Barnsley 1 : 1 Sheffield Wednesday OMDT

[Lord Snooty]

Barnsley - V - Wednesday

 

 

 

Another week another round of questions raised about the injury crisis at Hillsborough. And it is a crisis, make no bones about that.  Many blame our previous manager for the chronic injury woes.  Though some of them have been picked up since his departure.  And he would be harshly accused of being the reason some players who have picked up the flu bug that is epidemic in the City.  

 

But is there a finger to point because of low base fitness?

Certainly players are more likely to pick up injury if they don't have the core levels required for a professional sportsman.  

I mean you don't need to be a medical professional that if you do bugger all sharp work in the week and then set off like a Greyhound from a trap on the Saturday week after week that eventually something will twang.

And yet....and yet.... none of them actually seem to be getting picked up in matches. That's the one that gets me.  Player plays. Seems fine. Next week they're out. Picked something up in the week.   Where? The Snooker club?

 

Last year the whole medical team was 'offed' and yet the injury catastrophe has carried on.  Our new manager Jos only this week said in his press comments that we have medical staff working 12 hour shifts around the clock to try and get our players back in action.

 Of course Jos is now trying to get the lads a decent base fitness with his double sessions etc. But again, he has to be careful himself that he doesn't overwork their shocked bodies!

..

 

Is it the training pitches perhaps which have come under scrutiny for many years?  Perhaps. But as someone on here pointed out the other day, if that is the case why are the kids who train AND play on those pitches not also getting injured.  Is it because they are young and bendy and recover more easily?

Who knows? Not me.

And of course, because no one seems to know that is when the theories start getting an airing, and we have heard them all in recent weeks.

 

Some of course are being accused of keeping out of the firing line ready to make sure they can get a move in the Summer. Another last pay day.   

Some say it's actually as case that the players are fit, but are being asked to fake injury so that they can't play because of some monetary triggers.

It wouldn't be the first time this has happened of course. Tommy Miller was a case in point in recent years.  Sat in the stands, during an injury crisis funnily enough, but unable to play because of a trigger in his contract which would have entitled him to a new deal on what at the time were Championship wages which we couldn't afford in the third division. Much as I seem to remember to the chagrin of a certain Mr Megson.

 

Whatever the reasons for the injury woes there are games to be played and it's all hands to the pumps as we travel into Dingle land on Saturday.

 

 

 

 

One player who is guaranteed a start  is Morgan Fox. With Pudil suspended, but playing centre half when fit , Jos preferring to use Reach's energy and stamina in midfield (also no doubt with one eye on the fact he's been our second best goalscorer this season) and Penney allowed to go out on loan to Mansfield to earn his stripes away from the "Toxic Atmosphere of Hillsborough"^TM    the Chelmsford born left footer is probably going to be one of the first names on the team sheet, despite become the latest in a long line of Wednesday players to become held us as a Totem of everything that is wrong currently. Which is hardly fair on the lad.  A third division player who jumped at (and wouldn't anyone) the chance to join a Championship club with a bit of money to spend and who (at that time) were one of the favourites for promotion.

 

With Lees still a week or so away from selection (due to play for the kids this coming week under the watchful eyes of the manager and the medical team) and club skipper Glenn Loovens apparently suffering from a bug, then the much derided Fox may even end up playing at centre half. 

People will say throw the kids in instead any of them - so low has Fox's stock dropped with a riled fan base looking for a vent . But while Jos has shown faith in the kids, I think it unlikely that he will put two youth defenders in the team in a League game, even though he was prepared to take that chance in the cup.  

 

 

 

If Loovens is deemed fit enough to start then I suspect he will.  He's another who has recently come to the attention of the fans as being past his best. (Though personally I think that has been evident since his injury in 2016). 

Whether his best days are behind him or not, I doubt the manager in this crisis will be overlooking his experience when we're in the position we're in. Will he? 

We are a funny lot as a fan base. We bemoan the injuries...and rightly so...but then want some of the few available players omitted. 

We've only 12 fit players and people are calling for Fox, Loovens, Nuhui to be dropped!

It truly is a funny old game , as Jimmy Greaves never said.

