Now, there may be injury issues, but I have been told that Slade refuses to play Tex and Ba because they are not committed to the side. The midfield needs some energy as a matter of urgency. Ba may not be great but he is probably better than what we have. Tex is better than anything we have got and both are being paid by the club. Slade has to play them both or he won't be in a position to make such decisions in future.
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Ba is another problem, he seems not to speak too much English, has lost his French speaking mates and doesn't want to be here. But again paying his wages is dead money. Playing him also gives him the opportunity to put himself in the shop window. Teams are therefore more likely to take a player who is playing than one who hasn't since last season. He is also technically and athletically better than Foley for example.
We also need someone with a creative spark who's going to get the ball and distribute it Magennis' feet so he can bring Ajose/Holmes/Lookman into the game in the final third. But lets walk before we can run.
None of us are at Sparrows Lane Sunday to Friday to see what Ba's attitude has been like. Of course, once you start to freeze a player out, like is seemingly happening to him, you are probably creating a self-fulfilling prophecy as commitment is a two way street. I think most people will react to that treatment by deciding not to give a stuff in return, rather than trying to impress and earn a reprieve, especially when they are still getting paid either way. I've never really liked it as a man management technique.
While I sympathise with the frustration we're not doing better, I think the reaction on here has has been over the top in the light of too many draws. If I didn't know the results and just read the comments on here I'd think we were bottom 3 and on a run of several straight defeats. I don't think we're at the stage yet of desperately throwing any old player into the team in the vague hope they might do a bit better than what we have.
Results and performances obviously haven't been satisfactory, and the midfield always looked the weak link as soon at the transfer window closed but, even if fully committed, I'm not sure Ba would solve all our problems anyway. Living where I do I'm reliant on highlights and the odd TV game, but by chance saw him play on TV a couple of times last season. I think he could add some energy and aggression to the midfield and he did seem to have decent technique and an eye for the occasional incisive pass, but he was often ponderous on the ball, prone to bad decisions and his aggression often made him look more a booking waiting to happen than a hard but fair enforcer. If, on top of those flaws, he plays without giving a stuff he'll probably be a flat out liability.
Foley, Crofts, Jacko and Ulvestad are no world beaters, but, to varying degrees, they have all had careers that indicate they should cut it as this level and when supplemented with Lookman (who arguably ought to be playing right up top), Botaka and Holmes we really ought to be able to find a balance between defensive discipline and attacking threat that is good enough for wins at this level.
The issue right now, for me, is probably not so much the individual players but the way they are being deployed. Yes, we could probably have better players in there, but also Slade hasn't got the mix right yet. Even after this many games, I'm not surprised by that. There was so much overhaul at the club in the summer, he was appointed too late, players were signed even later, and the off-field elements of the playing side were in such disrepair that there was just too much to do to expect everything to click right away like it did that season under Powell. Powell had the luxury of 3 months at the end of the previous season to get the ethos of the club ready to receive all those new players and his predecessor was a competent manager himself who wouldn't have left the shambles that Slade has inherited. He also didn't have to fight the board to get the players he wanted.
Slade is no football genius either. He is probably, at best, a competent safe pair hands. I believe he is capable of better than we have shown so far and do believe he has at least one promotion in him but he has an uphill battle with the rabble that owns and runs this club so maybe this is the best someone of his limited talents can produce when he has one hand tied behind his back. Maybe he just needs a bit more time to get it right.
Personally, I expected no better than this. I thought promotion, if it comes, was always likely to be via the play-offs. I always expected that we would have a slow start, maybe even slower than we have had, and would have to make up ground by having an unusually strong November to May.
Modern football doesn't really allow for it anymore, but I still think we are the wait and see stage. I'd hoped we be showing better signs of improvement, even if that was just through more cohesive team play than necessarily results, but when you are on a run of draws it is very hard to make strong conclusions, a season can still usually go either way in those circumstances. The manager needs to be proactive in trying to make it go the right way, but it is often tweaks that make the difference rather than wholesale changes. Still plenty of time for us to improve and make this slow start a dim memory. Still also plenty of time for us to get even worse and look back with relative fondness on those heady days when we were drawing at home to Oldham.
It is an inescapable fact that there is a woeful lack of pace in the side particularly the midfield. Someone else said somewhere that we miss Jordan Cousins and that is spot on for me.
Digressing slightly, I can't wait for Kashi to be fully fit. A half fit Kashi would destroy this league.
So, do you go for A) the boring, mediocre, but fairly committed journeyman, or B ) a potentially very able player that dawdles about with his head in the clouds and couldn't give a shit.
That, my friends, sums up our midfield options.
Especially now with the no emergency loans situation, can a club like ours really claim to have such a wealth of resources that we can absolutely guarantee we won't need these players? If we do end up having to use them, why make them so disillusioned that they likely won't play to 100% when called upon.
These two should surely, at least, be given a chance to impress in maybe the EFL cup or something.
If Ba dawdles about, take him off and fine him. Want him to stop doing that? COACH IT OUT OF HIM. He has far more technical footballing ability than any of our other options. No one is saying he's perfect, but what we have simply doesn't cut it.
I'm sure as the season wears on and JJ picks up his traditional hamstring injury that keeps him out a couple months, and Crofts looks knackered Slade is going to start with the excuses that we didn't get enough in in the summer. But if he is still freezing Ba out then I will have no sympathy. Furthermore, this is a man who FOUGHT to get Crofts and Foley.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is my problem with the old school "British Manager." He has to "get his players in." In most of the rest of the world the job of "manager" is actually head coach whose job it is to coach the players. And while I can't blame Slade for not wanting some of the players we had or some of the network recommendations, the fact that he can't be bothered with the two players left on our books who he didn't want seems absurd to me, let alone the fact that Tex was one of our best players down the stretch last year.
Ba - the type of player we need but in reality he is even less committed than he was last year. Imagine that.
We need something different in the middle though. Here's a thought. Play Botaka on the left and move Jacko back to his best position.
Oh and play Lookman up front alongside Magennis while you're at it.