The squad is underperforming and its not just down to Smith

It has always concerned me that players who have performed well previously have seen their form deteriorate badly. With the exception of Sarge, in patches, when played up the middle I can't think of a single player that has improved in the past year.

They're not all old and knackered. You could maybe argue that Krul is past his best,

Pukki is 32, not mid thirties, and has continued to play well at international level. He's played well for us, when he's had service.

Max, Andy O, Dowell, Cantwell, McLean, Gibson, Dimi have all gone markedly backwards.

That the same patterns are happening with Nunez too, for example, suggests it's not just that we have a squad full of rubbish.

We'll see, naturally. But dismissing the whole squad as garbage requires disregarding that a large pool of those players have performed superbly at this level previously.

There's the Emi factor too, naturally. He's been a big miss, clearly, but I don't think that that is the sole reason for all the form falling off a cliff.

Opinions opinions opinions.

Posted By: Cardiff Canary, Nov 13, 16:44:11