I was originally going to reply to part of a post from BlackForestReds below, but felt this needed a new thread. This isn't just a reaction to the game today, but the talk about Parky, the players and the squad as whole over the last month or so.
[cite]Posted By: BlackForestReds[/cite]Yes it was, let's look at what he's done to date - he had no money to spend, morale was rock bottom and he had to repair a defence that last season was the worst I can ever remember and that soaked up a lot of time scouting replacements etc and competing with a lot of other clubs for free transfers. Getting in Dailly was a good move - I presume there would have been other clubs in for him. Richardson ditto and Youga looks a different player from last year (and even the first few matches this year), Sodje was a good signing and Llera is limited but whole-hearted. Given that Dailly, Sodje, Richardson and Llera cost nothing I think that's excellent business. Plus Parky had to see the back of several players - Holland, Ambrose, ZZ, Hudson, Fortune etc.
Well said. I'm pretty happy with our defence for this level. I mean ideally we'd have more cover at full back, Solly and/or Basey could have gone out on loan with an older right back providing competition for Richardson/Youga, but with our finances it's a decent back four with some cover. No worse than most clubs in this division.
It's up front and in midfield where the problems are. Sam has Wagstaff as competition, but this is a young player with little experience who looked nowhere near good enough a season earlier. He's gaining experience but isn't real competition, not to start every game. Perhaps he needs a few starts though to give him that opportunity.
In the middle, Semedo is very capable doing his job, but of course needs players around him to get forward and attack. Racon appears to have settled down and perhaps knows he's unlikely to be dropped. Bailey is forced out onto the left, a position he can 'do a job', and last season scored goals from, but when it's not working we can't move him inside, drop him or sub him off because there just aren’t any options there. No out and out left winger, someone who could offer what Sam or Wagstaff offer down the right. We need that different option.
With those 3 central midfielders, Shelvey has to play somewhere, he can't just sit on the bench, so he has played behind the striker. If Burton plays, it can work to an extent, but we need the whole midfield passing and moving well for it to work. As we saw today, and many would have said before the game, Shelvey can't play behind McLeod. Both need that player to hold up the ball, challenge in the air, do a job that compliments them and gets them into the game more. I am wondering more often if Shelvey could offer more playing in central midfield. While Racon can run with the ball well, he doesn’t have the range of passing Shelvey does.
As we’ve seen, when we play Shelvey behind Burton, we have no pace up front, so to create chances we have to pass the ball well. This doesn’t always work, and pace is effective up front, so Parky tried McLeod alongside Burton. Unfortunately neither are natural goalscorers, and the pressure of having to go out and score seems to get to McLeod. To add pace up front our other options are Dickson, but for whatever reason that’s unlikely to happen. Alternatively up front we had Fleetwood, who isn't scoring goals in the same league on loan at Colchester, or Tuna, who hasn't even turned pro yet. Parky tried to improve the options by getting McKenzie in, but he's had a few injury problems already, and Mooney, who we can’t judge until he starts a couple of games.
Individually those main five midfielders and Burton are decent players. All have their weaknesses but any of them could go to another club in this league or the Championship, and if managed well, played with the right players, would do a decent job (Ambrose, McCarthy, Iwelumo etc). Together in our team however they’ve become predictable. We have to play good passing football for it to work. Clubs have realised if they stop us playing football, we don’t have the options or ideas to play another way. In midfield we could put on Spring, or if he’s ever fit, Dean Sinclair, but neither are the type of players that can change a game or add a physical presence to the midfield.
Think about how we could change the way we play if we had the options out wide and up front. Today goal kicks and clearances went up to McLeod and Shelvey, but neither would challenge for the header. We have no option to put on a big man up front. Iwelumo would have offered this, but we didn't use him the right way, perhaps overused him (played every league game in 07/08), which had the same problem of being predictable. Sam has/is criticized for not being able to cross, but look at his options when he's in the position - Burton who's decent in the air, but not as big and powerful as many centre backs, or Shelvey, McLeod and Bailey, who all can get in the box, but none are particularly good in the air. If we could throw on a big striker, a left winger, and get Sam/Wagstaff and someone on the left putting crosses in, we could play differently to the way we do now. We could hoof it up to a big striker to hold up or flick on if needed.
