Who's good enough?

[Gary Teale]

We are a decent team with a long way to go, the league is quite poot this year for me and there is a good chance of sneaking into the play off spots, sadly the players who probably should be playing at the top of the division prefer to sit on the benches of prem sides in there 25 man squads.

I dont know why people are debating about our performance agaisnt west ham at home as they had 10 players out that day

[AndyB]

Although, the injuries excuse is getting a bit old. Every team suffers injuries, this is Nigels squad now, he's had years to assemble it. It should be able to cope with injuries.

I'm sorry EKR but this statement is so wrong. The reason we can play with a fit squad and not with injuries is because Nigel doesn't have the budget to have a large squad of quality experienced players. He has the budget for some decent first teamers and some cheap back up. Hence the struggles when injuries bite. The current case is a perfect example. If a defender gets injured we have Naylor and Buxton as back up or even younger youth players. Nigel doesn't have the budget to bring in anyone better.

[LeedsCityRam]

I think I'm more on the side of Bris Vegas in this little debate

It is great to feel optimistic about the team again - lets face it, its been a miserable few years & yes, there is a chance (albeit a small one) that we could finish top 6.

But our style & quality of players just isn't enough to sustain a strong playoff challenge & against the better sides in this league, our only chance of a result is to keep it tight & nick one on the break....a worrying reminder of the Billy Davies 06/07 side. And I absolutely do not want to return to the Prem playing like that

WHU away - yes we maybe shaded the first half but they absolutely pulverised us in the second half, we just weren't on the same pitch & had they wanted to, it could have been 5 or 6 by the end. Even in the New Years Eve game, they were clearly the better side after 20 mins & we played like an away team especially after they got it back to 2-1

Its not negative to point out our shortcomings - I agree with Bris Vegas that ourselves & Palace are very similiar insofar as we are over achieving in this division. And Clough & the players deserve credit fo our current position. But teams DO need to dominate the majority of games to be finishing top 6 - we don't & need at least another year to improve our style (not good enough keeping possession) & quality in midfield/up top

p.s. players who could make the step up to the Prem - our entire defence bar Roberts. Tyson's & Theo's pace would worry any defence - their overall ability less so

[trooper]

I believe it or not agree with bris on most of this too... But the glass always seems half empty with bris instead of half full!!

[Duracell]

This isn't bias against us, If I was being biased I'd have said that we've been dominated in all of our games and our wins over the likes of Millwall, Donny and Portsmouth were lucky.. They weren't we deserved the 3 points on those occasions.

I selected specific games (hence I excluded the WHU home game where we played well) and said that in these games we were outplayed by the top 6 opposition, to which someone replied that it was rubbish.. Which in itself is incorrect.

Fans of all clubs will be biased towards their club, this grinds me and I have to ignore certain posters on this forum in that respect as some of them are clearly too far off the scale on one side.. Some posters on this forum bleed dcfc, and would literally die to save their name in vein, I get that..

But a wide variety of opinions is needed, that's what makes a forum decent.

Oh sorry, I was picking up vibes from you that you were getting wound up by some posters. It's just you have a heated debating style.

That sentence I just typed sounds incredibly sarcastic - it isn't, promise.

[curb]

I'm sorry EKR but this statement is so wrong. The reason we can play with a fit squad and not with injuries is because Nigel doesn't have the budget to have a large squad of quality experienced players. He has the budget for some decent first teamers and some cheap back up. Hence the struggles when injuries bite. The current case is a perfect example. If a defender gets injured we have Naylor and Buxton as back up or even younger youth players. Nigel doesn't have the budget to bring in anyone better.

We do have a large squad and a large wage bill (or we did until the latest round of pay-offs), it's just that we can (could) only play half of them. It's been like that for most of the time GSE have been here, and the reason why injuries hit us harder than most.

[networker1884]

I think that the 11 men we put out in the last couple of games is good enough. There is much to be desired, but I think the league itself isn't that good. Too many games, not enough time to focus on each came if they're only 3 days apart, sometimes 2 days.

[uttoxram75]

Teams are good enough, or not as the case may be, rather than individuals.

[RotherhamRam]

If we had Barnes, Commons and Bueno back, with Ward. On their day it would be the most creative quality football in the league.

On the day but quick question apart from Ward who can track back and defend, out jump wingers although smallest player on the pitch, who would do the tackling, the hard work and help the defence out. Its nice having these types of players but lets see

Barnes is injury prone and a shell of how he used to be. Billy Davies played him when injured and knackered him.

Commons injury prone apart from season he went missed about half the games, could not tackle but is creative I agree on his day if not on his day average (but would like to see him stop)

Bueno another one who is creative but could not tackle, did none of the work off the ball or tracked back to help defence and not enough work in midfield.

Don't forget after the good October both Bueno and Commons were playing together until Commons was sold and pretty much after the good run till Commons was sold we did nothing.

Creativity is nice but you also need to have more than creativity.

[RotherhamRam]

Giles Barnes didn't play much in the promotion season. Arturo Lupoli's form was patchy, great at times and non existent at others.

And don't forget, BD didn't have the remit to rid the squad of all high wage earners and replace them with players who can maintain the current level.

How can you be so disrespectful to call our players useless. Those same useless players have recorded significant wins over supposed greater opposition.

Remind me again who was a joy to watch under BD?! We got results but were second best in most of the games and recorded attritional 1-0 wins. Nothing wrong with that but lets not start to suggest that his side was full of skill and talent because that was simply not the case.

In respect of Billy Davies he was for me a poor manager yes he could grind out 1-0 wins but the football was poor. The season we went up we should have had automatic but teams found out how to play us and we ended up 3rd. The writing was on the wall then. At Forest he won most of his games by 1-0 when teams scored more than 1 then there was a strong chance they lost. Look at them this year. Also look at how they are now cost cutting and looking like they are in financial difficulties.

In fact lets look at his record at Preston now in money troubles (whether directly his fault can't say), At Derby brought players on lots of money which has helped to the last 3 years of hardship sorting it out and then Forest who are having to go through the same transition. Each time Billy said the board did not back him.

[trooper]

He is a tool but im not sure u can seriously think he is a bad manager!!!

He did well at all the teams he was at!!