By Red Army
July 6 2020

Every time I see the team selected by Struber this is the type of result and performance that I expect from Barnsley.

Thankfully it isn’t always the case but there are far too many throughout the season and I think that the manager’s poor team selection is the main reason for it.

Forget the poor recruitment in the summer, that has been and gone and despite that it is my view that a decent manager would have kept this squad of players up.

That debate is probably for another day, particularly as we still have a chance of staying up, although that chance seems extremely unlikely.

Without doubt the loser of our fixture with Luton will be relegated and a draw will likely see both teams go. Six points this week is a must in my view if we have any hope of survival.

Anyway back to Saturday and a performance that was up there with the worst of the season, there have been a few so I wouldn’t want to commit to say it was the worst but it could have been.

From the outfield starting players I think only Mowatt deserved to get paid and I don’t think you can blame Walton for any of the goals even though a large number of fans seem to.

The set up and personnel in midfield was all wrong. That is on the manager. Only Mowatt actually belongs in that midfield and he is playing far deeper than he should. The problems in midfield meant that we couldn’t get hold of the ball, were unable to supply the forwards and left the defence exposed. That does not excuse individually errors and just how bad some players were but it was certainly a big contributing factor.

The amount of times we had possession and there was no movement to give a forward and even square pass option was unbelievable and it’s not the first time this season.

Ben Williams had a stinker, that is true. I’ve seen the lad come in for some stick on various message boards. I won’t dispute he had a shocker but why on earth was he the one marking Vokes when he scored from the corner? School boy stuff and I mean from the manager.

He has had a couple of games before this as Williams but in general his selection is a bad one from Struber. Selected simply so we can switch between three at the back and then four at the back and a diamond in midfield because he is seen as being able to play left side centre back as well as his natural position at left back.

Well without doubt Clarke Odour is a much better left back and has been one of our better performers this season. His inexplicable banishment from the team until his appearance in the second half on Saturday is another one of Struber’s baffling selection decisions.

Also if he wants to play three at the back then why not pick three centre halves instead of a left back as a centre half. If he wants to change the system then the amount of subs you can use now allows you to make early substitutions if needed and at least then you will have the right players in their right positions from the start. It almost always feels like we have a lot of our better players on the bench.

Andersen was also back to his old self after some much improved performances. Unfortunately I think he is one of those players who is always going to be prone to the odd error every few games.

The biggest mystery of all is how Ritzmaier has made it as a professional footballer never mind be anywhere near this Barnsley side. I could go on about how bad he is all day but I won’t. I just hope the manager has finally given up on him after having to substitute him yet again.

For anyone to play worse than Ritzmaier takes some doing but one man who managed it on Saturday was Luke Thomas. Some of his passing was that bad that you wouldn’t even see it on a Sunday morning in the park. I am not exaggerating when I say that either.

Styles must be pulling his hair out that he can’t get a start in this side with how bad some of the players are who are selected ahead of him.

We all know the forward players haven’t got going since we returned from lockdown with many suggesting Woodrow is on his way out so not even trying.

I’m not sure if that is the case or not but one thing I do know is that Schmidt must have touched the ball about ten times all season.

Every time he comes on he is anonymous and never touches the ball more than a couple of times. Blame the service all you want on Saturday but this is how he is every time he plays yet Thiam and Wilks were deemed not good enough and farmed out. I know who I’d rather have on the bench if we needed to bring someone on to try and get a goal.

I could go on and on and on but I’ll choose to end it there as I’m not a fan of long articles.

I also won’t bother with my usual player ratings as most don’t deserve even a 1. And as for predicting my starting eleven for the next game, I’ll just leave that to Struber as I like many other fans only have sensible suggestions unlike our manager.

Despite all I have said I am keeping the faith for Tuesday night.

COYR