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Squad depth & fringe players exposed again in the Cup

Fair play and congrats to Crawley. That was a good watch.
So are our fringe players worse than L2 top 6? Makes you wonder whether some of our boys are going backwards.
I've just seen more energy, more movement, more tempo, more guile, and most worrying better control and actual ability than any of our boys showed yesterday.
I've got to say, for someone playing no.10 role, Potts' first touch is not better than mine. And I reached the heights of Central Lancs Junior league runner up in 1992! Shocking really, and he's not even a fringe player, he's selected most weeks!
 
Mooney magic said:
Fair play and congrats to Crawley. That was a good watch.
So are our fringe players worse than L2 top 6? Makes you wonder whether some of our boys are going backwards.
I've just seen more energy, more movement, more tempo, more guile, and most worrying better control and actual ability than any of our boys showed yesterday.
I've got to say, for someone playing no.10 role, Potts' first touch is not better than mine. And I reached the heights of Central Lancs Junior league runner up in 1992! Shocking really, and he's not even a fringe player, he's selected most weeks!
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Yeah, we have the type of lads like Moutinho and Byrom currently in the side. They will go to Forest Green or York or Rushden after this and disappear off the face of the earth
It sounded in the interview like a few were finished in AN' s eyes too. I looked at the team and thought we should Steam roller Wycombe (who wouldn't have even wanted the fixture).

There are serious problems with a lot of the players in the first XI yesterday. It took yesterday to show that.
 
Durutti said:
Yeah, we have the type of lads like Moutinho and Byrom currently in the side. They will go to Forest Green or York or Rushden after this and disappear off the face of the earth
It sounded in the interview like a few were finished in AN' s eyes too. I looked at the team and thought we should Steam roller Wycombe (who wouldn't have even wanted the fixture).

There are serious problems with a lot of the players in the first XI yesterday. It took yesterday to show that.
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I think some of our boys have forgotten how to put a shift in. Ledson has been great this season, but yesterday he turned up thinking he could play in 1st gear. Not that he was anywhere near to being our worst performer.
I said it yesterday, but it was as if they'd been hitting the bong prematch. It was that bad.
 
Some of our players haven't delivered and our best players want out. What does that say about AN management and how the club is run. We look like a squad full of average championship/league 1 standard players with low motivation and inconsist performances week in week out.
 
sedgwick__7 said:
Think we can all see that Alex Neil doesn’t care at all about any cups. Even against Man City last season, he made changes in order to rest players for a league game.

We’ve been dreadful now 3 times on the spin in the 3rd round of the FA Cup when a plethora of changes are made. After Doncaster a couple of years ago, we never saw Burke or Crowe play for the club again. Last season against Norwich, it became clear just how poor Ripley was.

These games often seem to be a watershed moment for certain fringe players and how they are viewed by the manager and fans, and it just shows people how weakened we are when we do make quite a few changes.

Personally I think today has to be the final straw for a few of the players selected. Stockley was atrocious, as he has been all season. He offers nothing and needs to be offloaded this month. Rafferty and Storey look way out of their depth almost every time they play at the moment. The squad players in general at the back are really poor defensively and if we have to rely on any of them for an extended period in the league it will represent a major problem. This needs work during the window this month.

I don’t think anyone expects us to be able to field 2 really strong Championship XIs, but some of these squad men are way off the pace at this level and it needs addressing.
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I think it said we had only gone past round 3 once in 7 or 8 seasons...... presumably Neil wasnt to blame for all of them, in fact was the only time under him ?
agree with the premise of the comment though just not the 3 years bit
 
By Tor said:
Some of our players haven't delivered and our best players want out. What does that say about AN management and how the club is run.
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It says something about soccer wage inflation where decent Championship players can command > 25k a week.
 
sports rehab said:
I think it said we had only gone past round 3 once in 7 or 8 seasons...... presumably Neil wasnt to blame for all of them, in fact was the only time under him ?
agree with the premise of the comment though just not the 3 years bit
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Well the season before Neil joined, we played Arsenal in the 3rd round, a win can’t exactly have been expected there. But the season prior to that Grayson did make a lot of changes and we were outplayed by Westley’s Peterborough.

