Quote Originally Posted by ruocul View Post
As Mike said the midfield is the engine room. Lose that and you lose the game. For me the only 2 players we have that can fill our central midfield positions are NG and Walker. I do hope that Lowery is not going to make a return, he should have been dropped 2 months ago.

I am aware that Ainley played as CM on Saturday. No disrespect to him but he is not a natural tackler. For me this lad has made a really good effort to improve, and he has come on a mile. Now he has got the hard part. gaining the extra couple of yards, and working hard on his physical strength. Good luck to the lad. Probably at this stage best if Cooper and him split the game.

Mike the main reason we are in such a mess is that we virtually had no engine room. That is completely down to the manager.
With respect, not 'completely down to the manager', although he must take his fair share of responsibility for our plight. As I have said before the club has to take its share of the blame. Our academy is no longer producing the type of player capable of playing in that engine room that can make a difference. Too many good young players of this type are now being syphoned off by PL clubs before they actually have the chance to sign professional terms at the club. Therefore, as I said before now, the academy must be scaled down, so that more funds can be diverted to the first team. Artell appears to have dropped an almighty bloomer with the signing of Grant and the lad from Wigan (whom he never plays), so perhaps there are problems there in the scouting areas. I know that we have lost one such main scout recently and he has moved on to a club at the top of L1. Also a fitness coach has departed and of then there is, Neil Baker. Strange that we should lose so many top men at our club. We also lost others when Davis was in charge. Haemorrhaging such talented backroom staff in such a short period of time cannot be healthy. Someone perhaps is responsible for this to happen. As I have said before, the problems lie deeper than with Artell, I would guess.