I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore

So where did it all go wrong? At the end of last season I felt that we would finish around fourteenth, and now, having seen the Premiers**t for myself, I still can?t quite believe that we didn?t do at least as well as that. Worthington has said today ?I wouldn't have done anything differently?, well I beg to differ Nigel, and if that is really what you think then you have learnt nothing from the mistakes that have relegated us. And that is a big problem. Because at the end of the day just TWO extra points would have saved us. How many points did these decisions cost Nigel?
1. Releasing Iwan Roberts. Why not give him the player coach role he wanted? I?m not suggesting he would have been anything other than a bit-part player ? but he has always scored goals and I?d certainly fancy him to scuff a few goals coming on
with 15 or 20 minutes to go. I?d certainly back him to score more than Doherty (of whom more later) or Jonson (OK ? not difficult).
2. Selling Malky. There is a view that Malky is not Premiers**t class _ I disagree actually. He lacks pace, but then John Terry is no greyhound. And when did we ever have a pacey centre back. Dave Watson, and er?????? But even if Malky isn?t premiers**t class why wasn?t he given a chance? Edworthy, Fleming, Holt, McVeigh, Mulryne, - none of them obviously premiers**t class. All given the chance that Malky wasn?t. I?d have got rid of any of them before I got rid of Malky. Malky was a leader ? something that was so obviously lacking yesterday (did you see Fleming and Shackell trying to get the defence to move up yesterday? Hopeless). Malky was also good at set pieces ? at both end of the field. At one stroke Nigel removed the only leaders we had in the team, and the only height. Last season?s success was built on a rock solid defence, this season?s failure built on a dreadful defence. It seems obvious to me: Malky was much more to us than his individual ability.
3. The players we didn?t sign. Cooper and Crouch. Both available. Both affordable. Both wanted to come. Neither of them a risk. Instead we sign unknown quantities. What would you rather have ? Crouch? Or Jonson and Doherty?
4. The players we did sign. Jonson and Doherty. Jonson, I suspect, is a very good player. But what he isn?t is a right winger. Or a left winger. Or a right back. Which is where he has been played. Doherty has always been noted for blunders ? and that has continued. Looked like a panic signing to me. And then there?s his attitude: at one point he wasn?t on the bench because he wasn?t willing to play up front (or so said Worthy). If that is really what went on then he can f**k off.
5. Team selection, or, to put it another way, Gary Holt. Week after week he played and Safri was on the bench (if he was lucky). Now either Holt has suffered a catastrophic and terminal loss of form (like Graham Paddon did many years ago) or he has been carrying an injury for the whole season. Either way, he should not have been in the team ? apart from anything else his deserved status as a City legend has been tarnished by his woeful performances this season.
6. Playing players out of position. Jonson isn?t a left winger. Sticking him there against Manchester City probably cost us the game. Charlie isn?t a right back. That worked well at Blackburn didn?t it?
7. Tactics. This is a crackerjack. We couldn?t sit back in the fizzy league, so why anyone thought we could in this league is beyond me. Blackburn summed it up for me: one up, at home, against ten men, against the side bottom of the league ? and we sit back. There?s your 2 missing points right there Nigel. But generally we have been tactically rubbish. Our best 3 players are MacKenzie, Ashton and Huckerby. But they have been shoe horned into a system that doesn?t suit Huckerby at all. Southampton spotted that and killed us down the left. So did Fulham.
8. The bleedin? obvious. Don?t change a winning team overnight ? do it gradually. We made 4 changes and changed the formation for the match against Palace. And didn?t win. Jonson and Helveg arrived and were thrown in without any time to adjust to the English game. Better to let them bed in in the reserves for a couple of weeks, instead they were thrown in and slaughtered. Surely it would have been better to go with what we knew and see how last season?s squad coped. If we had done that we would have beaten palace and probably seen Holt and Edworthy eased out after 4 or 5 matches. How many points did we drop at home to Palace Nigel?
9. Graham Stuart.
10. Motivation of players. Rivers, Mulryne, McVeigh. All talented individuals. All gone to pot. And now Damien Francis is going the same way. Is there no-one on the staff that could have sorted out at least one of these players. At Southampton we had a choice of Jonson or Charlie to replace Huckerby, and I think Worthy chose right. But what the situation was crying out for was a fit and motivated McVeigh. Surely being a manager is about more than asking us to get 10 players behind the ball at all times? Man-management anyone?
11. And before the biggest game on our history the manager told Sky that the players weren?t playing for their futures. Looked like it, didn?t it?

Posted By: Winged Eel Creosote on May 16th 2005 at 13:36:57

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