After yet another dispiriting weekend, please allow me to be somewhat self-indulgent and give 5 reasons for why the Eagles occupy the bottom of the Championship table and why a long hard winter looks in prospect
1. The travails of the last 12 months
In assessing where the football club currently is and where it’s going (League 1 if we’re not careful) then I think it’s very important to acknowledge where the club has been, after all, it was just five or so months ago that the club was mere hours from going into liquidation. It’s hard to escape from, as the consequences of a season spent largely in turmoil is obviously still casting a shadow over what we are seeing presently.
The near collapse and financial ruin of the team arguably has an impact on all the points below, most significantly on the gutting of the previous squad and such a vast overhaul in playing staff. While it doesn’t excuse some continued naiveties at the back, the glaring lack of goals in the team and the worrying way in which the team seems to completely collapse once they fall behind in a game it does, or rather it should offer perspective and context. Fans of the club must still be counting their blessings for its very existence, and a period of transition; hopefully moving towards stability was both inevitable and imperative. It’s important not to lose sight of that.
2. Lack of identity
As I say, the results of financial meltdown, followed by a period of great instability means that key assets were sold off last season (like Victor Moses) while in the summer stalwart players like skipper Shaun Derry and Clint Hill were not offered new deals. The result has meant that a squad that had a settled look about it, that comprised players who had been at the club several seasons was broken up and replaced by a mixture of largely untried youngsters and loan players.
I went to the club’s first pre season friendly against Chelsea and if I’m honest, I felt something of a detachment, something which in a way is still continuing now. For I didn’t know who half the players were, true, a lot were youngsters or trialists but the squad now has six loan players, a far too high number. Under Simon Jordan (a name I don’t really want to mention) the plan was for young players brought through the academy who had a connection to the club and the local area. The John Bostock theft put paid to this idea and it’s arguably been downhill ever since.
3. A shallow squad and few leaders
That’s not to say the squad lacks talent, it’s just there’s very little depth and a lack of leaders. Big personalities that kept the club afloat and in the division last season have been lost, and there now seems a naivety and psychological weakness around many of the players. Confidence is brittle. In Neil Danns, Daren Ambrose, Nathaniel Clyne, Paddy McCarthy, Julian Speroni, there are players that would walk into any other Championship side, however even their confidence seems shot now.
Both Danns and Ambrose have been missing practically all season through injury and while the club’s excellent academy continues to produce highly promising youngsters, it’s unfair to expect them to be able to handle the pressure that comes from being at the bottom and they need experienced heads around them when pressure comes. This season there are very few players able to galvanise when the going gets tough.
The final problem in the playing staff is the absolutely chronic lack of goals. Ambrose was a vital source of goals last season as well as the main creator. It’s fair to say that Alan Lee was hardly a superstar but the fact that his departure has left a hole is horribly telling. 18 year old Wilfred Zaha has looked phenomenal in bursts but is very raw and doesn’t look, yet, an accomplished finisher. James Vaughan looked a brilliant signing initially but has been inconsistent whilst the less said about Calvin Andrew the better. He tries hard, but dear old Calvin couldn’t score a goal if his life depended on it.
It all adds up to games in which we play well, create chances but can never, ever take them, leaving ourselves to be caught out. We never score the first goal, always putting us on the back foot and countless performances this season, whilst in several areas miles better than the past couple of years have resulted in the same old coming out, time after time. There have been games where we have been poor, very poor, no question but also several games which we have lost (QPR and Millwall at home particular examples) where we were robbed due to the fact we just can’t stick the ball in the net
4. Playing style
Which is not because we aren’t creating chances, because as I have stated above, under George Burley (who I attach virtually no blame to whatsoever) the style of play has changed from the Warnock years. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing, depends on whether you’re an Arsene Wenger or a Tony Pulis, but regardless of the rights and wrongs of various styles; the switch to a more expansive passing game over the directness and pressing of the past will take time to bed in.
Which is what has happened. What’s more, playing a more open brand of football is far harder to implement than a more defensive, conservative game. From the matches I’ve been to, and the reports I’ve read the games have been far more of an exciting prospect. We’ve mainly been playing two ball playing midfielders in the middle of the park in summer arrivals Owen Garvan and Andrew Dorman, but nether put their foot it and in several games it looks like you can drive a bus through the middle of the team. Perhaps then the time has come to adopt a more cynical and pragmatic approach. That is, unless it’s too late...
5. Good old lady luck
I guess in this respect I’m no different from any other football fan out there; things are going against us etc. etc. but, more than perhaps any other time I’ve followed the club, we seem to be getting no breaks whatsoever. I know this is right up there with ‘we’ve had injuries’ or ‘the ref’s are against us’, but I can’t help it, I really think we just need that little bit of luck to go for us, God knows we seem to have had precious little of it in recent times.
Not to sound like a stuck record, but in so many games we’ve been playing well, only for a comic piece of misfortune to befall us. I’ve already lost count of the amount of times this season we’ve lost to a penalty, a last minute goal or an OG. Witness this Saturday against Middlesboro, up 1-0 with 15 mins to go and apparently playing well, we then collapse to two own goals and lose the game to remain rooted to the bottom of the table. It never rains but it pours, surely, surely, a little luck has to come our way soon doesn’t it?
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