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I had long believed that a number of our players were capable of more. I am not so sure now.
However it would be unfair to dismiss the injuries or the fixture list. Similarly if players are on the subs bench they should be be good enough to start.
What I believe we do know is that our style of football doesn’t sustained success.
I think we're the probably the 9th best side in the league because of our squad (specifically the previous manager's odd take on squad building) and are currently placed 12th with a good chunk of the difference down to the current manager.
I think we’ll know by the end of January, we have a lot of winnable games coming up over the next 5 weeks, if the team doesn’t look like challenging for the top six by then it’ll either be down to poor tactics and/or team selection or too many individual mistakes and performances. My feeling is we’ve got a better than mid mid table squad, anything other than top six at the end of the season and I think we’ll be under new management for the 2021/22 season, Harris has been a manager who can get teams a winning runs, but also see them get stuck in a rut, he needs a consistent second half of the season to keep his job.
Last edited by Toggs; 27-12-20 at 10:39. Reason: Typo
It is the squad. Harris over achieved last season in getting the team to the playoffs.Originally Posted by BLUEAWAY
Which ones?
Accepting that there are always better players and the need to be realistic.
Comparing us to the relegated teams is one measure but maybe Brentford is fairer.
If we were trying to emulate the style of those teams and move away from long ball then I think Smithies and Morrison could hold onto their positions with both probably now doing as much as they are capable off.
I think Bennett and Nelson could be better players in the right team.
Bacuna not sure if he would be good enough in midfield.
Ralls sadly too slow but could still improve.
Pack and Vaulks no.
Hoillett past his best.
Murphy has had too many chances. Just not good enough.
Glatzel. Capable of more with better service but would he fit the style.
Moore. Has been very good but again the wrong style.
Cunningham, Bamba. We need to look forward.
Tomlin. Has too few good games and too slow.
Harris. Unsure.
Whyte. No
Ojo and Osei will become better players.
Wilson. Needs to find his best position, man up and deliver more consistently.
This.
The squad isnt strong enough.
We need a right back , midfielder and a striker at a minimum to challenge.
It looks like we need to get players out to get some in.
Because of the club. Joe ralls has done well with us, i reckon that if he'd have been developed by a club that invested more in footballing awareness, comfort in possession and confidence in advanced areas, he'd be a much better player.
Great point.
I think Harris overacheived last season, brought in some good signings but has been limited by the mess Warnock left
I don't think Harris is a particularly good manager, but he's done better than I expected
Agreed
Totally agree.
I think we may end this season around 12th position but we should not expect much more. Harris is very limited and any successes will probably be due to “dog fight” games.
It is clear that, like most clubs, City are simply going to throw money around.
The return of Moore, Joudi and Tomlin will definitely help but it probably will not change how we play football, which is why we are mid table
Squad. Which of our players get in Norwich, Watford, Bournemouth or Brentford’s team? I don’t think one player. It’s a complete freak year but the point still stands, we are mid table because we have mid table players. I think if Moore gets back fit and replicates his form, he could be a PL footballer.
Both
Wilson.
Ralls.
Murphy.
Hoilet.
Bacuna.
What has Murphy done to be included? Hoilett is a fine player but starting to show just how long he's been involved in high profile football.
Biggest criticism of transfers made under Harris would be starting season with just one RB. Think it's really hard to be critical of any other decision that's been made, if you're being realistic about our options. In retrospect, extending Tomlin and Nelson may be considered misses but they were each hits at the time of doing the deals. Transfer business has been one of the major strengths during Harris' time so far and without this we'd be a lot worse than being 9th best.
Like our previous manager, Neil Harris seems very keen on signing wingers, but did we really need two of them in the last transfer window? I'd have preferred us to unload a central midfielder if we could, just get a replacement for Mendez-Laing in and maybe try and get a couple of new central midfielders in. I'm saying this with a lot of hindsight (even though I did wonder if our midfield would be able to get him into the game enough), but the money spent on Harry Wilson has, to a large extent, been wasted.
We have wingers who are failing offensively and poor defending . Murphy, Wilson and Whyte.
We have wingers who are failing offensively but can defend. Hoillett and Ojo
We have full backs that are making defensive mistakes and not so good going forward. Cunningham and Bacuna. Bennett maybe less mistakes and more going forward. Not sure about Bagan yet.
Better to have wing backs that are defensively good and can attack.
Would you swap Wilson for Buendia, Sarr, Mbuemo, Cantwell, Brooks etc? No.
Hoilett's legs have gone, Ralls is limited (but I agree), Bacuna is out of position and Murphy has stunk out the place for the best part of 3 seasons. Comes a time when it stops being the manager and starts to be the player.
I'd say both. After 21 games, the top five in the Championship table are the three sides who were relegated from the Premier League last season and two of the three teams who contested last season's play-offs with eventual winners Fulham. No prizes for guessing which of last season's play-off semi-finalists is missing from the current shake-up.
I'd take last season's version of Lee Tomlin over Harry Wilson at this point. Wilson is capable of brilliant moments, but he goes missing far too often when we play him as a number 10.
To be honest it is a bit of both.
If you look at the current clubs in the top 6 then you would be hard pressed to see more than a couple of City players who would push for a place. One of them might be Wilson, who is a loanee.
Our recruitment in the last 2-3 seasons has been poor with extremely average signings to fit into an average style of play.
The top 6 teams make us look like there is a gap of a division in the way we play. That has got to be the fault of the coach.
I did state when Warnock was dismissed, that we needed a manager with new ideas and a 2-3 year period for implementation. Mid table mediocrity while building in the correct way would have been far more acceptable than what we are doing today.
Posters who keep talking about a top 6 finish are completely deluded.
Under Warnock and under Harris last season we could compete with the better sides, the ones who played. It was a stretch although we seemed to find a way of doing it. This season has seen us found out by the better sides, they've worked out the final number in the combination to stopping us having any success against them, and that's to match us physically. Do that and we can't compete against the likes of Norwich, Bournemouth, Swansea etc. I would say Watford, but i don't think that they were that good.
The Top four at the moment are clearly the best footballing teams and should finish there, in no particular order. Watford arent as fluent but they do have match winners so they should make the play offs too. The rest of us are scrapping it out for 6th. It's early days but I think Warnock will have the edge and sneak it for Boro.
There's plenty of points to play for and in typical toe to toe championship matches we will win more than we lose. We're just incapable of beating slick footballing teams as we chase shadows and tire in games.
If we are lucky enough to see Tomlin & Moore for a significant part of the season that could be the key to a late surge as they're both quality at this level but without that combination I'm afraid we're bang average, or slightly above. We desperately need Jordi back too.
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