I'm not excusing last night's result / performance but let's just take a moment to look at what Curle has got to work with. I have excluded youth teamers.
Keepers
Cornell - lower end league 2 / top end conference keeper - simply untrue
Coddington / Ward - unproven at league level most likely correct
Defenders
Facey / Odoffin - young PL academy drop outs, the odd good game but obvious flaws in their game particularly decision making .............mostly likely correct
Taylor - a caricature of a centre half, surely on his last professional deal. - again untrue
Pierre - erratic will look decent with an old head along side him IMO................. Incorrect
Turnbull - decent league 2 defender, but probably not physical enough.............strange comment
Buchanan - way past his best. Surely on his last deal at EFL level. .............incorrect
Midfielders
Bridge - no evidence to suggest he is a league standard player on a consistent basis. Probably signed as he's mates with DA. disagree with yr sentiment and biased judgement
McWilliams - young player, inevitably inconsistent .......... agree
O'Toole - way past his best. Surely on his last deal at EFL level.............cynical view point and probably incorrect
Crooks - best player in the squad, easily capable of L1 football....................correct
Powell - way past his best. Surely on his last deal at EFL level.....not passsed his best ok squad player
Foley - good player but seems to be a serial loser as he is involved in an awful lot of poor / relegated teams................totally incorrect - Average player with limited ability.
Kasim - does he exist? ............... silly comment
Attack
Hoskins - clearly not an EFL level footballer................best of a bunch
Williams - solid L2 pro, will get goals..................nice guy 20 goals doubtful
KVV - too good for this league, but can't mix it with the physical side so most likely an expensive luxury we can't afford............wrong again class for us but a red card awaiting.
Morias - good L2 pro, will get goals if he's fit / not suspended................really if he makes a total of 12 games thats a bonus
Bowditch - must've thought it was Christmas when JE gave him a 2 year deal..... another silly comment.
Waters - jury's out, not sure he's consistent enough to be anything other than a middle of the road L2 player......probably correct.
So we can see that he's managed to win 40% of the games in charge so far with a squad that is totally unbalanced, has no quality out wide and many players in key positions on the decline/in the twilight of their careers at EFL level.
Yes, the style has been a bit so-so but I said in August that the top 10 would be a strong achievement for this season and I still stand by that...........I would say that the squad is capable of bouncing right back particularly if Jan 1st is taken into account,
More or less what you would expect from Clarkey:
I have commented against each analysis in red
