Gary’s De-Presser

[Scallywolf]

Instead of Frazer ?

Against one of the best defences in the Premier League!

Channy has to start tomorrow, with Sarabia alongside him.

Doyle, Pitbull and Super Mario slogging their guts out in the middle of the park.

Doc, S Bueno, Kilman, Toti and H Bueno at the back. RAN has a 25% chance of starting, so not included.

Our bench, OMG our bench! 2 goalkeepers and a bunch of kids!

I simply pray for the best, but fear the worst. How has it got to this appalling situation?

 

[WV10Wolf]

That is not true. Our players have never stopped trying. This is on bad luck and Jeff. And I'm a Fosun lover, by the way. But this is extremely poor. However, it's simply not fair to claim our players haven't tried.

So it’s just a coincidence that we’ve hit the 40 point mark and fell off a cliff. I don’t blame the players, our goal was to stay in the division and we’ve done that. It’s only natural to switch off when you’ve completed an objective

 

[Hot Fuss]

Pointless keep moaning about it to be honest. Were pretty much ****ed for the rest of this season now, although I’m sure most us will continue to get behind the lads and if we could scrape to 50 points it’ll be a great achievement.

Got to see what happens in the summer now. Us, GON and the squad deserve some decent recruitment in the right areas.

 

[Matt]

Hard to see us getting any points this week with all of those players out, to be honest.

 

[stevev53]

So it’s just a coincidence that we’ve hit the 40 point mark and fell off a cliff. I don’t blame the players, our goal was to stay in the division and we’ve done that. It’s only natural to switch off when you’ve completed an objective

They haven’t switched off !!!!!!! Do you actually watch the games ?

 

[VancouverWolf]

At the start of the season all of us would have bitten an arm off to have 43 points with 6 games to go, with a probability of finishing no worse than 13th.
Successful season in my view, no matter what happens now.

But….but…..but the sky is falling, right?

 

[steve vena]

Why hasn’t he had surgery sooner?????

That is the real question here

No beds in New Cross lol.

 

[VancouverWolf]

I was confident about tomorrow until I heard about all of those injuries.

We're in trouble here.

Even if we had everyone fit for tomorrow, I still would wouldn’t have been confident.

 

[goldeneyed]

Cunha out is the big one and Hwang and Ait-Nouri only on the bench. Time for one or two of the youngsters to raise their level and make a mark

Even though Arsenal will be a,bit knackered after their Bayern defeat its hard not see a humiliating 0-3 defeat or worse. Shi and Fosun you really have ruined any chance we might have had of a top 8 finish and an FA cup final. More likely to be 13th now . Yes a bit of bad luck on Injuries but the lack of squad depth and money wasted on Silva, Guedes, Kaladjic and Hoever, some £86m, is nothing less than scandalous incompetence.

 

[steve vena]

With Ricihe Sunak's attack on the sick note culture this morning whilst at the same time having a pop at unacceptable immigration levels, I fear in the summer Cunha, Hwang and Neto will all have to leave and next season DWP will be making us sign people currently on PIP to ease our striker crisis

I used to play for Sankeys at right back . I'm a carer now for my wife who's on pip.
I could play a few games to give Nelson a rest. Any others got any ideas lol

 

[steve vena]

I'd play 11 kids until the season ends , our main players have done tremendous **** fosun! Embarrassing and amateur.

 

[Darvo]

Who will people blame without Semedo playing is what I want to know

Errr … Semedo!

 

[WickedWolfie]

Errr … Semedo!

Or Fabio, Pod or Max.....

Edited to add:
I missed Sa who may well feel like he's in a shooting gallery tomorrow....

 

[Supadavewolf]

GON is not entirely innocent, though. How many games did the two Buenos - both decent substitutes - spend sitting on the bench for us, while RAN and Dawson cream crackered themselves on the pitch?

How many games did Tommy Doyle and Boubacar do the same while SuperMario and Pitbull walked off at the end completely drained of energy?

Yes, there are weaknesses in the squad - cover at RWB and underrepresented up front, as we all know - and, yes, Fosun (not just Shi, who probably just dances to the Fosun tune) bears much of the blame, but GON could have IMV spread the workload around to a much greater extent.

