quick summary of my swing from pollyanna to pessimist through the season

I liked the two players in every position, we looked to have some strength and depth for the first time in a while.
We were missing the man to hold up the ball and at Plymouth Sib seemed to just get it right and hit it off with Loops. I thought this would lead to a great goalscoring duo.
I actually thought our midfield looked stronger than sometime - due in no small part to Clingan.
The defensive partnership of Stef and JK was the coolest and most collected since Flem/Malky

Then - injuries plus the recall of Grounds and the two for one position seemed to go to pot overnight. You had to start questioning things - why Troy if we're playing Drury in the middle. Why Koroma on the wing when we've got Hoolahan? Why Russell up front when we've now got some strike options? Why did Lita arrive just as Lupoli was back to full fitness - an expensive acquisition when Lupoli looked like he meant business. And a signing that's going to be around long enough to tilt the balance towards disruption rather than success.

Last season at Leicester I felt that we interrupted a good looking side in order to accommodate players and I think this is happening again - certainly seemed the case with Southampton and Derby matches. This to me is the issue with the loan system - not the players' loyalty or desire to win but the fact that they cause unnecessary shakeups. I hardly dare mention the Hucks word - but the biggest criticism about him was that we often had to tailor the team to fit around him - now we seem to be doing the same (and did last season) to suit players who aren't matchwinners either.

The absence of a big chap made us play the ball along the ground - aided a lot by having distributing centrebacks and Clingan (and Fozzy early on). I don't think it's Sibierski's fault that we've started hoofing again - I think it's just down to everything behind him not working as well and there's not much point holding the play up if there's then no movement around him.

So apart from sacking the board obviously, I'd just look for keeping the status quo and only making changes enforced by injury. We cursed Worthington for playing people out of position - it's not gone away and I don't really see why other than exceptional circumstances.

OK I know this is too long for ADHDers but I wanted it off my chest.

Posted By: camcan on October 20th 2008 at 13:07:57

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