2025-26 Relegation thread

[WacoRover]

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Keep hearing this, and not trying to have a go but........Alebiosu and Gudjohnssen have obviously been big misses,  who else do you think that's unavailable would make THAT much of a difference?

Clarification: Overall, it’s a poor roster. But I would say Cantwell, Miller, Montgomery- just to have some options at certain positions. 

[RevidgeBlue]

3 minutes ago, WacoRover said:

Clarification: Overall, it’s a poor roster. But I would say Cantwell, Miller, Montgomery- just to have some options at certain positions. 

Fair enough.

Montgomery performed well last time out tbf. We havent been doing well with Cantwell in the side as it is though.

I dont rate Miller at all personally, I know some seem to like him.

[M_B]

2 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Keep hearing this, and not trying to have a go but........Alebiosu and Gudjohnssen have obviously been big misses,  who else do you think that's unavailable would make THAT much of a difference?

It's as much the strength of the bench as the first 11, nobody is getting a rest,Ohashi being the most obvious example.

Morishita is a big miss. 

[roversfan99]

Who are the 13? Now Alebiosu is back.

Gudjohnsen, Miroshita, Miller, Carter, Wharton, Montgomery, Litherland, Hedges, Pears. Kargbo and Tavares too although neither is remotely useful. Who are the 2 I have missed?

[davulsukur]

Assume he's counting Garrett as another

[Tom]

Sheffield Wednesday fan to me in the office today ‘you are going down aren’t you’

In the past we have been quietly bad with people thinking we’ll be fine but others are starting to notice how bad we actually are!

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, davulsukur said:

Assume he's counting Garrett as another

Think hes been fit for quite a few weeks and playing in the under 21s.

[Ghost7]

No injuries to De Neve, Henriksson, McLoughlin and Gardener-Hickman all season.

We just recruited poorly in the summer, it's as simple as that. That's 4 fit, completely crap players that make our starting 11 far weaker than last year. Plenty of the new signings have been fit throughout our bad form.

Tavares, Morishita and Miller have been available at the same time as the above for a huge amount of this seasons fixtures.

The problem is when you add that poor recruitment to last years further cost cutting recruitment (Ohashi, Gueye and Kargbo), then you have the spine of an extremely weak and ineffective first team squad for this level.

This is the reality. We're witnessing a team that can't win games due to back to back budget cutting anywhere and everywhere over the past few years.

[Tom]

There abound be a study on our injuries this season, I’m convinced it’s all part of a defunding.

Every injury is seemingly 5-6 weeks or more and I’d hazard a guess that some of that is due to misdiagnosis or mismanagement of the initial injuries. It’s never just a knock that is a game or two and then back

[KidderStreetNoise]

47 minutes ago, Tom said:

There abound be a study on our injuries this season, I’m convinced it’s all part of a defunding.

Every injury is seemingly 5-6 weeks or more and I’d hazard a guess that some of that is due to misdiagnosis or mismanagement of the initial injuries. It’s never just a knock that is a game or two and then back

Personally think there's an excuse creation culture. There's players being counted in the list that wouldn't be back in the first team squad, but if we mention they've got a knock then it makes us sound worse off.

[Ghost7]

1 hour ago, KidderStreetNoise said:

Personally think there's an excuse creation culture. There's players being counted in the list that wouldn't be back in the first team squad, but if we mention they've got a knock then it makes us sound worse off.

It takes cutthroat interested executives with a reasonable level of autonomy to see through it and do something. Something Venky’s wouldn’t even want present at the club. 

[davulsukur]

12 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Think hes been fit for quite a few weeks and playing in the under 21s.

I assumed they'd still count him as injured/unavailable, as he'll just be building up his match fitness playing for the U21's.

13 players sounds worse than 11, even if you're effectively making 2 or 3 of them up.

Technically Carter isn't injured either, as he played for the U21's last night. He still counts though.

[DE.]

15 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Who are the 13? Now Alebiosu is back.

Gudjohnsen, Miroshita, Miller, Carter, Wharton, Montgomery, Litherland, Hedges, Pears. Kargbo and Tavares too although neither is remotely useful. Who are the 2 I have missed?

Of those...

Gudjohnsen and Morishita - we definitely miss these two, who are decent enough players at this level.

Miller - His long throws make me want to slam my head into a wall. 

Carter & Wharton - Injured is their default status.

Montgomery - Vast majority of his appearances were as a sub, has looked OK but absolutely impossible to know if he's at the level required.

Litherland - Ironically only involved because of the injury situation. Backup to the backups, although did do well in his appearances.

Hedges - I still find it surreal that people now treat his absence as a monumental blow to our chances of success. 

Pears - Toth is back and better than Aynsley, so this is only a problem if Toth gets injured again. Can't be considered a disadvantage unless that happens. 

Kargbo - Zero end product, no footballing brain. Has one above-attribute attribute, pace, and that's it.

Tavares - I'd rather play with ten men. 

So yeah, my view is that we only really miss Gudjohnsen and Morishita - maybe Miller at a push, although I still think he's very much a component of the downgrade. Difficult to say on Montgomery and Litherland as we haven't seen enough of either to know if they can be useful for consistent periods. The rest are, imo, largely useless either because they're never fit or just not very good.