Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
But he didn't feature in Bowyer's system either?
Well, he did feature from time to time, just not a regular 1st team starter in Bowyer's Shake'n'Mix approach to selection and rotation.
My feeling is that Smith was signed to understudy/rotate with Shinnie.
Shinnie was our main creative CM under Bowyer .... and if he'd been injured/suspended for a sequence of games, we'd have been hard pushed to replace Shinnie's role in the team under Bowyer's systems. Hence signing Smith.
Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
That's very true. The recruitment in Bowyer's 1st 3 transfer windows was very much round pegs for round holes. Despite the fact that the 3rd window was, by championship standards, lacking in quality, through no fault of Bowyer or Gallen. The 4th window doesn't count.
The 5th and 6th one seemed to be a bit more of get as many good players as we can and we will work the rest out later.
Maybe it was just for numbers, flexibility, necessity, they didn't get the final piece of the jigsaw? I have no idea.
There are mitigating circumstances of course but it makes a massive difference when you our under a cap on the number of players in the squad and you have 2 or 3 that you can't, or won't, pick.
That wasted midfielder in the squad, when we could have had another centre back on loan...sorry I forgot we're such a good side that no young CB from the Premier League or Championship could have improved us when we had 2 CBs out injured, Deji out of favour and Pearce (at the time) struggling with his form.
Yes Shinnie was a key player under Bowyer, and has lost his place only due to the tactical changes under Adkins, but it's not as if Smith played much under Bowyer either.
I don't care if there's another Matt Smith out there that's the absolute dogs bollocks and we can sign him for free and sell him for £50m later on, I don't want to see another player by that name sign for us again
Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
That's very true. The recruitment in Bowyer's 1st 3 transfer windows was very much round pegs for round holes. Despite the fact that the 3rd window was, by championship standards, lacking in quality, through no fault of Bowyer or Gallen. The 4th window doesn't count.
The 5th and 6th one seemed to be a bit more of get as many good players as we can and we will work the rest out later.
Maybe it was just for numbers, flexibility, necessity, they didn't get the final piece of the jigsaw? I have no idea.
There are mitigating circumstances of course but it makes a massive difference when you our under a cap on the number of players in the squad and you have 2 or 3 that you can't, or won't, pick.
That wasted midfielder in the squad, when we could have had another centre back on loan...sorry I forgot we're such a good side that no young CB from the Premier League or Championship could have improved us when we had 2 CBs out injured, Deji out of favour and Pearce (at the time) struggling with his form.
Yes Shinnie was a key player under Bowyer, and has lost his place only due to the tactical changes under Adkins, but it's not as if Smith played much under Bowyer either.
Absolutely Bonkers!
Translation: "We can play players out of their natural positions instead of getting someone in who has been training a few years to play in that RCB position"
What we had was either already injured or out of position so I refuse to believe an u23 CB from the Championship or PL would be less good than Pratley or Gunter filling in. Once Deji (who I preferred at RB) got in his flow he was doing decent enough and was our fastest CB, still would be IMO. The moment he made a mistake that cost us, he was then cut from the side in another power play over the players from Bowyer.
We didn't even try to utilise any of our own youth players an area where in recent years we've seen two players go on to be England Internationals!!! (Konsa and Gomez for the newcomers)
Following a mistake on a Saturday, LB decided to tell the country 'One player definitely isn't going to play and cost us anymore on Tuesday'. It was more than cringe. It was the moment I felt the the guy that 'saved' us was the disconnect between TS - Team - Fans.
Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
But he didn't feature in Bowyer's system either?
Well, he did feature from time to time, just not a regular 1st team starter in Bowyer's Shake'n'Mix approach to selection and rotation.
My feeling is that Smith was signed to understudy/rotate with Shinnie.
Shinnie was our main creative CM under Bowyer .... and if he'd been injured/suspended for a sequence of games, we'd have been hard pushed to replace Shinnie's role in the team under Bowyer's systems. Hence signing Smith.
Surely we already had Morgan to cover Shinnie, they play similar roles? Always said Smith was a pointless signing. I'm sure the kid has talent but we simply did not need another CM. We had Pratley, Watson, JFC, Gilbey, Shinnie and Morgan on the books. Not to mention two highly rated young CM's ourselves in Henry and Vennings. Felt like Bowyer was replacing Levitt for the sake of it when a CB or even another AM/Winger would have been better options.
Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
But he didn't feature in Bowyer's system either?
Well, he did feature from time to time, just not a regular 1st team starter in Bowyer's Shake'n'Mix approach to selection and rotation.
My feeling is that Smith was signed to understudy/rotate with Shinnie.
Shinnie was our main creative CM under Bowyer .... and if he'd been injured/suspended for a sequence of games, we'd have been hard pushed to replace Shinnie's role in the team under Bowyer's systems. Hence signing Smith.
Surely we already had Morgan to cover Shinnie, they play similar roles? Always said Smith was a pointless signing. I'm sure the kid has talent but we simply did not need another CM. We had Pratley, Watson, JFC, Gilbey, Shinnie and Morgan on the books. Not to mention two highly rated young CM's ourselves in Henry and Vennings. Felt like Bowyer was replacing Levitt for the sake of it when a CB or even another AM/Winger would have been better options.
You forget we "didn't have a box-to-box midfielder type" so had to sign Smith, even though JFC had been doing it pretty well since he came back into form.
Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
But he didn't feature in Bowyer's system either?
Well, he did feature from time to time, just not a regular 1st team starter in Bowyer's Shake'n'Mix approach to selection and rotation.
My feeling is that Smith was signed to understudy/rotate with Shinnie.
Shinnie was our main creative CM under Bowyer .... and if he'd been injured/suspended for a sequence of games, we'd have been hard pushed to replace Shinnie's role in the team under Bowyer's systems. Hence signing Smith.
Surely we already had Morgan to cover Shinnie, they play similar roles? Always said Smith was a pointless signing. I'm sure the kid has talent but we simply did not need another CM. We had Pratley, Watson, JFC, Gilbey, Shinnie and Morgan on the books. Not to mention two highly rated young CM's ourselves in Henry and Vennings. Felt like Bowyer was replacing Levitt for the sake of it when a CB or even another AM/Winger would have been better options.
You forget we "didn't have a box-to-box midfielder type" so had to sign Smith, even though JFC had been doing it pretty well since he came back into form.
I haven't forgotten, I disagree. Gilbey can be box to box, as can JFC, Shinnie, Morgan. From what I've seen of Smith (admittedly not much), I don't feel he is box to box, more of a deep lying playmaker.
We've seen what Gilbey can do since Bowyer's left. Another player who wasn't developed under LB, and was then cut out by him. Smith was a waste of a signing, when we were in desperate need of a CB.
Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
But he didn't feature in Bowyer's system either?
Well, he did feature from time to time, just not a regular 1st team starter in Bowyer's Shake'n'Mix approach to selection and rotation.
My feeling is that Smith was signed to understudy/rotate with Shinnie.
Shinnie was our main creative CM under Bowyer .... and if he'd been injured/suspended for a sequence of games, we'd have been hard pushed to replace Shinnie's role in the team under Bowyer's systems. Hence signing Smith.
Surely we already had Morgan to cover Shinnie, they play similar roles? Always said Smith was a pointless signing. I'm sure the kid has talent but we simply did not need another CM. We had Pratley, Watson, JFC, Gilbey, Shinnie and Morgan on the books. Not to mention two highly rated young CM's ourselves in Henry and Vennings. Felt like Bowyer was replacing Levitt for the sake of it when a CB or even another AM/Winger would have been better options.
You forget we "didn't have a box-to-box midfielder type" so had to sign Smith, even though JFC had been doing it pretty well since he came back into form.
I haven't forgotten, I disagree. Gilbey can be box to box, as can JFC, Shinnie, Morgan. From what I've seen of Smith (admittedly not much), I don't feel he is box to box, more of a deep lying playmaker.
I agree (although Smith can somewhat do the Box-to-Box role as well) what I said was more Bowyer's narrative/reasoning for the signing, which was pretty confusing at the time.
Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
But he didn't feature in Bowyer's system either?
Well, he did feature from time to time, just not a regular 1st team starter in Bowyer's Shake'n'Mix approach to selection and rotation.
My feeling is that Smith was signed to understudy/rotate with Shinnie.
