Squads a mess

[Ernie 0]

Before I get shot down I''ve been supporting NCFC for over 40 years and only have the clubs best interests at heart. Like everyone when AN first came in I thought who? However I liked the way he called it, he seemed to know who he was (very sure of himself), how he wanted us to play and what he wanted to achieve. He then went on and got us promotion. Fantastic, a real chance to reap all the rewards of the Premier league, get established and move on. However we all knew before the Premier league season started the very minimum requirement was a CB but I still felt we needed reinforcements at RB, up front in fact most places barr midfield! (remember most people at the time still didn''t regard Martin as premier league quality RB or CB)with Hooper and Lafferty not fancied by AN, RVW powderpuff and Grabban (give me enough clear cut chances and I might score). Well the end result in truth was quite predictable yet so frustratingly avoidable but more worryingly was AN seemed to lose his way (the Newcastle game did seem quite a turning point), he still didn''t know his best 11, how to set the team up, substitutions etc etc. So we come full circle again with the glaringly obvious need for more firepower if we want a realistic chance of going straight back up. Personally in my humble opinion we needed much more than that, a real clear out of the dead wood and many senior players relegated not once but twice. So before the season has started we give Whittaker a new contract, why? Get in 2 keepers (wow) Canos potentially a good replacement for Redmond, Nelson (I''ll reserve judgment until he''s got some games under his belt) and Pritchard, who is a very good player. Now unfortunately we are left very light up top especially as Jerome is injured, Lafferty (needs no explanation) Naismith (definitely not a striker) Nelson and Morris. We have loaned out our only other LB, who I was hoping under the circumstances with Ollson out injured would be given a run in the team and only then would I make a judgement on if he''s good enough. Whittaker isn''t good enough as cover and shouldn''t even be playing, Brady is wasted there and is far better further forward. CB''s, any injuries or suspensions and we are in trouble, Bassong not the player he was and makes to many costly mistakes, Turner is very unlikely to ever play for us again and Martin is a much better RB than a CB regardless of how many times he gets played there. However we do have a large number of midfielders but unfortunately they are to often played out of their best positions by trying to shoehorn them in all together. You don''t play Howson on the right or as a holding midfielder he''s an attacking CM who will get you goals when played correctly (why when we have so much quality in this division do we need 2 holding midfielders anyway), don''t play Hoolahan on the left he''s totally wasted there, drop Naismith and even though his performances have been dreadful AN doesn''t seem willing/capable of doing this (I don''t care about the price tag, play players who are performing). To top it all we then loan out Maddison a player who should and would be in my opinion be pushing Wes. Throw into the mix players that don''t want to be here (Lafferty, Naismith, Klose poss Ollson and Brady?) and players that shouldn''t be here (Bassong, Turner, Whittaker etc) AN has big problems and I have to say a lot of which he''s created. I also believe he has been badly exposed with his lack of experience and contacts in the football world. He seems to have lost his way with no clear plan of how he wants to set up, play, change or even influence a game his refusal to play 2 up front regardless of opposition, players being played out of position and poor subs Ieads me to the only conclusion that''s he''s not up to the job, which is a real shame as I so want him to succeed. We need to bite the bullet and get Bruce in before this season is lost, if not it could be years before we go back up. Just to add the board clearly has a large part to play in all this but that''s for another thread!

[lappinitup 629]

And breath.......

[ricardo 8,036]

Nah, too much to swallow in one go.Paragraphs Ernie, paragraphs.

[If wed only kept Howie.. 3]

i''m trying to imagine that on a single powerpoint slide...

[Move Klose 303]

Can anyone sum up what that''s all about so i don''t have to read it all.

[If wed only kept Howie.. 3]

is the squad perfect? No

is the squad "a mess"? No

we have pretty good cover in all positions, but with 2 areas that appear to be more concerning - centre forward and left back.

Left back - clearly Olsson would be first choice, with Brady dropping back when Olsson isn''t available. Beyond that we would be looking at Whittaker (gulp!) or Efete/Toffolo (in Jan). So there is cover.

Strikers - ideally we would have brought in another striker, however we would have still had 4 strikers (by also letting Lafferty go). Jerome is fine at this level, and I have a feeling that if it comes to the crunch, at least one of Lafferty, Oliveira and Morris would be up to the job.

