Harris (a wee rant, sorry)

[AfricanBluebird]

Thanks, I suppose it's the same as in other walks of life, there will be those who are conscientious and serious about their work, others who just see it as a wage packet and most others who come somewhere in the middle. I do wonder though whether, with it being a more technical game these days, we might have a few who are not happy about having to play in what I'd say in a pretty untechnical way.

Whatever the truth about that, I do agree that something seems different this season - we seem to have a bit of a "soft centre" and the fact we've conceded the first goal so often does make me wonder about concentration levels.

Certainly something seems different this season and yes players are to blame, but at the end of the day the manager has to take responsibility.

[the other bob wilson]

Certainly something seems different this season and yes players are to blame, but at the end of the day the manager has to take responsibility.

I agree (what looks like bad news today with Osei-Tutu only further highlights our manager's blunder when it comes to the right back position) that Neil Harris has had a poor second season after what was an impressive first one. I certainly don't think this squad of players is as poor as some on here do - if they were, then we could be said to be doing well to be where we are, but, for me, we've been under achieving all season apart from that run a month ago when it looked like we'd turned a corner.

[surge]

I agree (what looks like bad news today with Osei-Tutu only further highlights our manager's blunder when it comes to the right back position) that Neil Harris has had a poor second season after what was an impressive first one. I certainly don't think this squad of players is as poor as some on here do - if they were, then we could be said to be doing well to be where we are, but, for me, we've been under achieving all season apart from that run a month ago when it looked like we'd turned a corner.

Phillips

N/A
Bamba
Benkovic
Cunningham/Bagan

N/A
Vaulks

Whyte
Murphy
Hoilett

Glatzel/Harris

The players we've got coming into the team to cover for injury/fatigue don't fill me with great confidence. I'm happy with the depth at GK, LB and... well, most of these are young players just starting out (hard to judge), older players close to calling it a day or players Warnock signed and they haven't shown us why yet despite a few years at the club.

One football analyst commented on Trent Alexander Arnold having a poor game the other day and said they had seen several high profile players having more off days this year than normal. Don't think you can underestimate how much football, in difficult circumstances, has been played since June and we've have had a shorter break than most. I think the players brought in are mostly the correct ones but we've seemingly gone from a deeper more limited squad to a squad less able to compete due to lesser depth despite quite good transfer activity - exception being lack of second RB. Earlier point made by another poster about Harris not rotating will mean this hits us harder than it might otherwise have done so.

The other thing to mention is the point I alluded to earlier looking at Millwall or in a different post about Wayne Pivac: teaching players to show different skills is not easy and might need more time and greater change in personal than fans are willing to give and board is able to process.

Think we are underperforming (still estimate us as 9th/10th best in the league which we're now a few points away from) and, now, happy to question why so many slow starts/sloppy goals, but the idea that we're got a squad to be challenging doesn't make sense to me.