Quote Originally Posted by toptoon View Post
Whether Botman is better or not is debatable. Botman hasnt pulled up any trees this season and his passing has been poor.
All of our players make mistakes (Sandro, a prime example recently) but some get picked up for it and all the good things they do goes unnoticed. While the debate about undroppable players is valid, you cant chop and change a team just because a player did well in training last week or put in a good performance as a sub.
There has been a lot of players across the squad who have under preformed. The loss of 1 players shouldn't have such a catastrophic negative impact on the squad.

It does lend weight to the concerns of Eddie Howe regarding the 'Leadership group' Lascelles was the leader because he was the aggressive voice behind the scenes who would kick off if standards weren't maintained.

Joelinton being out injured the team has just looked soft, weak, 'get-at-able' for want of a more eloquent expression.

This season just feels like the lads have rolled over, or their concentration levels weren't where they needed to be. Some people letting their progress go to their heads.

Gordon for example. Looks like his sh!t don't stink. Long gone are the days of the scrappy scouse dog fighter who terrorised defences to build that reputation.

He's not the only one.

When a collective becomes too comfortable they underperform. Due to injuries and the new signings not having the expected impact to drive competition it's resulted in the current malaise and poor mid-table doldrums.

Signing younger combative players and bringing one or two slightly more mature players with Big voices and personalities in the squad will bolster that resolve and drive standards.