Massive clear out required immediately.

[Percival King]

15 minutes ago, Jim Panzee said:

read an old article by Niall Quinn just now - not so much questioning the coaching badges as such - but pointing out that they will lead to a lot of similarity in the style of teams play, which has more or less transpired.

 

Brian Clough, Bob Paisley -  I think Alex Ferguson too didn't have the badges but brought their own flavour / style to their teams.

 

at the moment, it looks like Naismith's man management and leadership is having more impact than his personal coaching qualifications. 

 

Our current success can't be down to Naismith, McAvoy and Forrest working together as a team though. That was agreed as a shambolic shambles of a shambles on here if I recall....was never going to work and a ridiculous set up to implement apparently. 

 

And on the coaching side, Franz Beckenbauer had no coaching experience when he took over West Gernany but took them to two World Cup finals, winning one.

This is Hearts and football and this great run we're on will inevitably come to an end at some point, we'll go on poor runs and we'll all have frustrations and disappointment when that happens but when it does happen and we're sitting 4th or 5th in the league, the solution is unlikely to be to sack the manager, coaching staff, board, chief executive, director of recruitment.

[Bazzas right boot]

3 minutes ago, Percival King said:

And on the coaching side, Franz Beckenbauer had no coaching experience when he took over West Gernany but took them to two World Cup finals, winning one.

This is Hearts and football and this great run we're on will inevitably come to an end at some point, we'll go on poor runs and we'll all have frustrations and disappointment when that happens but when it does happen and we're sitting 4th or 5th in the league, the solution is unlikely to be to sack the manager, coaching staff, board, chief executive, director of recruitment.

 

The solution is very rarely everyone oot!

 

I'm still not 100% on Savage, however there seems to have a  been a change in direction of recruitment if Yhanda/ Prentice rumours are true.

 

The decision or lack of urgency / realisation in getting a CH last season still irks a bit.

It was such an obvious gap and the difference this season at the back almost makes that failure even worse.

 

 

[Jim Panzee]

4 minutes ago, Percival King said:

And on the coaching side, Franz Beckenbauer had no coaching experience when he took over West Gernany but took them to two World Cup finals, winning one.

This is Hearts and football and this great run we're on will inevitably come to an end at some point, we'll go on poor runs and we'll all have frustrations and disappointment when that happens but when it does happen and we're sitting 4th or 5th in the league, the solution is unlikely to be to sack the manager, coaching staff, board, chief executive, director of recruitment.

yeap. it'll happen at some point. sometimes, it's valid to move managers on. Neilsen's suicidal stubbornness to continue having our entire play through snodgrass an example of that.

 

point with the coaching badges, they're fine and bring structure etc - but it still needs someone with different thinking to make a difference.

 

Latest fad is inverted full backs? won't be long till all teams are doing it (if not already). False nines, low blocks.

 

I'm looking forward to a revisit of the old 2-3-5 formation and games ending 9-8 every saturday.

[Paris 84]

2 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

The solution is very rarely everyone oot!

 

I'm still not 100% on Savage, however there seems to have a  been a change in direction of recruitment if Yhanda/ Prentice rumours are true.

 

The decision or lack of urgency / realisation in getting a CH last season still irks a bit.

It was such an obvious gap and the difference this season at the back almost makes that failure even worse.

 

 

Maybe ‘Bob’ didn’t think it was as obvious as you did. Maybe ‘Bob’ thought he had enough bodies to cover for Halkett’s injury. He had, Sibbick, Rowles, Kingsley, Neilson and he had played Cochrane and Haring in there before as well. We had no European games to play, so the fixture list wasn’t going to be too congested. Maybe, just maybe the fault lay somewhere else other than Joe Savage. 

[Fozzyonthefence]

Lose to Motherwell on Saturday and he’ll be back to being a hopeless Lowland League manager, totally out of his depth.  And some of those posters on this thread who have since crawled under a stone will be rushing back out and all over Naeclue  before they can even pull their pants back up.

