Righting the wrongs!

[EnigmaRam]

It seems the club are finally looking to sort out the mess that's been made over the last year. Letting the likes of warnock, Pearce, shot ton etc go out on loan into the shop window is the right way to go Imo. The recruitment policy of signing whoever was available was just amateurish. Having 27-34 year olds sat on the bench on big wages is just ridiculous. 

I think this team needs a serious clear out of all those fringe players to enable the under 21 etc to have a larger input to bring them on. 

To me they seem to be sorting it out which bodes well for the future.

quality over quantity this time Mr MM please, in players and manager

 

[RamNut]

Agreed.......but there must be a few doubts as to whether the current u21s are actually all that good?

 

tin hat on.

[EnigmaRam]

3 minutes ago, RamNut said:

Agreed.......but there must be a few doubts as to whether the current u21s are actually all that good?

 

tin hat on.

Even if not in a particualar position that might get a long term injury you could use the loan system. It's worked for us in the past and totally overlooked this year in lieu of old, overpaid bench warmers

[Carl Sagan]

Baird, Warnock, Shotton and Ssewankambo was the entirety of our full back cover so I'd suggest it's pretty stupid to ship all four of them out. Yes, I'm sure they want to be playing first team football, but they were under contract and we're meant to be challenging for promotion. Now if either fullback gets injured we either have to debut a 17 year old (Stabana) or play someone out of position. Or loan someone in.

Pearce wasn't getting a look in and most on here would prefer Bucko and Rawson as cover, so that one's more understandable. I can understand a couple of the fullbacks leaving, but not all four of them!

 

[Gypsy Ram]

Only Johnson, Blackman, Bent, Weimann and Camara left. This is assuming Pearce, Shotton, Warnock and Baird are already gone.

I would also include Hendrick and Russle if they don't improve by the end of the season.

Grant and Albentosa as well. Although, I would keep the latter of we miraculously go up.

Have I missed out anyone? 

[duncanjwitham]

Pearce, Shotton, Baird, Warnock etc are all useful squad players at this level, most of the are versatile and they were all relatively cheap signings as well.  Maybe we've got a few  too many of them, but I wouldn't have a problem if some of them were around the squad next season.  The big problem that needs addressing are the likes of Johnson, Weimann, Blackman etc who were big name, expensive signings and don't look remotely like fitting into our squad.  Shifting them out (or possibly adapting the squad to suit them and shifting other senior players out instead) has got to be the major priority.

[Zag zig]

Definitely agree with the quality over quantity approach. 

Not to overlook we still have a quick fix temporary solution for the odd game at right back in Keogh, who has played a fair few games there at Coventry and Carlisle and worst comes to worst I'm sure Johnson would act as cover left back during a game. Aside from that do we really need 2 players for every position once the kids a and Fozzy are fit at the back? 

Cant tell me a bloated squad with maybe 4 or 5 senior pros not even making the bench, is not going to eventually strain the morale in the camp? I'm surprised there hasn't been more rumours leaking out to be honest, in some ways I think the group did well to stay as strong as they did, playing well or not.

[TheDeadlySaul]

Keep the squad small like in the 13/14 system, but still have good cover unlike the 14/15 season. 

[eddie]

3 hours ago, RamNut said:

Agreed.......but there must be a few doubts as to whether the current u21s are actually all that good?

 

tin hat on.

Well, Clement didn't rate them, but that might not exactly be a negative.

[LesterRam]

I am a big believer in bringing all the successful U21's up together, they tend to gel better and understand each others game, look at the nucleus of the Man Utd team of the 90's.

[Mostyn6]

3 hours ago, RamNut said:

Agreed.......but there must be a few doubts as to whether the current u21s are actually all that good?

 

tin hat on.

 

5 minutes ago, eddie said:

Well, Clement didn't rate them, but that might not exactly be a negative.

not sure if you missed this over Breakfast Eddie, but there was a suggestion that Clement refused to pay any attention to the U21s, and plenty of the senior squad too, Mel Morris said a few times that he'd said to Clement that he "hadn't seen them play".

RamNut could be right though, you'd like to think if they are good enough, they will play... but given the suggestion PC had no interest... who knows.

[Van der MoodHoover]

8 minutes ago, eddie said:

Well, Clement didn't rate them, but that might not exactly be a negative.

Neither did Maclaren much.

Am i the only one thinking that whilst turning the clock back to 13/14 or so is all fine and dandy, but we weren't actually good enough for promotion then.

There have been I am sure times when we stated that we needed a squad of 2 good players for every position and now we are saying something else, ie a small nucleus and access to some kids. We've also stated the need for a plan B many times and do not seem any closer to one. I can't tell in truth whether we've ever had a plan that we have followed as such, or just reacted to a series of perceived opportunities.

[eddie]

14 minutes ago, HantsRam said:

Neither did Maclaren much.

Am i the only one thinking that whilst turning the clock back to 13/14 or so is all fine and dandy, but we weren't actually good enough for promotion then.

