Are our players useless?

[4evaowl]

The players should be doing better than they are. TP’s job is to find some way of getting more from them as a team.

Sadly we don’t have a player who can change or win us a game.

[BRADDO]

Tone will do amazingly well to keep us up.

[WhiteOwl91]

2 minutes ago, morganowl said:

which fletcher? gary taylor? . remember steven fletcher came off after 2 mins thats the kind of player we dont want. 

I’d suggest Steven Fletcher did alright last season wouldn’t you? 
 

he’s also scored 3x more goals for Stoke in his last 6 games then the entire of our squad has together.

[Alan]

Mostly, yes. 

[Joe Sunburn]

The whole division is second rate. The top is where all the footballers play. C’ship relies on the manager to get the most out of a squad until promotion where the money buys quality. Just have to keep biting down on this bullet until it either tastes good or our players turn it around. UTO. 
 

[Guest Mcguigan]

13 minutes ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

We're less than the sum of our parts because the parts were assembled with no coherent plan or system in place.

 

In defence, we have some decent centre-backs, but some suit a two whilst others suit a three. We have Palmer and Odubajo as right-backs, and no recognised left-back to speak of...so van Aken gets a game there because he's left-footed.

 

Bannan remains our most naturally talented midfielder, but he no longer has the teammates around him to help him excel as we had in Carvalhal's first couple of seasons, so he struggles to impose himself on the game quite often these days. Luongo is our best defensive midfielder, but as soon as he's injured, we have to turn to Pelupessy, who offers only a fraction of his skillset. Brown is a good player, but I'm not sure where he fits alongside the others.

 

Out wide (assuming we're playing with wide midfielders again now), we have Reach, who's been shifted all over the pitch in recent years and has suffered as a result, and Harris, who offers pace and commitment, but no real quality. If either of them are out, then we have to move a full-back forwards or give Kachunga a run out on the flank.

 

Up front, we appear to need a target-man, but only have Paterson who fits the mould, and even then it's a pretty loose fit - he has some attributes, but he's no Fletcher with his back to goal, is he? Beyond that, we have Windass, who seems more of an attacking midfielder / number 10, and Rhodes, who looks like he belongs in another team entirely much of the time, but we have to ask him to run around and close down opposition defenders as there's nobody else to throw on up there.

 

In a nutshell: we have a Frankenstein's monster of a squad, made up of the dying embers of a once-strong team and topped up with cheap signings and loan players, none of whom seem to fit into a coherent whole.

 

How some of our fans ever thought we might be challenging for the top six this season, I have no idea!

 

Great post. Honest and sadly, accurate.

[@owlstalk]

I'd also say that when Garry Monk bizarrely stated that Adam Reach was going to be our first choice striker this season, that it was done because Monk had been told he couldn't have a striker

Could be down to simply the FFP and finances

Could be down to Chansiri not trusting Monk

Either way that's how I see it

Could be wrong. I"m no way ITK at all - It's just  my gut feeling based on what I saw playing out

[meggoisgod]

10 minutes ago, morganowl said:

which fletcher? gary taylor? . remember steven fletcher came off after 2 mins thats the kind of player we dont want. 

Agreed he proper mugged us off

[S36 OWL]

27 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

My honest opinion that I've said and repeated since this squad was put together is that this is the weakest squad we've ever assembled in the Championship, and that in years to come we'll look back affectionately on it as so, and laugh at the players we once signed this season.

It's on a par with the days of Gary Taylor Fletcher and Co.

And I'm not being emotional or exaggerating

It really is that bad

On paper, on the pitch, and on the results we've got as a result of assembling these people as our squad

That's not Garry Monk's fault either by the way.

Nor is it a case of bring a new manager, kick them up the backside and stride on - that simply won't happen either.

What we are seeing is a direct result of what we did with FFP etc - meaning we can't splash out and bring quality in

We're relying on hand me downs, clothes with holes in them, shoes with no soles, and defenders with one leg.

 

Monk was worse than Jos and should have been sacked long before he was. The players are no better, stealing a wage, the lot of em. 

[@owlstalk]

Just now, S36 OWL said:

 

Monk was worse than Jos and should have been sacked long before he was. The players are no better, stealing a wage, the lot of em. 

 

 

So it's the managers

And it's all the players

 

The coaches too?

