Minority Report 2017/18 v Birmingham City

A cheeky fiver to charity or pistols at dawn ? I'll accept nothing less .

 

#NotFitToBeHTWannabee

 

It is only fair to warn you that I tipped Harvey Barnes as a future star after 3 touches in his first game. I also tipped Digby for non-league after 45 minutes.

 

Well you were wrong about Digby because he plays for League Two Mansfield

 

I withdraw my offer ...you are king !

 

Do you mean he's sub for League 2 Mansfield?

 

Not non-league though is it!

 

Not yet - no.

Are you expecting some sudden turnaround in his fortunes?

 

Was it balls. Another installment in the Bullsh1t Baffles Brains dept.

Had we more presence up top we’d have been out of sight at half time. Brum were abysmal but as ever, failure to kill them off gave them hope. They still have good individuals though however bad they are as a team and so there was always a danger against a young inexperienced side as we are.

The OP identified Liam Lyndsay as a liability after he’d played 10 minutes for us. Think that tells us all we need to know about his judgement

 

Who knows but you seem to have a very arrogant attitude about your predictions for players. When Digby was an England U20 international did you still think he'd end up in non-league? Barnes is an England U20 international. He could suffer the misfortune of Digby with injuries and end up struggling in his career similarly

 

As Whitey said to me earlier in the thread. Lighten up. Restating these opinions are merely a way of bring levity to a thread that I knew that most people disagreed with. The original post was serious but nothing since then has been.

 

My honest opinion about Digby was that he was far too slow to make the grade. It was not only his speed of movement that was slow. It was matched by his speed of thought. He was a big lad and many thought that he might make it as a centre back, that his range of passing would be useful further back, but he does not relish physical contact either. Whatever he might have had as a junior, I did not see it because I had stopped watching the juniors by then, but I can tell you that he does not have it in him to make it as a league player. For the record, I watch our under 18s beat a Spurs under 18s containing Harry Kane 3-1 and was confident that at lease 4 of our team would play at top level. Danny Rose scored a brilliant goal that night, similar to his second today. Really, only John Stones looks to be having a good career. As I have said elsewhere in this thread, my original remark was said in jest and I do not usually comment on individuals in my match reports. I could find very little today tactically worth commenting on, so I decided to go with what I wrote. It was a follow on from earlier this week when I was calling for us to stop lumping it and try to play through midfield. The way that we are playing just gives away possession and most teams in our league would have done more with the possession that we gifted them than Birmingham did. The reason I picked on Potts was that much seemed to break down or go backwards when it got to him. It was perhaps expecting too much, to expect our standard of play to improve over-night, but improve it must if we are to get points against teams better than Birmingham.

 

I really do despair at times. My first viewing of Digby left me believing I'd witnessed a star of the future. The club clearly thought so too in that it offered him a long-term contract. Unfortunately injuries got in the way. As for today, I came away feeling very happy having witnessed my team comfortably beating a club that has been something of a bogey team for us at Oakwell. It could easily have been 4-0. I doubt the OP actually knows more about the game than the rest of us. He just comes across as exceptionally critical.

 

It was a poor game in all fairness. One absolutely terrible side playing a work in progress. Potts is good when he doesn’t have too much time to think about things when he is doing things naturally he struggles when he has too much time to think or act. I like him.

 

Actually, I take that back. I don't want to downplay the ability of others. Because there's many with ability. It's a great squad. Unbelievable actually. Some group we've put together. As I said in July/August.

On a shoestring.

Exciting times, I kept saying. Nobody bought it. Club rhetoric. Yadda yadda.



This is a better squad than last season. Better players, better characters, better contracts, similar points gained.

If this don't reel in a few, I need a new bait.

You ******* Reds.

 

Absolutely. And Brad Potts clearly essential to the way the coach wants to play. May not be our best player but certainly one of our most important. One of first names on team sheet for me.

 

Hecky is all about his team. Team being the key. That's why the so-called stars who've left the last 12 months haven't done anything beyond what we'd seen here. It was always the team, the tactics, what we have here, that's the key. The fact this fresh group have bought in so quickly... exciting times.

 

Well did whitey lad

Bet you love your job don’t you mate

Fair play to you

 

My friend, I have never claimed to know more about the game than anyone else. In fact, I am at pains to point out that the pros know far more about the game than I will ever know. However, I am much less affected by the emotions that the game generates than most people, and because of that my reports are less affected by the mood swings that results have on other people and a lot more likely to look at the bigger picture. In the case of the previous home game, I defended the team, when others were happy to rubbish them, and I cited the conditions in that defence. In the case of today, that bigger picture relates to whether we are playing in a way that will make us better or a way that will make us worse. Now I am quite willing to debate at length how the game is played with anyone who wants to indulge me, but that is not how this place reacts is it. If someone deviates from the expected norm of, we were great because we won or we were rubbish because we lost, or we are going up because we won, we are going down because we lost then he is a wind up merchant or worse. Just to be clear, I am happy that we beat Birmingham but they were very very poor. I hope that we will stay up, but I am concerned with the type of football that we are playing and I am concerned that these suggestions about bringing in a target man will take us back to the type of football played in the lower divisions. Now if you are willing to debate with me on the issue of how we are playing and the reason that I believe we are playing that way, then I am quite happy to do so. If not, you just continue taking pot shots and then disappear. Its all the same to me.

 

I love my club, mate.