The squad is 5 or 6 places above where it should be. Great goalkeeper but he's injured now and seems to be for a long period and the replacement is meh at best (although not many keepers could manage to find a way to turn a shot going 4 feet over their bar into their own goal to be fair to him, so well done for that) Defenders can't collectively deal with 60 yard diagonal punts into the box and we are desperately clamouring for a lad from Ponte collieries to improve what we've got. Three Championship quality defenders all flogged or returned to parent, leaving an enormous hole. The guy who carried the midfield last season has only been able to play 20 minutes all season, Kane is a sideways merchant and Phillips is horrendously out of form. There's one quality striker, and lets be right the rest are either absolutely ***** or 17 years old. Theres no leadership and no know-how without Luca and we're back to getting bullied with refereeing decisions. If Hourihane had been playing for us Collins would likely have been sent off for the appalling lunge on de Gevigney in the first 15 minutes and we'd probably have gone on to win the game. Too nice, too soft. I mean his football is absolutely boring i grant you but i'm not sure how people think he can reasonably get this lot much higher than 6th.
I've said recently that I thought we were decent and with better players to come in would get automatic promotion, Those players were Connell, Lopata and Phillips. sadly Phillips isn't the same player and I'm not sure the other two will rescue this season as the rest look average at best. I went today and in my opinion Derby aren't owt special, in fact I thought they were there for the taking until the atrocious penalty decision after which we gave up...
There’s no way Styles was going to throw himself about today when there is an international match next week.
He usually misses the first game after returning from international duty also. He’s been a real disappointment he should be walking this league and most weeks doesn’t look arsed.
I pretty much agree, although I wouldn't say the defence is the worst we've had by any stretch... they are nowhere near as good as the players we lost. Getting rid of Norwood... a journeyman on relative peanuts was bloody lunacy. Duff, without that defence and Norwood as an option up front would have struggled.
very well put - I thought Williams was brilliant this season, but has had an awful four or five weeks now and can’t get that early form back. I can’t understand the deterioration of the playing style as a whole - from a fantastic high press to purposeless pedestrian possession football. When Collins was appointed his statements about style of play could have been a cut and paste of Duff’s successful style - it looks increasing like that really was a cut and paste - for the purpose of getting the job - because it doesn’t seem to be anything he actually wants to make work on the pitch.
Been really surprised at Styles. I thought he would have been busting a gut to prove he was too good for League 1. At this rate I can't imagine many Championship Clubs will meet the release clause. He should be running the show week in week out.
He’ll either run his contract down or be sold for £500k max. No way will anyone stump up the release clause fee. Very overrated player and has the heart of a pea when the going gets tough.
Connell looked ok against Horsham when he came on but did think he would make at least the bench against Derby. My worry is it his health or collins keeping him out because he plays more direct than styles or kane