I don’t know what to think. This is a far better team than that which Glass put together. It’s a better watch and I’m still hopeful we’ll finish top 6 and maybe even top 4 (I realise I’m at risk of McGoo-ish under ambition here).
On the other hand it increasingly seems like Goodwin is very “my way or the highway”, which is fine if you’re Sir Alex, but a bit more tricky if you’re not.
Equally he doesn’t seem to be Eddie Howe when it comes to tactics and organisation. The Celtic game was an abomination. It felt like he stumbled over Duk and Miovski as a pairing. And away from home we can’t work out how to set ourselves up to win.
I’m not averse to a manager that can identify good players and then lets them play. But not clear who chose these players. Was it Goodwin? If so, it’s a mixed bag. Middle to front we’re hugely improved, but a fair few of the standout players are loans.
At the back, would a Bates/Scales or a Gallagher/Scales combo be better than Stewart/Scales? I suspect so. Stewart is an old fashioned honest defender but he’s just not very good. Yet both Bates and Gallagher were shipped.
I don’t know what to conclude from all this. I wouldn’t bin Goodwin now. I’d see what can be done with the January window. We’re maybe only a couple of decent defenders away from a big improvement. But I’d be ruthlessly drawing up a list of potential successors and if one of them came available I’d be quick to pull the trigger. But it has to be someone with genuine potential.