Quote Originally Posted by boingy View Post
"We have by and large been on top in almost every game we have played this season, its the attacking side of our play that has really cost us".

Pretty much perfect appraisal.
I can understand that. But there's something about the priorities of the manager at the start of the season which has bothered me. He clearly planned for Dike to come in, in January which has been a risk that hasn't paid off. Basically, there was some money there and Val put all his eggs in one basket, at a point in the future. He bought in loan players like Mulumby that he doesn't really play that often. Clarke's been in on loan at the expense of Ajayi. Now Clarke's a good player but he's using loans to sign players marginally better than those replaced in low priority positions and yet he's got Phillips playing up top. Would a better manager have prioritised a second striker loan and freed Phillips up to play centre mid? Possibly.

Also, I don't know how much input a manager has on signings, but you would think he was part of the process. The guy Hugill scored 5 goals the term before and you would think he'd have picked up on this and said to go for someone else. We have very little pace in the side and no transfers have sought to address this.

This is all a bit hindsight for us, but a manager should be eating, living and breathing what the qualities of the team are and prioritise key positions to improve. We started the season with Phillips up top and a manager who had a plan to bring his replacement in, in January....that mistake is firmly on his shoulders.