[andy cousins 11]

pretty much what it amounts to is AN plays what he considers his best players wherever he can accommodate them, often not in their most effective positions and we have to many midfielders and players unlikely to play

[Move Klose 303]

I think realisically I would''ve like to have seen the big earners who aren''t starters moved on. Bassong, Turner, Mulumbu, Lafferty. Probably Naimsith as he''s biggest earner and the least effective player we have.

Then the likes of Thompson & Maddison could''ve moved further up the pecking order.

Another left back would''ve been nice, that Rico Henry who has just joined Brentford from Walsall for £1.5m is meant to be the real deal. Especially considering Olsson is in the last year of his contract and will probably move on if we don''t get promoted.

We all knew we wanted another striker whether that was someone proven like Rhodes or this Sinclair from Watford on loan. From what I was reading about him he has pace and we are missing that especially when we are playing Brady/Wes/Naismith/Pritchard/Oliveria.

[FenwayFrank 2,717]

Pete changed his username?

[daly 551]

Ernie

You are correct on in a lot of points

Problem is a lot on this board have not got the brains to absorb what you wrote.

You have to remember to keep it short

No more than two syllables per word.

Boiled down Ernie reckons Manager needs to go and be replaced by our great centre half of years gone by

Introducing Mr Steve Bruce

[Horse Renoir 1]

Your post was impossible to read.

If anyone''s interested:

Before I get shot down I''ve been supporting NCFC for over 40 years and only have the clubs best interests at heart. Like everyone when AN first came in I thought who? However I liked the way he called it, he seemed to know who he was (very sure of himself), how he wanted us to play and what he wanted to achieve. He then went on and got us promotion. Fantastic, a real chance to reap all the rewards of the Premier league, get established and move on.

However we all knew before the Premier league season started the very minimum requirement was a CB but I still felt we needed reinforcements at RB, up front in fact most places barr midfield! (remember most people at the time still didn''t regard Martin as premier league quality RB or CB)with Hooper and Lafferty not fancied by AN, RVW powderpuff and Grabban (give me enough clear cut chances and I might score). Well the end result in truth was quite predictable yet so frustratingly avoidable but more worryingly was AN seemed to lose his way (the Newcastle game did seem quite a turning point), he still didn''t know his best 11, how to set the team up, substitutions etc etc. So we come full circle again with the glaringly obvious need for more firepower if we want a realistic chance of going straight back up. Personally in my humble opinion we needed much more than that, a real clear out of the dead wood and many senior players relegated not once but twice.

So before the season has started we give Whittaker a new contract, why? Get in 2 keepers (wow) Canos potentially a good replacement for Redmond, Nelson (I''ll reserve judgment until he''s got some games under his belt) and Pritchard, who is a very good player. Now unfortunately we are left very light up top especially as Jerome is injured, Lafferty (needs no explanation) Naismith (definitely not a striker) Nelson and Morris.

We have loaned out our only other LB, who I was hoping under the circumstances with Ollson out injured would be given a run in the team and only then would I make a judgement on if he''s good enough. Whittaker isn''t good enough as cover and shouldn''t even be playing, Brady is wasted there and is far better further forward.

CB''s, any injuries or suspensions and we are in trouble, Bassong not the player he was and makes to many costly mistakes, Turner is very unlikely to ever play for us again and Martin is a much better RB than a CB regardless of how many times he gets played there.

However we do have a large number of midfielders but unfortunately they are to often played out of their best positions by trying to shoehorn them in all together. You don''t play Howson on the right or as a holding midfielder he''s an attacking CM who will get you goals when played correctly (why when we have so much quality in this division do we need 2 holding midfielders anyway), don''t play Hoolahan on the left he''s totally wasted there, drop Naismith and even though his performances have been dreadful AN doesn''t seem willing/capable of doing this (I don''t care about the price tag, play players who are performing). To top it all we then loan out Maddison a player who should and would be in my opinion be pushing Wes.

Throw into the mix players that don''t want to be here (Lafferty, Naismith, Klose poss Ollson and Brady?) and players that shouldn''t be here (Bassong, Turner, Whittaker etc) AN has big problems and I have to say a lot of which he''s created. I also believe he has been badly exposed with his lack of experience and contacts in the football world. He seems to have lost his way with no clear plan of how he wants to set up, play, change or even influence a game his refusal to play 2 up front regardless of opposition, players being played out of position and poor subs Ieads me to the only conclusion that''s he''s not up to the job, which is a real shame as I so want him to succeed. We need to bite the bullet and get Bruce in before this season is lost, if not it could be years before we go back up. Just to add the board clearly has a large part to play in all this but that''s for another thread!

