I came out of Saturdays game frustrated and angry and having thought things through and read peoples views things haven't changed. I have talked a lot about progress and that we can't expect to have success out of the box this season but we should expect progression. Last couple of games we have seen little if any and arguably gone backwards. We had faith in the youngsters early on, yet now we prefer to play a midfield of 3 when we lose a loanee rather than slot say Abbott in. 18 games in we are bottom half, nearer to relegation than play offs, lack confidence and have overcapacity of players in some positions and severe lack in others. We have persevered with formations that don't work. Our defensive record started bad and hasn't improved, although we are scoring more. I have to say I'm worried where we go next. What Danny has in his plan to work through the current availability issues but more so what the game plan is for H2 of the season. Just what do we expect right now and is that acceptable?
I wouldn't say that our current dip in form is a lack of progression. I do feel we need to ring the changes though because at the moment, this teams isn't working. You make a valid point about Abbott, who was dropped from the team because Danny doesn't want to be heavily reliant on him, I believe now is the time to bring him back in, or even give Digby a go. We have missed Williams, I don't think that it's any coincidence that we've not been anywhere near as creative without him in the team, I could probably count our chances at the weekend on one hand whereas at the start of the season, i'd struggle to count using my fingers and toes. This young inexperienced team is running out of steam a bit, but the experienced heads aren't stepping up to the plate either. We need a game where we can just go out and enjoy ourselves and get a good comfortable win, maybe the FA cup game will be a welcome distraction for the deficiencies in the league at present.
I've no great expectations of playoffs or suchlike. I do however want to see us playing attractively and creating chances, and winning our share of games instead of meekly surrendering. But I firmly believe this must all start with sorting out the defence. There isn't a man jack among them you could justify keeping. It's pitiful that two of them are technically Premier League players. There is no understanding or positional nous - they look like complete strangers. And leadership is non-existent. Cranie brings the same losing mentality that we had last year, and retaining him has sent out completely the wrong message. Ramage is inconsistent and belies his supposed experience, while Dudgeon is now exposed as woefully one-footed (incredible to me in a professional footballer). We are no better off in defence than we were last year. As far as I'm concerned the club are on borrowed time. I think it took a leap of faith for many of us to stick with them after last year's self-induced capitulation. But if we carry on in the present shambolic fashion, ST sales next year will not hold up so readily.
As I see it, the problem is that there was not enough time before the start of the season to build a proper team. As a result, we had to fill the remaining places with loanees and kids who were not ready for sustained playing time. The January window is not the ideal time for reconstruction either, but I suspect that a number of deals have been lined up. However, expecting to turn around the whole team in one season was un unrealistic hope. A team capable of holding its own in the higher division will take two or three seasons, and the basic principle of building with young players is the right one. Unfortunately, this means that watching the team is going to be a frustrating process. It is like waiting for Spring to arrive. There are warm spells mixed with cold spells, but provided the weather is generally getting better you know that summer is around the corner. Williams is the warm front that is the promise of better and we need to try to secure his services for the long term.
I think at this stage of the season we should be seeing stability and some form of consistency. It's not happening. This "rebuilding" is a convenient excuse to cover for failure. The loss to S****horpe should never have happened. Chesterfields threat was Doyle, we failed but we didn't learn. S****horpe threat was Madden, we failed. Donny have a threat but that's for Danny to work out. The requirement for me now is to win the Donny game and also the Chester game. Anything less and Danny goes on the list of failures. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
First officer Forsight if you please. Main the one to watch but Coppinger will be on a mission. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I also think we miss Williams, Saturday we were so slow at moving the ball and the players were static with the only movement up front coming from Hemmings diagonal runs, midfield just wanted to lay the ball off for someone else to attempt a telling pass many times that being left to Nyatanga and Ramage/Mvoto. I hear moans when Williams misplaces a pass or summat dont come off for the lad but he is attempting something, trying to make us tick,ruffling feathers and not giving their players a training ground run out like what they got on Saturday. If we start to play poorly with Williams in the side then I shall start to get worried myself, but then Danny hez been rarnd block a time or two in this league am sure he`ll gerrit reight given time.
Danny, your name vill go a zi list.. [video=youtube;22ZFdj3MZeg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22ZFdj3MZeg[/video]
