Time to freshen things up?

[Melton Blade]

As CW said last night he won't throw his players under the bus due to how brilliant they have been this season as a whole.

But I'd suggest a couple of tweaks for Sunday. Hendo & Egan will obviously return but Enda seems short of energy and his usual spark - so assuming JOC still unavailable, I would move him back to LCB where he played a few times last year & give Ben a chance at LWB to get things going better down the left.

Is Flecky still carrying that knock? He has been invisible these last two games. I'd seriously consider swopping him for Luke on Sunday. Ben & Luke are both fresh and have chance of getting the left hand side productive again (with Enda able to overlap).

I think Billy is certain to start up front & hopefully Didzy will link up things with the midfield.

Oli is unrecognizable in central midfield - it must be his hair getting in his eyes - the number of times he gives the ball away. I know Sander isn't setting the world alight but jeez we have been poor in the middle.

In Wilder we trust.

UTB

 

[Wards]

As CW said last night he won't throw his players under the bus due to how brilliant they have been this season as a whole.

But I'd suggest a couple of tweaks for Sunday. Hendo & Egan will obviously return but Enda seems short of energy and his usual spark - so assuming JOC still unavailable, I would move him back to LCB where he played a few times last year & give Ben a chance at LWB to get things going better down the left.

Is Flecky still carrying that knock? He has been invisible these last two games. I'd seriously consider swopping him for Luke on Sunday. Ben & Luke are both fresh and have chance of getting the left hand side productive again (with Enda able to overlap).

I think Billy is certain to start up front & hopefully Didzy will link up things with the midfield.

Oli is unrecognizable in central midfield - it must be his hair getting in his eyes - the number of times he gives the ball away. I know Sander isn't setting the world alight but jeez we have been poor in the middle.

In Wilder we trust.

UTB

It sounds more of a mental barrier to me that they’re suffering from but agree we need to look to give some others a chance.

Obvious opportunity to give the likes of Osborn and Freeman the chance to stake their claim for next year - if we need players that are hungry to do well then these two are surely it. Freeman especially needs to make a case for not being moved on.

 

[Bladezz]

Our second team is pretty horrendous and isn’t anywhere near the level we need to be able to mix it up a bit. The recruitment hasn’t been fantastic last 2 windows. So we pretty much have to go with that we have.

 

[BigBed]

With all the talk of us being tired out, then why are the same players still starting over players that have hardly featured???
Osbourn and L Freeman must be good enough for a game or 2?, we need fresh legs and to rest some, or this is only going to get worse, and we need to be looking at players playing regularly elsewhere when the transfer window opens, because fitness seems to be the 1 thing we thought we had on our side, but it seems we were wrong?

 

[8lade]

Good shout Melton Blade I'm not Freeman's biggest fan but he deserves a crack now and Osborne's crossing in an earlier cup game was fantastic.

 

[Antonb]

we carnt freshen up, our back up players are not good enough. Some poor signings im afraid.

 

[blades78]

I'd like to see us go back to the championship team shape and put either Mcgoldrick or Freeman in the 'Duffy' role. Should give us an extra body in the final third and hopefully create more chances.

 

[Ricky]

Osborn and Freeman need to start games now.

If not now then when? And where's the incentive for them?

We could do with keeping both so we need to give them reason to believe they might actually feature for us occasionally.

For Arsenal I'd go like this:


Henderson
Basham Egan Stevens
Baldock Lundstram Norwood Freeman Osborn
Sharp McGoldrick


I think some need to play their way back in to form, and some need resting to get over knocks.

 

[tincan]

They have just had a 3month holiday, so how can they be tired?
It looks more that the rest have spent their time working out our overloads. Our 3against 2 triangle s have been responded to by the opposition by loading 4against 3.
The number of times an outball found its way to the opposite wing on his own yet he had no one to pass to was noticeable. So, responding to that is the priority.

 

[Torrix1889]

I'd like to see us go back to the championship team shape and put either Mcgoldrick or Freeman in the 'Duffy' role. Should give us an extra body in the final third and hopefully create more chances.

In theory true but with Fleck obviously nowhere near fit and Norwood being utter dross it won't work!

 

[Bladesman]

They have just had a 3month holiday, so how can they be tired?
It looks more that the rest have spent their time working out our overloads. Our 3against 2 triangle s have been responded to by the opposition by loading 4against 3.
The number of times an outball found its way to the opposite wing on his own yet he had no one to pass to was noticeable. So, responding to that is the priority.

True other teams have done that before though. We need to move the ball quicker and switch. It’s easy for them to stick 4 on us when we only attack down one side.

When we did create space the delivery was piss poor.

 

[S64 Blade]

Seems reasonable to me to give Osborn and Freeman a run out. Neither have ever let us down and it seems as good of a time as any for them to get their chance.

 

[KoppedOff]

I know it wont answer everything, but I really do think a goal would do us a power of good. Just one goal. Don't care who scores it, but it would lift the confidence of the whole team. Its “Sliding Doors”, and I dont want to harp on about the Villa non goal, but if that counts, does the team relax and settle a bit more? Do we then go on to get another goal, three points and go into Newcastle with momentum? We’ll never know, but the sooner we break that duck the better.

