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The loss of Steven Fletcher


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Fletcher was our only consistent goal threat last season.

 

Once he got injured and we were down to a choice of Nuhiu, Winnall or Rhodes for that packed late-December / January period of games, we were in trouble. Trying to to find a match-fit replacement for him in the January window was never going to be realistic. 

 

Allowing Hooper, Matias and João to leave without replacing any of them cost us big time.

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1 minute ago, 0114 said:

We had one of the best defences in the division prior to Christmas. Steven Fletcher’s injury wasn’t the reason we became incapable of basic defending for the last 7 months. 

the best defence in the world cannot continue to hold if the forward line offers no out ball for them.

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1 minute ago, 0114 said:

We had one of the best defences in the division prior to Christmas. Steven Fletcher’s injury wasn’t the reason we became incapable of basic defending for the last 7 months. 

 

When a team carries next to no goal threat, it tends to invite pressure on their defence.

 

Which wouldn't be such a problem if we had something approaching a decent defence, but when Fox and Palmer are your first-choice fullbacks and Iorfa suddenly becomes a standout player, you know you're in trouble.

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27 minutes ago, 0114 said:

We had one of the best defences in the division prior to Christmas. Steven Fletcher’s injury wasn’t the reason we became incapable of basic defending for the last 7 months. 

He was good in both boxes

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27 minutes ago, 0114 said:

We had one of the best defences in the division prior to Christmas. Steven Fletcher’s injury wasn’t the reason we became incapable of basic defending for the last 7 months. 

Defending begins from  the front, when we stopped putting opposition defences under pressure from the front players, and of course the painfully slow build up, put the defence under too much pressure. 

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You’re always going to have a problem when you are over reliant on a 30 plus crock.

 

Anyway, like Forestieri and Fox, Fletcher couldn’t wait to get out of the door as soon as he could (even though he’d been paid to my knowledge a full wage during lock down for doing nothing) so f**k him.

 

I’d sooner focus on players that want to be here rather than crying about those that don’t want to be here leaving.

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1 hour ago, 0114 said:

We had one of the best defences in the division prior to Christmas. Steven Fletcher’s injury wasn’t the reason we became incapable of basic defending for the last 7 months. 

We had one of the best defensive records. Any club with Tom Lees as it’s centre half and captain will struggle to keep clean sheets.

 

The loss of Fletcher changed the team dynamic, no focal point for players to aim at, no one to hold the consistently hold the ball up and bring others into attack. He bullied defenders and teams were wary of him, and often left space in behind for the lines of Reach and Harris to run into. 
 

Edited by Sergeant Tibbs
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32 minutes ago, TrickyTrev said:

You’re always going to have a problem when you are over reliant on a 30 plus crock.

 

 

Fletch was a good player, a good pro, and the team was always better when he was part of it.

 

But the actual time he was fit and able to play didn't remotely reflect the big wages he was on. If he would have accepted £10K a week I'd have happily kept him for another season at least. But he clearly thinks he can do better elsewhere, so best of luck to him.

 

Lets move on.

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1 hour ago, 0114 said:

We had one of the best defences in the division prior to Christmas. Steven Fletcher’s injury wasn’t the reason we became incapable of basic defending for the last 7 months. 

Agree but with the style of football we were playing when he wasn't playing the ball was coming back a hell of a lot quicker than when he was playing.

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