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Yesterday was the first time I can remember Armstrong being pocketed like that. Sure he always has his limitations, but normally his pace and power terrify defenders. But in Diaby (I think it was) he came up against his match in strength and power, and probably from being older and a CB he was wilier. Armstrong probably was not the horse for the course yesterday, maybe Frey with his more subtle movement would have troubled Diaby more.
On Armstrong more broadly, he's simply doesn't seem to be developing enough. He still relies almost entirely on pace and power, which are rare assets in the game but not enough alone. His game intelligence still seems poor and he has a habit of switching off.. the joy he got yesterday was through running the channels, but the times he did it well, passing the ball to one of the AMs he kind of sauntered around, either admiring his work or catching a breather or both. Exactly the time he needs to either be busting a gut to get in the box, or positioning himself to work the ball into the box on 1-2s or alike.
Worth another contract IMO, if wage reflects his limited role, as his assets are so tough to find (remember we spent 2m on Bonne trying to get a fast forward and remember how that worked out!) But feels like he's 1-2 years behind where he should be in development, and if there isn't that development over the next 18 months or so, I agree he'll probably end up as an highly effective lower L1 to L2 forward based entirely on physicality, with no prospect of playing higher.
Strangely enough football seems to take on an added importance when everything in life goes to pot. They've been a couple of periods that personally football has been the main release valve during tough times - thankfully neither of them overlapped with this season or the 2014/15 season. For those in comparable positions this season, it has been grim. But ultimately OP is right, far more important things than footy in life.
Disco - sorry to hear and good luck fighting it fella.
Worth a watch if u've got a dead 10 mins or so. Apart from the massive feelgood factor from our most recent glory days, some behind the scenes stuff I personally had never heard about (some of it may be twisted - sure others know); and interesting summary of what happened to him after he left.
Interesting RE Hodge needing to play post injury (didn't realise he'd been injured). That would explain why they'd let him go for low/no wage contribution. Hayden on the other hand, surely we must be paying a part of his wages.
On the sentiment of transfer windows best being judged in hindsight - normally I'd agree. But given our threadbare squad, the mess we're in and the fact we were expecting no-one to come in, it would be quite something for these three ST signings to make things worse. And if they manage to make things worse, I'm really, really curious to see how (popcorn out time!)
Agreed, in view of our constraints this has been an excellent window, reinforcing the 2 positions we really had to in order to have a fighting chance.
Hayden is a particularly shrewd signing, given I think he can also cover RB and CB if needed.
Only nagging doubt is FFP - can see how shifting Dozzell and the other two could pay for 2 of our 3. Can't quite see how it pays for all 3. I do wonder if we'll see another sponsorship deal as they tighten the FFP calcs, or some other "cost saving".
Reusing two points which have been made time and time again
1. Standards for the whole team are defined by the lowest bar. If that bar involves someone not bothering to turn up to work then there is a big problem for team standards as a whole. Look at it another way, how do you feel in a job when you're consistently cleaning up someone's mess and/or they don't bother to turn up? (I'm sure we've all experienced that once, even if just a temp job... I remember at least one job I did way back where the whole "culture" sunk due to a major dosser; another case more recently where I was unfortunately managing the dosser and it was a fight to keep the ship straight till we got rid of them).
2. There comes a point where there are too many bad eggs and the whole culture of the squad suffers. I think Kevin Gallen recently said on a pod that from his experience this number is 3; lets say he's right, it's pretty clear why last season was a mess. This season we can argue we have/are reducing the bad eggs. Problem is the there is still reliance on a set of players have been part of last season's no/low standards squad. Hard to turn that form around. I suspect that, just like Dickie who's gone on to do fine after the change of team, we'll find out that many (my guesses - Field, Chair, Dunne, Dykes, Paal) will show themselves to be good champ players in a different environment.
It's depressing. But lets hope our new CEO has some idea how to somehow raise that lowest bar.
It was a poor game between two teams which played poorly. Huddersfield looked more up for it, but I think a draw was a fair result overall.