[Shooter McGavin]

This is why there should always be a clear distinction in being fan owned, and fan run

[Bazzas right boot]

6 minutes ago, Paris 84 said:

Maybe ‘Bob’ didn’t think it was as obvious as you did. Maybe ‘Bob’ thought he had enough bodies to cover for Halkett’s injury. He had, Sibbick, Rowles, Kingsley, Neilson and he had played Cochrane and Haring in there before as well. We had no European games to play, so the fixture list wasn’t going to be too congested. Maybe, just maybe the fault lay somewhere else other than Joe Savage. 

 

Maybe ayes.

 

 

[Jim Panzee]

3 minutes ago, Shooter McGavin said:

This is why there should always be a clear distinction in being fan owned, and fan run

[pettigrewsstylist]

20 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

The solution is very rarely everyone oot!

 

I'm still not 100% on Savage, however there seems to have a  been a change in direction of recruitment if Yhanda/ Prentice rumours are true.

 

The decision or lack of urgency / realisation in getting a CH last season still irks a bit.

It was such an obvious gap and the difference this season at the back almost makes that failure even worse.

 

 

We are also still hunting a RB, which was obvious the moment we decided to let Smith go. Can only guess there was high hopes for Toby.

[db211833]

The slightest downturn will see the same roasters demanding change and running daily polls. 

[Batistuta87]

It's great to be sitting in February actually wanting to hold onto players instead of thinking about who we want emptied. Hopefully the days of signing 17 players every transfer window are long gone.

😎

Edited February 14 by Batistuta87

[Shooter McGavin]

2 minutes ago, Batistuta87 said:

It's great to be sitting in February actually wanting to hold onto players instead of thinking about who we want emptied. Hopefully the days of signing 17 players every transfer window are long gone.

😎

There was a solid period between 2016-2020 where it felt like 75% of our signings were totally s****, still haunts me thinking of some of the dross we got through the door 😄

[Wish]

9 minutes ago, pettigrewsstylist said:

We are also still hunting a RB, which was obvious the moment we decided to let Smith go. Can only guess there was high hopes for Toby.

Agreed!

 

It was obvious for about a year that Smith was coming to the end of his time at us. Yet here we are still waiting. 

The shortsightedness of the recruitment team there is a worry. As a club we should always be looking at players who can improve the team.

[Batistuta87]

Just now, Shooter McGavin said:

There was a solid period between 2016-2020 where it felt like 75% of our signings were totally s****, still haunts me thinking of some of the dross we got through the door 😄

I think the last summer window I wanted rid of 11 players. 

This summer I would say I wouldn't be actively looking to move anyone on but would be willing to listen to offers for a handful, and would be looking to tie down another few. In terms of summer recruitment, we could be doing with a couple of upgrades with current options just dropping down the pecking order to give us some useful depth and not necessarily being moved on.

 

[Jim Panzee]

10 minutes ago, Wish said:

Agreed!

 

It was obvious for about a year that Smith was coming to the end of his time at us. Yet here we are still waiting. 

The shortsightedness of the recruitment team there is a worry. As a club we should always be looking at players who can improve the team.

like Cochrane, Rowles, Kent, Clark, Lembikisa, Forrest, Vargas, Shankland, Nieuwenhof, Beni.....

 

have a look at one of @Waterboy's old posts comparing squads over the last three years.......

[Sinbad the Sailor]

On 23/10/2023 at 16:52, Sinbad the Sailor said:

We must have some of the worst keyboard warriors in the world. 

 

Lose to a team:

 

> who see us as 3rd rivals

> who bring their own ref

> with a mega budget

> no Euro game first

 

...JKB meltdown.

 

Usual bingo words Cathro, Levein, Bob, McInnes, Robinson, Wilder, Board etc. etc.

 

Get real. Even when we had "good" teams we nearly always lost against them bar the odd time.

