What is our biggest problem?

[Woolverhampton_Blue]

The defence is a big one. Fourth most goals conceded. Most from open play? We aren’t free scoring enough that we can keep that up and still win games - especially when we don’t have a full strength eleven.

Lack of depth. The system that was bringing us results relied on full backs bringing the width and Richarlison up front to take pressure off Dom (who has been fantastic). Love Coleman but he’s past his best, and without Digne we’re short of quality on the left. We don’t have a natural replacement for Richarlison when he’s banned or injured. Carlo then has to resort to various square pegs in round holes that don’t work.

Pickford. We have a keeper who has been erratic and unreliable in the one position those traits are least tolerable.

Lack of real leadership when we need it. 24 year old Holgate taking the armband against Leeds. Makes you question what some of the more senior players are made of?

The squad as a whole. Proper hodge podge of players assembled across the reign of four or five managers?

Going to take a while to sort all those out.

 

[Khalekan]

I don't think Bill Kenwright has been blamed for anything in a while, so I'll go with that.

​

And the matchgoing fans.

Surely we must be somehow responsible for the insipid performances in the last three home games.

 

[Hendi]

Consistently signing cast off players from the top clubs assuming they are good enough.
And signing players clearly ill suited to the Prem.

Exactly. Our biggest problem is recruitment and we seem incapable of understanding signing cast offs is a bad idea. It never really seems to change.

 

[Toffeelover]

If Moyes’ team had a playmaker of the quality of Rodriguez and someone in the form that DCL is in then we would have troubled the CL spots. Attitude and work rate goes a long way.

The likes of that player would not have come to us when Moyes was in charge.

 

[Toffeelover]

I've said a few times, I think the CL is a long way off even with a new team. It's hard to break into that top 4, there's a reason the top/big 6 are called that, because the top 4 is almost always made up of 4 of those 6 teams. CL qualification is not something I would expect us to achieve any time soon if i'm honest. The title is only a possibility if either we 'do a Leicester' and win it by some sort of freak, or Usmanov steps out of the shadows and bankrolls us to a ridiculous extent.

I'm not really looking at those things as part of my thinking to be honest, they're way off. I'm thinking more of turning that top 6 into a top 7, so we are considered very much part of the big group, and winning a couple of cups. The point though, was that we need to either accept it will take a while to get to where we want to be and so buy (and use) young players with a view to improving, or focus on the here and now and look to get better quickly. I still think we can't quite decide which path to take, and it shows.

It has been voiced that Carlo does not go along that much with young players but prefers mature experienced players.

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

The defence is a big one. Fourth most goals conceded. Most from open play? We aren’t free scoring enough that we can keep that up and still win games - especially when we don’t have a full strength eleven.

Lack of depth. The system that was bringing us results relied on full backs bringing the width and Richarlison up front to take pressure off Dom (who has been fantastic). Love Coleman but he’s past his best, and without Digne we’re short of quality on the left. We don’t have a natural replacement for Richarlison when he’s banned or injured. Carlo then has to resort to various square pegs in round holes that don’t work.

Pickford. We have a keeper who has been erratic and unreliable in the one position those traits are least tolerable.

Lack of real leadership when we need it. 24 year old Holgate taking the armband against Leeds. Makes you question what some of the more senior players are made of?

The squad as a whole. Proper hodge podge of players assembled across the reign of four or five managers?

Going to take a while to sort all those out.

There are 3 teams who have conceded the same as us mate, the RS, Leeds and Burnley. There are only actually two team who have conceded more than us, Fulham (19) and West Brom (18) so as you say "The defence is a big one"

 

[Efcjake]

We've pished away the best part of 500 million on a squad that isn't much better than 8th place.

 

[Lanolin]

It has been voiced that Carlo does not go along that much with young players but prefers mature experienced players.

Which is fine, but it means we can't keep saying 'give him a few years before you judge'. If we're buying players for the here and now then that's great, but it means we need 'instant' returns.

 

[Brendan Janus]

Playing football !!

 

[winny5366]

Turning up.!!!

 

[Joey66]

ATM injuries plus our manager playing a Dads' army substitute bench..... the dead wood is sitting on it bar Bernard atm - plus wrong formations - so Carlo on 11 million has to get it right....... lets see some youth on the bench ....with pace......

 

[optatom154]

Been a while since Jan Mucha got any blame

If you play James and accept he won't contribute defensively much, you're going to need players behind him who can do two jobs. Factor in midfielders like Gomes and Gylfi who struggle to get around the pitch with any real intensity, a defence with very little pace (Keane and Mina) to press as a team. Team can't drop deep because with James and our midfield because of how slow it is to counter, think we looked so much better pressing high but since the derby the defence has sat so deep. Need the defence to trust themselves a bit more, as soon as they take a confidence knock it feels like the first thought of the defence is to sit deeper and deeper, first 7 games if we conceded we didn't sit back we would go up a gear and press and take the game away from the oppositon. Not a criticism of James btw just if you have someone like him (which most of the top half don't) you need players who can cover the yards in midfield for 90 mins. Hopefully Gbamin can be some sort of magical hybrid cdm

 

[HeadieTwo]

ancelotti

 

[Tree13]

Our biggest problem in the last five years has been, without doubt, player recruitment. We have thrown our newfound wealth around like a fifteen year old virgin with a recent terminal diagnosis who just won the lottery and went to the nearest strip club.

Given that curing ongoing bad player recruitment from the last few windows naturally involves selling the dross and bringing in better players, we're gonna need a couple more transfer windows until the damage is undone. In the interim, we have to get these tune we can out of the orchestra we have. That brings us to the major immediate problem: pace and fitness (more specifically the lack thereof) in the squad. So much of what we want to achieve on the pitch is hampered by too many players being unable to physically perform at the levels dictated as necessary by the standard of the opposition we face each week.

How many times have we sat here after a match and said the opposition were gash but got the result because they physically outran or out-muscled us? Too many times. WAAAAY too many times.

 

[deipnosophist]

The epidemic of homesickness ravaging our club is, in my opinion, the greatest factor contributing to our dismalness. We are awful on the football field, a bunch of rudderless losers; no heart, no stomach and no balls. And I blame homesickness (or, to give it its medical name: Potty Syndrome). Snail, Wisdom, Crab, Disinclined and also Iceland are (or were, in Disinclined case) the most affected but Pete Andre's goalkeeping is of such direness that he is obviously missing Sunderland. And Dirty and Xmas evidently pine for the altitude Colombia offers.
The club's solution to all this ? it has been to offer an all-day full English breakfast option on the FF cafe menu. WTF!! It's obvious a continental breakfast might be a better choice for our non-Merseyside born players who are not used to running about with a belly full of bacon, sausages, beans, hash browns, runny eggs and butter saturated toast.
Honestly, our club at times...I just shake my head...