The realities of poor recruitment

[robbiez666]

Swansea and Bristol City were two very different games.

We started the season rating to go. Had a first half where we had more touches in their box than we've ever had and were thrilling at times. We all know the outcome but most weren't unhappy at halftime.

Yesterday, we looked devoid of energy and ideas. Looked like we weren't enjoying being out there. Created hardly anything and looked like we were running on sand. You only had to look at our bench to see how unprepared we are for the season.

This is the result of years of bad recruitment.

We have 4 players who can play centre midfielder but half of them are injured most games. Which means someone like Peck has to play all the time when his minutes needed to be managed better at the start of the season. We saw the impact in overplaying players last season.

And because we have 4 players who can play there it makes recruitment difficult, both in terms of balancing a wage bill and the happiness of players when everyone is fit. It means the formation and style of football we can play is constrained. You can't play pressing football on a hot day when there's no one to bring off the bench.

We have injured players on long contracts. Backup players on long contracts. We've got young players in desperate need of a loan and we can't afford to send them out.

In been critical of Selles but our terrible recruitment planning has meant that in just a week we've gone from trying to play the way he wants to play on the opening day to a bodged approach trying to get something with the players we have available.

What we need in the next two weeks is to have a plan and execute it well. A plan to bring in the players we need, both on loan and permanently, and the right mix of age and experience. We need a plan for the young players who've been forced to play although not ready. A plan to manage the minutes of first team players to allow them to perform at their best while on the pitch.

I want us to play the kind of football we did in the first half against Bristol City, but with both the squad to deal with the defensive side and enough bodies to allow players to give everything.

I think we need to do a lot of business in the next fortnight to allow that to happen. Both ins and outs. I can't see it myself. Having no midweek game will help a lot though.

 

[dexter101]

Swansea and Bristol City were two very different games.

We started the season rating to go. Had a first half where we had more touches in their box than we've ever had and were thrilling at times. We all know the outcome but most weren't unhappy at halftime.

Yesterday, we looked devoid of energy and ideas. Looked like we weren't enjoying being out there. Created hardly anything and looked like we were running on sand. You only had to look at our bench to see how unprepared we are for the season.

This is the result of years of bad recruitment.

We have 4 players who can play centre midfielder but half of them are injured most games. Which means someone like Peck has to play all the time when his minutes needed to be managed better at the start of the season. We saw the impact in overplaying players last season.

And because we have 4 players who can play there it makes recruitment difficult, both in terms of balancing a wage bill and the happiness of players when everyone is fit. It means the formation and style of football we can play is constrained. You can't play pressing football on a hot day when there's no one to bring off the bench.

We have injured players on long contracts. Backup players on long contracts. We've got young players in desperate need of a loan and we can't afford to send them out.

In been critical of Selles but our terrible recruitment planning has meant that in just a week we've gone from trying to play the way he wants to play on the opening day to a bodged approach trying to get something with the players we have available.

What we need in the next two weeks is to have a plan and execute it well. A plan to bring in the players we need, both on loan and permanently, and the right mix of age and experience. We need a plan for the young players who've been forced to play although not ready. A plan to manage the minutes of first team players to allow them to perform at their best while on the pitch.

I want us to play the kind of football we did in the first half against Bristol City, but with both the squad to deal with the defensive side and enough bodies to allow players to give everything.

I think we need to do a lot of business in the next fortnight to allow that to happen. Both ins and outs I can't see it myself.

I think you have hit it on the head here.

We have a strange squad in that we have real quality across the starting 11 but we have this backed up by academy graduates who are good, but they need to be able to be rested and not relied on week in, week out.

I'm frustrated we haven't seen more incomings, I just hope the board actually are about to pull something out of the bag. I don't need them communicating with fans and telling them on a weekly basis what they are doing. Actions speak louder than words. 14 days and counting to see it

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

You're so very right, OP. But I have zero faith that we will do anything like the level of recruitment needed to get the numbers, quality and experience we needed. No faith at all.

 

[Wards]

More players with the ability to maintain energy levels for 90 minutes would go a long way. They don't necessarily have to be brilliant footballers either, but we need to have more players who can cover more ground more effectively.

 

[BladeInIreland]

Tbf i thought this might take 2 or 3 windows to get right and I could get on board with this long term plan to change the club BUT we have signed a bunch of loan players, don't go up again some of the top players will go and loans returned. We will start again rather than building a squad.

 

[Newbury Blade]

Tbf i thought this might take 2 or 3 windows to get right and I could get on board with this long term plan to change the club BUT we have signed a bunch of loan players, don't go up again some of the top players will go and loans returned. We will start again rather than building a squad.