 

We all want better ....but stop greetin' and peeing pants. Get behind the team numbskulls. If I read McInnes again my heid will explode. 

 

 

 

Had a laugh going through this thread again. Nerja and Selkirk we can see you sneaking out😉

 

4Mars Bars, Bazza etc we know we had dry pants.😉

[Wish]

11 minutes ago, Jim Panzee said:

like Cochrane, Rowles, Kent, Clark, Lembikisa, Forrest, Vargas, Shankland, Nieuwenhof, Beni.....

 

have a look at one of @Waterboy's old posts comparing squads over the last three years.......

 

I really referring to the RB position and the lack of foresight there in regards to the fact Smith would be leaving. 

The comment you highlighted was just a general comment.

[Jim Panzee]

4 minutes ago, Wish said:

 

I really referring to the RB position and the lack of foresight there in regards to the fact Smith would be leaving. 

The comment you highlighted was just a general comment.

obvs the hope was Atkinson would be more consistent - but to be fair he's had injuries.

 

we seem to be doing OK with Lembikisa.

 

 

[Strattiesroll]

Naismith's resurgence shows that patience is required for, especially young, football managers.

 

If he'd been sacked when many demanded it, where would the season be?

[Wish]

16 minutes ago, Jim Panzee said:

obvs the hope was Atkinson would be more consistent - but to be fair he's had injuries.

 

we seem to be doing OK with Lembikisa.

 

 

Spot on re - Atkinson. Still think there is a player in there someone.

 

Lembikisa looks good, my only concern is at the end of the season we are back with only Natty at RB when Dexter's loan ends. Which is where we were when Smith left. Would have liked a more permant RB/RWB to compete with Natty, but it could be we are just looking at the loans market for that position.

 

[tedarmy]

3 hours ago, Jim Panzee said:

@davemclaren - before you delete the thread I think you should allow a certain someone to create a poll to see if we all agree the thread should be deleted......

 

I'll get the boys in the bowling club to conduct a poll on selkirk at the weekend

[Flimsy]

The team and manager are doing great just now, but I'm still of the view that Shankland is the only player that would be really hard to replace. I'm quite relaxed about any other departures in the summer and beyond. We still have a large squad, so some players will need to leave, like it or not, or there won't be much room to bring in young players or new signings.

Edited February 14 by Flimsy

[RustyRightPeg]

Just now, Flimsy said:

The team and manager are doing great just now, but I'm still of the view that Shankland is the only player that would be really hard to replace. I'm quite relaxed about any other departures in the summer and beyond. We still have a large squad, so some players will need to leave, like it or not, or there won't be much room to bring through young players or new signings.

[Flimsy]

5 minutes ago, RustyRightPeg said:

Helpful. Care to debate any of my points?

[HoGwash]

15 hours ago, davemclaren said:

What the CEO said was that I expect us to be in a better position after the next 4/5 matches.  He was correct. 

Another person who was correct was Naismith when he stated much earlier in the season that he didn't expect the team to fully click until about December. 

[Vlad Magic]

17 minutes ago, HoGwash said:

Another person who was correct was Naismith when he stated much earlier in the season that he didn't expect the team to fully click until about December. 

Correct and he was bang on the money. Well in fairness we started to click mid November?

 

Who would have thought the manager of a team would know when he anticipates them to start functioning as a team. 
 

 

[Jim Panzee]

1 hour ago, Wish said:

Spot on re - Atkinson. Still think there is a player in there someone.

 

Lembikisa looks good, my only concern is at the end of the season we are back with only Natty at RB when Dexter's loan ends. Which is where we were when Smith left. Would have liked a more permant RB/RWB to compete with Natty, but it could be we are just looking at the loans market for that position.

 

agree - would be good to have cover and competition at RB if / when Lembikisa returns.

