Broken Spine. | Vital Football

Broken Spine.

J

jeffs right

Vital Football Hero
Last season we had a consistent side more or less throughout the season, a ystem that we stuck with and wherever possible there were very few changes to the playing personnel. Probably the the most important factor in that record breaking season was the spine of the team. This was Walton in goal, Dan Burn, Sam Morsy Nick Powell and Will Grigg. This season that so consistent spine has been broken.
Walton has been inconsistent. Dan Burn Sold, injured and gone. Sam has been pretty consistent but had a better deep midfield partnership with Max than any of his partners this season. Nick Powell has been injured and possibly had his head turned and could be away. Will Grigg too has been injured, dropped and had his service restricted through lack of support from lesser players he worked with last season. Will too may be away and if not his head could be elsewhere. It isn't surprising that this season isn't going quite to plan. Spine broken and on the verge of being ripped apart. Such a shame and a major re-build is going to be required for us to compete next season. Recruitment over the last twelve months has also been diabolical to help repair that broken Spine so it is now down to our new board and owners to start showing their true intentions towards our club. Can start by building a new spine but it is looking more like a major skeletal rebuild is required. If they want Cooky to do the job then back him and back him now.
 
Just wondering if there is an attempt for the most threads debating exactly the same point going on? This could have been posted in anyone of about 6 threads still live! Can we not just use the one thread to make it easier for everyone
 
exiled tic said:
Just wondering if there is an attempt for the most threads debating exactly the same point going on? This could have been posted in anyone of about 6 threads still live! Can we not just use the one thread to make it easier for everyone
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Go on then we dont ever seem to see you start a thread so go on start an interesting thread we can all join in or just take the easy way and criticise it.
 
jeffs right said:
Last season we had a consistent side more or less throughout the season, a ystem that we stuck with and wherever possible there were very few changes to the playing personnel. Probably the the most important factor in that record breaking season was the spine of the team. This was Walton in goal, Dan Burn, Sam Morsy Nick Powell and Will Grigg. This season that so consistent spine has been broken.
Walton has been inconsistent. Dan Burn Sold, injured and gone. Sam has been pretty consistent but had a better deep midfield partnership with Max than any of his partners this season. Nick Powell has been injured and possibly had his head turned and could be away. Will Grigg too has been injured, dropped and had his service restricted through lack of support from lesser players he worked with last season. Will too may be away and if not his head could be elsewhere. It isn't surprising that this season isn't going quite to plan. Spine broken and on the verge of being ripped apart. Such a shame and a major re-build is going to be required for us to compete next season. Recruitment over the last twelve months has also been diabolical to help repair that broken Spine so it is now down to our new board and owners to start showing their true intentions towards our club. Can start by building a new spine but it is looking more like a major skeletal rebuild is required. If they want Cooky to do the job then back him and back him now.
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I think we banked on our existing players stepping up and our new signings being an improvement on what we had - unfortunately nearly all of them haven't been overall good enough. We haven't helped ourselves with our tactics either but there's been so few reliable players for us. Morsy and James are probably the only 2 who've shown any real consistency and they've not been perfect. Also like you say James isn't in the spine where we need the most stability which is why I'd not be against moving James to centre half to try and give us some stability.

Also I think the month we had of a true fit and on form Nick Powell was a rarity and covered over a lot of cracks. If we can get that again for the run in we'll probably get away with a lot.
 
jeffs right said:
Go on then we dont ever seem to see you start a thread so go on start an interesting thread we can all join in or just take the easy way and criticise it.
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Actually i do start threads,but try to start a thread for a new topic and not just regurgitate the same old arguments you post on almost every thread!
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
I think we banked on our existing players stepping up and our new signings being an improvement on what we had - unfortunately nearly all of them haven't been overall good enough. We haven't helped ourselves with our tactics either but there's been so few reliable players for us. Morsy and James are probably the only 2 who've shown any real consistency and they've not been perfect. Also like you say James isn't in the spine where we need the most stability which is why I'd not be against moving James to centre half to try and give us some stability.

Also I think the month we had of a true fit and on form Nick Powell was a rarity and covered over a lot of cracks. If we can get that again for the run in we'll probably get away with a lot.
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I think you are right KDZ in that we did bank on the majority of the players from last year stepping up, and indeed they did in the first few weeks and then the injuries kicked in. Unfortunately we have been struggling to bring the new signings up to speed to replace them. James has been the only one to really settle from the start. Naismith is improving with each game he plays and was probably unlucky to be thrown in so soon and technically out of position. Windass blows hot and cold, Garner can probably improve if the service to him gets better. We really do not have a genuine replacement for Powell's quality although Roberts tries hard. Burn was a shadow of the player he was last season and I think he was holding back for fear of getting injured before moving to Brighton. Kipre and Dunckley were forming an effective partnership prior to Dunks injury and playing alongside Burn didn't seem to help him. Walton lost confidence in the men in front of him and retreated into his shell.

I know its easy to blame injuries and we really should be capable of withstanding the changes forced upon us by them but having just come up a division with a manager who has no experience at this level and then having to cope with a crisis of this nature I am not surprised that we find ourselves in this position. Perhaps if we had already established ourselves in the league for a couple of seasons the impact might not have been as problematic.

The only saving grace for me is that we did get off to a good start and banked some points, the injuries are clearing and hopefully we can get back to playing the sort of football we were playing prior to the injury disruption. I still believe we can come out of this season stronger and be in a reasonably comfortable league position by the end.
 
I've got to be honest i think injuries are a reason are a logical reason on the face of it but they have been used as an excuse.

The performances started to go off the boil when only 1 of the front 3 was out injured, and with all due respect to Massey he isn't that important that the whole team fell apart without him. Then we had 2 out, then 3 then all 4, but it wasn't a gradual deterioation that got worse as each one fell it was about the same level of poor since 1 went to all 4 going out and Grigg has been available more often than not and we've chosen not to use him, so is it really fair to say that it matters if he is fit or not?

I think the issue was we didn't try to play the same way without them rather than the issue was who was on the pitch. Granted having your first choice players will help and some of the subs are not the same standard - but even the players who've been fit throughout weren't playing the same way so there is a huge part of a tactical switch that did us in a lot more than losing some to injury.

Don't get me wrong the injuries certainly hampered us, but if we had the first choice 11 playing the long ball stuff we'd have got equally as bad results and performances from them. But if we had the second choice 11 going for it like they did against Villa then we probably wouldn't be as goods as if all the first teamers were fit - but we'd certainly have fared better last quarter of the season and played better. If we were playing the same way but the play kept breaking down in the final third due to lack of quality it would be fair enough, but we weren't even getting the ball into the final third unless it was in the air for so many games in that bad run.

I think our problem was for whatever reason we got scared of the teams we were playing after being fearless and we went from setting up to go toe to toe with anyone trying to win games to keeping it tight to avoid getting beat. Unfortunately our defensive organisation isn't anywhere near good enough to grind out points at this level.
 
The experience of the manager is also key to the drop in form, perhaps there were more small niggly injuries in the squad at the time and players asked to play through them until they broke down. I don't know if this is true or not however it would answer a few questions. Because it is PC's first season in this division perhaps a little bit of doubt crept in and he panicked, we will probably never know but hopefully whatever caused the slump will be sorted out when the full squad is once again available.
 
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