Originally Posted by
OldWhiteTaff
So many questions. Virtually everybody saw the same issues re. some of Bielsa's decisions in the 2nd half of the season. Dare I say it, if he'd changed things round a bit more - playing Shackleton, Brown (he's been mostly fit since Feb., surely all he needed was some proper game time to start to really make a positive difference), Edmondson etc - then maybe we wouldn't have tailed off so badly. So my verdict on Bielsa - 80% good / 20% bad, and if it was purely since Xmas then 30% good / 70% bad, because yes I agree, his demeanour in the last few months has definitely not been positive - regularly pretty gloomy and sometimes almost fatalistic. Compare that to Wilder for example.
And regarding the players, Bamford stands out a mile for his ineffectiveness. Never mind the games where he's been poor throughout, he's also missed so many sitters that have cost us points, or at least goal difference, (which might have been important in itself). Forshaw had one really good game that I can recall (Derby at home). Casilla, overall, has been no improvement over BPF (never mind his howlers, our defensive record since Jan is a lot worse than before that).
And in the last month or so Cooper has reverted to his old self, Pablo has looked shot, Klich's attacking contributions virtually dried up - which all point to burn-out - certainly mental if not physical - back to the point about Bielsa's approach in 2019.
And having said all that it is extremely unlikely we'll make 3 or 4 quality signings, (there's no reason to think AR has real funds, never mind FFP), so unless we can score some good loan signings, our best hope is that we keep hold of our key players, because the doom scenario is saying goodbye to Roofe, Philips, Jansson, Clarke, Shack, and not getting genuine replacements.
To sum it up, I really do think that despite all the plaudits, the biggest single reason for not getting Auto is Bielsa and his decisions since Xmas. We might not have had a huge number of options, but to completely refuse to explore the options we did have when things were clearly starting to deteriorate has ultimately got us to where we are now. Too convinced of his own rectitude, too stubborn. And after that, it was the failure to bring in the one or two quality outfield players in January which also would almost certainly have seen us over the line. If we'd got James (and we would have if we'd not fkd around with fancy loan arrangements and 'if we get promoted' BS, Jenkins would not have had any grounds to stall) that alone would probably have done it.