[Jim Panzee]

1 hour ago, tedarmy said:

I'll get the boys in the bowling club to conduct a poll on selkirk at the weekend

😆

 

I - like other's - should really 'let it go'. but I can't. it's not funny.........but it is...

[CMc]

3 hours ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

The solution is very rarely everyone oot!

 

I'm still not 100% on Savage, however there seems to have a  been a change in direction of recruitment if Yhanda/ Prentice rumours are true.

 

The decision or lack of urgency / realisation in getting a CH last season still irks a bit.

It was such an obvious gap and the difference this season at the back almost makes that failure even worse.

 

 

The club did try to get folk in though.
 

 Wright had been identified as the player but then it became clear that he wasn’t the same player after injury. Then we apparently came really close to signing another player (Serbian IIRC?) who then walked away from the deal last minute. 
 

We ended up a body short with fairly disastrous consequences - but given we would have been having to go back to our reserve lists last minute (presumably with a bunch of them getting other offers) it isn’t that hard to imagine a situation where it was felt what was left would not improve us. 
 

The way the injuries and form panned out, a stop gap would have been really helpful at the time. They would now be fourth choice at best (but we’d have likely finished a position higher last year). 
 

long story short, whilst this situation was probably Savage’s most legitimate mistake so far, bad luck played a bigger part than sometimes acknowledged (IMO). 
 

 

Edited February 14 by CMc

[Wee Mikey]

Please remember that @Selkirkhmfc1874 is a high attender, including most (if not all) away games including Euro matches ... at quite some effort, may I add.

 

What's more he brings along our 'next generation' support into the bargain.

[TexasAndy]

Aye Selkirk hasnae lost his sh*t for a while now...LOL

[Chillidigits]

4 hours ago, Guess The Crowd said:

In fairness to all, a reminder of the dangers of social media.

 

I don't know the age of the OP, (and respect for putting your hands up), but plenty of us remember the starts to 1985/86 and 1995/96, both of which were at least as bad as the current one after a similar number of games. In both cases too the previous seasons had ended very poorly (the latter had a change of manager with JJ coming in) and there was a bit of a depressing carry over from that.

 

Sometimes, something just clicks and you're off. One really good, unexpected, result perhaps (there was also a 1-0 win at Parkhead October 1985), and, dare I say it, luck plays a part too.

Ha Ha to all this. Anyone who knows Hearts will know about our purple patches and bare patches. Can just see it when the next slump comes this thread magically appears again with the doom and gloomers on their soapbox.

In the meantime enjoy this period of success.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

Just to spit into the wind for a moment, can we agree that at the time this thread was being written results were absolutely not good enough? The dunking is fun and all and while I definitely wasn't ready to sack Naisy at the time I was worried as well, and anyone saying they weren't a little bit worried is either lying or a fool.

 

If we'd gone winless across the following 4 games (Livi, Well, Perth, Kilie)--say two losses and two draws--Naismith would have been emptied and it would have been the correct decision.

 

He absolutely had to turn results around. He absolutely stood the test and passed and that's why he's earned the plaudits.

 

The board have gotten slated for waiting too long. I think this thread is a perfect example of why patience is a virtue in overseeing a football club. The problem in 2020 wasn't waiting too long to sack Levein, it was that the replacement that they found was shit.

[OTT]

1 minute ago, Watt-Zeefuik said:

Just to spit into the wind for a moment, can we agree that at the time this thread was being written results were absolutely not good enough? The dunking is fun and all and while I definitely wasn't ready to sack Naisy at the time I was worried as well, and anyone saying they weren't a little bit worried is either lying or a fool.

 

If we'd gone winless across the following 4 games (Livi, Well, Perth, Kilie)--say two losses and two draws--Naismith would have been emptied and it would have been the correct decision.

 

He absolutely had to turn results around. He absolutely stood the test and passed and that's why he's earned the plaudits.

 

The board have gotten slated for waiting too long. I think this thread is a perfect example of why patience is a virtue in overseeing a football club. The problem in 2020 wasn't waiting too long to sack Levein, it was that the replacement that they found was shit.

