Fitness/Concentration/Going Forward

Our games thus far have been characterised by a good start, but a fall-off as the games go on. Charlton a classic example, and yesterday, even though we came through, we dipped in terms of energy in the second half. Wigan and Southampton saw us start reasonably well but fall away after conceding.

It seemed from the pre-season noises that Flicker/MM/MS were putting our players through the mill in the race to fitness. To be fair, it seems like every manager that comes into every club always says that the players can be made fitter. The reality is probably that in this increasingly competitive league, no club is leaving any stone unturned in terms of getting their players super-fit - so the fitness factor is not likely to be a source of advantage. Match sharpness is likely to be needed for most until 5-6 games in.

There is the alternative that concentration lapses as the games go on, but I feel that working our way to full match fitness is probably the issue for us.

Positives: RNL is a tremendous footballer; we still have Crainey and Nyatanga to come back; Pederson is a potential Rolls-Royce of a player - hopefully he will remain with us for the full season loan, but I feel he may be snapped up before January is out; Etuhu is a good presence, and I feel he should be encouraged as a natural leader, and the team be built around him.

Negatives: Our squad is still small, and injuries/suspensions may hit us hard as the season goes on; some players are clearly not up to standard at present (O'Brien? Dagnall?); McCourt may be the new Phil Gridelet.

As ever, fascinating to see how things progress, but I still feel there is more to come from this squad.

 

Sell Dagnall, hes hasnt got championship quality and isnt anything different to what we have except work rate

 

Mental fitness is probably the key, in willing to wager our players are just as physically fit as any others. The key to turning that physicality into match winners and better footballers is to remain focused mentally, maybe our players or other similar players of so called lesser ability really struggle with that?

or maybe I'm talking ********

 

I don't think our squad is small. It has much more strength in depth than in previous seasons.

 

Squad is the biggest i've ever known!. The academy players apart from Digby and Rnl haven't a chance.