Have we made too much of the 'amount of players used' line ?

AFKABartram

Inconsistent team selection certainly played a big factor of why we did not succeed, but is the manager solely to blame for this ?

In my opinion, no.

The the large bulk of the time, players were taken out of the side because they were underperforming. When the player waiting in the wings got the chance, they failed to take the mantle. The two exceptions i think applies however was the use of Varney, who i believe should of been more time as a second striker, rather than being used sparingly there and too often pushed out wide. And secondly, the noticeable switch a couple of months ago from changing having a couple of overlapping full-backs in Moo2 and Youga, to the more defensive minded Halford and Thatcher.

Last season i was firmly of the opinion that we got relegated because the players we had at the club let us down. This season its by far a wider collection of factors, with in hindsight the sale of Reid a much greater factor than most of us realised at the time.

But using 'too many players as a rule', i'm not sure is one of them. 6 clubs used 33 players, Stoke 34, Norwich 37, Charlton, Palace, QPR, Southampton 38, Leicester 41.

Views ?

pete_tong1

Selling Reid was a factor. History should/would tell the directors and some supporters that but it was all ok to do so. Sunderland gain, they stayed and picked up form when he arrived and Charlton lose in terms of the playing side, we missed out of the play offs.

I just hope that a cheeky bid doesnt come in for Shelvey.

SantaClaus

The biggest factor was Pardew flip flopping our tactics. We must have changed our style half a dozen times over the season to no great effect. Just hope that pardew realises when he reflects on the season that we played our best football when the ball was on the floor and the full backs were bombing on. Fingers crossed.

oohaahmortimer

definitely need to see more of varney as a striker... if he plays 80% of next seasons games up front he'll bag us 18-25 goals, you heard it here first!

Ledge

as you not using Varney enough made a difference

but i think not having a settled back four

Henry Irving

[cite]Posted By: SantaClaus[/cite]The biggest factor was Pardew flip flopping our tactics. We must have changed our style half a dozen times over the season to no great effect. Just hope that pardew realises when he reflects on the season that we played our best football when the ball was on the floor and the full backs were bombing on. Fingers crossed.

Agree with that and I think that losing three strikers two of whom were in form (Dickson and Toody) was a blow.

It wasn't so much the number of players but the in and out nature of the team especially as Ledge says the back four.

We also had 6 sending offs

Interestingly Brum used 37 players when going up last year (check Colin Cameron's stats page in the programme)

AFKABartram

[cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]

Interestingly Brum used 37 players when going up last year (check Colin Cameron's stats page in the programme)

The season he referred to was 01-02. Brum used 27 players last year. Sunderland used 38, Leeds an astonishing 45, which i reckon is the record Cameron was unsure of.

Kap10

I blame Peter varney