I just think the nature of some of our defeats in the Cup under Neil have been pitiful.
 
By Tor said:
Some of our players haven't delivered and our best players want out. What does that say about AN management and how the club is run. We look like a squad full of average championship/league 1 standard players with low motivation and inconsist performances week in week out.
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Plus we don't seem to have anything structural in place to improve things.

There's no conveyor belt of talent being expertly nurtured by AN and his team... instead, he admits the fringe players are crap and all need replacing, yet we know there's no way the owner would ever sanction turnover like that.

So we're stuck with this. The fringe players are going nowhere and will be back in the squad before long. The plan seems to be just keep on muddling along as we always do.

Looking more broadly, what have AN (and PR, and TH) been "building" these last 3-4 years to give us some sort of edge as a low-end-budget Championship club? What's the "legacy" after 3-4 careful, prudent seasons at this level?

The answer seems to be: nothing.
 
Dirty Harry said:
Potts is nowhere near the quality we need, he's absolute garbage.
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That was the only contribution he made during the whole game.... and that goal was created by the positive running of Riis. Potts is happy to play the ball backwards ( usually ) or sideways. Yes, he can run and has good ball control but this never really shows as he is simply not brave enough. He will never win any ‘ second balls ‘ ( essential if he wants to play in the ‘ 10’ position). Also he is about 6’ 2” and NEVER tries to win a header from an attacking corner ... why ? If he is not going to show more bravery to make better use of his skill .... let him go. Dirty Harry - I second your observation ... absolute garbage.
 
Does anyone know if Wycombe have a reserve / U23 team? The accusation is that many of our fringe players didnt look up for it. Wycombe appeared to be more up for it, quicker to the ball & won their individual battles. Where they just more match sharp than some of our players & is our lack of a reserve/u23 outfit a big problem in terms of some of our squad not being sharp, not developing & not being ready to step up when the occasion arises? Personally, if we were to have gone in to Saturdays game with as little ambition to progress in the competition. I'd have preferred us to have fielded a team of kids to give us a view of what is coming through, rather than watching a few (who shall remain nameless) who it is becoming increasingly apparent arent up to it. I'd have liked to see Walker, Baxter, Coulton, O'Reilly & Holland-Wilkinson all started the game
 
Durutti said:
There are serious problems with a lot of the players in the first XI yesterday. It took yesterday to show that.
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There was a lack of leadership and fight. It would be a mistake to ditch the likes of Storey, Earl and Bayliss, who do have talent but need to be played alongside experienced team-mates who can provide the on-field support they need - I am confident all three can develop into important players for us. Ledson has shown this season that he is a good player, while Molumby can hardly be judged after one appearance. Elsewhere Rafferty is an honest but ordinary player while Hughes is a solid if sometimes slightly flat-footed left-back but not ever a central defender in a flat back four. Of the other three outfield starters Riis does have real quality and Stockley can never be accused of not trying. Potts is a player who can be good in a good side but in a poor side he will just sink down to the level around him - he has no ability to provide any sort of inspiration or example.

It was a team that was less than the sum of its parts because there was nobody on the field to inspire or motivate it. In retrospect both Huntington and Browne should have started.

There is actually nothing new about this sort of thing. Remember when we had Gregan as captain. With him we could compete with anyone but without him the team just did not function because the likes of Rankine and McKenna simply could not provide that essential drive and determination to the side.

Anyhow it was a dismal, depressing day - but maybe one that was not too surprising since it just repeated the pattern of our exits from the Cup in the previous two seasons. But the very fact that pattern exists shows something fundamentally amiss somewhere within the club.
 
Walton said:
Just out of interest, was the Wycombe team their full first team?
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No

Ainsworth said:

"I'm really proud of the performance today, some of the boys who haven't been playing came in and showed me what they can do so it's a team selection headache for the next game and that's what I want as manager.
 
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