I’d also like to see Osborn involved, whether at LWB with Enda moving inside, or even in midfield. He’s a bundle of energy and thats something we seem to be lacking big time currently.

 

[Bobby b]

Hopefully what we're witnessing is the 2nd season syndrome luckily we have the points to be safe but to be equally or more successful next year we need to play well and win our lat couple of games

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

Get the kids in

 

[robbiez666]

I'd like to see Enda at LCB and Osborn as LWB. That should freshen up the left.

The problem in the last 3 games is that we have had nothing coming down the left. Drop Fleck for Freeman as well.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

Hopefully what we're witnessing is the 2nd season syndrome luckily we have the points to be safe but to be equally or more successful next year we need to play well and win our lat couple of games

What we're witnessing is a well-oiled machine in which all the cogs have been running as a unit for a couple of years.

Suddenly it's switched off.

On the restart, one of the cogs has broken and the replacement cog, whilst it fits, has actually come from a different machine that performs a different function and it's thrown the fluidity, balance, interchange and understanding that all the cogs had, out of kilter.

And the machine has also gone a bit rusty.

Until the machine gets the original cog back, or an exact copy, it won't run the same.

 

[Bladesman]

What we're witnessing is a well-oiled machine in which all the cogs have been running as a unit for a couple of years.

Suddenly it's switched off.

On the restart, one of the cogs has broken and the replacement cog, whilst it fits, has actually come from a different machine that performs a different function and it's thrown the fluidity, balance, interchange and understanding that all the cogs had, out of kilter.

And the machine has also gone a bit rusty.

Until the machine gets the original cog back, or an exact copy, it won't run the same.

Gerrit fixed!!!

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

Dad was a Seamus Heaney man, he used to say this to us all, usually whiskey driven and usually when something didn't pay off.

''Even if the last move did not succeed, the inner command says move again.''

 

[Houston_Blade]

A week or so ago I said that we shouldn't move Enda inside. I was wrong, we aren't overlapping at all from LCB and Enda would give us this, Osborn can't be any worse than Enda has been so stick him LWB.

 

[Bobby b]

What we're witnessing is a well-oiled machine in which all the cogs have been running as a unit for a couple of years.

Suddenly it's switched off.

On the restart, one of the cogs has broken and the replacement cog, whilst it fits, has actually come from a different machine that performs a different function and it's thrown the fluidity, balance, interchange and understanding that all the cogs had, out of kilter.

And the machine has also gone a bit rusty.

Until the machine gets the original cog back, or an exact copy, it won't run the same.

If I went on Ebay and got a part can you replace it for me, oh and I want an MOT

 

[Tynemouth Blade]

As much as I agree with the sentiment of the post title, I have to ask the burning question of "freshen up with what (who) exactly"?
This is one of our biggest issues as a squad and has been evident in the games where 'reserve' players come in.
For too long now and this is even more important as an EPL team, we have not have the quality in depth within the squad and that includes the recent big money signings!
OK, we're not (financially) a Manchester United or any of the usual top 6 EPL teams, but you look at the 5 subs they sent on last night and every single one was a better player than anyone in our 25 man squad!
In fact I'd go as far to say that not one of our current squad (maybe except for Henderson) would be good enough to make it into any of the usual Top 6 EPL squads!
Our first choice 11, as a unit, generally work well as a team and have done very well to get us to where we are, but individually they are far from top players. However, the main issue is that the players who have come in are just not good enough at this level.
We've done very well this season, better than anyone could have expected, but to push on we need much better players than what we currently have!

 

[Come from away]

Why panic?

Villa - we were screwed
Newcastle - without Egan we have shipped goals previously
Man U - we have not beaten any of the seven teams above us even when we were flying with a full team

We are not in good shape but the cure is not to scrap all we have built, we need calm heads not panic!

 

[BLADES1988]

Just had good info on this, a mystery man has dropped a VHS of what looked like a geese video off at shirecliffe today. Panic over, well be fine.

 

[BobblesBlade]

I’d have the team shoot more instead of playing around with it on the right or left.
id play through the middle and have Moose alongside Billy.

 

[Tynemouth Blade]

Why panic?

Villa - we were screwed
Newcastle - without Egan we have shipped goals previously
Man U - we have not beaten any of the seven teams above us even when we were flying with a full team

We are not in good shape but the cure is not to scrap all we have built, we need calm heads not panic!

You have just backed up my view.
Egan's replacement isn't good enough!

 

[Harrisblade]

You have just backed up my view.
Egan's replacement isn't good enough!

Egan AND O'Connell's replacements not good enough!
Can you suggest anyone who we could get as stand-bys?

 

[Tynemouth Blade]

Egan AND O'Connell's replacements not good enough!
Can you suggest anyone who we could get as stand-bys?

Not when the transfer window is closed!

 

[Harrisblade]

Not when the transfer window is closed!

Who would you have got when the transfer window was open, as stand-bys

 

[Come from away]

view

For now Edna in for Jack and Osborne for Edna, Jags is OK for the teams below us - just not the top six who have too much quality.