I maintain that most of the problems this season were caused by failure to recruit a half-decent left-back over the summer.
Bunney was loaned to Blackpool and perhaps this was necessary due to getting his likely inflated wages, but to not bring in a replacement LB, leaving us only with Buchanan for the first 5 months of the season was absolute madness IMO. We have been so weak in this area for two seasons now and successive managers have tried and failed for one reason or another) to rectify this issue.
JFH initially tried to plug this gap by playing George Smith and Hanley either in Buchanan's place or in front of him in the left of midfield. As soon as the January window opened Bunney was bought in and Buchanan was dropped. Initially Bunney also put in some decent performances and we become a lot tighter at the back (though this was also partly due to Turnbull being bought in at LCB). Then after a few mistakes the crowd got on Bunney's back, he more or less went to pieces and JFH got the sack. Austin brings Buchanan back in and as the record shows, our defensive form got much worse from then on in.
Curle came in and to try and plug the LB issue soon began playing three at the back, with Buchs either dropped altogether or playing almost in an attacking midfield role where his defensive liability couldn't be exposed.
Early in this window Curle bought in Cox, who immediately replaced Buchs, just as JFH bought in Bunney who also immediately replaced him.
Now Cox is injured we're back playing either Buchs in a back 4 (not good enough) or 3 at the back with Buchs as LWB (laughable) or in LM (even more laughable).
The system isn't working at the minute, but if anybody thinks it would be any better with Buchs playing any of those roles on the left hand side then they are totally deluded.
It's a case of which kind of bread do you want to make your **** sandwich out of? It's still a **** sandwich either way.
Err Bunney was absolutely useless and he was given plenty of opportunity . It wasn’t just a “ few mistakes” , he was costing us games and it became an embarrassment . We were not tighter with him at all .
I agree that Buchanan has been unchallenged for some time but our problems go much deeper than him .
The right back position has in fact been more problematic recently .
We need to tighten up massively and I would bring Buchanan into a back four while cox is injured .
Two of Foley , JJOT , MacWilliams or Williams then need to sit in front and have Bridge back in the hole where he excelled against Carlisle .
Williams and Sordell up front .
Pierre and Turnbull in the centre and I would give Cameron MacWilliams a go at right back over Facey .
That is a competitive side