It’s all getting a bit depressing, and to lose a goal at the very end to Wigan was a real body blow. However, in truth we didn’t deserve anything for what was an insipid second half performance. Big Eck described it as “not good enough” but this begs the question is the manager only as good as his players or is the manager paid good money to get more out of ‘average’ players through motivation and tactics?
I suppose it seems churlish to knock Alex M because we beat the Arsenal and won the League Cup to provide probably the best day out ever for bluenoses. Yet to say Blues were “tired” is a bit of a limp excuse and with some of the players returning after a ‘rest’ then surely they should have been fresh and eager. Before the match, Big Eck was raving about the team spirit in the dressing room but isn’t that what every club near the bottom has been saying?
The match itself was a bit disappointing and although it was good to see the Ridge score, it perhaps puts into perspective Blues’ forward power. Worryingly Jiranek went off early and Curtis (Agent Curtis?) Davies would need a season under his belt to rival the reliability of either Scott Dann or Jiranek. Yet again,we used Cameron Jerome as the lone striker and although he will run himself into the ground keeping the opposition back four busy, he’s hardly full of goals and to have somebody as the lone striker who couldn’t trap a bag of cement is, to my mind, plain stupid.
Unfortunately this is the Big Eck mentality of looking to pinch a result when we no longer have a goalproof defence. I hate to restart the ‘chav’ chant of 4-4-2 but unless Zigic is available then we have to play two forwards if we wish to win a game. The question also has to be asked as to why it took so long to make the decision to replace ‘Malsejour’ who was anonymous throughout the game.
I think the time has come to field our most attacking side because we now need to aim for three points not just one (or nil) in every game from now on. Players like Martins, Bentley and Gardner(in the centre) have to play whilst Redmond, young though he may be, needs to be on the bench as a game changing option.
Will this scenario happen…? I doubt it. However, Big Eck should realise that the film was called Braveheart, not Safeheart!