‘Coxless’ Midfield the answer?

Painfully obvious where our problems lie, the 2-0 defeat to Leyton Orient has pinpointed the areas of concerns that need to be addressed soon rather than later if we are to have a successful season at this level.

Whilst I was satisfied with the endeavour and commitment shown by the lads and if you like you can put this down to a bad day at the office. The O`s were organised and on a high but I doubt they will be top come the end of the season.

The first area of concern for me is the goalkeeping position. Of course their was a degree of luck surrounding Orient`s opener but for me, yet again Ben Williams showed his shortcomings. Apart from the gaff for the goal he was excellent but he makes far too many costly errors.

Dario says it was a fluke, perhaps so. Even top goalkeepers like Paul Robinson and David James make mistakes but I think Ben is at a crossroad now. He gets beat by far too many long range pot-shot`s and has yet to convince me he is our number 1. His position as number 1 shows just how poor the alternatives we have are.

The 2nd area of concern is the Neil Cox conundrum. His inclusion in the team pushed Bopp out of position and he had a poor game. As good as Neil Cox (pictured) has been in recent games I just don`t see the need for him in the centre of midfield, especially in home fixtures.

Our only creativity from midfield has been Gary Roberts and he has been excellent thus far. With the 300k departure of David Vaughan we have lost one of our better attacking midfielders. For me, we have got to go with Schumacher and Bopp central and find someone who can play wide left – perhaps Carrington or Moore may fit the bill.

And the last, most obvious concern is the lack of threat up front. One shot yesterday, that told its own story. Dickson has come in and shown very little so far and I feel it is unlikely he will stay beyond the month. Barnard and another are needed by the end of the week. The amount of times we got caught offside yesterday was unbelievable.

It will take time for this new squad to gel and we have the basis of a decent side, yesterday`s result maybe a blessing in disguise. I have learnt a lot about the team and it is not all doom and gloom but the management team needs to act quickly to put things right.