What another depressing night

Don't think Gent was expecting to play - badly let down by our 'international' left back

 

The squad is massively unbalanced, I was thinking last night,
No out and out fullbacks, 3 right wingbacks, 2 of which can’t defend and I’m still to be convinced they have the required ability. Lofthouse looks to have potential from his reviews at MKDs and last night cameo.
1 left wingback who looks a little raw and will take time to settle.
5 centre halves of which only 1 looks anything like good enough (Roberts). MDG looks to have some promise but seems a bit too lightweight for English football.

We have 4 defensive midfielders in Craig, Russell, Hourihane and Connell. One more attack minded midfielder in Phillips, one alleged playmaker Benson who seems to be made of Rivita and a smattering of kids with potential.

As for the froward players, that’s plain to see. Probably steady players for this level but they need some creativity from the midfield, which is severely lacking.
More pace needed, players who can turn a defence round.

I think we are possibly 5 players short of being a top 6 team this year.

 

Earl appears to have gone backwards since he joined and O keefe struggling at this level

 

17 shots, I’d suggest 6 of them were by Connell from 30 yards! We probably created 5 decent chances which were squandered, which 4 were missed by Cosgrove, Marsh and Watters.

 

Clarke unfortunately but understandably got it wrong for the first 20 mins of the game.
He made a strong change in by taking off Gent who wasn't ready and changed to a 442.
Connell was excellent but acknowledge the impact of Russell when he came on.
From the change we didn't conceed and we scored.
Give Watters a chance he looked so quick and got chances, when he starts converting then there is a very good striker there.
Earl Phillips OKeefe Gent Craig Cosgrove where all off the pace and that cost us.

Styles must clear out his locker and then never step foot inside Oakwell ever again. He is a disgrace of a professional footballer.

Don't give up on the team.

With the new keeper, Pines and Jalo back and a new striker this will be an exciting strong team.

 

The owners and board aren't victims of the accounts as we often position the discussion, they are actually responsible for the accounts. I am by no means downplaying the personal contributions to prop up the club nor am I saying the job should be easy. However we have a model that is based on buying young hungry players and selling them on to ensure the club is sustainable. I said 18-24 months ago on here that the future doesn't look good as our recruitment hasn't supported this model well enough and suggested one reason why a director of football was important. We now have one. We have brought additional revenue with playoffs. But we don't drive a game day experience based on revenue generation, we haven't attracted major headline sponsors so the only model we rely on is selling players or the pocket of the owners. So our ability to work the transfer market is deteriorating, not only with the squad depth and quality but in the revenue it generates. I thank the owners for their personal contribution but we need to perform better as a board.

 

How do you reconcile Watters’ pass back to the keeper, from a very incisive pass from midfield, with the notion that midfield creativity is the problem? Surely any striker at this level buries it?

 

Very unlikely that Watters will start burying these chances though. We’ve seen no evidence that he has it in him. Clarke has also said that Jalo is out for a few weeks. Reinforcements are needed asap.

 

Re inforcements definitely needed but I never thought Cole had it in him to score 20 goals.

 

It was a poor attempt but I can’t remember many other chances actually created by good midfield play.

 

I don’t really buy this, as a professional footballer if you can play wing back then you can play full back in a back four - it’s really not a complicated position.

But yes, the squad is unbalanced. I think on last night however the idea is that Connel is going to play further forward.

 

I recall a number of headed chances that Watters and Cosgrove messed up

 

We actually got told in the chronicle there would be a "significantly larger playing budget than last year".

Yet there's absolutely no evidence of that being true. More spin and lies from the board. For me it's seriously time to consider protesting. We're weaker in every way since they've come in.

 

Didn't Luca put a peach of a cross in from the left hand side to give Watters had a free header from 8 yards which went way over the top?

 

Cosgrove I think. It was coming at pace though. Not easy to control your header, but he should have done better still.