the same myself and just this morning about O'Keefe. It shows how bad our recruitment has been and the continued financial scarring of paying players you don't want to play, or paying them a little less if you can find a club willing to contribute. But then you've got to sometimes replace them which ultimately will likely cost you more.

Big old mess.

 

Pre Season - used to be a exciting time the closer it got to the season. Decent friendlies, new kits launched that you can buy, players coming in, open days etc. Now there's just a complete lack of fan engagement and a lack of anything that could get people excited for the season to come. 2 weeks until the first game and it feels as flat as ever in my opinion. The odd tweet of players training is what you get.

The pre season fixtures have been shocking really, the kit release is just a long drawn out process, no away kit released, lack of players that excite fans. All these excite the younger end which then seeing your kids looking forward to the season makes me look forward to it. I don't think the first games been mentioned at all yet in our household.

Might just be me but it just seems extremely flat from outside the walls at Oakwell.

 

Out of that list, you could halve the squad by taking out players who aren't good enough or not ready.

Keepers: Flavell, Cooper

Full Backs: Gent, Ogbeta

Centre Halves: Roberts, DeGevigney, Earl, Shepherd

Midfield: Russell, Phillips, Bland, Keilor-Dunn, Yoganathan, Connell, Nwakali

Wingers: Cleary

Strikers: McGoldrick

 

3 Players still needed a full back, winger an a forward, an i'll be happy, had a massive punt on Barnsley top 3, cos i thought Hourihane would av used some no how an had a couple of decent loanees in by nar, should av waited i know, STILL TIME, [ at the mo more than prayers needed ], Keep the faith, C,O,Y,R.

 

H E E E L P.

 

I get that , but what baffles me when I see this posted quite a bit on here (And I'm not having a pop at you or anyone else on this by the way as its just an opinion), is that they say the 1st 10 yards of a defenders pace is in their head and reading of the game (I know there's arguments to throw up in that area - but this is where the coaching side might - hopefully!- kick in). Some of the best CBs in the world have hardly been electric pace wise as they dont have to be - Solbauer would walk into this team, but I wouldn't consider him faster than the average player, yet if we signed his equivalent we wouldn't moan.
The high press is a gamble whether there's pace there or not - the keepers reading of the game is of huge importance in that system - as Brad Collins showed.
If you are fit and well organised you can finish mid table in this division as lets not dress it up - the standard is pants - it's only when you're up against better quality opposition you get punished - there's probably 30 highly winnable games and the results against these (in my opinion) are the one's to concentrate on. We slipped up against alot of poor teams last season

 

Fitness was an obvious issue but also getting it all to click just rarely happened. Strikers played a blinder / defence dropped a boll0ck. Midfield ran like a dream / they were let down by strikers being off it or again, defenders dropping a bollock.
On the rare occasions it did click, we looked very good. Most of those performances being away from home.
If we can become strong at home again, and add fitness and consistency, we still have some very good players for this level. If they all step up, and it all comes together, I can see us being up there.

BUT

If the general malaise, apathy and 'leadership from above' makes Oakwell a sad place to play again, it could be a very fifferent end-of-season outcome.

 

Solbauer was a great defender for us but didn't have pace as you point out, however he played in a back 3 with Toby Sibbick who was quick and Jordan Williams who equally was quick, had you put Solbauer into a back 4 playing a high line with 2 attacking full backs then the outcome would have been very different, we also had the legs of Chaplin and Jacob Brown to create the press from the front, DKD and Reyes may well provide that, but based on the here and now we are not a top 6 side

 

Agree with most of that, apart from the buzzing bit. Hoping it kicks in, as normally I am a giddy kipper by now.

 

They're fair points - I dont think we're top 6 either - 10th-13th for me. All I want to see is some organisation, grit and some younger players from the academy securing regular starting places and something to build on. If we get a model that works for us that takes 3 / 5 years I'm happy at that, as long as the desires there.

As fans I think we just need a bit of patience and we can hopefully get the atmosphere back at Oakwell in the next season or 2

 

I completely agree mate, again as mentioned in a separate post, I'm not taking umbrage to individual players but more so the circus above coming out with loose statements about challenging.

 

I agree with that last part aswell. I emailed the club regarding this a fair few months back to say that if they just put out a statement regarding CH is going nowhere (unless its just an absolute car crash and getting absolutely spanked every week) and giving him the freedom to develop players and put his own stamp on things then it stops alot of the rumour mill. We've generally always performed better when the odds are against us anyway!!

 

He'll come good with the correct support recruitment wise, patience and being left to get on with things.

 

Mladen to save himself?? Been on the chopping block since he arrived.
Managed all these years without a DOF, why do we need one now.
Needs to drop his keys off at the office and go.