Post
by DCWat » Thu Dec 27, 2018 1:55 pm
Considering the plaudits that Mercer was getting last season, in relation to both Heaton and Pope, it’s surprising that we aren’t seeing improvements with Hart taking charge of the area.
The defensive problems could, in part, be due to the change of keeper. Wasn’t it last season when, although we may have faced a lot of shots, they were ones that were more difficult for the striker, and easier for the keeper? We seem to have lost that cohesion between defenders and keeper.
Barring our full backs, our defence is pretty decent, when looking at individuals, as are our keepers (Hart’s dominance of his area aside).
It’s not just that though, our midfield is woeful. To a man they do little to support either those in front or those behind. Cork has been below par but he’s been switched from holding to a more forward thinking player, and back again, whist forming part of a midfield with Westwood and Hendrick who, are not Premier League quality.
The pedestrian way in which we pass the ball, with little movement in front, means that the only option is a pass to the centre halves, for a punt up to strikers. We simply aren’t winning the second balls that we did last season and if we aren’t doing this, it makes the long balls look pointless - why have our centre halves playing these passes when our midfielders should be better on the ball!?
Broken record, I know, but this all goes back to previous poor windows. We HAD to recruit in the summer, we’ve been complacent, naive, negligent, unwilling or unable to utilise the market.
It is doable for a ‘smaller club’ - you only need to look at some of the signings made by Brighton or Huddersfield - ignoring their respective positions, some of the signings that they have made would have helped to mitigate the issues that we have now. The players are out there if you look and are prepared to use the market - an area that Dyche appears to have been far too rigid in.
A Billing, Mooy, or Propper to name a few would have helped. We seemed wedded to the likes of Rodriguez and we know how that turned out.
We can blame Dyche, the players, Garlick recruitment, scouting and coaching etc. The truth probably is that to an extent all have been culpable to a degree and we are now paying the price, after the best opportunity we will ever get to push on, disappointing to say the least.
