Benkovic- they hardly spoke to me at Cardiff.

[Citizen's Nephew]

I’m genuinely not looking for bites and you’re perfectly entitled to think the whole of my post is ridiculous just so long as you allow me to do the same. I don’t think your post is ridiculous BTW it’s just we have different views and in some areas you’ve misunderstood me. But let’s just chill, it’s only football.

Why on earth would you bring a centre back on when you're losing?

Because you have 5 subs and you don’t just need a striker but need to plug the leaking sieve of a defence because an opposition player is running rings around one (or more) of your defenders. Harris never reacts to this, hence my critique of him not playing Benkovic off the bench this season.

My view is that Harris isn’t the sharpest cookie. He signs a player then doesn’t play him even though we’re rubbish and conceding easy goals.

He keeps doing the same thing and (literally) expecting a different result. We know what the definition of that approach is I’m sure.

It’s all very well us thinking Benkovic may have an attitude problem but we shouldn’t exclude Harris having one too.

Getting stuffed is open to interpretation. I try to keep it simple. If we lose 1-0 10 times we've still lost 30 points and conceded 10 goals.

Benkovic only played 10 times for Bristol and scored 2 goals. I think we, like Bristol were just happy to have a loan player from Leicester but either didn’t really know what to do with him, or he didn’t fit the style of play, or we just didn’t have the guts to drop regular players and make it work.

Nelson has turned out to be an OK Championship CB but that doesn’t alter the fact that he was a terrible signing after relegation from the PL and all the talk about bouncing back up. We lost Manga and replaced him with a League One player. The whole Summer window was bizarre last year.

Sean Morrison was one of the best centre backs in the league last year. I think he got in Sky's team of the season, and certainly got in some. He is not having his best season but he's definitely good enough for us.

Yes, it was a great effort last season. But that was last season. His form has dropped and so has his captaincy on the pitch. Sure he’s good enough for us…right now. But I was really suggesting he should have been replaced when we got promoted (we’d have got something decent for him) and we should have bought better.

I agree none of us know how good Benkovic is. That ship has now sailed. I acknowledged that he had a mare against Wycombe but it could’ve been down to all kinds of reasons, we’ll never know. I just can’t subscribe to the view that he suddenly became a bad player after playing 56 times for Zagreb (including Champions League football) and his selections for the Croatia teams.

Why did Harris sign him and not give him a chance and manage him properly?

We’re 15th as I write (it's January 13th) with a GD of 4. If mid-table mediocrity with a well-hidden game-plan, players on free-roam and a team sheet that's been xeroxed 40 odd times is our goal then Harris could well be perfect.

That’s been my point all along. I don’t know if you think he’s doing a good job or not. The results are what matters. Too many of our own players are no longer putting a shift in and I don't think they should be getting free passes from us fans.

Anyway, its 02:44 and I'm in chronic pain and can't sleep for the third night running so your lengthy reply was a welcome distraction and I really appreciate you taking the time to post.

Just have to wait for the Gabapentin to kick in then back to bed.

Have a fab day and stay safe.

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Re Citizen's Nephew, Harris made a mistake signing him. All managers do it. Ferguson signed Bebe, Kleberson, Bellion, Obertan etc. Harris clearly thinks he's awful. It's a bad signing but on the whole, he's got more right than wrong which is a lot better than can said for our previous manager. He also had to sign someone to allow Flint to leave. He was brought in out of necessity and it didn't go well. I think there's a reason he's gone to their owner's feeder club, rather than anyone else...

[cardiff55]

Re Citizen's Nephew, Harris made a mistake signing him. All managers do it. Ferguson signed Bebe, Kleberson, Bellion, Obertan etc. Harris clearly thinks he's awful. It's a bad signing but on the whole, he's got more right than wrong which is a lot better than can said for our previous manager. He also had to sign someone to allow Flint to leave. He was brought in out of necessity and it didn't go well. I think there's a reason he's gone to their owner's feeder club, rather than anyone else...

Yes I agree with this. Looking in to comments made by both Harris and Rodgers there seems to be an underlying issue with the player. Obviously they are not going to come out and say what it is.

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Yes I agree with this. Looking in to comments made by both Harris and Rodgers there seems to be an underlying issue with the player. Obviously they are not going to come out and say what it is.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51638663

Yet another manager openly criticising Benkovic

However, Benkovic and Henriksen were both substituted at half-time - and Johnson was critical of his new arrivals after the game.

"I think a couple of the new players need to have a look at themselves for different reasons and quickly get into the programme," he said.

[2b2bdoo]

Re Citizen's Nephew, Harris made a mistake signing him. All managers do it. Ferguson signed Bebe, Kleberson, Bellion, Obertan etc. Harris clearly thinks he's awful. It's a bad signing but on the whole, he's got more right than wrong which is a lot better than can said for our previous manager. He also had to sign someone to allow Flint to leave. He was brought in out of necessity and it didn't go well. I think there's a reason he's gone to their owner's feeder club, rather than anyone else...

I do feel just keeping Brown would have been the easier solution if I'm honest.

I think Harris signings individually have been pretty decent. Although I'm not sure he has always spent or loaned in the correct areas.