quakerste wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 6:57 am
I' m afraid to say but it was not a knee jerk reaction last season when we played with two in the middle of the park we were poor it only improved as did our form when we played with three and put Holness in there. Unfortunately Holness decided he wanted to move on and has not been replaced which has weakened the team.
We have Atkinson, Reid and Hedley who can possibly play in the middle however non of them are box to box or creative players who will chip in with a few goals.
For me Alan has been far to loyal to certain players who are fringe/squad players at best Watson, Reid Hedley and we are yet to see Atkinson or the unfortunate Holmes.
In my eyes we should be progressing the team with a few of these players being released and fresh young blood brought through and brought on.
We are now in the position if Hatfield is going to be out for a couple of weeks I can seriously see us struggling with what we have got. That is not a knee jerk reaction but an observation from yesterday's game and my opinion of certain players
I think I can remember Hedley playing 2 games in CM for us Gloucester away last season where he came on in the 2nd half when O'Neil was injured in the first (it was a very positive performance from him) and then yesterday when he was thrown in having not expected to play from the start. So two games, one good, one bad and you label him 'Northern League standard at best'. If he has a good game against Tadcaster on Tuesday how will that swing things? Will he become NPL1 standard 'at best'?
I know he's northern league standard but Reid managed 2 goals in 13 games last season. The Oracle Holness managed 3 in 27. Infact Hatfield as good as he was only managed 3 league goals last season and he is the definition of box to box midfielder. I haven't seen you call out the others for lack of goals? But then again its far easier to just on a scapegoat after a couple of tough games.
Atkinson is one we might agree on. Its a shame we haven't seen more of him, and his injury record is disappointing, but most of last season was an ankle ligament injury, and this season he's tweaked his groin not too dissimilar to the hamstring tweaks across 3 or 4 members of our squad from an unusual preseason.
Don't know why Watson is being brought in either, he has always been here as a cheaper cover option for Liddle who most agree is more than good enough to be our starting left back. Barring a bad game against Guiseley last season Watson never let himself down. Especially at say Walsall away playing full time pros from leagues above. He stepped in every time he was required to last season so bit of a non point on him.
These comments are no different to that vile Facebook tin shed board. Full of know nowts spouting off at the first sight of troube under the guise of being 'passionate about the club' and 'watching since the womb'. What a load of bed wetters half our fan base are.
No one is saying you have to be delighted or think it was a positive performance, but try a bit of balance and a bit of context. We got through to the next round of the FA cup against a side who'd already played 4 competitive fixtures. We lost narrowly to Fylde a FT club and one of the league favourites, 1-0 on a Tuesday night to a great finish from a player who shouldn't be in this league. And now we've had a disappointing defeat (performance wise) to another FT side who will have had more than double the prep time to us at the start of this season. Of all 3 games yesterdays is the only one which I'm particularly down about and that's because in my opinion we didn't reach the levels of application we came to expect last season. And this is the basis for which you call for players to be released?