Agree with most of this but 3 loan players, the best of whom is loan to buy, is not a “bunch”. 5 last season, 6 at one point, was a bunch.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

The reality is as per our history, if you sell players and don't adequately replace them we are a poorer team.

Yet most have been brainwashed to accept the GBOB on each sale and accepted "it's not that easy" to get players in.

 

[Kenilworth]

I was very unhappy after 4 mins v Brizzle - stupid free kick edge of box by Hamer when you know Twine is on the opposition. I called it immediately, before the FK hit the top bins.
I was horrified during the first half at how open we were at the back so despite us going hell for leather at top of the pitch our back doors were an open invitation for a shafting and that’s exactly how it panned out.

Selles then goes one up top at Swans and more defensive, which is understandable. What it suggests to me is that he hasn’t got a clue.

Wier and Jokecanoffish all over it, this.

He’s talked about chaos - that’s right, it’s chaos but not in a good way. I see no patterns of play so. I option a for a pass without having to thread a needle, which invariably means giving the ball away.

 

[Champagneblade]

What we have is amateurs playing as if they were professionals.

I wonder if the Businessmen in charge jump into their outer ventures without understanding the subject matter or without having experienced professionals to guide them?

 

[Revolution]

What we have is amateurs playing as if they were professionals.

I wonder if the Businessmen in charge jump into their outer ventures without understanding the subject matter or without having experienced professionals to guide them?

Yes they do sometimes. This is a hallmark of private equity and venture capital. People who have no experience thinking they know better.

 

[BladeInIreland]

Agree with most of this but 3 loan players, the best of whom is loan to buy, is not a “bunch”. 5 last season, 6 at one point, was a bunch.

3 at the moment, based on rumours and previous we will have 5 again.

 

[mickhep]

We've too many Div 1 players in the team at present, you can carry one possibly two but four to five as it is at present.
The results speak for themselves.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

We have downgraded CONSIDERABLY in most positions, across the park, in terms of proven/experienced or steady performers.

RB: Gilchrist, Seriki and Hamza > Seriki and Curtis.
CB: Anel, Souttar, Robinson and Holding > Bindon, Robinson, RND and Sasnauskas.
CM: Peck, Blaster, Souza, Hamza > Peck (loss of form, to be expected), Blaster (out), Soumare.

RW: JRS, Brewster, Brooks, BBD > Brooks, Ukaki.
LW: Hamer, BBD > Barry, One.

CF: Campbell, Moore, Cannon > Campbell, Cannon.

Now, clearly last season's tactics were very limited and weren't good enough or attacking enough. Clearly there were valid reasons for players moving on and clearly some didn't shine as much as expected. BUT that is a shit load of proven, experienced Championship players to lose, steady Eddies who would hold a gameplan in place. Replaced well, hardly at all, and if so, with far less experienced players in the Championship and EFL at all. We were already not good enough, a playoff final defeat illustrates that. But we were A LOT stronger then than we are now.

 

[Snowflake]

I think you have hit it on the head here.

We have a strange squad in that we have real quality across the starting 11 but we have this backed up by academy graduates who are good, but they need to be able to be rested and not relied on week in, week out.

I'm frustrated we haven't seen more incomings, I just hope the board actually are about to pull something out of the bag. I don't need them communicating with fans and telling them on a weekly basis what they are doing. Actions speak louder than words. 14 days and counting to see it

Is this much different to last season with 14 days to go ?

 

[loyalblade95]

Is this much different to last season with 14 days to go ?

Different in a way, this time last season we had a very good starting 11 but not enough depth to go with it, .

In January we partially addressed the depth issue but it ended up being a job half done.

This season, we've got some good depth players but a starting 11 that for me, lacks 2/3 players.

To complete our starting 11, we still need 1 starting CB to go alongside Bindon, a more defensively solid RB and a possibly even a RW as well.
CB: Bobby Thomas
RB: Woo Young Seol
RW: ?

If we can address those 2/3 positions (mainly RB and CB), that should plug the gaps in our starting 11 and bring it up to the required standard, then we can look to add more depth where it's needed.

Depth needed:
1 or 2 backup/competition CB's - deffo need one but two would be better (ideally 1 would be Zatterstrom, maybe Mepham as the other)

1 CDM, not a normal CM but a proper defensive midfielder to compete/cover with Soumare - Iroegbunam is the obvious choice.

1 ST, not necessarily a starter but maybe we could combine this with a 1st choice RW (if we find someone who can play both).

