5 reason's it's all gone wrong

On MOTD2 last night Lee Dixon listed 5 reasons that Man City have c*cked it up this year. He may have been stating the obvious, but I felt it might be appropriate to do a similar post mortem on our failed attempt at automatic promotion.

1. Summer transfer dealings.
a. We failed to replace Pilkington successfully. We already had Gary Roberts, and knew we’d be getting potential with Ward, and decided to sign Donal MacDermott as our third winger, which proved a failure as he was sold in January, having barely played for us and shown very little in the way of the form he showed for Bournemouth last season on loan, in particular against us in the play off semis.
b. This brings us on to the next issue of our dealings – buying players who we were impressed by last season. We signed two central midfielders on Oscar Gobern and Anton Robinson, and they have both failed to cement a place in the side and failed to show the ability they showed against us last season.
c. Not satisfied with adding these two, we also renewed Damien Johnson’s loan, and signed Tommy Miller on loan. Add these to Scott Arfield, Tony Kay and Joey Gudjonsson we had 7 central midfielders to choose from. And no one can honestly say who our first choice pair were come kick off in August.
d. Failure to strengthen other key areas – a specialist left back, centre half and striker would all, in my opinion, have strengthened the side.

2. The unbeaten run. This became a millstone around our neck. Too many draws, and too many cracks papered over. We have only lost 6 games all season, and three of those are in our last 4 games. Yet we are 9 behind Wednesday, with an almost identical goal difference. In hindsight, perhaps a defeat on day one would have been what we needed as a kick up the rear end. Instead we drew our first three games, each of which we probably should have one. We have failed to close out loads of games when we’ve been in front. It smacks of naivety, a lack of confidence and a lack of direction.

3. Tinkering by Elsie. We have used 28 players in the leave this season; including 11 midfielders (although one of those is Diego...) We never seemed to have a settled side. For me your back 4 and central midfield should be solid and steady, with as few changes as possible.

4. Home form. We have won 12, drawn 6 and lost 3. Both Sheffield sides have won 15. Yes, Charlton’s home record is almost the same as ours, but they’ve been awesome away. Had we won three more home games, against, for example, newly promoted Bury on day 1, Orient when we were 2-0 up with 8 minutes to go and Rochdale, 2-1 up with 8 minutes to go, we would be in 6 points better off now and firmly in the fight.

5. Managerial change. Deano decided to change the gaffer. At the time many felt it was the right thing to do, but I felt it was the right decision made at a peculiar time, as I said on here at the time. It was clear things were not right, and if, as many still think, it was due to Lee Clark’s poor handling of the media when linked with other jobs, why did Deano wait until two weeks after the transfer window was closed? This was, in hindsight, daft. He has inherited another man’s side. He has nowt to lose. Whereas if he was still in post LC still had his reputation to fight for. Perhaps Deano should have publicly stated thigs were not going well, and put pressure on Clark to stay in the job and actually get results? Or sack him sooner and get someone in with the time to make key signings in January.

Instead he appointed a manager that was only ever going to get Town fans behind him AFTER he achieved things. He’s a Leeds man, and had only been out of the job for a few weeks, from Leeds. A risky appointment that, to date, has achieved nothing except the reaffirming of the doubts about our team’s true capabilities.

In summary, just about every critical issue this season seems, to me, to have been handled poorly. The only positive has been Jordan Rhodes rise to national prominence. He has been the shining beacon among mediocrity and inconsistency this season. At times, particularly at Hillsborough, I have felt sorry for him. We have used nearly 30 players this season but have been almost a one man team for most of it. In January, we were resolute in keeping him here, and I was proud of that. But ultimately this will have been worthless if we don’t go up. Players are worth more in January, especially goalscorers. Perhaps, and I’m loathe to say it, we should have started a bidding war, let him go and given Lee Clark (or another manager if we pre-suppose bringing the decision forward) the cash to bring in 3 or 4 key signings?

As things stand, we face the very real prospect of our season falling apart and another play off humiliation. I don’t fancy us to beat either of the Sheffield sides over two legs, or at Wembley.....sorry for the doom and gloom but finding it tough to see a silver lining....

Thoughts?