Having conceded four goals on Saturday, I would like to see some changes in the defence against Oxford. I would like to see Devlin and Leahy rested so that Kinsella and Wilson can be tried in the full back positions. Arguably, they deserve an opportunity and in a 442 or 4411 formation, they shouldn’t be overly exposed. An away game would be a good opportunity to mix things up. It might encourage Devlin and Leahy to up their game too. Anyone else feel that the youngsters deserve a chance?
No one should be surprised that the defence is suspect being the same personnel that
almost got us relegated. Devlin Leahy and Guthrie are all out of contract this Summer and Fitzwater will go back to the Baggies. Things will look very different in 12 months time.
Keates has made panic signings IMO at the back with Wilson and Johnson really no competition even for those defensive spots, where really they should all be up for grabs. No idea what has happened to the Centre Back were going to sign 2 weeks ago.
Kinsella is a centre mid and Cockerill M is at Telford for some games.
I personally think the defence picks itself at the moment.
Seriously??? We’ve lost one game , yes that’s one game!!! They all deserve another a chance to put it right.
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Agree. Donny will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season, and while that might be a fantasy for us, our dream start has made us look better than we perhaps are. We certainly have no right to beat every side we play, or judge the players accordingly.
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There are good reasons to drop Leahy and Ferrier to the bench; good reasons to bring in Wilson at least and I wonder how long Kinsella will wait before getting frustrated. Personally, I think that Leahy and particularly Devlin are good, honest pros but nothing more (very much in the mould of the manager who signed them). The only reason that they are still at the club is because they had a year left and no one else wanted them (unlike Gillespie). My fear is that Kinsella could be another Ryan Woods who gets released because of loyalty shown to other journeymen pros who do a decent job and nothing more. I am not advocating hanging players out to dry; instead, to mix things up, add energy and competition for places by rotating the squad. In short, to ruffle a few feathers! To suggest that it’s one game with our fullbacks is to forget the whole of last season IMHO…
I cannot believe what I am reading on here…one defeat so far and all the defence need changing!!! no we should stick by the lads who have done so well in the games this season. People were posting on here last week that Devlin was the MoM at Barnsley and Leahy has had a good season so far. I am not one for ringing the changes…a settled team often brings rewards. The only change I would make is Kinsella for Osbourne in midfield if the latter cannot up his game.
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Strongly agree. Both Devlin and Leahy, along with Guthrie have improved markedly this season. Leahy is maybe the one that is most defensively suspect, having been directly responsible for 3 or 4 goals conceded but I’d rather Keates works on improving him further and am happy to see how far that goes. There’s no way Devlin deserves to be even part of a discussion about losing his place. He’s gone from being crap to being anything between decent to superb this season.
Osbourne, I agree he will have to be managed. He’s no spring chicken and hasn’t had a pre-season, but Keates said he was ill on Saturday so maybe a bit harsh to judge his performance using the vocabulary some have. I’m really glad he’s our player again, as well as his ability he, like Devlin brings a good mentality to the team.
Regards Keates’ signings I don’t honestly think he could have done much better. Remember this guy is undertaking his first full season in football league management, having inherited a struggling team who’s chairman in Jeff Bonser! It took Smith 5 years to get us seriously threatening top six, while other experienced managers have just not been capable of cutting it in this environment. We’ve also just had our longest unbeaten start to a season at this level of football.
Many comparisons have been made to the Graydon first season in terms of how we were relegation favourites and surprised everyone. Yes we had a decent start that year, but between this time of the year and the back end of October we won 5 drew 1 and lost 5, shipped 3 goals in back to back defeats against Man City and York, and got stuffed 4-1 at Fulham. Nobody panicked about bubbles bursting, we just stuck to our methods and kept improving to see where it took us.
I hope that’s what we do this season.
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Superb post geordie - “Da iawn i ti” as they say down by 'yur…
Agree with JJunior9 - once these contract are up , there will be significant change. We also dont know which Players were on the circulation list, where Keates made players available for loan and transfer.
The 1st choice midfield and front 2 are as good as many in League 1 - the defence is the area which will continue to be exposed over the season. Not having a pop at the lads with the shirts at the moment, its just a fact.
These comments have nothing to do with Saturdays defeat, I was saying exactly the same before the season kicked off.
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So you have taken no account of how much they have improved or played this season then, since you made up your mind before we had kicked a ball.
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Is that the same Liam Kinsella that struggled on his stronger foot at full back and looks so much better at centre mid? To come in for Leahy on his weaker? No tar.
It’s because they are easy targets. Whitney signings, from an inferior league, that had a poor season last year.
They are one performance away from pellters at any given time unfortunately.
I made my mind up after the entire of last Season when the defence was consistently poor and almost got us relegated. Two wing backs exposed consistently defensively as full backs and a centre backs who dont have the physical presence required.
This season we have again given the opposition goals, without them really having to do anything to carve us open.
Fair play to the lads concerned for their effort and improved performances but as I said, over the course of the Season they will get found out time and time again.
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No pelters from me - but they collectively not a good enough unit; no vendetta or dislike - just not good enough!
Yes there are.
Not sure what basis you can make that judgement for the reasons I stated.
Literally all of your posts in this thread.
You aint got a clue mate. Enjoy.
At least have the nerve to stand by your criticisms. Wow.
Will remind you of your comments at the end of the season.