I really don’t know why Warnock gets such a bad press from some of our fans. He certainly had his faults but for me, he has been by some way our best and most successful manager of the last 20 years. He gave us the triple assault season, helped set up the academy, gave us a season in the top flight and whilst he got things wrong there, what he did would have been enough to keep us up in a just world.
He also brought favourites like Brown, Morgs, Page, Kabba, Geary, Kenny, Hulse etc. to to the club whilst bringing the likes of Jagielka, Tonge and Monty through the ranks.
I hope Adkins’ reign will eclipse his but I find it very odd that a man who did so much good for our club is so hated by the fans.
One of the reasons he was successful IMO was the number of attacking options he kept at his disposal. Our promotion season saw us use Gray, Webber, Kabba, Shipps, Pericard, Akinbiyi, Horsefield, Dyer and Deane up front at some stage or another. That’s 9 strikers throughout the season, 10 if you count the couple of games where we played Jags just off a striker.
In the tripe assault season we used Asaba, Peschisolido, Onoura, Allison, Windass, Kabba, and Mooney off the top of my head. Was Boulding on loan that season as well? If so that’s 8 strikers used that season.
This season in the league, we are likely to use Sharp, Adams, Sammon, McNulty, Done and possibly one of DdG or DCL and (hopefully not) Higdon. That’s about 6 or 7 though I suspect Higdon and the 2 youngsters mentioned will play extremely peripheral roles leaving Sharp, Adams, McNulty Sammon and Done. 5 strikers. I also suspect that one of Adams and Done will be on the wing in most games so that’s 4. Not too many at all in my opinion and the flexibility of Adams and Done is particularly useful.
It pays to have consistency in selection in the defence but for me, having so many varied options up front is a huge blessing for us this season. I think it’s something that will see us with a lot of games in the 2nd half (like Blackpool and Swindon).