Relegation Battle Looms For Reds

  Barnsley suffered an opening day defeat at Chesterfield. The manor of the defeat along with various other factors leads me to believe that the reds could be in for a relegation battle this season.  

Yes this is a big overreaction after only one league game but from what I have witnessed so far this team still has a long way to go before we can even dream about the top half of the table never mind a promotion push.

Chesterfield have spent the summer selling their best players and losing a good manager and replacing him with serial failure Dean Saunders. Surely they should have been there for the taking on the opening day of the season?

The reds on the other hand have supposedly put together a young hungry squad of future stars who should be in the promotion mix up come the end of the season. That is something I hope will happen but doubt has any possibility whatsoever.

I like the way Lee Johnson comes across when he speaks but at the moment he clearly has no idea what formation to play or which players to play in certain positions. It is clear that at the moment there are certain players who he wants in the team and is willing to play formations to fit them in or the players out of position to fit them in.

For me this is will never work and he has to sacrifice some players for the good of the team. We are top heavy with midfield players who can play centrally but he can’t play them all. There is no point playing Scowen as a wing back when for me he is our most influential player when he plays in the middle.

I can see why he would want to play 3-5-2. We have a lack of wingers at the club, a lot of central midfield players and it allows you to play two up front. However, if he plays that formation then it needs to be Pearson, Scowen and Crowley in the middle with Hourihane dropping to the bench.

We can’t play 4-4-2 with Hourihane according Johnson and I agree that we can’t so his only other alternative would be 4-5-1 and that would probably mean Winnall moving out wide or dropping to the bench as he likes a big man up front who can hold it up.

I certainly think it is time to drop Hourihane and use him as an impact sub no matter what formation we play. His ability from set pieces along with his record of goals and assists cannot be ignored but until his all round game improves then I fear he is more of a liability to the team than a help.

The noises coming from the club were that promotion was the aim for this season. However, to me the team and squad when compared to last season looks a lot worse. Players that we had last season such as Cranie, Turnbull, Berry, Ramage, Holgate (I’m assuming he’s off), and Cole (I’m including loans) etc. would improve this current squad no end.

I do like the look of Mawson at the back and the lad from Arsenal certainly looks like he has quality. Wilkinson also looks good holding the ball up from what I have seen but we are still short in every area of the pitch other than probably central midfield and I feel we need four more players in by the end of August to make an impact in this league.

These would have to be permanent signings as well as we are already at our loan quota yet again, supposedly something we were trying to get away from.

I do hope that I am wrong and that I am being overly negative but from what I have seen from this group of players in the opening game, during pre-season and from what I saw of them last season then I can honestly say that this is the most worried I have ever been in my 27 years of going to Oakwell.