As said on another thread, the ref was utter gash, albeit without getting any one big decision wrong. He just got all the little ones wrong...almost all not in our favour. Cannon, while not being amazing was a big loss. Huddersfield basically relied on trying to toast a L2 RB (Drewe) thereafter; also working on the basis that a corner against us is a very good chance with their record. The takeaway here is our squad is paper thin and weak. But we knew that already.
I ultimately agree with the OP that with a draw we live to fight another day. We know we are better than we were today, we have shown it under Marti. But that said, largely cos we have such a paperthin squad which weakens massively if one or two players are out, I think odds of staying up are against us, maybe 60-40.
RE Wallace, problem was his fitness. Agree with an earlier poster, he was good WHEN he played. Also everything I picked up indicated that off the pitch, he was a real pro. Something we have basically entirely missed since and an advert for why a few wallace-like players are good to have too.
Warbs made his mistakes but I also liked him a lot. He seemed to clock that we had a weak bunch, and seemed keen on incorporating older pros to counter this (first Cameron, later Ball, Wallace, Jojo). Once he left and Beale got the keys, the balance tipped over.
Back to Dozzell on a side comment, I always got the feeling Warbs never really liked him, like he felt Dozzell had been imposed on him. I remember him not starting many games under Warbs until the disastrous 2nd half of the season, when he had to. Possibly an early canary in the coalmine of how Warbs wasn't thrilled about the players he was being given.
Basically, if we'd done what we should have done end of last season and ring in the changes (manager above all), I reckon we'd have been safe lower mid table with reasonable performances, winning some, losing some. Instead we dithered, gave ourselves a mountain to climb, creating a level of pressure and lack of confidence where even if we play well (wish I think we frequently do under Marti) there are little lapses and we don't seem to be able to get the result.
Time will tell whether or not this will be a good appointment. But one thing for sure - all the stuff which has happened over the last 3 months - Cifuentes in, new CEO, signs of the beginning of a cleanout - should have happened 6 months ago. If we were taking an advisory firm, they should have been engaged at the beginning of may the second it was clear we were staying in the champ; and new CEO, manager in pre-season. Manager probably wouldn't have been Cifuentes due to Scandi season, but while I like Cifuentes, we've seen from other champ teams that good alternatives do exist. Instead we've faffed around for 6 months, and if we go down - which looks increasingly likely - IMO it's due to that.
I want to be positive but on balance the same feeling as Gloucs.
This smells wrong. 6 months of paid searching and the best you come up with is someone from the company doing the search, who is young enough to be able to rescue his career if the brown stuff hits the fan on the appointment. The "busy for 6 months" for Marti reference worried me too - suggesting some kind of change at season end (coach or CEO). Interviews well but is he actually able to connect with staff? (unsure from interview) Will he care about mundane stuff like fixing the toilets?
But then again, I don't rule out our club having had a random masterstroke a la Warnock or (my POV) Warbs. We pull it off sometimes...
Glad someone else is feeling the same on his command of his area. Our general defending of set pieces is cr@p, but when the keeper and captain fails to command the area and rarely comes to claim balls into the 6 yard box (and flaps when he does), what kind of confidence does that inspire for defending ANY set piece?
Good shot stopper, cr@p command of area, distribution and captain. Unfortunately we're stuck with him. Thankfully though, only till June.
Great read as ever. Don't ever think "either regular reader enjoys reading these long, woe-is-me, everything-is-wrong diatribes", cos there is at least 1 reader here, miles away from the bush, who enjoys it come rain come shine. That said, hope you have a good break.
On standards - it's become clear over the last month or so they are in the bin across the club. They've been hints for months in the players and the way they perform, but as stated in the preview, standards are set by the lowest bar. Which is why someone like Field, Chair or Paal - all of whom at some point were good, honest pros, can end up being grouped with with all the others as the worst bunch we've had for years and we can't wait to get rid of them.
Completely different domain, but Warren Buffet once said the most important characteristics when hiring any employee are integrity, intelligence, and energy. And the first (integrity) is by far the most important, without it you end up with a wrecking ball in your organisation. The club's recruitment would do well to listen to this advice.
