It’s well and truly “wheels have fallen off” now, isn’t it?
I listened to the first half on WM while driving home and then the second half on AVTV.
AVTV weren’t so critical, as you’d expect, but WM were pretty scathing and basically said we were awful.
The Mail and various other online articles back this up.
Suffice to say, it wasn’t good.
We made six changes and I doubt anyone would really have argued much against them before the game.
Yes, some players were played out of position, but I think this was more about Dean Smith getting a look at who could step up.
And it proved disappointing all round, from what I heard. Indeed, the only player who carried himself well was John McGinn, who sounded like the only player that cared.
The most disappointing part for me (apart from Kalinic seemingly dropping a clanger so early) was Callum O’Hare.
I’ve wanted to see him get a chance, but WM didn’t pull any punches in hinting that he was a boy playing a man’s game, with the way he was muscled off the ball so easily.
The boos from the fans when he was substituted suggest he should have stayed on, but I suspect the reality is that he was probably having a shocker. Certainly, from what I was hearing, either he didn’t have a clue what the manager expected of him or Smith simply wasn’t getting his message across properly.
Either way, I’d suggest it was the better solution to hook him rather than let him have a whole game being ineffective.
Also disappointing is the fact that absolutely no one stepped up.
Hogan missed chances and Lansbury tried, but it was all huff and puff with absolutely no quality to be found in the side.
After a great start under Dean Smith, we’ve moved onto a very, very poor run of results and any hopes of promotion seem to be going out of the window rapidly.
If Abraham does actually go, you have to wonder where the goals will come from, as I hinted recently.
I suspect this will be a massive eye-opener for the manager and given that I really don’t think he’ll have much money to spend in this window, I also suspect he’ll be very worried.
Interesting, albeit concerning times.
It seems the squad needs quite a bit of a overhaul, but Smith won’t be able to do much.
We all knew that the “feelgood” factor was too good to last, didn’t we?