[Rogue Baboon 0]

If you have to drop your best wide player from LM to LB, then play a player who isn''t an LM in that position, which unbalances the entire team, I would say you dont have adequate cover

[OldRobert 38]

Ah paragraphs [Y]

[BOO 0]

Paragraphs are so important.

[JF 694]

Can''t really argue with any of that Ernie. We certainly have some very big earners that are now holding us back from moving forwards. All said and done I think we will still be in the top 6 though. What''s disappointing for me is we''ve likely traded top 2 for top 6 in that transfer window

[ricardo 8,036]

Thank you for making that digestible Mr Spanish.[Y]

[Buh 0]

Tl;dr

[Bury Yellow 2]

Agree with everything you have written Ernie.

You won''t get too much support on this message board mate but not to worry.

[Keith Scott 294]

I didn''t need paragraphs Ernie (although they would have helped) Still, read it first time and agree with everything you have said. Get your tin hat on though, bit too much sense in that post for many of the ''head in the sand'' types on here........

[damn that Ralph Coates! 74]

biggest worry is morale and whether AN can "keep" the dressing room.

Laffs tweets, Klose''s interview, Ruddy/Naismith were leaving club but couldn''t, Brady may not want to play championship etc.

I think we need a few wins and to get high up in division to keep them all happy.....

[Well b back 3,606]

[quote user="Keith Scott"]I didn''t need paragraphs Ernie (although they would have helped) Still, read it first time and agree with everything you have said. Get your tin hat on though, bit too much sense in that post for many of the ''head in the sand'' types on here........[/quote]

Get down the bookies and win yourself some easy money. You can get massive prices on anyone other than us Brighton and Newcastle.

If this team would have last year drawn any championship team in the FA cup you would have expected them to win I would have thought ?

[norfolkngood 1,174]

i agree we look disjointed

one big mistake was buying Pritchard instead of McCormack

AN i have blamed many times he is not experienced at building teams

But i do know he tried to buy strikers

the players were scouted

the Recruitment did their jobs

AN did his job and decided which ones to have

But the Board did not have the money

now i don''t know if they had the money and didn''t want to spend it or they have no money

but i do know for fact everyone including AN did try and sign strikers etc

we could of signed McCormack for 9 mil but had to shift people first

[Hairy Canary 756]

Good post Earnie. I agree with much of what you put and certainly agree with your conclusion that Neil is out of his depth and that we need to get Bruce in now before it is too late and he ends up working elsewhere.

Don''t worry about the numbskulls who can''t be bothered to do you the courtesy of reading your post before disrespecting it with a witless one liner. It''s par for the course for many unfortunately.

[Well b back 3,606]

[quote user="norfolkngood"]i agree we look disjointed

one big mistake was buying Pritchard instead of McCormack

AN i have blamed many times he is not experienced at building teams

But i do know he tried to buy strikers

the players were scouted

the Recruitment did their jobs

AN did his job and decided which ones to have

But the Board did not have the money

now i don''t know if they had the money and didn''t want to spend it or they have no money

but i do know for fact everyone including AN did try and sign strikers etc

we could of signed McCormack for 9 mil but had to shift people first[/quote]

Are you saying that we made offers and negotiated with players but had no money ? Cant see how that works

[Captain Birdseye 0]

I agree with Ernie and wonder

How much longer we have to accept the unacceptable

How much longer we have to deal with the undealable

How much longer we have to suffer the insufferable

[norfolkngood 1,174]

Are you saying that we made offers and negotiated with players but had no money ? Cant see how that works

yes that''s exactly what happened

they were all lined up with prices on their heads all we had to do was pay

for example we asked a club

so how much is x player well he is 7 million if you can pay today as we need a defender ourselves and he is going to cost that so what we need etc

us ok i will find out if we can raise the money ( board / player sales )

because we expected to have the money but for some reason it didn''t come in or was not made available

believe me that is what happened

[Herman 11,136]

Are they rhetorical questions or do you want definitive answers?

[hogesar 10,771]

Even with the generosity of someone paragraphing this, i''m not sure i''m going to read it.

Let''s presume we disagree, Ernie mate.

[daly 551]

Must be a hell of a job remaining happy when you only have £30000 to £40000 a week coming in.