A month ago i said…
Robbo_ wrote:
[quote]There is no balance to the squad. 2 left wingers, 3 strikers (when only playing 1 upfront this leaves 2 very capable ones sat on the bench), but very few options at the back.
There are good enough players in the squad to challenge for promotion, but we cant put a run of wins together. How we can walk all over Sheffield like we did but then pick up 1 point from the last 2 home games is beyond me.
Unless we can go on a massive winning run then i think it really is season over…[/quote]
and was apparently talking rubbish, as we were still allegedly going to win the league!! A month later and we are starting to look like not making the play offs!!!
3 great results against Kidsgrove, Quorn, and Goole. And then back to the habit of picking up 1 point in 3 games. It is the story of our season, and is why we probably wont go up.
I think people are going overboard slightly - we aren’t in a relegation battle incase anybody has failed to notice this!!!
I think talk of budgets is missing the point. We have already got a squad of players more than capable of winning this league - so why aren’t we?
People are saying get rid of Foster now…are you f**king serious?!? You want a successful team, but in the next breath you want to get rid of our top scorer?!? Jesus… So United should get rid of Rooney coz he’s had the odd red card? Liverpool should get rid of Gerrard? Chelsea should move Drogba on?!? Get real please. Has anybody actually remembered that Foster is human?! Of course he has faults - he is playing at this level for a reason!!! The bloke has scored a shed load of goals for us, and then lost his place in the side. When get gets back in he is playing wide left. I’m guessing that’s pretty frustrating. So when we are getting beat at home he gets the red mist…he is hardly the first, and he certainly wont be the last.
Gary being sent to the stand is the bigger concern, especially as it’s 2 weeks on the spin. And of course on the back of his previous conduct when last here, then it is a worry. I hope the chairman will address this. Regardless of whether he deserved to be sent to the stand or not, he will not have helped himself by marching on to the pitch to argue with the ref at half time…
I do sympathise for Gary in that we have a small squad and he has rarely been able to field his strongest team for a run of games - which is obviously a contributing factor in our inconsistency. However, there are a lot of decision that i have had to question - such as leaving Foster on the bench at home to Lairds when we needed a goal.
I think back to the Rushall game at the start of the season when Fozzie netted a late winner, and the whole team ran to Gary to celebrate. That seems a very very long time ago now…
Should Gary go? I certainly think that he will leave sooner rather than later. The fans are no longer behind him, and as Gary Megson found out, that does mean that he is fighting a losing battle. The question has to be though, who will come in to replace him? How many players would follow Gary out of WP? We can’t make any knee-jerk reactions whilst the play offs are still within touching distance.
Personally i would see what happens over the next 3 games. If we take maximum points then we should stick till the summer and then re-evaluate. If we have a disappointing return from these 3 games then i think we need to accept that we wont go up and cut our cloth accordingly. There is no point in throwing bad money after good. If Gary quit in protest, then maybe that wouldnt be such a disaster…
The penalty issue is a curious one…is it a confidence thing? Is there a lack of confidence throughout the team? Cleary it affected Lamb enough to see him withdrawn at half time.
The system we are playing at the moment is dictated to us by the personell available to us, so i wont criticise Gary for that. Warner is an improvement on what we had before, so again i think criticism of his signing is a little unfair.
Yes we do dominate games, but is some of this to do with the way our opposition set up to play us? We are classed as a ‘big team’ at this level, and play with 3 attackers. My tactics as an opposing manager would be to soak up the pressure and hit us on the break…is that maybe what is happening? Especially at WP.
The team is good enough - there certainly aren’t 5 or 6 better teams than us in this league - but our form is patchy. From challenging for the title a month ago we are now worried that we wont make the play offs. We have to get behind the team (and the manager for however long he is here), but quite frankly it isn’t acceptable at the moment.
Right, now i have gotten that off my chest; can we please ban some of the knob heads who shout absolute rubbish from behind the goal?? They don’t contribute other than in a negative fashion. I say ‘some’…but it is singular to be fair.