Shinnie was our main creative CM under Bowyer .... and if he'd been injured/suspended for a sequence of games, we'd have been hard pushed to replace Shinnie's role in the team under Bowyer's systems. Hence signing Smith.
Surely we already had Morgan to cover Shinnie, they play similar roles? Always said Smith was a pointless signing. I'm sure the kid has talent but we simply did not need another CM. We had Pratley, Watson, JFC, Gilbey, Shinnie and Morgan on the books. Not to mention two highly rated young CM's ourselves in Henry and Vennings. Felt like Bowyer was replacing Levitt for the sake of it when a CB or even another AM/Winger would have been better options.
Paul Smyth would have been a more useful option than Matt Smith also
Indeed our 433 formation is made for him really, as that wide striker/narrow winger role is probably his best position.
Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
That's very true. The recruitment in Bowyer's 1st 3 transfer windows was very much round pegs for round holes. Despite the fact that the 3rd window was, by championship standards, lacking in quality, through no fault of Bowyer or Gallen. The 4th window doesn't count.
The 5th and 6th one seemed to be a bit more of get as many good players as we can and we will work the rest out later.
Maybe it was just for numbers, flexibility, necessity, they didn't get the final piece of the jigsaw? I have no idea.
There are mitigating circumstances of course but it makes a massive difference when you our under a cap on the number of players in the squad and you have 2 or 3 that you can't, or won't, pick.
That wasted midfielder in the squad, when we could have had another centre back on loan...sorry I forgot we're such a good side that no young CB from the Premier League or Championship could have improved us when we had 2 CBs out injured, Deji out of favour and Pearce (at the time) struggling with his form.
Yes Shinnie was a key player under Bowyer, and has lost his place only due to the tactical changes under Adkins, but it's not as if Smith played much under Bowyer either.
Absolutely Bonkers!
Translation: "We can play players out of their natural positions instead of getting someone in who has been training a few years to play in that RCB position"
What we had was either already injured or out of position so I refuse to believe an u23 CB from the Championship or PL would be less good than Pratley or Gunter filling in. Once Deji (who I preferred at RB) got in his flow he was doing decent enough and was our fastest CB, still would be IMO. The moment he made a mistake that cost us, he was then cut from the side in another power play over the players from Bowyer.
We didn't even try to utilise any of our own youth players an area where in recent years we've seen two players go on to be England Internationals!!! (Konsa and Gomez for the newcomers)
Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
But he didn't feature in Bowyer's system either?
Well, he did feature from time to time, just not a regular 1st team starter in Bowyer's Shake'n'Mix approach to selection and rotation.
My feeling is that Smith was signed to understudy/rotate with Shinnie.
Shinnie was our main creative CM under Bowyer .... and if he'd been injured/suspended for a sequence of games, we'd have been hard pushed to replace Shinnie's role in the team under Bowyer's systems. Hence signing Smith.
Surely we already had Morgan to cover Shinnie, they play similar roles? Always said Smith was a pointless signing. I'm sure the kid has talent but we simply did not need another CM. We had Pratley, Watson, JFC, Gilbey, Shinnie and Morgan on the books. Not to mention two highly rated young CM's ourselves in Henry and Vennings. Felt like Bowyer was replacing Levitt for the sake of it when a CB or even another AM/Winger would have been better options.
Paul Smyth would have been a more useful option than Matt Smith also
Indeed our 433 formation is made for him really, as that wide striker/narrow winger role is probably his best position.
Yeah, Smyth would have been a very good fit in Adkins' new formation. C'est la vie.
Different system under Adkins. Not really surprising that some players who appear not to fit Adkins systems are not being used.
That's very true. The recruitment in Bowyer's 1st 3 transfer windows was very much round pegs for round holes. Despite the fact that the 3rd window was, by championship standards, lacking in quality, through no fault of Bowyer or Gallen. The 4th window doesn't count.
The 5th and 6th one seemed to be a bit more of get as many good players as we can and we will work the rest out later.
Maybe it was just for numbers, flexibility, necessity, they didn't get the final piece of the jigsaw? I have no idea.
There are mitigating circumstances of course but it makes a massive difference when you our under a cap on the number of players in the squad and you have 2 or 3 that you can't, or won't, pick.
