Another away defeat for Blues on Friday evening has meant for a nervy weekend watching results and fear of dropping even closer to the relegation zone. Its also raised once again the arguments regarding the quality of Blues players available and how much blame can be pointed at them rather than the
[almajir.net]
Great article as usual reckon he’s gotta start Cody drameh though missed his energy maybe push laird right wing he’s deffo better going forward then defending
Interesting stuff as ever - not much of a stats man myself, but there is clearly a place for them in the pro game.
The biggest takeaway from all this is who actioned signing Burke in the Summer and thought he would add anything to our squad?
Could have been worse didn’t wba spend 10 million on him 😂
Burke was very obviously a last minute gamble when other targets didn't come off.
FWIW I thought he'd be ok as a squad player/ impact sub. As he's looked a handful against us in the past. Which is evidence that the eyes do in fact sometimes lie.
Fat Buddha CBEThey’re all shit.
😄👍
Fat Buddha CBEThey’re all shit.
Big clear out in summer so hopefully we will be less shit..
Great article Dan. I wonder if we might see Tyler Roberts deployed as a false 9 soon.
My two pennies worth.
We have a real issue with in-game consistency. Whereas we can probably accept some stinking performances start to finish happen on occasions with the squad we have our problem is that we often perform very well and very poorly in patches in the same match. Look at Friday, brilliant for 25 minutes. Plymouth away under Rooney, liquid football for 40 minutes in the first half and even in that Southampton game we had patches.
Bacuna, probably one of our top 3 players this season. He is almost a microcosm of the team as a whole. You don't know what you will get game by game plus as an individual or as a team and he has a tendency to have a brain fart when close to the opposition goal which on occasionally produces a Worldie but often fizzles out to nothing.
That goes back to the soldiers v artist debate. We just require a spine made up of the former and we haven't got it and wont until the summer. We just have to hope our Picasso's find a little more consistency and a little more spirit.
There are some decent players in the squad, (JJ, Drameh, Buchanan, Miyoshi, Paik. etc) removing the out of contract players will allow TM to start again and build the team he wants.
Keep the good stuff, throw the not so good away.
Will many of the academy players make the move into the first team squad next season.
The problem is that most knew it was a crap signing that wouldnt add anything substantial to our team. For all the good work they did over the Summer, signings like Burke leave a bad taste in the mouth. It was almost like a 'Oh yeah, were still that club, making those signings'.
Despite the loss, I was encouraged by Dozzell and even more so by Paiks cameo.
The latter especially is going to get better I reckon and will be a big upgrade on Sunik (who I do rate btw, for all his limitations on the ball).
We have to stay up and hopefully will, but I don't think it would be an utter disaster like it would have been under BSH, it'd be more like a lost couple of seasons on our journey as a club.
I don't think it'll come to that though, personally.
Jury has to remain out on the January signings. We’ve had too many that have flattered to deceive in the past. Most fans were happy with the summer business but few of them have either performed or been available consistently.
Difference being no one expects that much from the non Pritchards.