The clamour to write the squad off

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

It has been 90 minutes of game time since the Dean Smith error of Norwich City and we have large pockets of posters on here who have been keen to push the blame on to the squad already.

I’m sorry but I can’t get on board with this line of thought just yet.

It doesn’t feel fair that after such a small amount of time following the previous regime we can be so certain about this. The players surely deserve a fresh slate as much as any new coach does, otherwise what was the point in even wanting Smith out in the first place? We need to draw a line under them and the first half of the season, rather than drawing a line through them all - surely?!

Of course the squad is undeniably unbalanced, it almost feels like a typical international team in some respects, being every bit as over stocked in some areas as it is scarse in others. I don’t think there’s a better no. 1 and 2 GK and striker combination than what we can offer, for instance. There is a wealth of options in midfield but we clearly lack that stand out quality we previously had in Buendia and Skipp. If we polled our favourite CMs then I’m not sure there would be any clear winners across McLean, Hayden, Gibbs, Nunez, Sara. Much like last season despite 4 new options to freshen up the squad. Our options in the wide spots are both scarce and lacking in quality or form / fitness (Sinani, Hernandez the former and Cantwell, Dowell and Ramsey the latter). It feels to me like a 4-1-2-1-2 starting line up would make the best use of our quality striking options, the lack of wide options as well as spreading the load of our middling central midfield. Can we bring in a coach who would be able to play to the strengths and overcome the weaknesses?

I do agree there are other intangible, mental issues to overcome, I can’t see there being the same hunger in the squad to get promoted as a less premier league ‘experienced’ team gunning for their big moment in the spotlight. Indeed I’m not sure our premier league experiences of recent years do anything more than hinder the players mindset existentially to get there again. This is a massive problem and it is something the fanbase appear to be struggling with as much as the players too. 

However even in the knowledge of all of the above, this is not an ‘average’ squad of championship players. In a league where sides beyond Burnley and Sheff United have really struggled to find form and exert any quality, we should not be accepting of performances and results which have only had us fighting it out with the ‘best of the rest’ sides, and failing to beat them in most cases. A group of teams around us which is changing week after week as well, and you can basically throw a hat over 5th and 15th. That is not where we are at!

Lots of these players are underperforming previous levels (Dowell, Giannoulis, Omobamidele, Gibson, Aarons, Hanley, Hernandez), other players have joined the side with credentials which we have not yet realised (Hayden, Sara, Nunez). Has Webber’s star fallen so badly that he can’t even recruit a couple of strong championship players anymore even with our budget advantages at this level? How?

When so many players across the squad are seemingly playing below their baseline, then why can’t we expect a fresh impetus to tap back into our quality with better results than Dean Smith? Even with our clear flaws positionally and mentally, we have a squad of players which would be the envy of the teams we find ourselves amongst.

Under Smith we have been somewhat similar to Alex Neil’s last campaign, where we blew hot and cold and never galvanised despite the quality. This time around the peak ‘hots’ in those spells have been arguably even stronger, but the ‘colds’ have certainly also been a lot weaker too.

But we still saw something there, those 20/25 minute spells of total domination (QPR, Boro, Preston, Sunderland, Wigan, Hull to name a few). Periods of play where we looked genuinely like a title winning side. I’m not sure that you’d get any of the sides currently around us managing to hit those levels for any amount of time this season. Is it unreasonable to believe that new leadership may be able to unlock this potential for greater spells, more consistently?

The squad-doubters may be proven right, in the same way the Smith-doubters were, but surely we have to give the players the chance to prove that either way. If we’re not improving in 10 games time then clearly Smith wasn’t the main issue and the fingers will start being pointed further up the chain, but until then we can surely still hope and believe we can better the ‘best of the rest’ teams into 3rd this season.

There is of course also the issue of what on Earth happens if we somehow get promoted again at the end of it all, but I suggest it may be best to cross that bridge rather than dwell on that prospect now too much…

[Petriix 2,852]

All players and all squads have strengths and weaknesses. The trick is finding ways to exploit the former and mitigate the latter. We did this incredibly well under Farke with many of the same players so there's no reason to say we couldn't do similar now. 

What we need is a run of playing the same formation with minimal changes to the team. The players need to be backed so that they don't fear failure. Rather than being substituted and dropped, players need to be given at least 4 or 5 games with changes only coming with injuries or if a substitute comes on and performs exceptionally. Then just one change at a time. That's the only way to build confidence and consistency.

Unfortunately it's late in the season already and Smith's scattergun approach will take time to shake off. But it should be possible to build some momentum for a playoff run. These players are good enough for that. Then it's a bit of a lottery and anything could happen. 

[It's Character Forming 1,164]

27 minutes ago, Hank shoots Skyler said:

It has been 90 minutes of game time since the Dean Smith error of Norwich City and we have large pockets of posters on here who have been keen to push the blame on to the squad already.

I’m sorry but I can’t get on board with this line of thought just yet.

It doesn’t feel fair that after such a small amount of time following the previous regime we can be so certain about this. The players surely deserve a fresh slate as much as any new coach does, otherwise what was the point in even wanting Smith out in the first place? We need to draw a line under them and the first half of the season, rather than drawing a line through them all - surely?!

