We have to fix this season in the next 6 days….
Here’s my thoughts on everything around the club at the minute!
Good Afternoon Ladies and Gents,
As you all know I’m generally a glass half full kind of guy but will bring up issues as and where I see them, to try and stay as balanced as possible.
So my first issue at the minute is the same as every body else, the SDs, who I think to be fair to them have decent talent ID, BUT they are completely incapable of building a balanced squad, we’re in window 5 of a 4 window plan and we are still missing 3 out of 4 positions to build a solid spine.
The lack of ruthlessness in the market and leaving everything down to swaps and opportunities is no way to run one of the largest clubs in Europe. We are desperate for a commanding world class GK, a leader and powerhouse of a Centre Half and a clinical Striker.
I am a huge fan of Enzo Maresca and believe criticism around him is harsh and he is being over criticised because of how well he had us playing in the early stages of the season, in a balanced thought process if you would have said to me in August that we would be 1 point off top 4 at the start of Feb I’d be over the moon to be honest. It’s purely because our performances have been at the other ends of the spectrum I.e, first 14/15 games we were flying and the last 7/8 have been quite poor but on the whole we are where we deserve to be in the table.
My only two issues with Enzo Maresca are his over protection of Robert Sanchez and his lack of in game management whether it’s tactically or substitutes. BUT, I don’t actually believe many of our regular subs have done enough to warrant his trust to use them.
Back to our SDs and to be blunt, they just have to go, the summer window was atrocious and they are currently making a big fumble of this window. Where we could give ourselves a great chance of getting top 4 by strengthening our squad in the RIGHT areas of the pitch.
I’m not for or against Garnacho as a signing (value dependant), I think he’s a good player with potential, what I am against is the time, effort and resources that have been supposedly put into that deal. It could just wait until the summer and revisit it and see if that’s actually what we require! Use those resources into strengthening areas of the squad that need it now!
I understand it’s almost impossible to sign the type of Goalkeeper we require in January but that doesn’t excuse the lack of use of Filip Jorgensen, who by the way I’m not massively convinced on yet either but anybody is better than Sanchez.
Thanks for reading!
Luke Rushbrook
Hi Luke, great post and I agree with all of what you have said. My only addition would be that if you are going to hold the players to high standards, than you have to sit Sanchez down, or it undermines Maresca’s ability to manage the rest of the team effectively.
I’m a Maresca fan like you are, and while not perfect, the majority of his issues are because he is getting no help from those above him, not in the squad composition and having to play Sanchez when clearly not warranted.
6 days to right the ship for the SD’s, to not get a midfielder would be the last straw for me. Razor thin depth, running Caicedo and Enzo into the ground, and no reliable defensive substitute. By the way, Who plays for those 2 when they come back late from World Cup qualifiers in March???
I’ll reserve full judgement to the end of the window, hopefully there is so action to come.
I mostly agree and well said Luke! All I’ll say is on the point about Maresca backing Sanchez - from what I’ve seen on X, Maresca is making his feelings known to the directors about Sanchez behind the scenes. He clearly just doesn’t agree with being too critical of Sanchez publicly, maybe because of how much a confidence position keeper is? He probably just thinks it doesn’t help anyone. Of course, that doesn’t excuse the fact that he hasn’t dropped him. I’d be very disappointed if he starts against West Ham.