came 18th last year, sold our best 4 players, yet we have a squad capable of not being in bottom 3, how do you work that out ?
What utter rubbish, the squad is very weak indeed.
What positions would you say lack Championship quality?
hmm so the same set of players that many predicted under Thorn would be o.k this year are suddenly shit? Convenient
Most.
Okay, but which positions?
What positions would you say lack Championship quality?
Lets look at the squad in a bit more detail, taking into account we finished 18th last season.
Goalkeeper - Westwood replaced by Murphy. Westwood is a Prem standard keeper who none of us realised how good he actually was until he left. I'd be willing to say in his time here Westwood used to save us about 10 points a season all on his own. Murphy is an average keeper at this level and this has seen us lose more points than we would've if Westwood was still here.
Defence - The only area which hasn't really changed that much bar losing Ben Turner (who was only available in the first 14 games, although we did amass a decent points total when he was here). Wood and McPake have suffered with injuries so far meaning we have had to use Christie and push Keogh into the centre. Where Keogh's best position is, is up for debate, I however think he is better than a RB. Christie has done well and we have bare in mind that its his first year in senior football, however a couple of errors defensively from Christie at RB have cost us whereas maybe they wouldn't have happened if Keogh had been there. I also feel Cranie needs what I like to describe as a "big meat head" alongside him. A Richard Wood/Ben Turner style no nonsense defender. At left back Hussey continues to improve but looks a bit suspect defensively like Christie.
Midfield - Due to a lack of numbers we have again had to throw in youngsters in the deep end when they wouldn't have expected so much exposure at this point of the season. I personally don't think either Bigirimana or Thomas are ready for the regularity of first team football that they have partaken in so far. You could also point to the form of Gary McSheffrey, who in my opinion has been woeful this season bar the Reading game when he scored. He looked very effective when Thorn took over in 2009-10, especially against Burnley and Portsmouth away. Even David Bell had some good games when Thorn took over and he has been non existant this season. You could even argue this with the likes of Clingan as well. However what we are desparately missing is a player in the same combative box to box style of Gunnarsson, who by all accounts is excelling at Cardiff. An addition to this we are missing his "bite" in Midfield as we barely seem to put in a tackle in the middle third of the pitch.
Striker - We now have to rely on Lukas Jutkiewicz for goals. A player who improved immensely when Marlon King started to hit form. Both played off each other excellently and the tireless running and creating space for King to exploit created goals. Now Jutkiewicz doesn't have a partner with the same goalscoring instincts and 'striker nous' of King, he has had to take the role of leading the line and being relied on for goals. No one else is chipping in. Play Jutkiewicz alongside a poacher and play the game he is suited for and he'll score about 10 a season but create alot more through his own play and off the ball movement. Clive Platt is the other striker, who despite his workrate and the odd couple of good games is out of his depth at this level. 5 goals in over 40 games for Coventry tells a story.
Squad depth - 12 players, 3 in means the squad is 9 senior players thin. This has a huge knock on effect when we have any injuries or suspensions.
We may have only lost 4 guaranteed starters but if you look at it the way I have set it out, you can see:
a) Why the players that left were so important to us;
b) Why bringing in 4 good players could improve the side a lot but whether that would be enough at this stage of the season to keep us up is questionable;
c) Why we are, where we are and rightfully so.
So the team thats left is only good enough for 2 wins and 13 points after 22 games and this has absolutly nothing to do with AT.
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Well at least we would be competing to stay in this division.OK so lets assume a better manager than Thorn would have got another 50% out of the players ie instead of 13 points we had 21 we would still be in the crapper or would a better manager (which SISU won't pay for anyway) have this lot mid table or challenging for the play-offs?
ICHAN - thanks your support is appreciated and I wish you the best of luck in finding a job - been there and I know how hard it is on the whole family. One classic example for me is Sheff. Now its no secret I think he's crap but at the end of last season under Thorn he was working hard, making runs, looking a goal threat - this season he has hardly broken sweat, spends whole games hiding. Not picking on him specifically as there are others just as bad but he is supposed to be a Cov fan and whilst I may not be blessed with his ability and fitness (anyone who met me at the meeting can testify to that lol) as a fan and a lover of CCFC I would run myself to a standstill whenever I pulled on that shirt and would be imploring all those around me to do the same.
Thorn was at Wimbledon when they had the Crazy Gang but there they had big personalities in Sanchez, Wise, Jones, Fash etc we seem devoid of these sorts of characters and are suffering for it.
So the team thats left is only good enough for 2 wins and 13 points after 22 games and this has absolutly nothing to do with AT.
So if we can only manage 2 wins and 13 points and possible losing players in January how can people even contumplate that we will be ok in division 1 play off push/ mid table we have to keep AT as swapping managers will not get us anywhere, we will be lucky not to get relegated again next year at this rate, these players can not put up a fight in this league what chance have they got if relegated and people want to keep AT, and not even hope and pray a new manager could turn this around.![]()
Tommy no I am not putting words into people's mouth's people are saying it's not AT 's fault we are where we are that's all, if that was read wrong then I apologise.
As for sisu's plan anyones guess is as good as anyone else's who knows what they are upto?
I did put this awhile ago on my views about sisu.
They remind me of these people you see sometimes in films where they buy a company sell everything they can, run them into the ground and make profits of them which they appear to be/wanting to do.
Lets be honest with ourselves here they don't never did give a damn (maybe the first couple of months they did) about what coventry football club is about they just thought they would come in throw as little money in as they could get away with and hope/pray they got to the prem and sold on for a hugh fat profit.
Well it never worked out but instead of thinking ok if we spent another 2/3 million the second season to really strenghten the squad they decided right we need some money back and so sold some players.
Since then they have been trying to claw investers monies back anyway they could, and so reducing the strength of the squad, which in turn obviously (well obvious to anyone who knows anything about a team sport) reduced any chance of getting to where the big money is the prem and so they would not get there big fat pay cheque.
So were they ill advised in the first place? there fault because they should have looked into it themselves as well as being advised by RR.
If so and they know there is no way back for them now unless they spent millions (which we know they won't) they are hanging on and bleeding this club dry of any monies they can get and will sell anything they can to try and get anything back.
However in there short sightedness they are on a loseing battle, as they have to keep spending money to keep there investment alive or they lose everything.
But the longer they stay and sell there assets of any value and not replace them then there assets are/will become worthless and so they will never get there money back.
There short sighted outlook into the world of football has cost them and it's there fault for not taking the gamble in the early days of there takeover not ours, unfortunatly we the fans and our club are the long term sufferers of there messed up plan, not them, they may lose money but they will get this back over time, a lot shorter time than it will take our beloved club to recover.
Ok divedive a simple answer no I do not think we should be in the bottom 3.
How many points have been lost when we were in a position to win or draw.
These losses when we should have won or drawn would have added to confidance etc but this is all if's and buts we are where we are and nothing can be done about that the league does not lie and we are bottom and on a losing streak that I can not see an and to.