Of course the squad is undeniably unbalanced, it almost feels like a typical international team in some respects, being every bit as over stocked in some areas as it is scarse in others. I don’t think there’s a better no. 1 and 2 GK and striker combination than what we can offer, for instance. There is a wealth of options in midfield but we clearly lack that stand out quality we previously had in Buendia and Skipp. If we polled our favourite CMs then I’m not sure there would be any clear winners across McLean, Hayden, Gibbs, Nunez, Sara. Much like last season despite 4 new options to freshen up the squad. Our options in the wide spots are both scarce and lacking in quality or form / fitness (Sinani, Hernandez the former and Cantwell, Dowell and Ramsey the latter). It feels to me like a 4-1-2-1-2 starting line up would make the best use of our quality striking options, the lack of wide options as well as spreading the load of our middling central midfield. Can we bring in a coach who would be able to play to the strengths and overcome the weaknesses?

I do agree there are other intangible, mental issues to overcome, I can’t see there being the same hunger in the squad to get promoted as a less premier league ‘experienced’ team gunning for their big moment in the spotlight. Indeed I’m not sure our premier league experiences of recent years do anything more than hinder the players mindset existentially to get there again. This is a massive problem and it is something the fanbase appear to be struggling with as much as the players too. 

However even in the knowledge of all of the above, this is not an ‘average’ squad of championship players. In a league where sides beyond Burnley and Sheff United have really struggled to find form and exert any quality, we should not be accepting of performances and results which have only had us fighting it out with the ‘best of the rest’ sides, and failing to beat them in most cases. A group of teams around us which is changing week after week as well, and you can basically throw a hat over 5th and 15th. That is not where we are at!

Lots of these players are underperforming previous levels (Dowell, Giannoulis, Omobamidele, Gibson, Aarons, Hanley, Hernandez), other players have joined the side with credentials which we have not yet realised (Hayden, Sara, Nunez). Has Webber’s star fallen so badly that he can’t even recruit a couple of strong championship players anymore even with our budget advantages at this level? How?

When so many players across the squad are seemingly playing below their baseline, then why can’t we expect a fresh impetus to tap back into our quality with better results than Dean Smith? Even with our clear flaws positionally and mentally, we have a squad of players which would be the envy of the teams we find ourselves amongst.

Under Smith we have been somewhat similar to Alex Neil’s last campaign, where we blew hot and cold and never galvanised despite the quality. This time around the peak ‘hots’ in those spells have been arguably even stronger, but the ‘colds’ have certainly also been a lot weaker too.

But we still saw something there, those 20/25 minute spells of total domination (QPR, Boro, Preston, Sunderland, Wigan, Hull to name a few). Periods of play where we looked genuinely like a title winning side. I’m not sure that you’d get any of the sides currently around us managing to hit those levels for any amount of time this season. Is it unreasonable to believe that new leadership may be able to unlock this potential for greater spells, more consistently?

The squad-doubters may be proven right, in the same way the Smith-doubters were, but surely we have to give the players the chance to prove that either way. If we’re not improving in 10 games time then clearly Smith wasn’t the main issue and the fingers will start being pointed further up the chain, but until then we can surely still hope and believe we can better the ‘best of the rest’ teams into 3rd this season.

There is of course also the issue of what on Earth happens if we somehow get promoted again at the end of it all, but I suggest it may be best to cross that bridge rather than dwell on that prospect now too much…

^^this.

[nutty nigel 7,598]

Top thread!

Happy New Year together 💛⚽💚🎉🍾

[sgncfc 1,253]

I've been consistently blaming the players since the Liverpool game at the start of 21-22. They failed Farke and they failed Smith and will continue to fail unless they collectively do what they are paid to do. As a squad, each player seems to perform at no more than half their known ability.

We know these players can play; they've shown it before and at times this season. For some reason, whether because of internal problems, lack of motivation etc they aren't doing it.

There are many examples - a stand out international who suddenly can't finish; an international full back with the positional awareness of a 15 year old; a previously solid centre back who is so lacking in concentration that he consistently passes to the opposition. I'm not sure a new coach can solve all those and many more.

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

6 hours ago, Petriix said:

All players and all squads have strengths and weaknesses. The trick is finding ways to exploit the former and mitigate the latter. We did this incredibly well under Farke with many of the same players so there's no reason to say we couldn't do similar now. 

What we need is a run of playing the same formation with minimal changes to the team. The players need to be backed so that they don't fear failure. Rather than being substituted and dropped, players need to be given at least 4 or 5 games with changes only coming with injuries or if a substitute comes on and performs exceptionally. Then just one change at a time. That's the only way to build confidence and consistency.

Unfortunately it's late in the season already and Smith's scattergun approach will take time to shake off. But it should be possible to build some momentum for a playoff run. These players are good enough for that. Then it's a bit of a lottery and anything could happen. 

Yeah he certainly seemed to lose his way as the season went on. Pukki has been our saviour many times this season but for me our two best performances arguably came when he was injured and we had Sargent up front on his own (Huddersfield and Millwall at home). Maybe that would be worth revisiting?

We also looked super potent playing the diamond against Preston, such a shame that game went to pot as we easily could’ve scored 4 in the first 20 minutes and then who knows what would’ve happened - going back to this formation would be my preference. Smith then got in a cycle of chopping and changing without really settling on anything or allowing things to develop as results never instantly stuck. But that stopped us building any momentum and compounded the issue further. I don’t think the overbloated squad with a lack of standout quality (particularly the midfield) helps with this either.

Its not a massive criticism of Smith as I quite liked the proactivity but it’s not really supportable without the players being versatile enough to understand the changing roles. Ultimately a club like ours in the championship should be giving the opposition more things to think about rather than vice versa. But that didn’t really feel like the case for Smith. Switching to a back 3 to play away at Luton in his final game being an obvious and recent example.

Hopefully Webber can find a new coach with a solid ‘plan A’ that overlays nicely with our clear strengths.