The squad that Terry assembled

I agree that in the main most of the players that have been signed since Terry arrived represent good up and coming youngsters who have an hunger to achieve, and at face value have a squad harmony by comparison to what we've had recently. Also a fair few have worked with Terry in his previous roles so you would expect that he knows exactly what he's getting, not just playing ability wise, but type of character, and what they could contribute in the dressing room.

I for one believe that we have one of the strongest squads in this league after the last 2 transfer windows, so any failure must sit with Terry, his players, his tactics, his motivational skills, his man management!

That said I believe that we are lacking a proven goal poacher, and apart from Smallwood a further couple of experienced quality players who have been there and done it.....gained a promotion. If Smallwood is missing or not having a good game, the impact on the rest is there to see.

I hate the term 'must win' but fear automatic may well be beyond us is we slip to a ninth defeat against Donny tomorrow night.

Hope I'm wrong but really hope Ehabs appetite for making a profit or two from player sales, combined with Terrys ineptitude do not prevent a promotion this season. Promoted or not, goodbye Terry, you're potentially failing again.

 

I'm going to put my house on that we don't get beat by Donny tomorrow night Cheshireles! But, we could well get hammered by Lincoln, unless Grant has learned any lessons! No, I don't think so either, but, well you all know the drill, we live in hope. It's the hope that kills you.

Senior moment!!

 

Must learn to read the fixture list better..........no I'll go with 'a moment' keep the 'senior' bit out ta!

 

Dennis Waterman played Terry McCann in Minder from 1979-1989.
I think the cultural reference has passed its use by date!

 

Tomorrow’s game will show us if the belief that teams learn from playing us, like Accrington. Lincoln are a good side, probably go up as Champions, but there’s no guarantee of,a, them winning & ,b, us not learning something from playing them recently.
The players brought in, some are starting to look like they’re getting better, Doc & KLP. Some like they’ve never seen a ball before, Eaves, Magennis & Wilks. The 3 strikers we have, although Magennis has had CV19, Eaves IMO is living off one good season at Gillingham & Wilks, well gone downhill recently, & for McCann to come out & say what he did, was pointless. But it’s done now, maybe he just likes giving them a kick up the arse in public. Get the job done, like with the KLP contract.

 

Smallwood has the experience, has a bit of bite, tries to do keep things simple to let others play, etc .... but he's not actually all that good. A very average player at this level. Totally agree we are missing one or two other older wiser heads, who should ideally be better players but just not in their youth anymore. He's brought in and inherited plenty of attacking options, including players who have previously shown they have goals in them. Other than still lacking that healthy balance of experience its down to McCant imo.

 

Killjoy as opposed to Lovejoy.
#askarthur

 

Agree. Mate of mine who's a Blackburn supporter said he'd do a job for us at this level, but was next to useless for them in The Championship

 

I was debating between p**t and Terry, settled wrongly on Terry!

 

I appreciate that its a different league and pay scale, but what Connor Hourihane has done for Swansea City is remarkable. Square peg, square hole. I hope that one day before I pop mine that we are in the market for quality again... as it stands, I think some of our signings have been a scatter gun approach. I said before, if this season goes tits up, Greaves, Doc and Emmanuell will be gone..

 

Smallwood's a solid player and exactly what we needed, not on par with Ashbee or even Meyler but a solid player. I think Alfie Jones has been a good signing as well and could fit into Smallwood's role if we keep him when Smallwood moves on.

The most annoying thing for me is getting rid of Batty, who's probably a better footballer than Smallwood in terms of ability and certain better than Slater. Now Smallwood and Jones are injured, we're left with a kid on loan from Sheff Utd who's done nowt for us whilst a player better than him has moved on because he was so far down the pecking order. Bizarre.

 

McCan't has his favorites more than most managers do. He will stick with somebody he likes regardless of what they do/don't do. You could call it stupid and stubborn. Wilks, Long, Elder and maybe Coyle now fall into that category. It takes a hell of a lot to get him to change his mind.

 

Elder? He’s there on merit

 

He's been one of our better players recently but before the new year, he had some shockers. Fleetwood away in the league springs to mind.

 

Is the only one and that was the system again with him having no support. Even when it was obvious he was struggling Terry didn’t change it up to help him out against a speedy winger.

 

It wasn't just the Fleetwood game, he was below average throughout a lot of October. In any case, he's one our better players recently. I think Jackthecap's point was that McCann won't drop certain players no matter how bad their run of form is. Wilks is a perfect example of that but instead of benching him and giving him the opportunity to fight his way back into the team, he throws him under the bus to the media. He's extremely stubborn and arrogant considering how **** he is. When it's Mourinho, fair enough because he has trophies at several huge clubs on his CV; when it's a guy who's never gotten a team promoted from League 1 and gotten the only Championship club he's managed relegated, it's just embarrassing.

 

I can agree about Wilks but all players have a poor spell or not as high a standard as usual. Greaves has had poor games, Burke too, Smallwood.
There’s only doc and Emmanuel who have been a high level of consistency. It didn’t make everyone of them a favourite.

 

Agree 100% on Batty, he looked good in the few chances he got. He’s gone to Fleetwood, first game, MOM.
Smallwood is the Ash type player we’ve needed & for me Batty was his natural back up, Slater hasn’t really had a lot of opportunities to start, so I think the jury is still out on him.

 

Consistently poor.