victorturner

Would have been appropriate to make a statement about Joe Ashton-maybe he has and I've missed it

Maybe but with Waddle feeding him through balls, he had great pace and good finishing, in both areas better than Bright and Hirst, both keen on passing their opinions, one ageing, the other slowing down and never very good at self discipline in keeping himself fit even though no fault of his own crocked by Steve Bould and other vicious defenders. Warhurst had been absolutely brillant the previous season. He was the future. He was rumoured to have personal problems with other players but who knows? Waddle/ Warhurst combo shown in match vs Derby on MOTD last Sunday.

Think Bright was angling for a place as well.

Could just be an awful midfield which shines against poor teams when there is lots of possession but cannot battle and defend against the good teams?

And the ground needs attention

They demonstrated how a midfield which appears like magic whenever the opposition has the ball towards their penalty area can stifle attacks. We know this about our team by default as it has been demonstrated since Wembley that we need a better midfield. We have instead acquired numerous wingers and strikers, although Longuo was at last the right kind of acquisition.

Don’t think they needed to expend much effort last night though, unlike in those other matches. Not comparable. And they were playing at least one well known dodgy defender who has struggled whenever he has played, which has been irregular.

Not embarrassed at all. But you cannot pretend Man City were playing flat out. They tried to stroll through much of the match but we lacked the ability to fluster them except on one or two occasions. We played as if we knew we could not land a glove on them and we did so only once when Fletcher missed that chance from Hunt’s lovely cross. It was a long way from classic Cup matches when the underdog shows they could win and a long way from when we beat Arsenal 3-0 4/5 years ago.

He is a counter attacker and with City's midfield , that was exposed. We did not look capable of attacking.

The decline since being 3rd at Xmas cannot just be explained by Fletcher being injured

Agree it shouldn't be discussed. But it's the manager who has frozen players out and sent them to the U 23s, which is a bit humiliating . He has propelled it into being a factor. And he has had issues with players at previous clubs and not stayed long with them. That is quite unusual certainly at SWFC esp as we have just gone through a period when they could have been loaned out or paid up and released. Now we do not know whether this has been tried I agree but the other factor is that the team is very short of midfield players and it may have affected trust and solidarity among the squad-agree we do not know the facts.

Trevor Francis could bring in top players but Dave Richards decided to sack him. Then requiring Wilson to manage di Canio

Yes..needs game time

Freezing players out is unacceptable. Bit of a big boss syndrome apparent. GM should be able to keep the dressing room together and not expel senior players to U23s

Great failure of management to be unable to stop Hutchinson making daft tackles from CC onwards