Malky Mackay for all his baggage is not a bad football manager. Particularly at Championship level he has the knowledge and ability to be able to suceed with our football club.
Results since his arrival have been poor and performances continue to be below par. But rather than continuously look at the manager ask the question of the players. Is the squad really as good in reality as it looks on paper?
We have a host of well paid players who are not performing at the level their transfer fees, signing on bonuses, and weekly salaries suggest.
The pure fact that Mackay is looking to dive head first into a typically slow and unpredictable January transfer market is proof enough that he isn't happy with his squad.
Grant Holt is set to miss the rest of the season whilst Ali Al Habsi is now missing at the Asia Cup.
Andy Delort, Oriol Reira, Thomas Rogne, and William Kvist would all appear to be surplus to requirements whilst can we honestly say that Callum McManaman and Shaun Maloney are performing at the levels they should be hitting as star players in the squad?
Of the current squad it is fair to say only possibly James McClean is performing at the level expected of him, and he is being forced to play out of position as a result of the Delort/Reira situation.
Although the club declared the fees as undisclosed it is thought that between them Reira and Delort cost upwards of £5 million in transfer fees which is an astronomical amount to comprehend when it looks like players of the calibre of Danny Graham will be brought in on loan by Mackay.
The fact that only McClean can be highlighted as pulling his weight means three things:
1) Supporters need to get behind the new manager. First and foremost we need to get behind Malky Mackay to the end of the season.
2) Turn negative attention to the players and their desire to wear the shirt, perform for the manager, and get themselves out of the situation that they have earned for themselves at the foot of the table.
3) During the transfer window we need to get some capable attacking players through the door asap. The expected departures of Maloney, McManaman, Delort, and Reira should free up funds and wages to be able to bring in at least two quality forwards who can fire us to safety.
The situation was similar under Paul Jewell with highly paid professionals coming towards the tail end of their career swinging the lead too much.
It took a strong chairman to stand behind his manager and force thos lazy players to pull their weight. We're back in that bad place with players not achieving the required levels.
We can lament the manager as much as we want but stand behind him and the players will be forced to question if they can give more.
A couple of decent strikers apart we have the players to survive in this division, they just need to do their bit and stop hiding.