First post I have made since the final whistle yesterday, other than to Roy's View From a few minutes ago, I was just too angry, but mostly sad to see what has happened to the team over the last few weeks. As usual there are myriad reasons for this, so knee jerk reactions are not what is called for, remember this team & management got us to second & 14 points clear in the first place, & if we really were that bad we couldn't have done that.
I reluctantly accepted many poor & negative away performances because we were winning at home, but that safety first attitude of Hecky's has now permeated to our home form too, & it is really puzzling to understand why. Let's get one thing straight though, any suggestion of players not trying is simply not true, it is down to confidence. When your form dips & things don't flow it is crippling, you look like you are running in water & become tense & unsure what to do. Management should spot this & take those players out of the eleven for a bit, but if they are struggling too (mentally) it is not a nice place to be.
Perhaps this explains team selection, perhaps not, but it is clear to see Hecky's trust in certain players is misplaced, poor old Flecky springs to mind. When he returned from his latest injury I was expecting the worse, but he was actually okay, but has now regressed back to Jimmy, & though it is sad to say we won't see John again. There are more, but this isn't about slagging off the players, it is simply time up for some of them.
For me the solution is legs, because we have non in midfield, someone like Coulibaly might not have the experience, but he is young, athletic & gets up & down the pitch, as does Arblaster. If we sleepwalk into the playoffs by sticking with the old guard instead of bringing fresh players in, it will rank right up there as a very "Sheffield United" thing to do.
