Pride of our fans not reflected in our management

[gerblod]

On 31/12/2021 at 14:01, sacreblueits442 said:

the situation at the time called for the actions which we took!!!

 The choices may have turned out to be less than we had hoped but the idea was right..

   At the time bringing in Vestergaard as a last minute replacement to cover Fofana and Evans recurring problems was a no brainer, we had been linked with him prior to his acquisition. Tarkowski on the other hand would have cost us a lot of money, Burnley would not have let us get away with anything less than £40m.

  Bertrand was a good call, an experienced head to share with Thomas and if Soumare can get his game going like KDH, then you would understand that the idea is what we have needed for a long time, the double pivot is not enough to protect our back four.

It is the easy option to criticise in hindsight and the extent to which foresight is expected of the management approaches the miraculous.

Howyever, my contention is that the issue of Evans' increasing vulnerability was apparent two season's before this point. Fofana's injury was unforeseeable, yet it was apparent that he and Söyüncü  needed Evans as the leader/organiser of the defence. Adequate cover by a talented, young player was essential. Bennett was a cheap fix which didn't work. At the moment neither is the Vestergaard fix working - although it might against lesser teams City encounter. So my criticism is that the Evans' dilemma has been left sitting, ignored, like the proverbial elephant in the room.

 

Luke Thomas had proven himself (for me, anyway) to be more than adequate during his run of games in '20-'21. It seemed though that BR didn't have the confidence in him to make him first choice. Bertrand could have been given an opportunity to integrate as Thomas's sub, but BR didn't see it that way and the result has been less than positive for the team.

Defence issues have now caused the season to implode on the team. Having said that, the abandonment of zonal marking in the Liverpool game might be the turning point.

Soumare has to come good. At present he seems off-pace and a little lost. Again, a home-grown player is showing how it's done.

Up front the transfers are markedly different. We have six remarkably assured sharpshooters as first-choices. So, I guess, on balance, there's something to cheer about, as imbalanced as the recruiting has been (in my view).

 

 

[gerblod]

On 31/12/2021 at 16:15, The_77 said:

 happy new year. 

Beat me to it!