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My feelings about our time in the Premier League with Malky was that we were far too defensive and didn't offer enough in attack. Our midfield was unadventurous and we had little width. Fraiser Campbell was a waste of space up front who missed lots of chances yet was also starved of service.
We started the season ok and Mutch's winner at Fulham put us 11th, 4 points clear of the bottom 3. We lost at home to Newcastle and got a feeble draw at Norwich. Victory over the Jacks meant we were still 4 points clear of the bottom 3.
Our next group of fixtures saw us well beaten at Villa, gain a dismal 0-0 at Stoke and saw us lose to Palace, meaning we were just a point off the bottom 3. Victory over West Brom brought about the 4 point gap with the bottom 3 again, but with 12 goals scored in 16 games, it was clear Malky's defensive displays were hampering our chances.
I remember us being beaten 3-0 by Southampton and thinking this could have happened to us before. It is true that we were never in the bottom 3 under Malky, we managed to find the odd win when we needed it to that point, but there was enough in those 18 games that made me think that if we did end up in the bottom 3, we wouldn't have the attacking mentality or firepower to sort the situation out.
There's maybe a comparison to be made with Warnock's season. After 18 games we'd won 4 in both seasons. Under Malky we'd scored 12, Warnock 18. We had 3 more points under Malky but were only a point outside the bottom 3, we were 2 points clear under Warnock. The big difference was that under Malky we'd conceded 28 goals, 10 less than we did under Warnock, though we did have some real beatings against Man City and Man Utd.
We won promotion under Mackay by being defensively very difficult to break down. We didn't have enough at the other end of the pitch when we were in the Premier League. Cornelius would have made little difference.