That was a horible watch yesterday, no question. Where has it gone wrong, genuinely, could be a million reasons, but here is my take.
Last season, we massively overachieved, because of the seige mentality and because we were playing more as a single unit. We had goals coming from across the pitch and we were playing at a high tempo.
Roll onto the long-winded exit of our mate from Benfleet road, holding up the takeover and the embargo, which killed our plans for the season and was likely the reason for at least a couple of exits - debateable whether others see these as "key" roles, but losing Fongook was the most disastrous, followed closely by Callum Powell. Wes was a bit hot and cold, but he had no clue what he was going to do next, which made him very difficult for defenders to deal with, and that opened up space for Jack Bridge. Then Powell was the ultimate duracell bunny, causing headache after headache for defenders because he did not stop running, nibbling at their heels and generally being a complete pain in their a****s! We were able to exploit that space created by these two, and when playing at pace and operating as a unit, we didnt need to be perfect but we were effective.
Then losing both Kensdal and Cardwell, losing Cav to injury and then both Husin and Bridge have lost form, the spine of our team has suffered badly and we are in rebuild territory, with a low budget to use in a situation where our original targets were snapped up by other teams before we could even get the embargo lifted. Our replacement signings since have been a disapointment, but I dont think you can blame these new players alone. Creating the atmosphere and the space for new players to integrate and start to perform is down to the manager and the coaches, and this certainly isnt right at the moment. You only have to look at the Moncur situation - his style is well known, so asking him to do an unfamiliar job he isnt comfortable with is not going to get the best out of him. And that is the case for several of the new (and existing) players.
What I observed yesterday was all round depressing. Barnet are (on paper at least) not a huge amount better than us, but what they did do was executed well, they are well organised and they moved forward with intent and in numbers, as a unit. So there is always a team mate to pass to or to pick up a loose ball. One of my buddies said exactly the same about York, where we were also horribly found out.
Contrast that with us, Walker is never going to score while he is doing left back defensive work, while the defence is busy having a nap. Kendall cannot score if he doesnt get the ball, fed into him properly and with back up available. Then, despite the many criticisms, Bonne is the only no 9 we have, and again, he is winning headers and flick ons, but with no-one there to pick up the second ball, he looks inept. With a defensive set up (which clearly didnt work yesterday), with little creativity, no one forward and moving at snails pace, threading the ball across the back between defenders then out to the wings and back again, we are in trouble.
Despite all of that, it needs a bit of a change of mindset from somewhere and a huge injection of enthusiasm, and we could go from looking like relegation fodder to solid mid table without a single new signing. I think it is clear we are not going up this season, and I think the hope of making the play offs are fading fast, so its the FA Trophy. We just need to not go down, but what I think would be useful is an update from somewhere, just stating priorities, because I think a lot of fans have to scale back their expectations.
Nonetheless, we do want to see a bit more enthusiasm and better performances on the pitch. Quite honestly, if we are not good enough, but you can see the energy and the effort, it isnt quite so bad when you lose. But that performance yesterday smacked of the game being lost before we even made it out of the tunnel at the start, and it was a genuinely awful watch!
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