(It was actually Harry Enfield voicing a spitting image puppet that started that off) 

 

If Loovens isn't fit then Fox to centre half and Reach to LWB seems the obvious move. Which will open up a place for Wallace or Boyd to come into midfield.

 

With Matias so jubilant after having his ridiculous red card rescinded also now in the sick bay for 3 weeks. ( Yes. You read that right.  3 weeks , not 2 weeks. We've moved on from that now...)  there will more than likely be a recall for Jordan Rhodes.

 

No one seems to know what happened to Jordan last week.  Some said a strain. Some said it might have been family trouble.  But I just look at old Jos' lined face in the last press conference and I think he just gave him the week off.  I do honest.  

"Have a week off. Go and have a swim. Chill out.   Go to the pictures.  The new Star Wars is meant to be good. Hargreaves has seen it 6 times. Forget about football for a few days. Come back fresh next week"

 

Of course. That is probably all total cobblers.  But I like to think it might be the case. That Jos is some master player psychologist. 

Yes. I've a hunch for Rhodes starting.   

 

 

And what of the managerless Dingles?

Well the Dingles Chief executive Gauthier Ganaye , 29, (yes twenty nine. That's what i'm told. I know. I know. I feel like an old two-hat now as well) anyway....he  says that the club have been inundated with applications for the vacant head coach position following the exit of Paul Heckingbottom - with a shortlist to be drawn up over the weekend.

It's a funny thing. I spoke to the Dingle who fixed my roof (excellent by the way. Worked at tremendous speed. Of course it's easy to throw slates about with the extra digit) I digress... he said he was pleased Heckingbottom had moved on.  Not because of the terrible run they were on. But because he was worried if it carried on that it might taint what a good job he's done since he's been there.  He did opine however that taking the L**ds job was akin to leaving a full time job....after being offered 3 months agency.

 

It's the usual suspects on the bookies list . McLaren, Grayson, Appleton, etc etc .

 

 

One person who says he's not thrown his hat in the ring is the current bookies favourite for the Job -  Dingle Mick himself. 

He says he's not applied and not been asked to.

When told he was favourite that that some Barnsley fans on twitter were campainging for him to be brought back to Oakwell he said he said with some self-deprecation -

 

 

 

Paul Harsley (their U23 coach)  will take temporary charge of team affairs this weekend and he's got to try and halt a slide which has seen them pick up just 1 win in 15 games and that a win over whipping boys  Sunderland.

For all that though...and the fact that they sit just one point outside of the relegation places.....they are still ahead of us in the form table!

 

 

Of course.  They could completely do something radical. They have a tendencies to mix things up these caretaker managers don't they. So it could be something totally different to what we have planned to be up against.  But this was their set up on their last outing - a 1-0 defeat at QPR - who incidentally player 3-5-2.

 

 

 

 

 

Two teams then who would probably take it if the season finished sooner rather than later. Could realistically go either way.

 

 We have to hope that Harsley doesn't read owlstalk or he'll know exactly how to secure the win.  'If you're playing against 3-5-2 all you have to do is wait until the wing backs commit to the attack and then hoof the ball into the space behind them and having your strikers or wingers stay forward and run onto it."

UP THE OWLS

 

Oh.

One last thing before I go.

 

This week Jos has been getting some stick too.

 Incredible ,IMO.  

Considering the man has walked into a club with half the squad injured, a team on the slide, devoid of any confidence, fitness or creativity, a club who'd barely had a shot on goal in a calendar month in December and who had just been pumped right up the ricker by Burton Albion!

He's come into that.

Having to work with odds and sods and kids. And got results against 3 teams in the top 6.  

What's he get?

"Results not good enough."

"He's taking us down"

"Not scoring enough goals"  (as if we have been free-scoring before his arrival)

"Pickin't wrong team" -  after one defeat which we played most of with 10 men. A part of with 9 men and in which individual errors which he could do nothing about , one by an atrocious referee and two by player (players who the crowd would have gone crackers about if he'd not picked!) cost him his first defeat!

 

I mean ,really? Are we really going down that road after 4 league games?

 

I don't know if the season has just got on top of people.

I don't know if  its Carlos lovers who don't like the new step-dad manager and won't accept him whatever he does.

 

But do you know...

 

If Jos wins on Saturday.... his record as Wednesday manager will be better than Carlos' was in his first 5 games at club.

