[Official Site] INTERVIEW | Dane Murphy

we need a couple of championship ready plug in and play full backs. We always seem to get rinsed down the flanks.

 

At the start of this season would you have imagined Brown to be in a Championship starting 11, I know I did after his break through last season?

 

Yes 100%. As the season wore on and especially after the restart it was obvious in games we needed a change. We couldn't even rest brown because there was nobody else with abit of physicality to play in that position. I still expect him to get plenty of appearances next season but we certainly need more options up front.

 

Christ, have all the rose tinted spectacles now been sold. Could I put forward a different view.

Fantastic achievement to stay up but we did it by the skin of our teeth and by default. We were without doubt one of the three worst teams in the Championship over the course of the season. The fact we had to wait until so many players had to ‘ grow into their roles’ shows the appalling lack of preparation and/or lack of acumen at the Club.

This season was without doubt one of the worst in the 46 I’ve followed the Club. Poor on the pitch, leaderless off it and division in the stands.

I’m still not convinced about the leadership off the pitch - just praying to god that some of the recent humility is genuine and lessons have been learned. But I’ll base that judgement on evidence, not blind faith.

Don’t get me wrong I hope to God we kick on but unlike many on this post I would suggest that if we do not add some further quality to this squad we are in for a bloody awful season next year.

 

I think your about spot on with this.
The squad is missing a left footed centre half if we are going to play with 3 at the back.
We lack a bit of bite in midfield when we are up against it, maybe a seasoned defensively minded midfielder?
The lack of a different opinion upfront has hurt us on many occasion this season so that definitely requires attention.

 

I agree. I think I said it earlier in the thread, I really want this to be a summer with minimal changes, which we don’t seem to do regularly enough. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Get rid of some of the players that don’t get a look in (Green, Miller, Adeboyejo, etc). I would then try to add in a tough tackling centre mid, a big ish striker who can win headers and hold it up. Then replace whoever we don’t retain from the starting squad. I’d hope we’ll get Ludewig for another season so hopefully that’ll be sorted. I wouldn’t exactly be surprised if we lost Woodrow or Mowatt but, for me, they need to be replaced with proven (to a certain extent) players as they are so key for us.

 

There's a few who Struber doesn't seem to want to touch who could go. I liked the look of Palmer and Wolf but haven't seen enough to say we definitely don't need a strong midfielder. There's still an argument we need a left back. I don't think Ben is quite Championship level, while the others given the position are all playing out of position to varying degrees. We need a centre forward. We just do.

 

My God ...... Mowatt isn’t a Parker ...... as Parker isn’t a Pirlo.
If you don’t think we need a replacement for Mowatt - then just watch the Brentford game again and count his mis-timed tackles and mis-placed passes.
Better still ........ count them.
This pivotal position needs to be greatly strengthened.

If we don’t change certain aspects of the team and add a few (4?) others then next season we will NOT progress and are likely to be nearer the bottom than the top of the league.
Struber - more than anyone will realise this.
And I would imagine the quality of player at his disposal will greatly determine whether he is at Oakwell or not next season.

 

I did think Mowatt was a fault for the Brentford goal. But I also think he would take some replacing

 

The ball to set up Schmidt to cross for Oduor was absolute quality. A high dropping ball, over his head, to judge its trajectory, kill the pace on it while passing it first time with the outside of his boot.... thats quality you cant afford to lose readily.

Of course there are parts of his game that he could be better... but if he was better, he wouldn't be playing for Barnsley at this time in his career.

 

Yep. For whatever his faults are, he'd leave a massive hole in this team. At the moment he's our main defensive midfielder and attacking midfielder.

 

They won’t get a Jan Molby in as it’s unlikely there will be heavy investment

 

The fact his fellow players keep voting him as player of season says a lot.

 

Regardless of the final league position we were still the third worst team in the league. However, for a large part of it we were by far and away the worst team but we improved so much that we got a lot closer to the other teams than I expected. That bodes well for the future!

I expect the young players to improve further next year and I’m quite excited by the prospect of the likes of Wolfe and Palmer supplementing it.

For larger parts of the season, especially the latter half, we were good enough to be competitive, played some decent stuff and defended ok (baring a few disasters). However, the lack of quality was stark when it really mattered.

Despite the improvements I expect, I don’t think the quality we need will come from this group alone, certainly not at next year. Therefore, we need to add this to the squad. We don’t need an overhaul, but 2, 3 or 4 quality players are needed. Definitely up front, full back and centre half and probably central midfield too (especially if Mowatt leaves).

 

Presuming still on about Mowatt