[Official Site] ALEX MOWATT ON DEFEAT AT READING

You obviously think the players you mention are playing in the Championship.

 

Just a thought.

Mowatt champion games without Ritzmaier last season: 31 games. 3 goals, 7 assists. Ten total goal contributions, 1 every 3 games.

Mowatt with Ritzmaier (including this year): 15 games, 0 goals, 1 assist. 1 total goal contribution, 1 every 15 games.

 

You obviously think we have the finances to sign players with multiple England caps.

When we change our name to Yorkshire Tykes, and the foooooooooooooooooooooking owners prime the fooooooooooooooking pump, perhaps we will.

 

Ritzmaier isn’t up to the task - but we have midfielders that can fill that position.
But there is no one at the club that can do the Mowatt role.
Addition to that - there is no target man at the club.
IMO the club needs to spend a bit to get the best they can in these two important positions.

 

Silly

 

I agree, unless you can get a better quality one and then you can use that as your spare.

 

Replace the bald one?

Yet another anti-Struber post......

 

Indeed but you still wouldn't take your best tyre (midfielder) off the car and put it in the boot while keeping bald tires on the car would you. You'd only remove your best tyre after you've changed the bad ones.

 

That made me laugh I have to say. I had thought about our midfielders and made sure none were bald, I'd completely forgot about the manager. Anyway the analogy with him would be that he's the driver

 

Don’t hold your breath on any of that happening.

 

I see what you're saying but what do you define the Mowatt role as being? Because I'd say that he should be much further forward and in that respect I'd say he is the the person who should be doing the Ritzmaier role.

 

IMO Mowatt is our most important player and any suggestion that he is the problem is ridiculous and likely fishing!

I don’t think blaming ritz for his reduced production makes sense but obviously as ritz is the current scapegoat it’s unsurprising to see.

Of course I’m not suggesting Ritz has been incredible since being part of the team but I have seldom seen a game where I think he has been as bad as some posts suggest.

 

Mowatt role IMO is the same as
Bannan at Sheffield Wednesday
Norwood at Sheffield United

 

For once my post wasn't actually a dig at Ritzmaier himself, it was more about how mowatts role has changed since he came and it's led to him being involved a lot less up the field.

 

Is that what he's best at or what he's currently playing as? Genuine question as I take so little interest in the Dee dars that I don't know how those two play.

 

That’s probably a good thing!

But surely the change in his role isn’t all down to Ritz.

I think the argument Mowatt is better advanced is right btw.

 

I think you need to start taking an interest in football.

 

I mean you could always answer what is clearly a very simply question to you but ok.

 

Wouldn't be too concerned if Mowatt left. The lad has done well for us but we need to see more from him and I'd be looking to freshen up the midfield. IMO he doesn't contribute enough goals from midfield and his set piece deliveries are on most occasions found wanting.
The only player who looks like he can take a decent set piece is Odour but Struber doesn't start him.

 

There is an ongoing observation that our ‘best’ players are falling way out of form under Struber; that they are being played in a system and positions not ideally suited to them.

In the cases of Mowatt and Woodrow, that is clearly true. They are both statistically much less effective.

We of course look more solid, harder to beat and more organised under Struber. We don’t look like rabbits in the headlights anymore. We also look much less likely to score - though arguably better equipped to get results in this league.

But to change things around as much as we have needs a lot of changes in personnel, to get players more suited to the system employed. For the first time in a while we haven’t sold a lot of players (yet) - but if we are backing the manager, it could be argued that perhaps we ought to speculate to accumulate, sell both those players and bring others in.

I don’t think Woodrow will ever pull trees up in a Struber team, and you have to back the manager over a single player no matter how good we think he is (I think his quality is sometimes overstated on here to be honest but I do rate Cauley).

Mowatt I think gets a bit of a bad press. His given role appears to be more of a pivot and go-between than a goal getter and assister - and he does ok. He doesn’t often give the ball away (unlike Ritzmaier - who I thought had his best game for us on Saturday). Solid and unspectacular is being used as a criticism yet it appears to be exactly what he’s being asked to do.

I’ve called Nudger out on his criticism of Mowatt before, but not maybe being clear why. There is some truth in what is being said, his end product is often poor and his set pieces are more often than not woeful. But he really isn’t as bad as is being made out - he is restricted by the role his manager is asking him to play or at least the priorities he is given.

What Nudger wants is better - nothing wrong with that - but we probably won’t sign better on our budget. We sign players like Ritzmaier and Frieser. Good honest pro’s, never stop running and working, but not exactly blessed with fantastic ability. This manager is never going to be interested in a Gorre or a McCourt, maverick type. The club isn’t going to sign a 34/35 year old on his way down from the top either, like a Parker or a Molby. So someone to dictate the middle of the park, or to be more creative from that position, is highly desirable but an almost impossibility under the current management and his priorities.

Comparing Mowatt to a player with several multimillion pound transfers, champions league experience, numerous England caps, who’s played alongside world class players and under world class managers, who happened to drop into the championship with his team for a couple or three seasons at the end of his career in his mid thirties - let’s just be realistic.

I really rate Struber, he’s come into the club and reorganised things after we had got into a big mess. But his system needs a special player or two to create something from not a lot, we get hold of the ball in high areas and have a lot of possession but generally with the opposition in front of us still. The next stage is turning the nice play into goals, points and wins and the current squad as it stands doesn’t look like it can do that, but can we realistically bring someone in to alter things?

The next week or so will tell us.