Curious to see Ejaria on that list. A few seasons back he looked like the dogs danglies when we played Reading. But something has to have gone very wrong since, and in the context of the current problematic squad we probably can't afford any risks with either injury or attitude.
Matty Longstaff another curious one, burst on the scene but now seems to have spent 2 season in league 2. Don't know anything about him post Newcastle debut.
On a side note, surprising how many of our ex charges are on the English nationality part of that list (JET, Todd Kane, Jordon Mutch. Luke Amos, Luke Freeman, Kieran Lee). Could be taken as a sign that we're not so good at this signing players thing! (Freeman aside)
Pretty much agree with you, apart from his rightful place. Don't think its on the bench, its away from the first team! (yesterday was the final straw for me, he needed to step up and disappeared entirely).
I suspect Marti has clocked the Dozzell problem a while back, but there are simply no other options (well, Duke Mckenna or move Ilias from the 10 as he has a couple of times). I think Marti is right to play 3 in the middle, we spent the first part of this season being consistently overrun in midfield. Now we have 3 in the middle (well, 2.5 with Dozzell) we're not being overrun.
I'm hoping we can get at least 1 CM in (probably on loan.... could end up being Tim O, mixed feelings on that but its the type of player we need albeit without his errors). A 3 with Field at the base (instead of Field trying to do the playmaker thing like yesterday cos Dozzell was hiding so much), EDB/Collback and a real no 8 who can carry and create would be not bad, IMO - if they are all available.
Agree with the theory both of what Marti's trying to do, and what we need. I fear the reality is a bit trickier.
Most loans will come with the requirement to play every game when fit and/or will have limited experience. Given our financial constraints, the loan market is where we're likely to be shopping. Unless we sell Chair, which creates a headache as we then have to replace him as well as get all the other players.
With that in mind, I think we may end up with a loaned young creative midfielder (maybe even two), as you describe. Possibly a loaned centre forward too, but that won't be an experienced one.
Centre back is trickier. We know JCS and Cook are the starting pair when fit, so we are looking at someone to rotate in when needed. That may well require a free agent signing. God knows who.
In an ideal world I agree we would get a new GK, but it's not going to happen. I'm not just worried about Begovic's play with the ball at his feet, but also his command of the box - IMO a big reason we keep conceding from set pieces is because he has very poor command of the area; yet he is the on the pitch captain. He rarely comes for the ball, which creates panic in defence; and when he does come... well we saw last night. Dieng had faults and a poor last season we probably had little choice but to sell him; but apart from the feet thing, he was also good at commanding his box.
@Hastings_Hoops on 17:26 - Jan 1 with 791 views No it wouldn’t - because if we shift chair (a couple of £mill and reduce wage bill) and Willock (free/reduce wage bill) we can bring in players to fill their places with players for a better squad balance.
Gotta disagree cos we're relying on more or less the same management set up which blew our budget on Richards (and signed off on 2 year contracts for Fox and Collback, among many other crimes) to improve the team by replacing chair/willock as well as significantly upgrading CF and CM at least (ideally CB backup and GK too). All within likely sale proceeds of under 5m. I don't see it happening, before we even get in to the "manager wants manager gets" discussion.
If we can get 10m+ for the pair, it's worth the risk, but I'm doubtful we will. I stick to the view that the time to sell at least one of Willock, Chair, DIeng and maybe Dickie was pre PBBC 2022/23 season, and we could have got 5m+ for each one, possibly close to 10m for Chair and for Willock. But in the context of this team/performances, I'd be surprised if we get more than 5m for Chair and 500k for Willock with 6 months left on his contract.
As for selling Chair and Willock this window - that is what it would look like, week in week out.
Today is the day Dozzell lost any remaining hope I had for him. It's the day he needed to step up after a good performance "back home" at Ipswich and he was abysmal. Field trying to be the playmaker says a lot about Dozzell.
Praying to god we can get some players in this window, somehow. After a CM and FW, begins to look like a keeper might have to be on the list too. It feels like Begovic a big reason why we concede so many set pieces, and I'm not just talking about todays f... up for the 2nd
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