Quote: tad rhino "the same mistakes have happened since the first week of the season. centre of defence is a shambles and is the real weakness yet he does nothing about it. the players can't get used to each other as the side is constantly chopped and changed.
it's easy to blame the referee, he is the soft target. marques is off,rightly or wrongly, and yet again we concede a goal from a corner. we concede from corners most weeks. is it the refs fault every week.
i said i wasn't sure about GM's appointment at the time and i'm sure he isn't the man for the job. hope i'm wrong he makes me look a pratt but i can't see us getting close to going up'"
The consistency of your 'fingers crossed that Garry Mac' fails approach is commendable but how many times is it based on a reasonable assessment?
He has a big squad and picks players based on the opposition/form. In every game we create more chances which suggests its not too bad a policy.
Maybe as importantly we've also had a fair few injuries - Sheehan, Marquez, Huntington, Telfer, Ankegren, Richardson, Robinson, Beckford, Christie, Hughes, Bechio, Michalik and White have all been unavailable for periods (some of them long) because of injury or illness. Add to that that Delph has been suspended, Sheehan has been suspended and Kilkenny was away at the start of the season on international duty and it kind of suggests quite a few changes are forced.
Yesterday there were 3 changes. Richardson was injured so he had to be replaced. Delph returned from suspension - would you leave him out? Kilkenny was then brought in for Showunmi to allow Snodgrass to play up front - and Snodgrass scored.
The problem has been the defence. Richardson has missed a few games now but his obvious replacement, Telfer, has been used as an emergency centre half because Huntington has missed most of the season and Lubo and Marquez decent chunks of it. At left back Sheehan has missed much of the season through injury and suspension and Aidan White has proved not to be strong enough (at 16/17) to last 90 minutes week in week out. Casper is a decent keeper behind a settled and confident back four but a calamity behind a makeshift one. Lucas is steady, slightly less gaff prone but probably not good enough for first choice.
If you accept that you're not allowed to pick injured, ill or suspended players then the manager hasn't had a right lot to work with in defence - off the top of my head I can't think of a single game where everybody has been fit and available for selection - even if you think just of the defence. Frequently its been a case of pick 4 to play in defence from 5/6 available players even if some of them are back up players or players playing out of position because there's nobody else.
They've tried to bring players in on loan to shore up the defence and provide some extra depth and competition but they're not prepared to drop divisions or accept loans - despite the oft quoted lure of playing football under Garry McAllister (a nice contrast from the previous manager).
Not sure what else is really expected?