 

Spot on. 

 

As noted on other threads, the run we're on is on a par with the form shown under Burley in 2005/06 -  we're doing exceptional and its fantastic, but our early season form wasn't good enough. 

[RustyRightPeg]

12 minutes ago, Flimsy said:

Helpful. Care to debate any of my points?

Just curious as to how you think we quite easily replace guys in the squad, who not only maintain the current levels but take us higher still. 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

3 hours ago, Paris 84 said:

Maybe ‘Bob’ didn’t think it was as obvious as you did. Maybe ‘Bob’ thought he had enough bodies to cover for Halkett’s injury. He had, Sibbick, Rowles, Kingsley, Neilson and he had played Cochrane and Haring in there before as well. We had no European games to play, so the fixture list wasn’t going to be too congested. Maybe, just maybe the fault lay somewhere else other than Joe Savage. 

 

From Neilson's comments at the beginning of last season it seemed very much like he felt like the CH position hadn't been addressed following Souttar's departure and Halketts injury. I think Savage felt like he'd scored two coups with Rowles and Neilson, and in many ways he had, but it did seem like there was a disagreement between them and I think Neilson was right in this one. Rowles and Neilson were great but we still needed that central rock of a CH. Even in January, the supplement that they selected together, Hill, was still the wrong kind of player.

 

There are so many things last season that are irksome because really any one of them going differently would have probably been enough to get third.

 

If we'd just gotten a Frankie Kent a year earlier . . .

If Kio had been a bit better as a holding mid . . .

If we'd gotten more of a classic CH rather than a hybrid RB/CH like Hill . . .

If we could have had just one of Boyce, Halkett, or Beni uninjured or back at full strength . . .

If Souttar had stayed . . .

If McCulloch hadn't decided that the best way to deal with the split in the changing room was to walk out and go golfing with Neilson and let them sort it out . . .

If Neilson hadn't listened to that shitpickle . . .

 

We fell apart catastrophically and we still just narrowly missed out on third.

[Jim Panzee]

2 minutes ago, OTT said:

 

Spot on. 

 

As noted on other threads, the run we're on is on a par with the form shown under Burley in 2005/06 -  we're doing exceptional and its fantastic, but our early season form wasn't good enough. 

Reasoned and logical debate off the back of concern regarding a run of poor results is absolutely valid - I don't think anyone would argue against that.

 

Starting a poll every 5 minutes, calling the club a shambles, suggesting all of joe savage's signings are crap, writing about our CEO's alleged wind problem, seething about women in general, not understanding how our philanthropic benefactors benefit the club and running around with your hair on fire is the difference.

 

 

[Jim Panzee]

1 minute ago, Watt-Zeefuik said:

 

From Neilson's comments at the beginning of last season it seemed very much like he felt like the CH position hadn't been addressed following Souttar's departure and Halketts injury. I think Savage felt like he'd scored two coups with Rowles and Neilson, and in many ways he had, but it did seem like there was a disagreement between them and I think Neilson was right in this one. Rowles and Neilson were great but we still needed that central rock of a CH. Even in January, the supplement that they selected together, Hill, was still the wrong kind of player.

 

There are so many things last season that are irksome because really any one of them going differently would have probably been enough to get third.

 

If we'd just gotten a Frankie Kent a year earlier . . .

If Kio had been a bit better as a holding mid . . .

If we'd gotten more of a classic CH rather than a hybrid RB/CH like Hill . . .

If we could have had just one of Boyce, Halkett, or Beni uninjured or back at full strength . . .

If Souttar had stayed . . .

If McCulloch hadn't decided that the best way to deal with the split in the changing room was to walk out and go golfing with Neilson and let them sort it out . . .

If Neilson hadn't listened to that shitpickle . . .

