The Poolie Bunker

Budtz - Ben Clark apart, our one consistant player

Defence:
McCunnie
Clark
Nelson
Elliott

McCunnie has hardly put a foot wrong in defence, Elliott needs some games to establish himself. He players a number of years at premier league standard surely he has something to offer.

Midfield:

Monkhouse - our best option at left wing by far. Second option is Robson. James Brown at left wing is our 27th option.
Liddle
Sweeney
Moore

You could argue for Boland to be included but we tend to win more often when Sweeney plays than when he doesn't. This can't be coincidence.

Forwards: Brown & Porter - and give them a decent amount of games to form a partnership.


The others:

Gibb - second string left win.
Humphreys - utility backup player
Barker - use when up against very physical teams and as back up

Above all, play people in their natural positions and stop hammering square pegs into round holes.

I couldn't understand Foley before Mackay....

you must have missed the run of games elliot had at the beginning of the season when he as pants
if ever there was a utility player brought in that did not perform it is him
and i would expect him to be getting a christmas present
if you looked at our squad and had to pick someone who has played or could play in the prem then the only candidates that spring to mind are brownie liddle possibly sweeny who deserves a run
mad john will probably have some stats as to the percentage of wins when liddle and sweeny played together
but what are statistics these days

Sweeney good enough for the prem?

The Blue Square Premier maybe... By putting Sweeney in the central midfield you are basically gving the opposistion the freedom of that area of the pitch, thankfully that is one of the few things that Danny seems to of realised.....

well it is an opinion and i think the stats would prove you wrong

But I am talking about Sweeney's individual ability and performance, he was shite against Morcambe hence him getting dropped and wasn't much better at Millwall and Huddersfield by most people's accounts despite scoring......

Foley has never scored a league goal for HUFC since he made his debut around 4 years ago. Regardless of time as a sub on the pitch, I expect a striker to score goals. Easter, Appleby, Wilkinson, Istead were all deemed not good enough ultimately for Pools, but they all scored for the first team. Matty Robson also gets a lot of criticism, but he has also scored his fair share for Pools from midfield and left back. When is the penny going to drop with everyone regarding Foley?
It's not fair on him either when he's painfully not going to make it at this level.
Eifion Williams would have scored three or four by now this season, but we decided he wasn't good enough either. So how is zero league goals from a forward ever going to help us?

God only knows, that miss from him was woeful, I'm afraid the only thing he has going for him is pace, which is not enough

Boland on his game is our best player, leave him out? Are you mad?

Elliot is awful, nice try in dropping Humphreys but I fear we need to sign someone if we are to replace Humphs. Saying Elliot has played in the prem is a load of bollocks, Humphreys too has played in the prem, it counts for nothing.

It maybe worth playing James Brown and it would be interesting to see how we play without Barker in the team. He is a good asset, but not a crowd pleaser perhaps your being unfair on him but im not sure.

Monkhouse needs to sort his defensive play out before he gets back in the team. If you actually watch him throughtout the match you would know what I mean, instead of looking at his attacking game only, which of course he is nothing less than fantastic.


I also agree with parmopooly, leaving Mackay out for Foley is a bad move. Mackay is an awesome goalscorer, Foley is not.

Maybe Elliot was awful in the few games he's played but three or four games in a new team is not giving the bloke a fair crack in my opinion.