Never mind the financial mess we are in, we find ourselves in the bottom two because of rank bad footballing decisions for which somebody, or some persons, must be held accountable. It is hard to work out which decisions have hit us hardest but I have had a go below, listing them in rank order of abject incompetence:
1) Allowing Neill to leave without signing a replacement right back. Spector and Faubert are patently not up to the job and we are hopelessly exposed down our right flank every game. Look at how Eagles transformed the game when he was switched to the left of Burnley's midfield - from 5-0 and coasting, we were suddenly all over the shop! Duxbury and Zola share the blame here.
2) The failure to sign at least one more striker. Cole was always going to either get injured or suspended and yet, incredibly, we started the season with no back up whatsoever. Hines is promising but is not a like for like replacement for Cole and is not yet ready to start regularly. Poor Franco is trying but has no support whatsoever. Duxbury partly to blame here I suspect but Nani has to carry the can because he "sourced" Savio, Jimenez and Diamanti.
3) The sale of Collins to finance the purchase of Diamanti. The defence has been all over the shop ever since Collins left. Tomkins isn't ready yet and Zola and Clarke clearly don't think that Da Costa is either. Against Bolton, Tomkins had an absolute mare and we will be in all sorts of trouble against Chelsea if Upson still isn't ready. And let's face it, if you want to secure your place in the England squad, are you going to rush back for a date with Drogba? Are you going to hurry back for a bruising contest with Kevin Davies even? Meanwhile, Diamanti is not the striker we so desperately need. The guy is a nutter and against Bolton, despite scoring, was a liability for most of the match as he repeatedly gave away possession. Had we kept Collins, we would have won at Hull and probably achieved draws at Stoke, Birmingham and Bolton. Boy what we would give for 5 extra points now! Duxbury and Nani to blame here.
4)The signing of Savio with the Bellyache money. Of course it was a mistake to let Period Pains go but I don't think we had any choice. He would have brained Duxbury and Zola with a five iron had we refused to let him join Unreal City. There was absolutely no need to sign Savio however. We needed an experienced replacement, not yet another kid. We still haven't got one! Nani culpable.
5) Zola's tactics. They are inept. 4-3-3 didn't work last season so why return to it this? Playing Stanislas and Diamanti on the wrong flanks is crassly stupid. The failure to switch their flanks in mid game is even more absurd. Megson swapped his wide players on Tuesday, we didn't. Eagles was switched by Burnley and the game changed. Even when he makes substitutions, Zola changes the personnel, not the shape. He is out of his depth. Perhaps if he had Wenger's team, he might get away with it but Burnley, Stoke, Bolton, Blackburn and Hull all show that you shape your tactics to the personnel you have available. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear - and Faubert, Kovac and Jimenez are definitely more crackling than cracking! Zola to blame here.
6) The signing of Kovac. Why waste money on yet another midfielder; and a distinctly ordinary one at that! Surely the priority should have been a full back or two and a forward? Why sell Collins and buy Kovac? Mad. Zola at fault here. He had plenty of opportunity to assess him last season so why did he buy him?
7) The failure to sign a replacement left back. Ilunga has been injured and out of form. You need cover for every position to survive in the Prem. Wolves and Pompey have virtually played two different sides in their two games this week. We don't have that luxury. Zola at fault here because he wanted to work with a smaller squad.
8) Signing Jimenez who is neither a forward nor a midfielder. The guy isn't mercurial, he is lightweight and distinctly ordinary. Another Nani balls up.
9) Letting Sears go out on loan and so leaving ourselves with NOBODY to play alongside Franco at Bolton and Birmingham. Duxbury to blame for not inserting a recall clause.
Have I forgotten anything - apart from trusting to the return to fitness of Ashton and Dyer? We could trawl back through Curbishley's mistakes but Zola has had over a year now to get things sorted and we have gone backwards on the pitch - big time!
Who is most to blame? I would sack the whole lot personally and start from scratch. That might have happened had Sullivan and Gold won control of the club but Straumur have what they want, a weak manager who allows the Board to asset strip his squad. The sale of Collins showed Upson, Parker and Green that all the promises from Duxbury were hollow. They are understandably hacked off about being lied to and will be the next out of the door.
13 comments:
I watched the Tottenham and Man City game, and I put my head down with a sigh to see the amazing work of Lennon and Niko K, as well as Crouch and Defoe...they play brilliant football, and I hate to admit it. COYI :(
Could you see 'Arry playing Lennon on the left? Nope. He says, get it wide to Aaron, and when you get it son, skin the fullback and whip in a cross. Croucie and Jermaine, attack the box, you can't be offside because Aaaron will be pulling the ball back to you. To think, they haven't got Modric at the moment! Stick him in place of Huddlestone and they will have a frighteningly good team. Can we expect him on Boxing Day?