 

We fell apart catastrophically and we still just narrowly missed out on third.

you missed - inexplicably sticking with the tactic of everyone passing to snodgrass who after 3-4 games, had at least 2 men marking him. 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

1 minute ago, Jim Panzee said:

you missed - inexplicably sticking with the tactic of everyone passing to snodgrass who after 3-4 games, had at least 2 men marking him. 

 

I see this just slightly differently than that, and I know I'm in the minority on this, but . . .

 

Every formation Neilson has ever run with us has played everything through a central midfield pair, including one holding mid (Gomis, Pallardo, Kitchen, Haring, Beni, etc.) It's the one thing that is completely central to everything in his philosophy. Everything else -- back 4 vs. back 3, fullback positioning, number of forwards, wing arrangement, whatever -- is adjustable but it's always been about playing through the midfield.

 

Put any single functional holding mid back into that system and we'd have been fine. (Even Naisy was somewhat fortunate that just as he was hired, Haring came back from injury.) Neilson was at least trying to find something else that worked. In the disastrous final home game against St. Mirren he started with Halliday and Devlin there in a 4-2-3-1, and it didn't work any better.

 

To be clear the reality was that with the injuries we had, we needed a different philosophy and Neilson couldn't or wouldn't provide that. And that's not terribly uncommon for managers. Give a Postecoglou side an injury crisis in his attacking players and his style is going to fall apart too.That's also how managers get sacked and that's why Neilson had to go, but at some level I get why he didn't change. Leopards and spots and all that.

 

Naisy was able to patch together a different style (and lucked out by getting Haring back but it was more than that) that got us some results, even though we still lost games we really should have been able to win.

[kila]

Threads like this are a good gauge about how the team was performing and how a lot of the fans felt.

 

Sure some will say they were always for giving him more time, but it was a rotten run we were on and had it continued then they too would've been off the Naismith train. Fans are fickle, but we're fickle in different stages.

 

Sun is certainly shining now!

[Bull's-eye]

57 minutes ago, Wee Mikey said:

Please remember that @Selkirkhmfc1874 is a high attender, including most (if not all) away games including Euro matches ... at quite some effort, may I add.

 

What's more he brings along our 'next generation' support into the bargain.

 

He should know better then.

 

He was also pulled up plenty of times during his multiple tirades for being personal, petty and pretty much ruining all sensible debate.

 

Next time he might think before he types.

[Lone Striker]

4 minutes ago, Watt-Zeefuik said:

 

I see this just slightly differently than that, and I know I'm in the minority on this, but . . .

 

Every formation Neilson has ever run with us has played everything through a central midfield pair, including one holding mid (Gomis, Pallardo, Kitchen, Haring, Beni, etc.) It's the one thing that is completely central to everything in his philosophy. Everything else -- back 4 vs. back 3, fullback positioning, number of forwards, wing arrangement, whatever -- is adjustable but it's always been about playing through the midfield.

 

Put any single functional holding mid back into that system and we'd have been fine. (Even Naisy was somewhat fortunate that just as he was hired, Haring came back from injury.) Neilson was at least trying to find something else that worked. In the disastrous final home game against St. Mirren he started with Halliday and Devlin there in a 4-2-3-1, and it didn't work any better.

 

To be clear the reality was that with the injuries we had, we needed a different philosophy and Neilson couldn't or wouldn't provide that. And that's not terribly uncommon for managers. Give a Postecoglou side an injury crisis in his attacking players and his style is going to fall apart too.That's also how managers get sacked and that's why Neilson had to go, but at some level I get why he didn't change. Leopards and spots and all that.

 

Naisy was able to patch together a different style (and lucked out by getting Haring back but it was more than that) that got us some results, even though we still lost games we really should have been able to win.

I think  @OTT is correct about Snoddy -  Robbie's insistence on the "play it  back to our internationalist defensive midfielder every time" ploy was frankly ridiculous as soon as it became clear that Snoddy was increasingly getting nullified  by the opposition.   From the other players you mention, Kitchen was the only one who came close to being put on the same pedestal  by the manager.   