In total, that's 5-7 new players, there's no reason why we can't sign that many players in the time we've got left, but I wouldn't too disappointed if we only signed 5 players in the end, so long as we plug those gaps in the starting 11.

 

[SwissBlade]

Swansea and Bristol City were two very different games.

We started the season rating to go. Had a first half where we had more touches in their box than we've ever had and were thrilling at times. We all know the outcome but most weren't unhappy at halftime.

Yesterday, we looked devoid of energy and ideas. Looked like we weren't enjoying being out there. Created hardly anything and looked like we were running on sand. You only had to look at our bench to see how unprepared we are for the season.

This is the result of years of bad recruitment.

We have 4 players who can play centre midfielder but half of them are injured most games. Which means someone like Peck has to play all the time when his minutes needed to be managed better at the start of the season. We saw the impact in overplaying players last season.

And because we have 4 players who can play there it makes recruitment difficult, both in terms of balancing a wage bill and the happiness of players when everyone is fit. It means the formation and style of football we can play is constrained. You can't play pressing football on a hot day when there's no one to bring off the bench.

We have injured players on long contracts. Backup players on long contracts. We've got young players in desperate need of a loan and we can't afford to send them out.

In been critical of Selles but our terrible recruitment planning has meant that in just a week we've gone from trying to play the way he wants to play on the opening day to a bodged approach trying to get something with the players we have available.

What we need in the next two weeks is to have a plan and execute it well. A plan to bring in the players we need, both on loan and permanently, and the right mix of age and experience. We need a plan for the young players who've been forced to play although not ready. A plan to manage the minutes of first team players to allow them to perform at their best while on the pitch.

I want us to play the kind of football we did in the first half against Bristol City, but with both the squad to deal with the defensive side and enough bodies to allow players to give everything.

I think we need to do a lot of business in the next fortnight to allow that to happen. Both ins and outs. I can't see it myself. Having no midweek game will help a lot though.

I am not sure that we started the season raring to go, i don't understand in what sense? I don't remember any season where i've been so underwhelmed by the summers business. Someone said to me about the number of goals scored in friendlies being the highest and I shrugged as I don't think that is the point of preseason games.

At half time v Bristol City I was a little shellshocked at how poor we'd been and how we couldn't keep the ball. A lack of control of the game and we were at home.

Recruitment is one thing but the poor preparation by the coaching staff and players to play a new system is mind blowing.

Yesterday seemed less gungho, but poor all the same.

 

[dexter101]

Is this much different to last season with 14 days to go ?

Yes, mainly because of how many bodies we had last season.

RB for example we had seriki, gilchrist, clark and choudry. If seriki had a poor run, we had some other options which took the pressure off him.

As it stands, his back up is Curtis.

Brooks had JRS (and brewster...) last season.

OK, he technically has Ukaki this season although o hare played there at the weekend (and I hope doesn't again).

With young players, we need them to have time playing but also try and protect them at the same time.

 

[robbiez666]

I am not sure that we started the season raring to go, i don't understand in what sense? I don't remember any season where i've been so underwhelmed by the summers business. Someone said to me about the number of goals scored in friendlies being the highest and I shrugged as I don't think that is the point of preseason games.

At half time v Bristol City I was a little shellshocked at how poor we'd been and how we couldn't keep the ball. A lack of control of the game and we were at home.

Recruitment is one thing but the poor preparation by the coaching staff and players to play a new system is mind blowing.

Yesterday seemed less gungho, but poor all the same.

Poor? We had more touches in the opposition's box in the first half of that game than we ever have at this level. Sure, the way they cut through us was worrying but give over. I was not unhappy at halftime. Even the shoutbox was fairly positive! The second half was dire.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Sharp, McGoldrick and McBurnie all scored this weekend.

I'd genuinely swap them three for Campbell, Cannon and Oné right now.

We're in a reyt fucking state at minute.

 

[Nagima]

Poor? We had more touches in the opposition's box in the first half of that game than we ever have at this level. Sure, the way they cut through us was worrying but give over. I was not unhappy at halftime. Even the shoutbox was fairly positive! The second half was dire.

I was thinking at half time that we would get back level again and then push on. You are right, we were attacking well, exciting going forward. But as the game went on we didn't make the tactical adjustments that were needed.

We could get away with a weak right fullback if we had a leader at the back.
We could knit the team into a cohesive unit if we had a steady eddy leader in the middle of the park.

