Players?

[jackal2]

I might agree if you name those "good lads not getting a sniff ".

I think we all know we are weak in midfield, but today's selection is as good as we've got.

It's not that we are short of midfielders in terms of numbers, but Husin looks hopelessly lightweight and Crawford and Patching are apparently regarded as too young to be deployed. They are seriously at risk of becoming our latest "ones for the future" who never are. David Vaughan has also been a massive disappointment so far, but I think the 4-2-3-1 system is best suited to him, so he might yet have a significant role to play.

What seems certain is that we need one if not two more "little rats" as John Sheridan once termed them: really energetic, tough-tackling, ball-winning battlers who can protect our defence better, win the ball more often and feed it regularly to the more talented and creative players like Boldewijn, Alessandra and Thomas, whose confidence and influence will grow if there's a solid base behind them.