There have been I am sure times when we stated that we needed a squad of 2 good players for every position and now we are saying something else, ie a small nucleus and access to some kids. We've also stated the need for a plan B many times and do not seem any closer to one. I can't tell in truth whether we've ever had a plan that we have followed as such, or just reacted to a series of perceived opportunities.

The squad was painfully thin, and that cost us last year too. I think that the 'first team' was probably good enough. Now, we seem to have the opposite problem with a bloated squad, and a former head coach who was struggling to recognise anything like his 'first team' (that was the silly accusation somebody levelled at Wassall yesterday, for goodness sake).

Last year's problem wasn't a lack of two players for every position - it was a lack of four for what was thought of as one of two key positions. We had one style of playing and maintaining shape - and losing Thorne, Eustace and Mascarell in succession left us painfully short of cover in front of the back four. Losing Martin on top of that meant that we had no target man capable of bringing the midfield into the game, so we ended up playing a gung-ho 'style' (for want of a better word) that brought the best out of Bent and Ince, yet eventually killed our promotion chances.

For want of a Plan 'B' (or a fourth DCM and a Chris Martin clone), the season was lost. This season, by the time Clement had departed, we had just about exhausted the alphabet. The bloody Chinese alphabet.

[Rev]

2 minutes ago, eddie said:

The squad was painfully thin, and that cost us last year too. I think that the 'first team' was probably good enough. Now, we seem to have the opposite problem with a bloated squad, and a former head coach who was struggling to recognise anything like his 'first team' (that was the silly accusation somebody levelled at Wassall yesterday, for goodness sake).

Last year's problem wasn't a lack of two players for every position - it was a lack of four for what was thought of as one of two key positions. We had one style of playing and maintaining shape - and losing Thorne, Eustace and Mascarell in succession left us painfully short of cover in front of the back four. Losing Martin on top of that meant that we had no target man capable of bringing the midfield into the game, so we ended up playing a gung-ho 'style' (for want of a better word) that brought the best out of Bent and Ince, yet eventually killed our promotion chances.

For want of a Plan 'B' (or a fourth DCM and a Chris Martin clone), the season was lost. This season, by the time Clement had departed, we had just about exhausted the alphabet. The bloody Chinese alphabet.

You've missed out the loss of Buxton too, Shotton lacked the necessary concentration for a CB, and Raul was struggling to settle.

Looking back, it seems the perfect storm of key losses throughout the spine of the team cost us, not forgetting Bent missed a few leaving Russell as our lone CF.

Suspected we were done for while in the concourse at Millwall, and Sammon's name was read out!

[eddie]

3 minutes ago, reveldevil said:

You've missed out the loss of Buxton too, Shotton lacked the necessary concentration for a CB, and Raul was struggling to settle.

Looking back, it seems the perfect storm of key losses throughout the spine of the team cost us, not forgetting Bent missed a few leaving Russell as our lone CF.

Suspected we were done for while in the concourse at Millwall, and Sammon's name was read out!

I nearly went back and added Sir Jake. You are quite correct. When he injured his back at Cardiff it looked quite innocuous, but it royally screwed us. Two key players out of three, perhaps we could have muddled through, but three was a Bridge-Wilkinson too far.

[Van der MoodHoover]

54 minutes ago, eddie said:

This season, by the time Clement had departed, we had just about exhausted the alphabet. The bloody Chinese alphabet.

Apologies for taking 50 mins to reply.

Had to clean the coffee I spat out in laughing so much off the keyboard..........

[RamNut]

2 hours ago, Mostyn6 said:

not sure if you missed this over Breakfast Eddie, but there was a suggestion that Clement refused to pay any attention to the U21s, and plenty of the senior squad too, Mel Morris said a few times that he'd said to Clement that he "hadn't seen them play".

RamNut could be right though, you'd like to think if they are good enough, they will play... but given the suggestion PC had no interest... who knows.

I'm not sure that it could be shown that PC ignored "plenty of the senior squad".

dawkins yes.

after that i'm struggling to think of any who got frozen out.

 

i'm beginning to think that he nobbed Mrs Morris.

[Anon]

10 hours ago, RamNut said:

I'm not sure that it could be shown that PC ignored "plenty of the senior squad".

dawkins yes.

after that i'm struggling to think of any who got frozen out.

 

i'm beginning to think that he nobbed Mrs Morris.

Buxton, Pearce, Bryson, Bent, Hanson.

[May Contain Nuts]

9 minutes ago, Anon said:

Buxton, Pearce, Bryson, Bent, Hanson.

Injured, Shackell, Injured, Martin, Understandable

[Anon]

1 minute ago, Coconut said:

Injured, Shackell, Injured, Martin, Understandable

Bryson wasn't injured after the first few months and was continuously ignored. I agree that Martin should almost always play over Bent, but explain why when Martin was in the middle of a terrible run of performances and a goal drought Bent was dropped from the squad entirely. Hanson, again shouldn't have been an automatic starter, but he's our most natural replacement for Thorne and Clement rarely even put him on the bench.