I take the point that the bench players named above are arguably not automatic starters for us, and might never be, but there's talent there that could have been used to a greater extent, which in turn might have resulted in longer injury-free periods for some of our starters.

Only my opinion, probably well in the minority here.

 

[WickedWolfie]

GON is not entirely innocent, though. How many games did the two Buenos - both decent substitutes - spend sitting on the bench for us, while RAN and Dawson cream crackered themselves on the pitch?

How many games did Tommy Doyle and Boubacar do the same while SuperMario and Pitbull walked off at the end completely drained of energy?

Yes, there are weaknesses in the squad - cover at RWB and underrepresented up front, as we all know - and, yes, Fosun (not just Shi, who probably just dances to the Fosun tune) bears much of the blame, but GON could have IMV spread the workload around to a much greater extent.

I take the point that the bench players named above are arguably not automatic starters for us, and might never be, but there's talent there that could have been used to a greater extent, which in turn might have resulted in longer injury-free periods for some of our starters.

Only my opinion, probably well in the minority here.

There certainly is a valid argument that GON could have made rather better use of the wider squad. See also Fabio and Sasa pre-January. He would doubtless question the relative quality of some of those that you mentioned.

That's the danger of the quantity vs quality debate. You can pad out the squad with lesser players but if the head coach has no confidence in them he just won't use them.

 

[cannockwolves]

My wife is out at a work do tomorrow, so I was tempted to stay home with the Dog. Hearing about the injuries has probably tipped me over to giving it a miss.

I can see a 4 or 5 niller with this one unfortunately. Bloody Semedo

 

[WickedWolfie]

My wife is out at a work do tomorrow, so I was tempted to stay home with the Dog. Hearing about the injuries has probably tipped me over to giving it a miss.

I can see a 4 or 5 niller with this one unfortunately. Bloody Semedo

The way things are going l'd settle for 0-4. I fear much much worse. Those who moaned about us getting thumped there away last season under JL may have pause for thought....

 

[Wolf316]

My wife is out at a work do tomorrow, so I was tempted to stay home with the Dog. Hearing about the injuries has probably tipped me over to giving it a miss.

I can see a 4 or 5 niller with this one unfortunately. Bloody Semedo

Looks like there’s a lot with the same idea judging by the amount of resale tickets available

 

[Rowzed]

GON is not entirely innocent, though. How many games did the two Buenos - both decent substitutes - spend sitting on the bench for us, while RAN and Dawson cream crackered themselves on the pitch?

How many games did Tommy Doyle and Boubacar do the same while SuperMario and Pitbull walked off at the end completely drained of energy?

Yes, there are weaknesses in the squad - cover at RWB and underrepresented up front, as we all know - and, yes, Fosun (not just Shi, who probably just dances to the Fosun tune) bears much of the blame, but GON could have IMV spread the workload around to a much greater extent.

I take the point that the bench players named above are arguably not automatic starters for us, and might never be, but there's talent there that could have been used to a greater extent, which in turn might have resulted in longer injury-free periods for some of our starters.

Only my opinion, probably well in the minority here.

Nuno did the same, ran Neto into the ground when he had MGW at the same age itching to get his chance. Also barely played Vitinha, didn’t play Gonçalves, despite Moutinho struggled through 3 games in 8 days.

Many managers are wedded to their ‘best 11’, make subs too late and overwork the starters. Dean Saunders, not the greatest manager of the last 147 years, left SEB on for the second half at Blues, we were 3-0 and it was his second game in 48 hours. We won 2 games that Easter weekend and got relegated.

GO’N’s not had the best hand to play but if he is open to any criticism it’s not using the bench to address fatigue. That said, we are v rarely 3-0 up at half time these days.

 

[WV10Wolf]

They haven’t switched off !!!!!!! Do you actually watch the games ?

No last game I went to was Chorley in 1986.

