Sluffy wrote:It's hardly his fault that he took over a side with crap players and no money to change things.
He nearly worked a miracle and got us to the play offs but we fell at the last.
I don't believe one person makes a team but it is clear our central defence needed urgent work on it and Dawson was a sticking plaster that worked really well for us. The thing is though that he went back to his club and for whatever reason we could not get him back for this season (note Dawson was not in West Broms squad today).
Clearly Freedman had to dump some big wages - Sordell, Andrews and Ricketts - and desperately wanted to get shut of others too - Mears, Mills, Ream - to get some wriggle room to bring in cheaper and hopefully better replacements.
Well that hasn't happened. We lost Davies (and Sordell on loan) so he had to get a forward - hence Beckford. We lost both full backs hence - Tierney and Baptise. He hoped to get Holden back but he got injured (again!), already had Medo as defensive mid and went for Spearing with the wages we did not have to pay Holden because the USA federation pays them because he was injured playing for them.
So, he's had his hands well and truly tied and hasn't been able to improve the team in its most important position for which the club is paying big wages already for Knight, Wheater, Mills and Ream - non of whom I think are any good as centre backs.
I can understand to some extent why he's done what he's done - he didn't have many other options really.
I think it was a bad error of judgement not to spend the Spearing money on at least one central defender and surely to God he can find players better than Knight, etc to bring in on loan (even from lower league teams), so I guess he is capped on what he can spend on wages?
I personally think and have done for quite some time that the team is unbalanced in midfield - we have no one who can naturally play left and right and sides - we've had a succession of wingers who can't defend or players like Kevin Davies and Pratley - playing out of position - filling out the team sheets.
The consequence of this is that we are prone to be attacked down the flanks and are open to goals from crosses - which the stats clearly show. We then have to play two or more defensive mids - to accommodate our wingers - which might make us more solid in front of the back four but still doesn't stop us being overrun down the flanks and keep leaking goals every game.
Playing 4-2-3-1 simply doesn't address our weakness down the flanks - but what players have we got to play there?
Ideally we want a solid midfield which would allow the fullbacks to overlap down the flanks - but we play the opposite way completely - our flank midfielders are the likes of Lee, Eagles, and Hall - who go forward and leave the fullbacks wide open counter attack. Even if they don't go forward their tackling ability is powder puff and we basically play every match with our fullbacks wide open to attack.
It's hardly rocket science then that we leak goals - how many clean sheets have we had in the last 3 season?
Put simply I believe that Freedman (or anyone for that matter) had too many holes to plug due to Coyle’s gross mismanagement of buying shit players on big wages and long contracts and basing the whole team structure of playing with two attacking wingers in midfield.
He's plugged what he could but he still needs to address the midfield flanks and improve the centre backs - and needs some money for loans to do that urgently before it gets too late.
When you are right, you are so right. Just wish we could have put the money into Dawson... since we all agree, made the team last season. OC really did us in with big wages to crappy players. I hoped Beckford would come good, but DF has not found another diamon in the rough apparently. Bad luck with injuries and no one servicing the strikers and the strikers falling over their own feet have done us in.
The question now is how to salvage the season. Many of the big number players won't be here next year. Can we survive and finish midtable? First, as you rightly point out, we have to sort out the defense. It only takes 3 wins to get you to midtable, even when you are bottom of the table. If we can't sort this out sooner, rather than later, we will be cut adrift from the pack.
We can't cut the debt. We can't afford loan players. We can't really afford a new manager. So how do we fix the rot to keep us afloat this season, before wholesale changes can be made for next year?
Can Dougie get tough and bench anyone who does not give his all? Knight has sat out two games and we still can't get a performance out of the defense. Do you all think Dougie's tactics are crap (I won't comment since that is out of my realm)? There has to be a way out of this and I was hopeful when Dougie talked a good game about fitness and no nonsense during practice. What does he have to do to get a performance out of the players? Does he need to put the youngsters out there? Does he need to play everyone in their proper positions? Last week we had hope as the team seemed to gel and play better. Today they were donkeys for 5 minutes. What happened? Can anyone quantify why we were so bad during that spell?
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