Midtable mediocrity for Barnsley under Collins
Midtable mediocrity for Barnsley under Collins
Where to begin after that diabolical performance away at Derby where Barnsley failed to land a blow on another side in the Top 8?
Players woefully off form
The players have to take a long hard look at themselves because if it hadn’t been for Devante Cole`s goals and Liam Roberts saves earlier this season, where would the reds be in the table? The manager also has to take responsibility for this boring style of football that is turning fans off.
One thing I would say in defence is that the board cannot sell their best players and recruit lower level players and expect a promotion push. To sell Mads Andersen, Liam Kitching, James Norwood as well as losing Bobby Thomas and Luke Thomas all in one transfer window was always going to affect the side. Whilst Mael De Gevigney and Kacper Lopata look good signings, Max Watters, Sam Cosgrove, Corey O`Keeffe, Jamie McCart and John McAtee haven’t set the world on fire in a red shirt.
With the new signings struggling to settle in, you look to the likes of Jordan Williams, Herbie Kane, Callum Styles and Adam Phillips to lead the side. Personally, Williams needs to drop to the bench due to his poor performances and have the armband taken off him at the same time. Playing as a centre back in a back three clearly isn’t for him. Maybe Jack Shepherd should return to the side? A player who didn’t deserve to be dropped after his stint in the side in late August.
Callum Styles`s form is in and out. One week he looks like a Championship player but the next can let a game pass him by. Adam Phillips is nowhere near the player he was last season. So the players have to take some responsibility for what is currently happening out on the pitch.
No style, passion or identity.
In previous seasons, Barnsley have played a pressing style of football. We have been hard to beat, with players working their socks off all over the pitch from the strikers right through to the defence.
Under Stendel, Big Val and Michael Duff, opposition players had to match our workrate to stand a chance of beating us. This season we have no fight, passion or identity.
This possession based football does not suit the team. We have a lack of pace to open sides up, spend the majority of time passing sideways and backwards and show little sign of workrate. I know each manager has a way of playing but Collins`s style does not reflect the style we supporters have been used to over the last few seasons (with the exception of under Schopp and Asbaghi). If truth be told, the football served up this season has by and large been boring. No wonder some fans call the manager “The Scottish Schopp”.
No one expected the reds to hit form straight away given a new manager and several new players arrived at once. Last season, Duff said form would be up and down for the first few months of last season which is how it played out until November but at least before the results started to come, fans could see the sides identity and what Duff was trying to achieve. The same cannot be said of Collins. By November last year, Barnsley hit form and were unbeaten in the last two months of the year.
Heading for mid table mediocrity
We are now almost in the middle of November and the side is regressing. We are heading for mid table mediocrity and fast.
It is all well and good beating sides you should be beating like Northampton, Cambridge, etc but we have looked well short against sides in the Top 8. Last season we landed blows to sides in the Top 6 with a draw at Ipswich, the double over Sheffield Wednesday, beating Derby, Plymouth and Portsmouth at home as well as winning at Peterborough for example. This season the gap between Barnsley and sides in the Top 8 has looked huge already.
Losing at home to Peterborough, Portsmouth, Oxford, Blackpool and away to Derby shows how far off the reds are from these sides.
Last season, Michael Duff motivated the team. The same cannot be said under Collins. A lot of work needs to be done quickly if the Reds are going to be challenging for promotion. Bolton has shown that if you put a run together, you can get yourself in the mix for automatic promotion. The problem being Barnsley do not look capable of putting a winning run together and there is a real risk of an embarrassing exit from the FA Cup on Tuesday on national television.
Agree to all this not used to being bored at Oakwell the stand out game this season was the first where we still played the duff way then when collins started to stamp his style its all gone pear shaped give me the latter high press all day long
Thanks Karen. The Port Vale game seems a very long time ago.
The board are ultimately culpable. A scattergun approach to recruiting players from lower and lower levels each time we do it has led to yet another squad which is woefully unbalanced and lacks and guile or pace. We are an academy that plays in the league.
I’ve never worked out why the likes of Parekh and JAQ are here. Time for the lot to clear out, including the Crynes.
Paul, you’re right re the board and their scattergun approach I have been saying the same for the past 5 years. Whatever “model” they chose it is ultimately doing things on the cheap but expecting results. We have been fortunate to have a number of good managers (stendel, Val & Duff) who all exceeded expectations. The current squad is nothing like squads of recent seasons.
The approach this summer has been designed to ensure they don’t need to inject more capital again, at least for a while. They’ve hidden behind Paul Conway whilst ignoring the fact that what they bought was actually too good to be true.
It’s been the same for far too long. Read the piece in Danny Wilson’s book about Mike Phenix. The man behind that is still picking the players. A small number come good, usually after we have borne the full impact of making them better
Great analysis. Difficult to argue against any of that
Malcolm, thank you. Some have disagreed with me but many like you have agreed.
This passing around at the back, left, left, right, right, midfield, back is more like LINE DANCING than football. The aggressive pressing and getting the ball forward has gone under Collins and so have the wins.
This “possession based” football is all well and good if you move the ball around quickly and forward but like you say, we go nowhere with the ball and opposition teams can sit there and happily wait to win the ball back and hit us with pace. happened time and again this season. I preferred the press when our players put a shift in and worked their socks off nut this season I have seen little of that.