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Dan Neil

Smiler said:
He was only poor for about 4 or 5 games. He's been comfortably our best midfielder since
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he was poor for longer than that. Let’s be honest.
The Fitter said:
Under TM and Alex Neil, Dan was usually the best player on the pitch, but under a defensive manager like RLB he's just not very good. We simply haven't got the players to sit back and contain teams, it might be the RLB plan, but we just don't have the physicality or experience to do it effectively. We honestly are the polar opposite of Brentford! All their midfielders work together, every pass is a progressive one, never backwards. Now look at our 3, the first thought is to pass it backwards, then out wide, back to the CB, then to the FB, eventually the winger gets the ball, but he's still in his own half.
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He was usually the best player on the pitch when we had players like amad and Clarke doing their thing?

Nout like rewriting history like
 

Major____DeCoverley said:
The thing with Neil is he’s always willing to take the ball in tight areas, and you will inevitably lose it fairly often and more notably, I feel that’s how he gets singled out a lot more. Yeah the last few games he hasn’t performed well. But I think he’s been our best midfielder over the season so far.

(Awaits pelters 😂)
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I think this is fair, he was MoM several games in a row just a few weeks ago imo. That said I was there yesterday and I think that was just about the worst midfield performance I’ve seen since league one. Credit to Cov, they were actually very good but there’s no denying that Neil was very poor.
Hopefully the break is coming at a good time.
 
The Fitter said:
Under TM and Alex Neil, Dan was usually the best player on the pitch, but under a defensive manager like RLB he's just not very good. We simply haven't got the players to sit back and contain teams, it might be the RLB plan, but we just don't have the physicality or experience to do it effectively. We honestly are the polar opposite of Brentford! All their midfielders work together, every pass is a progressive one, never backwards. Now look at our 3, the first thought is to pass it backwards, then out wide, back to the CB, then to the FB, eventually the winger gets the ball, but he's still in his own half.
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Alex Neil dropped him for the crucial final third of the season.
 
He started the season absolutely shite and there was a interview somewhere where he wasn't happy with his own performances.

Seemed to turn it around and was playing some good stuff individually and was standing out again. He's slowly reverting back to early season form but the whole of the team looks completely lost.

Summed it up early second half we had a throw in we spent ages fannying around with due to the lack of movement. Neil was one of them close to the ball didn't move an inch. Just seems a massive lack of interest.
 
CraigyWatt said:
If you don't want to get started on Roberts then you probably don't want to get started on Mundle, Mayenda, Isidor, Rigg, Cirkin or Mepham.

Paatterson and O'Nien also honking, and Hume wasn't great.

Have we covered the entire starting 11 yet?

They both need to be used more often to keep things fresh, but Browne showed nothing today off the bench and has never looked like being more than a journeyman bench player for us.
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I thought Browne looked really good at the start of the season before his injury. He's not been the same since. Rotation is definitely needed. Browne and Aleksic should be playing more often than they are. Aleksic adds energy to a slow midfield.
 
The Fitter said:
Under TM and Alex Neil, Dan was usually the best player on the pitch, but under a defensive manager like RLB he's just not very good. We simply haven't got the players to sit back and contain teams, it might be the RLB plan, but we just don't have the physicality or experience to do it effectively. We honestly are the polar opposite of Brentford! All their midfielders work together, every pass is a progressive one, never backwards. Now look at our 3, the first thought is to pass it backwards, then out wide, back to the CB, then to the FB, eventually the winger gets the ball, but he's still in his own half.
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Well you say we haven't the players but like it or not we've done better under Rlb than either of them?
 
SunderLad92 said:
He started the season absolutely shite and there was a interview somewhere where he wasn't happy with his own performances.

Seemed to turn it around and was playing some good stuff individually and was standing out again. He's slowly reverting back to early season form but the whole of the team looks completely lost.

Summed it up early second half we had a throw in we spent ages fannying around with due to the lack of movement. Neil was one of them close to the ball didn't move an inch. Just seems a massive lack of interest.
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Absolutely spot on.
 
Disgusting performance from a captain, he wasn’t the only one mind.

The highlight of his game was moving quickly off the pitch when he got subbed.

Completely overhyped on here, I lost count of the times he gave the ball away.
 
Something is not right in the squad and their relationship with the management. There is obviously a disconnect. The intensity has gone, every game is morphing into the same performance. Players like Neil have regressed to where they were when struggling. Others like Patterson Jobe and Roberts are just cruising without any repercussions. They get picked no matter what. I imagine some of them think the hype around them that they are PL bound is enough for them.
We seem completely reliant on the likes of newcomers like Mayenda and Isidor to do something special but neither can carry the team alone.
This imo is going to end very poorly with massive questions on RLB although I would imagine supported by the board saying we’ve ’over achieved’ this season.
The whole process will start again next season as some whose heads were turned are shipped out. Although I can’t see a massive demand for many who are failing to live up to their ‘supposed’ potential
 
---Nemo--- said:
He can't win the ball for himself, has to be played in. Of late our wingers are picking the ball up well inside their own half, it's ridiculous man. They should be being played in by our midfielders looking to get them one on one running into space from twenty yards further up the pitch. It's pathetically conservative overthought halfway house football. What's the f***ing point of them picking up the ball ten yards from our penalty area? Why are they even back there? They haven't a tackle in them. We're not good enough to emulate the top sides playing possession football, our passing is crap. Accept that, raise the tempo, less side to side and passing back, our off the ball game is as poor as it gets, mix it up, play more direct to runners going past the man in possession, knock the odd long ball central, over the top to utilize the pace of our forwards. That Pep twat should be garrotted in public.
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The point you’re making aboutt Robert’s is the exact same point I used to make about Adam Johnson. As skillful as he was we had to accommodate the slowness of O’Shea so we played so far back defensively we were half way on the north stand. When we did finally get possession AJ was deep in our own half with thirty yards and several defenders between him and him being in a position to do anything to contribute to a goal. Looks like history is repeating itself with our overly conservative defensive line.
 
My guess is that something's wrong in the dressing room.

I just have a feeling that there might be a bit of a debate going on and some are making their point. Taking the captain off just after half time doesn't point tothe situation being a good one.
 
SAFC 2012 said:
Surely if he’s as good as perceived he shouldn’t be losing it fairly often?

That is one of the benchmarks of a good midfielder. Taking the ball under a lot of pressure and looking after it. Losing the ball all the time isn’t really an attribute or link to being a good midfielder
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Yeah I thought that, if you are a technical CM, you should be comfortable taking ball. In tight areas and keeping in 9/10 times
 
However well or badly he's played in the last ten games there's absolutely no way he is captain material. Maybe a leadership group with him and one other.
 
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