wanderlust wrote:The lack of investment in the squad and the indeed the quality of the squad has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the manager's performance as evidenced by that very same squad beating Villa and Cardiff and putting up some strong fighting performances during the season.
If those players are capable of showing heart, passion and the other qualities needed to get results in this league - and they have done on occasions - the players themselves cannot be used as an excuse because if they had played that way throughout the season we would be challenging for a playoff place rather than staring into the abyss.
Surely the only question that is relevant is why the standards they achieved were not maintained?
Was it lack of the correct motivation (Parky) team selection (Parky) or system employed (Parky) ?
Excellent points... but it may be due to the fall after injuries to Pratley and Henry and the utter failure of Beevers who stood tall with Wheater earlier in the year. The lack of offense in the past 7 games has not gone unnoticed, and the constant shuffling of a starting eleven is done by someone who fears he has no starting eleven.
Kudos to Parky for getting us out of League One... something that may not happen for years if we do go down on Saturday. He has not shown the same prowess in the Championship, and the first eleven games and the last seven (hopefully not eight) games of this season were below dismal. We purchased strikers who never saw the pitch. We had one good patch of play all season. We have been less than dismal on the road. We missed Madine bossing the box, and probably would have beat Barnsley had he been defending in the final minutes. Did the team run out of gas, or did Parky run out of creativity and instead put out teams looking for draws or just nicking an odd goal? Whatever, we should have been safe with a six-point lead and seven to play... especially when we could have sent Brum, Barnsley, and Burton to the bottom three. We did not, and for that, Parky is responsible.
Parky is probably as miserable by the situation as we are. I wish we had changed after losing three on the trot, but KA didn't pull the trigger. That may have been the impetus to get a result from our threadbare squad. Mickey was available, and his cost for 3-4 games would be far less than being relegated. It is obvious Parky has run out of ideas, creativity and has lost the clubhouse. The players should be ashamed of themselves. Burton looked like Real Madrid running around us all day. Our defense looked like an ordinary runner facing Usain Bolt. Friends, Burton is not Real Madrid, nor did they have Messi or Bolt on the pitch. When you see the rot, you have to be proactive, not reactive. KA was neither. His investment took a big hit, but he should have made the change. I can't blame him for taking the money for Madine, but the replacement strategy under Parky did not work. Be proactive and make those changes. Nat said it correctly... we have to light a fire under the players with a new manager. KA's job was just that. So failure has been spread around.
Now we hope to get a result and that Barnsley and Burton don't win. It still can happen, but the past few weeks won't be erased easily. Let's hope we can smash that tout who gave 1500-1 odds of relegation after eleven weeks. I still have hope for us!
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