Hamer isn't a leader but a potential game changer. Peck is too young and raw for that as is Soumare. Davies is not fit most of the time. I could not understand Wilder not replacing Souttar and when he had holding not playing him.

As for Selles and the board. Selles is another who doesn't show the aptitude for making in game tactical changes. The board in not setting up a recruitment policy that has some common sense. Campbell can be injury prone so that could leave us with Cannon as a striker. One isn't league 2 standard at present. Millwall spent £5M for Josh Coburn who absolutely bullied Robinson all night at the lane.

There are enough players about that could make us competitive but it seems the manager or board are on a different planet.
If this isn't addressed quickly it will get toxic. You can see Cooper and Campbell getting agitated already in games.

Leaders required and fast.

 

[robbiez666]

Is this much different to last season with 14 days to go ?

The team against Preston at the start of last season:

---------------------------Davies
Gilchrist-----------Anel-----------Robbo----------Burrows
------------------Souza--------------Arblaster
----Brooks--------------------------------------Hamer
------------------------O'Hare
------------------------------Moore

Subs: Grbic, Seriki,Trusty, Souttar, Peck, Coulibaly, Slimane, Marsh, Brewster

Against Bristol City:

---------------------------Cooper
Seriki-------------Bindon-----------RND------------Burrows
--------O'Hare-------------Peck--------------Hamer
------Brooks----------------Campbell--------Barry


Subs: Davies, McCallum, Sasnauskis, Robinson, Hampson, Coulibaly Soumare, One, Cannon

There's both a difference in experience/readiness on the bench and a lack of cover for specific positions

 

[Snowflake]

Yes, mainly because of how many bodies we had last season.

RB for example we had seriki, gilchrist, clark and choudry. If seriki had a poor run, we had some other options which took the pressure off him.

As it stands, his back up is Curtis.

Brooks had JRS (and brewster...) last season.

OK, he technically has Ukaki this season although o hare played there at the weekend (and I hope doesn't again).

With young players, we need them to have time playing but also try and protect them at the same time.

I don’t think we had all those players with 14 days to of the window left.

 

[Snowflake]

The team against Preston at the start of last season:

---------------------------Davies
Gilchrist-----------Anel-----------Robbo----------Burrows
------------------Souza--------------Arblaster
----Brooks--------------------------------------Hamer
------------------------O'Hare
------------------------------Moore

Subs: Grbic, Seriki,Trusty, Souttar, Peck, Coulibaly, Slimane, Marsh, Brewster

Against Bristol City:

---------------------------Cooper
Seriki-------------Bindon-----------RND------------Burrows
--------O'Hare-------------Peck--------------Hamer
------Brooks----------------Campbell--------Barry


Subs: Davies, McCallum, Sasnauskis, Robinson, Hampson, Coulibaly Soumare, One, Cannon

There's both a difference in experience/readiness on the bench and a lack of cover for specific positions

I had in mind the lateness of good signings rather than the comparison of the starting elevens.
As with last year the season will hinge on what happens in the next 10:days and then in January.

 

[dexter101]

I don’t think we had all those players with 14 days to of the window left.

Ah,yes. I get your point now.

And my comparison also followed January window too

 

[SwissBlade]

Poor? We had more touches in the opposition's box in the first half of that game than we ever have at this level. Sure, the way they cut through us was worrying but give over. I was not unhappy at halftime. Even the shoutbox was fairly positive! The second half was dire.

We got cut apart from front to back, as I say, gung-ho. I was nervous watching the entire game, they made poor decisions in attack, as did we, but still scored 4. I didn’t feel like we were going to score when we attacked first half

 

[Addison]

For us to play the high intensity game that Selles advocates it will take a minimum of 4 quality championship standard players coming in. Two centre backs, a box to box midfielder and a right back. We are linked with Thomas and Doyle at CB and Tim Ireogbanum for the midfield. All 3 would fit the championship standard mark so the onus is on the Board to get the players in before the window closes. Right back rumours centre around a Korean player with an untried youngster from Malmo in the frame. Neither fit the requirements and should be discarded now imo with emphasis directed to a quality right back.

Poor recruitment has been a given over the last few years at SUFC. The lack of a DOF has never been more apparent yet the owners fiddle whilst the club is in danger of burning in a potential relegation mire.

The time has come for the Board to change direction. Acknowledge they've got it wrong and ditch the poker player and current reliance on ESC exemptions until such time experienced football people are brought into the club as support at director level. Without this the current manager is doomed to fail through lack of support. The owners would garner more respect from supporters than they currently have if they were honest enough to admit the errors and take immediate action to rectify them.