 

tbf, Snoddy was  much better at delivering a worthwhile forward pass than Kitchen, who mainly played short safe passes that seldom got through the opposition midfield.

 

 

[Lone Striker]

6 minutes ago, kila said:

Threads like this are a good gauge about how the team was performing and how a lot of the fans felt.

 

Sure some will say they were always for giving him more time, but it was a rotten run we were on and had it continued then they too would've been off the Naismith train. Fans are fickle, but we're fickle in different stages.

 

Sun is certainly shining now!

Thats a fair assessment of how fans have differing trigger points. 

 

 Its also worth mentioning that the OF teams  this season have also gone through ups and relative  downs - and a lot of their fans have been  quick to demand   "sack the board"  and/or "sack the manager".       

 

Contrast that with fans of  diddy teams who seem to have a higher tolerance of poor  runs, probably because their expectations are lower than ours.

 

 

[jamboinglasgow]

3 hours ago, Batistuta87 said:

It's great to be sitting in February actually wanting to hold onto players instead of thinking about who we want emptied. Hopefully the days of signing 17 players every transfer window are long gone.

😎

 

Yeah its nice. The fact we are also signing players up for next season is great too. Our turnover of players since 2014 has been poor.

 

If we hold onto Beni and Vargas signs permanently. I see from the current first squad only Haring and Lembikisa (I think Wolves have bigger plans for him,) Fraser may still so is a maybe, possibly Sibbick goes as well. So as little as 2 and at most 4 players I could see being off at the end of the season, with possibly Shankland and Cochrane sold.

 

If all that came to pass then we would require a new RB, LB (though that could be sorted with Penrice,) and striker in the summer.

 

So there is chance that we sign less players this summer than we did last summer (7 players.) Could be a quiet summer but that might not be a bad thing.

[Selkirkhmfc1874]

36 minutes ago, Bull's-eye said:

 

He should know better then.

 

He was also pulled up plenty of times during his multiple tirades for being personal, petty and pretty much ruining all sensible debate.

 

Next time he might think before he types.

Personal ? You just made that up! 

[CMc]

3 hours ago, Wish said:

 

I really referring to the RB position and the lack of foresight there in regards to the fact Smith would be leaving. 

The comment you highlighted was just a general comment.

Not really the clubs fault Offiah became unwell though. 
 

I also think we might have got Devlin from Livi if Robbie had not got the bin. 

Edited February 14 by CMc

[Fozzyonthefence]

4 hours ago, Jim Panzee said:

obvs the hope was Atkinson would be more consistent - but to be fair he's had injuries.

 

we seem to be doing OK with Lembikisa.

 

 

He looks potentially good as a winger but really poor as a RB and not sure he is going to be solid enough defensively even as a RWB (probably depends who we are playing for the latter).  Good to watch going forward but so, so weak in the tackle. 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

1 hour ago, Lone Striker said:

I think  @OTT is correct about Snoddy -  Robbie's insistence on the "play it  back to our internationalist defensive midfielder every time" ploy was frankly ridiculous as soon as it became clear that Snoddy was increasingly getting nullified  by the opposition.   From the other players you mention, Kitchen was the only one who came close to being put on the same pedestal  by the manager.   

 

tbf, Snoddy was  much better at delivering a worthwhile forward pass than Kitchen, who mainly played short safe passes that seldom got through the opposition midfield.

 

 

To me the problem is exactly that Snoddy wasn't actually a defensive mid. He was an attacking mid who was willing to give DM a try. It worked for a few games until teams realized that Snoddy couldn't do the "holding" part of holding mid.

 

Of course Snoddy was a better overall player than those other midfielders but any single one of those, including the very limited Miguel Pallardo, would have improved our team by stepping into that role just by being able to retain possession under pressure in that position. Snoddy could have then moved back forward into his more familiar attacking role.