23 Apr 2022 20:31:06
Just met up with my five mates who went to the game, everyone was totally pissed of with the performance and team selection. Buendia was different class when he came on was the majority view. My brother in law said his sixteen year old could have done better than Bailey and Coutinho was totally ineffective, my concerns deepen with Gerrard.
23 Apr 2022 23:39:19
It's square pegs in round holes until the end of the season Caffu - The squad is ridiculously unbalanced, I think there really aren't that many options - Marvelous is just back from injury and Buendia is carrying a knock, I think there's an argument that Chambers should have kept his place in the 11 but besides that I'm not really sure what more Gerrard can do? A win against Norwich next weekend and I wouldn't be surprised to see the likes of Iroegbunam (who had a very assured cameo today), Chrisene and O'Reilly get some (more) minutes / starts between now and end of season. The reality is there will be a monumental clear out in the summer and we need to coast over the finish line this season, I'm not worried about SG, he needs time.
24 Apr 2022 00:50:31
Bk, i understand the difficulties and agree with some of your comments, however how can you pick Bailey who offers nothing, luis who hasn't had a decent game for a while and konsa who has had a poor run. I will repeat myself, team selection is poor, five games without a win, four defeats and yet he selects the same players and formation which clearly isn't working. Its becoming boringly repetitive and if we are being honest it's poor and nothing better than under Smith and i don't see it improving.
24 Apr 2022 01:23:34
It's a mixed bag at the moment and I can understand where the frustration is coming from but some of this reaction feels like more short term emotional reaction rather than logic driven. Again.
I'm not sure how we can criticise his defensive selection after keeping a clean sheet and while I agree Bailey has a lot to prove, he's had an unfortunate season with injury and Gérard has already said that he's been working his nuts off in training and earned the call up. Would we rather demotivate the whole squad by not rewarding hard work and good form on the training pitch? Or start Buendia when he has a knock and worsen it? I'd love to see some of the kids given a go (one started today and one was given a run out for 15) but it's easy for fans to call for this having no clue what happens in the preparation leading up to a game and who's genuinly ready. Gérard is a competitor and isn't going to right off the last 10 games by throwing in a load of rookies all at once and risk their development along with it.
Completely agree with BK that we need to show a bit of patience while our new manager gets to grips with the squad and makes it his own before we all start the usual overly negative ranting.
24 Apr 2022 13:34:30
I agree with DBS and BK we know on occasions this season we have flattered to deceive and the only thing you can say about the team is that they have been consistently inconsistent. The summer will be massive for us in terms of departures and incomings, some of the names we are being linked with are definitely encouraging whether we land some or any of them remains to be seen although I do think there is talent in the lower divisions that would make our squad better. I also agree that we should give some of the talented youngsters a run out before the end of the season to see what they can do, but I don’t think given where we are with the new manager all this negativity/doom and gloom is over the top
24 Apr 2022 14:40:22
Didn’t see the game yesterday but I’m happy with a point I would of taken it before the game, we can talk till the cows come home but our squad needs a lot of work and I think we need just bite our tongue for next season cause it’s going to take more than 1 more window to get us to the next level.
24 Apr 2022 14:45:23
If he’d have started Emi and he’d have had a bad game everyone would have been moaning about why Bailey didn’t start, sometimes you just feel like managers can’t win.
There’s so much negativity aimed at SG already, but if you just be downbeat about it you also have to blame the board who appointed him.
It seems fairly clear that DS and SG have very different systems and styles of play. And that would have been made obvious from SGs interview. They knew if they gave him the job he wouldn’t be “picking up where Dean left off” he’d be starting his own thing. His own staff, his own ideas and his own stamp on the team.
So far he’s only had one window to do (he January window is never all that great for good business in general but we managed some) only failing to sign an out and out DM but you can’t blame the manager for that anymore than you can blame the recruitment staff or the even the market itself. If the players you want aren’t available; what do you do?
Buy players you don’t want simply to appease the fans?
I think the judgements should be reserved until half a dozen games of so of next season at the very least that way he’s had two windows and a whole pre season and the team will know what is expected of them and hopefully the players have come in to suit.
Also considering lots of people have named about 10 players on their lists of who they want out, they do probably need some game time if you actually want them to leave this summer. They need to put themselves on the shelf!
25 Apr 2022 01:58:26
Hmmm. The most surprising thing about this thread is that Mr Caffu has apparently got 5 mates who haven’t already collapsed into a boredom related coma. This site is titled “Banter” for a reason . Enough from me now chaps. Adios x