That wasted midfielder in the squad, when we could have had another centre back on loan...sorry I forgot we're such a good side that no young CB from the Premier League or Championship could have improved us when we had 2 CBs out injured, Deji out of favour and Pearce (at the time) struggling with his form.
Yes Shinnie was a key player under Bowyer, and has lost his place only due to the tactical changes under Adkins, but it's not as if Smith played much under Bowyer either.
Absolutely Bonkers!
Translation: "We can play players out of their natural positions instead of getting someone in who has been training a few years to play in that RCB position"
What we had was either already injured or out of position so I refuse to believe an u23 CB from the Championship or PL would be less good than Pratley or Gunter filling in. Once Deji (who I preferred at RB) got in his flow he was doing decent enough and was our fastest CB, still would be IMO. The moment he made a mistake that cost us, he was then cut from the side in another power play over the players from Bowyer.
We didn't even try to utilise any of our own youth players an area where in recent years we've seen two players go on to be England Internationals!!! (Konsa and Gomez for the newcomers)
To be fair Smith hasn't had many opportunities , even under Bowyer , but what I have seen if him , fish out of water comes to mind.
I'd disagree with that, thought he looked alright. Just never given a run of games. The first Matt Smith is one I'd describe as a fish out of water (though admittedly he didn't get much game time either).
Following a mistake on a Saturday, LB decided to tell the country 'One player definitely isn't going to play and cost us anymore on Tuesday'. It was more than cringe. It was the moment I felt the the guy that 'saved' us was the disconnect between TS - Team - Fans.
Not defending what was said, and may have been the final breakdown, but for a bit of context after that game players were dropped and we went unbeaten in the next four, Bowyer left, Jacko won his game and then Nigel Adkins went unbeaten in the next 5 until Saturday, so in terms of results the action may have helped.
To be fair Smith hasn't had many opportunities , even under Bowyer , but what I have seen if him , fish out of water comes to mind.
I'd disagree with that, thought he looked alright. Just never given a run of games. The first Matt Smith is one I'd describe as a fish out of water (though admittedly he didn't get much game time either).
Forgot about him. Went from being a main starter in the Swindon team to MIA at Charlton. Strange that two January signings have both been rarely used since they signed, him and Schwartz struggling to make the bench.
I thought he was very good against Northampton. Easily good enough. If we're playing the diamond or a midfield 3, he can replace most. Bit surprised he's not on the bench, as it means we can replace JFC or Gilbey with a positive energy. On balance I'd have Shinnie in the team or on the bench ahead of him - maybe not in away matches - but if Shinnie's not on the bench like at the weekend I'd definitely have Smith a sub.
To be fair Smith hasn't had many opportunities , even under Bowyer , but what I have seen if him , fish out of water comes to mind.
I'd disagree with that, thought he looked alright. Just never given a run of games. The first Matt Smith is one I'd describe as a fish out of water (though admittedly he didn't get much game time either).
Yes even more so , all be it in the Championship.
The first Matt Smith has been a regular in L1 for Doncaster this season without standing out, which suggests his true level at the moment
Comments
My feeling is that Smith was signed to understudy/rotate with Shinnie.
Shinnie was our main creative CM under Bowyer .... and if he'd been injured/suspended for a sequence of games, we'd have been hard pushed to replace Shinnie's role in the team under Bowyer's systems. Hence signing Smith.
Yes Shinnie was a key player under Bowyer, and has lost his place only due to the tactical changes under Adkins, but it's not as if Smith played much under Bowyer either.
Absolutely Bonkers!
Translation:
"We can play players out of their natural positions instead of getting someone in who has been training a few years to play in that RCB position"
What we had was either already injured or out of position so I refuse to believe an u23 CB from the Championship or PL would be less good than Pratley or Gunter filling in. Once Deji (who I preferred at RB) got in his flow he was doing decent enough and was our fastest CB, still would be IMO. The moment he made a mistake that cost us, he was then cut from the side in another power play over the players from Bowyer.
We didn't even try to utilise any of our own youth players an area where in recent years we've seen two players go on to be England Internationals!!! (Konsa and Gomez for the newcomers)
Indeed our 433 formation is made for him really, as that wide striker/narrow winger role is probably his best position.