I can see why Parky signed Kandol on loan last season and tried to sign him this season, we could just do with that option to mix things up a bit. Just like I can see why he made most of his other signings. Unfortunately we don’t have the money to change the squad. I know most other League One clubs have no money either, but how many have four good League One central midfielders but no left midfielders? Our squad might not be small in comparison, but it’s unbalanced and the lack of options means we are predictable. We only have the midfield and strikers to play passing football, and they aren’t good enough to do it consistently against every type of team we come up against.
I’m not saying Parky is or isn’t the right manager, I’m saying whoever the manager is will need time to build the squad. Leeds have found it tough, we could follow them in being down here for more than a season, whoever the manager is. I know that’s seen as unacceptable to some, but in reality that’s the position we are in now, through a mixture of mistakes by the board, managers and players over the last 3 ½ years. Not just Parkinson this season and last season, or the board for giving him a new contract, or just Dowie and Pardew.
I don't see an obvious answer here, I understand why some say get a new manager in. Others see that there isn't a clear replacement. For me, there isn’t a way out of this quickly, both Parky or a new manager will need time to rebuild the club.
Comments
The other factor is more from a statistical perspective. Yes we are 2nd in the League but Huddersfield are the only team in the top 10 that we have beaten.
In fact, even including those 7 wins this season, Parky's record (for Hull and us ) is 19 wins from his last 73 matches for the equivalent of 80 points. No Manager could ever hope to keep his job based on that.
AA in agreement with aa.
You don't fancy the job yerself, do you ??? !!!
A silver lining maybe. Parky taking responsibility in contrast to the grey haired slime ball we had last season who blamed Red, Red, Robin, the fans not being in the Jimmy Seed, the fans applauding legends like Dean Kiely in short anybody but himself.
Parky deserves some respect for taking responsibility. He has to get a reaction though and soon.
That word has been much over-used today (it's in about five different threads so far). The one instance in which it is genuinely justified is in describing McLeod's thuggery.
Worse, not only did Parky claim not to have seen it, he insisted that it was the first he'd heard of it. OK, in his defence the ref and linesman didn't see it, either. But did he not wonder why following the incident Mcleod was roundly booed every time he touched the ball? It was clearly audible on tv and must have been even more obvious if you were standing on the touch line!
To be fair to Parky as I posted elsewhere my initial reaction was that it was accidental.
He hadn't had the benefit of seeing replays so probably wanted "think" time.
The clamour to sack Parky will no doubt intensify the longer this slump continues; there are those that have been chomping at the bit to get at him, who have been temporarily mute following our good start.
If this becomes too vocal it will only serve to accelerate the downward spiral in a repeat of last season.
Despite our present lofty position therefore; Parky neess to drastically shake things up sooner rather than later.
We are no longer creating chances and our forward line is toothless.
Pretty fundamental stuff.
Sadly, like you I see no immediate fix, and I'm not really sure how patient our fanbase will be after a depressing slide
I do think Mooney and McKenzie might help us out here - I've only seen McKenzie for the first time today but he looked to have decent technique, a bit of pace and wanted to get at players with the ball at his feet. Mooney, without being massive, is the tallest forward in the squad and, we're told, is decent in the air and he's looked bright in his couple of substitute cameos. If both fit I think I'd like to see them start together on Tuesday or Saturday although I don't know if either are likely to turn into prolific players for us.
I think it's time to give Holden a crack at the first team too because, as you say, we're crying out for a more orthadox left sided alternative to Bailey. Whether you then move Bailey into the middle at the expense of Racon or Semedo (or both if you want to get Jonjo in there too) I'm not sure. Part of me thinks we need a really good shake up, but at the same time making 5 or 6 changes could be a bit knee-jerk.
I noticed that, is good to see.
Someone mentioned in another thread that the players looked overconfident in the tunnel, thinking it would be a walkover, and I think that was part of the reason for the performance. Was probably a shock to some of them, get the feeling Racon, Semedo and Shelvey didn't expect Northwich to go for it like they did.
Other day I said on here it looks like he won't be signing, though Parky did say the other day he's getting closer to a place in the squad. Can't tell if he was just saying that or not, I guess Wednesday might give us an idea. Will be interesting what he does with the team, though because of the rules some players will keep their places. Agree about McKenzie and Mooney, I hope they can add something different if they do get a chance.