And that, let us remember was a first five was in totally different circumstances too.

 It was on the crest of an optimism wave, with a new Chairman, with money being thrown around on top Champinship players like Forestieri , a pre season of good news, a new telly, a new pitch, etc etc? a  positive fan base. 

It wasn't midway through a catastrophic shitstorm of season with no money, half the squad injured, the Chairman with the monk on, the fans in uproar and Hillsborough 'Toxic".

 

So come on. Lets cut the chap some bloody slack.  The man has walked into an absolute nightmare ,and is actually doing well with the tools he's got. Lets get behind him. 

 

 

COME ON JOS!

COME ON WEDNESDAY!

 

 

[Mus]

A well written post, I've enjoyed reading it thanks!

[S36 OWL]

Brilliant OMDT Mi`Lord 

[Holmowl]

Terrific start to today Snoots well done again.

 

And an extra well done for chagrin.

 

Totally agree that Jos needs to build around our few remaining proper near first-teamers, such as Boyd, Wallace and Rhodes. 

[Owl in Nottingham]

Nice well balanced post

 

[wexowl]

Clearly not hundr   de  inflewince when ritin dis yer Ludsh  i  p.

[spike1867]

Brilliant my liege...

[nevthelodgemoorowl]

Got to try something different. A load of pathetic garbage snoots. Let's see if that works

[Lord Snooty]

31 minutes ago, wexowl said:

Clearly not hundr   de  inflewince when ritin dis yer Ludsh  i  p.

 

As usual I start with a little tipple and start typing away. Then I post and forget about it.  Only to wake and find the OMDT littered with typos and grammatical errors!

 

Every week I swear I will pay more attention. Sometimes I even promise myself I will crank the handle on the old PC and run it through the spellchecker. 

 

I read it back though and see I am repeating myself loads. 

And I'll tell you another thing.

I read it back though and see I am repeating myself loads. 

 

But once I'm in the comfy chair by the fire, it seems daft to not just sit here and fire it off from the phone! 

Edited February 10, 2018 by Lord Snooty

[Gresh]

It's Dunkirk, the Alamo and Custer's last stand all rolled in to one for us.  It's backs to the wall stuff but I'm backing us to bounce back from last week's debacle to get something out of this game (hopefully a win).

[Lord Snooty]

4 minutes ago, A12owl said:

Nice one your lordship. Stayed up specially to read it early. 

We have to get a win sometime soon. With over 4000 supporters shouting the lads on it will be a great atmosphere. A sneaky 1-0 Will do thank you.

 

 

Away matches might be just the ticket for Jos and the boys, roared on by our fantastic away support.

 

[boomshaketheroom]

Great omdt thank you!

 

Got a bad feeling about today, so going 0-3 Rhodes x3

[torryowl]

yeah .very good that that snoots .

 

[owlmanc]

Nice one. We HAVE to win this one. Win this and gives everyone a confidence boost (not rocket science) I think 4 more wins and we will be safe UTO

[Owl Be Back]

Dingle Mick. Awesome.

[offalyowl]

Great again snoots and totally agree that some fans have to cop on and give jos more time, let's see how he does with a full squad, think we will win 2-1 uto 

[trumbullowl]

Very good OMDT Snoots. I like your take on JR's absence last week. Watching JL's patient press conference, calmly absorbing the asinine injury / contracts

questions made me all the more pissed off with Carlos who got out when he saw the writing on the wall, and has now crapped on about DC being like a

father figure - CC is older than DC! Come on Wednesday, win for the shirt and the 4,000 Owls behind the goal. 

 

WE ARE THE FAMOUS WEDNESDAY!

[Orlando_Trustful]

Massive one this. Anyone still thinking we're not in a relegation needs to wake up a bit. Some huge away games still to come (today, QPR, Sunderland, Hull, Millwall). I'm not sure I fancy us winning any of them. 

 

I'll take anything from today. 

 

0 v 0

[Roscoe P. Coltrane]

THE WEDNESDAY

[dewsburyowl58]

Excellent post again Snoots , very interesting full of humour and never boring bit like following our beloved team I suppose . A must win game so I’m going for 0-0 . if we do scrape a win it will set my 60th birthday celebrations off nicely , so lads please don’t lose will you !!!