Most liked posts in thread: Reality check mid table at best squad

If you asked me in January whether this squad was good enough I would've said yes. Why? Because our strike force would've consisted of Doyle, Donaldson, Vaughan, Oteh and McCartan.

If you ask me now, then I'm leaning to no. Why? Because our strike force is now Donaldson, Novak, Guthrie and McCartan.

Now a squad is not simply defined by its strike force. But its strike force can most certainly be the difference between a mid table squad and a promotion calibre squad. The first thing people look at in a squad is the strikers. Because it's your strikers who can win you games of football on their own.

Take for example the history makers squad. As good as it was, we were indebted to the partnership and goals of Wells and Hanson. Replace those two with substandard players and we don't go up. Why? Because collectively that team didnt create enough chances or score enough goals from other areas to go up. Hanson and wells turned that squad from a solid, committed squad into a force to be reckoned with and gave us a real purpose and threat.

Now the relevance to this squad? Well, you suddenly take out Vaughan, who in my mind was doing a good job, considering what he was working under, and replace him with dross like Novak and Guthrie and suddenly the quality of your squad takes a hammer blow.

Guthrie, albeit we haven't seen enough yet, looks lazy, slow and a bit of a donkey. Novak played well for half an hour against grimsby and has been anonymous since. Couple this with an ageing donaldson and an inconsistent McCartan and you haven't got a prayer.

Aside from the strikers, we do have plenty of other dross. Anderson, Devine, Taylor, Henley, Mellor are all top tier garbage. DMH and Connolly are full of pace and enthusiasm but have no end product. Ismail has quality but is never fit. That's a lot of players who you could easily cast aside and not miss.

But we do have some good players. Wood, Cooke, Reeves, Devitt, O'Donnell are good players at least for this level. I'd even throw Paudie in there even though he's had a nightmare time of late, he still has quality. It's not conducive for any player to be coming in and out of the team like he does every week.

O'Connor and BRE? I know the jury is out a little at the moment on these two but I personally don't mind either. However, they lack a proper leader to play alongside them. Play any of those three alongside a Rory McArdle or Andrew Davies and you see different players.

Which leads me onto my final point. This side has no backbone. No strong spine to build on, thanks to edin ripping it out. You look at Pep at Man City who inherited a squad containing Kompany, Silva, Aguero, Fernandinho among others and he used that as a platform to build off. We don't have that, and it is the first thing that needs addressing in the summer. A leader at the back, a leader in midfield, and a leader upfront.

And one last thing. I don't think people should underestimate the negative consequence that having 5/6 months of Bowyer's negativity drilled into the players can have, regardless of their ability. Some people, me included, hoped that Stuart coming in and giving them freedom to enjoy themselves again would be a quick process. I don't think it will be sadly and fear the damage has already been done.

 

What a depressing season this is and I thought last year was bad.

I can count on one hand the number of games that have had me out of my seat. Out of all cup competitions with a whimper, slowly and painfully losing touch with the playoffs, and no long term plan to make us believe this is the pain before the gain.

We could and will have a clear out in the summer, recruit players on one year deals to get us out of this league and then we'll start again. To get anywhere near 20,000 season tickets you have to sell a dream that we can buy into. Unless the club talk to us coherently and as one voice, how can they expect to gain our trust.

I'd rather they come out and say they're leaving once a buyer can be found.

 

I thought you had a little more football nonce mate, for a longer time fan your as fickle as some of the others on here who's opinions carry little credibility, so after telling us all the manager must be given time, that only applies to anyone and everyone bar Stuart McCall, he's 5 games in his tenure trying to get the best out of players he had no say in bringing to the club, come on get real.

 

Had Bowyer been sacked a week earlier, and McCall had Vaughan, a new centre half and a midfielder who can tackle.bget the ball back and give it to Cooke or Devitt, he might have got better results.

As it is with AOC, BRE and Akpan starting he’s a goal down and playing with 10 men before kick off, add in two raw wingers, an inconsistent McCartan, and four or so other players who aren’t League 2 standard, he’s no chance.

Not sacking Bowyer and allowing him to lose four strikers and bring only one in, we’ll ignore Guthrie, finished the season. It’s almost as if someone doesn’t want the club to be promoted

 

It’s only a few weeks since people were telling us we were a manager short of a top three club. Well people got the choice they wanted what’s happening?

 

They were saying that before we offloaded two of the best goalscorers in the division. We've now got a set of journeymen up front, firing blanks. The disastrous January window has scuppered any possible chance we had of promotion, whoever took over as manager.
It's utterly absurd that the club allowed Bowyer to dispose of our best two players only days before sacking him.

 

Anyone who thought this lot was a top three club needs their head examining. Nothing to do with getting a new manager, the ghost of Rahic and Bowyers subsequent hampered recruitment left us with quite possibly the worst squad I've seen at City.

 

Today's squad contained I think 13 out of the players that were signed after Rahic.
It is now becoming a convienience to blame Rahic.
End of the day, we've signed some complete Sh!te

 

I think that poll was taken before everyone realised just how crap our new 'strikeforce' is.

 

Even when Bowyer was here to you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who thought the current squad was even top 10 material minus Vaughan, Doyle and Cooke never mind top 3.

At the start of January I didn’t think we were that far off tbh. All we needed to do was keep the squad as it was and add maybe 3 quality players. A box to box midfielder, a creative winger and a defender. We addressed not of those areas and lost arguably the 2 best strikers in the division to boot. A truly abysmal transfer window that killed off any chance of promotion.

 

A quite pathetic transfer window that kinda sums us up as a club.

 

What I've seen so far this season Dave I've no need to count them I've put them back in the coup.

 

We have a bloated no hope squad mate. No team spirit, no passion even Lazarus could not raise this lot dude. It's back to the drawing board.

 

It's only a few weeks since we sold our top scorer and the divisions top scorer.

 

Bowyer needed to go for the good of the club.

The club should have sacked him earlier

 

Nonce is a bit harsh

 

The worst January windows always involve Rhodes. Coincidence?

 

I think you are misspelling, the words are footballing nouse.

 

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