 

[Black Country Wanderer]

Cunha out is the big one and Hwang and Ait-Nouri only on the bench. Time for one or two of the youngsters to raise their level and make a mark

Even though Arsenal will be a,bit knackered after their Bayern defeat its hard not see a humiliating 0-3 defeat or worse. Shi and Fosun you really have ruined any chance we might have had of a top 8 finish and an FA cup final. More likely to be 13th now . Yes a bit of bad luck on Injuries but the lack of squad depth and money wasted on Silva, Guedes, Kaladjic and Hoever, some £86m, is nothing less than scandalous incompetence.

0-3 to Arsenal is hardly humiliating,it may be worse than that lol
More likely to be 14th actually but i agree with the rest

 

[StaffordWolf]

The best that can come out of this is we help Luton avoid relegation and sink either Everton or Forest!

 

[North West Wanderer]

I think I under estimated in this 5 sub age how important a deeper squad is, happily hold my hands up to that.

I do kind of understand this season, caused by a monumental ffp **** up, but not acceptable going forward.

I do think we will probably have to settle for a lesser team with improved depth going forward.

 

[JOSWolf]

Erm, it really hasn’t

We avoided points deduction thanks to transfers, and yet stayed up comfortably

Won’t be much fun against Arsenal, and potentially rest of the week

But backfired? No - that would have been us being in relegation trouble with these injuries

And we’re not. Hate to tell you this but they’ve actually done a good job considering where we were going into last season

Real test coming up in summer, no doubt though

They could have bought in better squad cover in January but actually made us weaker when Gary thought we would be stronger at the end of the window. They have ruined what could have been an excellent season by leaving us too light. Two players added without paying massive fees such as the likes of Fofana who went to Burnley would not have seen us breach FFP. They screwed up in January and it has cost us an FA Cup Semi final place and potentially a Europe spot.

 

[North West Wanderer]

GON is not entirely innocent, though. How many games did the two Buenos - both decent substitutes - spend sitting on the bench for us, while RAN and Dawson cream crackered themselves on the pitch?

How many games did Tommy Doyle and Boubacar do the same while SuperMario and Pitbull walked off at the end completely drained of energy?

Yes, there are weaknesses in the squad - cover at RWB and underrepresented up front, as we all know - and, yes, Fosun (not just Shi, who probably just dances to the Fosun tune) bears much of the blame, but GON could have IMV spread the workload around to a much greater extent.

I take the point that the bench players named above are arguably not automatic starters for us, and might never be, but there's talent there that could have been used to a greater extent, which in turn might have resulted in longer injury-free periods for some of our starters.

Only my opinion, probably well in the minority here.

Its a fair point Dave.

 

[JOSWolf]

How can a club that has spent the last 6 years competing in the richest league in the world end up with a squad weaker than Sheff Utd’s. Total incompetence from Jeff and co.

Absolutely. Weaker squad than Burnley and even Luton on numbers as well. It is ridiculous.

 

[JOSWolf]

Tawanda is starting tomorrow.

Good luck to him.

 

[Ned]

GON is not entirely innocent, though. How many games did the two Buenos - both decent substitutes - spend sitting on the bench for us, while RAN and Dawson cream crackered themselves on the pitch?

How many games did Tommy Doyle and Boubacar do the same while SuperMario and Pitbull walked off at the end completely drained of energy?

Yes, there are weaknesses in the squad - cover at RWB and underrepresented up front, as we all know - and, yes, Fosun (not just Shi, who probably just dances to the Fosun tune) bears much of the blame, but GON could have IMV spread the workload around to a much greater extent.

I take the point that the bench players named above are arguably not automatic starters for us, and might never be, but there's talent there that could have been used to a greater extent, which in turn might have resulted in longer injury-free periods for some of our starters.

Only my opinion, probably well in the minority here.

I agree 100% with this. Inexperienced manager, in fairness, wanting to make a name for himself and was maybe not thinking so much about fatigue further down the line. I’m ok with it, it happens, but as you say - he’s not blameless in all of this.

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

I still think it's unfair to blame O'Neil at all.

If, and it's a big if, we say the players were overworked, it doesn't really matter with Dawson, Semedo and Ait-Nouri. They're all very good players, but they can all be replaced like for like. So it's a risk he may have thought as worth taking, knowing Santi Bueno, Doherty and Bueno could come in.

