Not say things like this: “Norwich and Brentford beat us, Wycombe, we gave poor goals away, [Filip] Benkovic cost us two goals in that game. Conceding two goals in a game we shouldn’t lose.
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Not say things like this: “Norwich and Brentford beat us, Wycombe, we gave poor goals away, [Filip] Benkovic cost us two goals in that game. Conceding two goals in a game we shouldn’t lose.
It takes a lot of bravery to keep on wanting to have the ball and be constructive with it when your team is struggling and Steve McPhail never ever hid when the going got tough. Contrast him to the way so many of our players are desperate to get rid of the ball these days. I agree with Eric about Marlon Pack who gets more stick than he deserves in my opinion - he's not a McPhail and he is slow in possession too often, but, although accepting it's a very low bar, he is the best passer out of our central midfielders, but, apparently, our manager thinks he's not worth a starting place against teams who are going to have more of the ball than us and, let's face it, that's virtually everyone isn't it..
Do what Stoke did: make sure you don't concede over a number of games, try to bring in a few new players and wait for key players to return from injury. Manager might not be getting enough out of the players but the combinations being relied on currently have big weaknesses.
Do we have funds for new players? Our first offer has been openly criticised so there are doubts about that.
What’s the team missing?
Accurate passing, ball retention, confidence, pace, incisiveness, decision making .... the majority of these are mental not physical attributes, determined by tactics & strategy.
For the last few years, I’ve watched a Southern League side with a young manager straight out of of his badges course at the FAW. I was very pleasantly surprised at the level of coaching, the blueprint, responsiveness of the players and above all the coaching for specific situations. The change in the style of the play & whole philosophy of the club changed dramatically for the better within a season. It can be done.
If and it's a big if, that Harris can keep he's job after yet another defeat he has to make some bold decisions about the coaching staff that he's brought in to the club, because clearly whatever they are doing isn't working.
I have been one of Pack’s fiercest critics but I think that most people can see that he is technically our most accomplished player (maybe after Tomlin, if we ever see him again) and is easily the most comfortable in possession. He is also one of the few players that we have who plays with his head up, hence the pass that everyone was getting so excited about recently.
However in the Championship those characteristics alone don’t make a good footballer unless he is so good (and Pack isn’t) that the whole team is built around them or
to accommodate their shortcomings.
Pack is OK as a CDM we don’t need one. Maybe Pack of 5 years ago had the dynamism that we need? I haven’t followed his career that carefully. Can he be coached to be more progressive and pacey, and fill a different midfield role? I very much doubt it by Harris.
We almost need a Frankenstein version of Ralls and Pack. A Rack or a Palls..... :-/
Backing from the board in this transfer window. We shouldn’t have been left in a position where Mark Harris is our 3rd striking option or where Bacuna has to fill in at right back because our only right back has a long term injury.
I think that you have to very seriously question whether this will happen after the performances since the last window and his recent comments.
Wouldn’t their argument be: we backed you in the last window, so why didn’t you sort it out then or use academy players (as he is in fairness) if you are concerned about that level of depth?
Bacuna has plenty of experience at right back as he played there in the Premier League with Villa and Reading and has occasionally played well there but like when playing in mid field is not consistent, another super buy by Warnock! I think Harris thought 3 strikers would be enough as he was only going to play one up front but it didn’t work so he went to 442?
Rushing Osei-Tutu back a week after he injured his hamstring and him suffering a setback that has kept him out for almost 3 months is something that Harris absolutely deserves criticism for. He did something similar with Bennett earlier in the season as well.