[davetherivelinowl]

22 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

My honest opinion that I've said and repeated since this squad was put together is that this is the weakest squad we've ever assembled in the Championship, and that in years to come we'll look back affectionately on it as so, and laugh at the players we once signed this season.

It's on a par with the days of Gary Taylor Fletcher and Co.

And I'm not being emotional or exaggerating

It really is that bad

On paper, on the pitch, and on the results we've got as a result of assembling these people as our squad

That's not Garry Monk's fault either by the way.

Nor is it a case of bring a new manager, kick them up the backside and stride on - that simply won't happen either.

What we are seeing is a direct result of what we did with FFP etc - meaning we can't splash out and bring quality in

We're relying on hand me downs, clothes with holes in them, shoes with no soles, and defenders with one leg.

I agree with most of this apart from

1. We're relying on hand me downs. I'm not saying this isn't true, merely that we've been in this situation ever since we left the Premiership, apart from those first couple of years under Carlos. So having no money shouldn't be an excuse. Laws and Gray had no money either but pieced together decent teams.

2. I know we've had this disagreement before but I can't accept that this lot are worse than Ashley Westwood, Michael Reddy, Tony Crane, Danny Maddix, Ian Hendon etc. I could easily put out a current team in which at least 10 would be better than that lot - true, I'd be struggling for a striker. 

[@owlstalk]

Just now, davetherivelinowl said:

 I know we've had this disagreement before but I can't accept that this lot are worse than Ashley Westwood, Michael Reddy, Tony Crane, Danny Maddix, Ian Hendon etc. 

I think that in time you'll change your stance

Unless Pulis totally changes things in January (if he can)

[S36 OWL]

22 minutes ago, BRADDO said:

This squad is very poor.  Many need moving on in January but half of them have just been signed in the summer. It won't be easy to turn this mess around. 

 

There isn't one player who played today that I wouldn't sell. 

[Lawrie’s Left Peg]

25 minutes ago, northeastowl said:

Yeah the majority of them are useless. 
 

We’ve literally got no “very good” players. 
 

Lees looked good when he had a solid team around him. 
 

Bannan looks good when things are going our way and we’ve got the ball all the time, under Pulis he will be a passenger. 
 

Iorfa can have good games but his pace makes him look better than he is. 
 

No one else worth talking about I don’t think. 

Fair comment. Do you look at the other clubs in and around us and cast a jealous eye at their squads?  I don’t. I probably wouldn’t swap our squad or manager with any other club in the bottom 6 and I would add Preston and Barnsley to that yet they appear to be getting more bang for their buck. 

[@owlstalk]

Just now, S36 OWL said:

 

There isn't one player who played today that I wouldn't sell. 

 

This begs another question

 

The Chairman says he's spent hundreds of millions of pounds on Sheffield Wednesday 

But my question is this - how much is our current squad worth at the moment?

 

 

[Lincowl]

Pretty poor yes. Haven’t replaced Morgan Fox, weak goalkeepers on longterm deals, weak wingers, terrible frontline. Central midfield might have been our best position with Luongo, pelupessy at his best, Bannan etc.

[@owlstalk]

Just now, Lawrie’s Left Peg said:

Fair comment. Do you look at the other clubs in and around us and cast a jealous eye at their squads?  I don’t.  

No - not at all

 

 

[BRADDO]

Just now, S36 OWL said:

 

There isn't one player who played today that I wouldn't sell. 

 

I totally agree mate. 

[Joe Sunburn]

9 minutes ago, WhiteOwl91 said:

I’d suggest Steven Fletcher did alright last season wouldn’t you? 
 

he’s also scored 3x more goals for Stoke in his last 6 games then the entire of our squad has together.

 

. . . and Lucas Joao isn’t doing too shabby himself. 7 goals + 3 assists in 11 games played. 
 

[northeastowl]

Just now, Lawrie’s Left Peg said:

Fair comment. Do you look at the other clubs in and around us and cast a jealous eye at their squads?  I don’t. I probably wouldn’t swap our squad or manager with any other club in the bottom 6 and I would add Preston and Barnsley to that yet they appear to be getting more bang for their buck. 

No I genuinely don’t. Our problem is and has been since the play off final against hull the fact that we are so weak in midfield and we’ve got no pace.

 

Its alright having a fancy Dan like Bannan but no one else can play football with him and he doesn’t do anything when he hasn’t got the ball.