Obviously there's a relatively big drop off between Semedo - Doherty and Ait-Nouri - Bueno, but the team are still competitive with them in it. If we had to start a game with them two, it's not really a disaster.

Similarly, if Lemina had to miss out, is it really a major problem that Doyle or B. Traore plays? I personally don't think so.

The issue is the forwards. The drop off goes from quality players to League 1/2 kids or people out of position.

O'Neil thought that would be rectified in January. So he managed the players accordingly.

The reality is that if we had two more forwards available, we would be able to compete tomorrow - and for every game. Everywhere else has reasonable depth for a club like us, maybe with the exception of centre-back, we're probably one short, but there are ways to get by with that, especially in a back three.

 

[Northampton_wolf]

Holman to start? maybe the young RB?

 

[SuperGran]

Oh well we are safe good opportunity for the kids to get some game time and show what they can do.

 

[WickedWolfie]

I agree 100% with this. Inexperienced manager, in fairness, wanting to make a name for himself and was maybe not thinking so much about fatigue further down the line. I’m ok with it, it happens, but as you say - he’s not blameless in all of this.

I'm sure that his priority was getting 40 points as quickly as possible

 

[WickedWolfie]

Oh well we are safe good opportunity for the kids to get some game time and show what they can do.

I hope that GON experimenting won't be greeted the same way that JL doing so was if and when we got a thumping. That's unfair, particularly on the youngsters.

Edited to add:
Rather too often on the Mix l've seen people say "oh, we're safe so let's experiment with youngsters etc" only for the very same people to complain if results are poor as a result.

 

[Starsky]

Wonder what the players think. They obviously care and have worked themselves into the ground, only to be let down by a disfunctional club whose sole objective this season was minimising the damage inflicted by its hapless CEO.

 

[WickedWolfie]

Wonder what the players think. They obviously care and have worked themselves into the ground, only to be let down by a disfunctional club whose sole objective this season was minimising the damage inflicted by its hapless CEO.

If l was a player who got hurt as a result l'd be taking to my lawyer....

Being serious, if players continue being played regardless of analytical indicators you may just find insurance companies declining claims too....

 

[Ned]

I'm sure that his priority was getting 40 points as quickly as possible

I agree but I’d also say that after we got into our stride it was clear we weren’t going down and we were thinking about Europe. Basically there were players available most of the season to rotate and replace during games if the red zone was being reached. It’s ok though… if you offered me this crisis now or 3 months earlier I would take this now we aren’t going lower than 13th (hopefully).

 

[wolfslair]

I think I under estimated in this 5 sub age how important a deeper squad is, happily hold my hands up to that.

I do kind of understand this season, caused by a monumental ffp **** up, but not acceptable going forward.

I do think we will probably have to settle for a lesser team with improved depth going forward.

Your last paragraph isn’t a bad thing mate, means when injuries and suspensions happen it means the drop off from first to second choice in a position isn’t massive and we can have more “system” players allowing for rotation and fresh legs during games and the season.

 

[SuperGran]

I hope that GON experimenting won't be greeted the same way that JL doing so was if and when we got a thumping. That's unfair, particularly on the youngsters.

Edited to add:
Rather too often on the Mix l've seen people say "oh, we're safe so let's experiment with youngsters etc" only for the very same people to complain if results are poor as a result.

Explain the experimenting? Gaz would kill for this squad that JL put out for arsenal away

 

[WickedWolfie]

I agree but I’d also say that after we got into our stride it was clear we weren’t going down and we were thinking about Europe. Basically there were players available most of the season to rotate and replace during games if the red zone was being reached. It’s ok though… if you offered me this crisis now or 3 months earlier I would take this now we aren’t going lower than 13th (hopefully).

It's certainly reassuring to be able to have this discussion from a position of safety.

 

[WickedWolfie]

Explain the experimenting? Gaz would kill for this squad that JL put out for arsenal away
View attachment 42058

It's not only JL. This is something that's gone on for a long time. Look at Nuno's last season for example....