Put up mant threads like that on the Org mate and you will be banned!
Let them ban me...I don't really care at this point. I think I have a little bit of respect on there...or at least I like to think so.
Well, Modric isn't a replacement for Huddlestone. Huddlestone holds the midfield for them, don't they?
Nope, Palacios does that. Huddlestone is the playmaker.
They are all valid points you have stated HF.It does smack of ZOLA'S incompetence on the tactical side as a manager and in the transfer market.But one has to question CLARKE'S input as well,the fact he came out the other day,stating he was brought in for his experience to help ZOLA,so you would expect CLARKE has a big say in the running of the team.Whatever the case,new owners,will not be happy keeping this pair on if we are dstill languishing at the bottom of the league.So unless things improve in our league position,you could be right ,there may well be a complete clear out of the club.
I have my theories on Clarke. I suspect he is sulking after not getting the nod for the Celtic job and because we sold Collins. Defence is his priority and he has been undermined by the decisions to let Neill and Collins go and by Zola's expansive approach.
Very well put and I am afraid all true. It is almost hopeless and one feels that any change would be better than this. It is a tragedy of errors and there's no-one to blame. And then there is Clarke coming up with his very odd statement that he is supposed to be running things because Zola is inexperienced!!! This statement is unbelievable really. Although it was presented as an excuse for the Manager, it totally undermines his authority and highlights the lack leadership. Can you imagine Mourinho accepting such a statement from his second in command? Clarke would not dare say anything like this (and never did) to the special one. And what does Clarke expects us to make this. If Zola is not fit to be a Premier League Manager then why do we have him in the driver seat when we are heading towards the edge of the cliff?
Only thing I don't get is your support for the Davids Still don't think it's that desperate besides they want Curbishley back and Zola incompetence is far better than that
I hate how everyone is fangirling over Collins!! He wasn't that good, you all have selective memories. I rate Gabbidon, Upson, Da Costa and Tomkins over Collins.
I can't believe people suggested that we should drop Upson before he got injured, shows how fickle fans are really, takes 2 months of average team performances for people to lose confidence in players ability. I'm sure things would have been the same with collins and without Diamanti, then people would be saying why didn't we sell Collins and get a striker in?
In fact I really rate Diamanti, he is the kind of people who can really change a game (e.g Arsenal). He will be key to our survival.
I blame the way this season on two things.
First reason : poor start, we didn't get the results we needed at the start of the season, we had a disappointing draw against Blackburn (who we normally beat), a really disappointing loss to Wigan. And that is all it takes for players to drop there heads. We have a lot of players in our team who rely on high confidence to play well.
Second Reason : Financial instability, even before the first game of the season there were reports (fake at the time) saying that we were going to sell all our star players, and through the course of the season our financial situation has got worse and worse. Never underestimate how important it is to have stability behind the seasons, it affects the confidence of players.
Deane, I am no fan of the Davids but I saw it as the only way out. Under Straumur, we are going down.
Dan, you should check out the stats. Defensively, we are much stronger with Collins in the team. You seem to have forgotten that our winning run in the Great Escape season coincided with Ginge's return to the team. The problems go much deeper than you suggest. You thinking is wishful; the fact of the matter is that we are in a terrible state tactically because of Zola's inflexibility. Diamanti was awful against Bolton, his goal apart. I am desperate for him to succeed but he is a mad bastard and lacks focus and concentration.
Diamanti is not tactically disciplined but is a brilliant natural talent. The perfect kind of nut-case to have in your team when the team is playing well. Unfortunately, we're not. He has been quite unlucky though in a number of games in terms of getting reward for his efforts on goal. I have no doubt though that he will score some amazing goals. You can see from his reactions when he misses that he is a much better player than is being shown at the moment. His goals ratio will improve.
I think one of the biggest problems that we have is that a number of players have become pissed off at our change in situation, One day we have a Banking God as owner the next we are down the social.
They have signed big contacts over the last 2/3 years (which in many cases they are not earning)under the promise of more investment into the playing staff only for the dream to come falling down,
Is this the reason for duxbury & zola to constantly refer to
"THE PROJECT"? have thay had there ears bent by key players over broken promises?
If this is the case we should ship out the sh*t sooner rather that later & get in players who what to be hear. One Problem.....who wants to join a sinking ship?
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