There is plenty of criticism deserved by the players

However when every single combination at the back makes the same basic errors every time we play - who is marking whom and when, for example - either all those players always have the same brainfart at the same time in every match, or there's something wrong with how they're set up/coached/the system they're being told to play. We've always actually criticised the players - Turner's fault, Martin's s**t, Bassong is useless, Bennett isn't strong enough, Whits is s**t - but all the players make the same mistakes which tends to suggest the actual issue lies elsewhere.

When every single combination of the 3+1 up top gets snuffed out the same way week in week out, again, I'm not utterly convinced 100% of the blame lies with the players - though like others I've not held back from criticising e.g. Naismith when he seemed not too fussed.

And so on.

If he said "you know what, we've been setting up wrong, we need to fit systems to players and situations and oppositions and have another plan for when Plan A isn't coming together and we're getting on that", at least it would indicate he knows there's some kind of a problem.

Posted By: Old Man, Nov 23, 20:59:02