Vision Hoop Blah It's not picking a scapegoat at all, it's commenting on the strength and weaknesses of the team. If you can't accept that we're not perfect and so people will comment on errors and areas that can be improved upon then you need to wake up to the real world brendy.
As for his completion rates, he makes more basic errors than the others (bar perhaps Kebe and Karacan) and so it's more frustrating. A fullback, when on the ball, should have the whole game infront of them and more time and space to spot and make a pass. When he gets it wrong he gets it really wrong.
As for Y25 moulding him, I never said they should. Neither should they have to bite their tongue when a player makes a rank bad mistake just to spare him his feelings. The player and the staff need to, and I'm sure are, work on his weaknesses. If, in the meantime, he isn't good enough to maintain the required performance levels then McDermott needs to address that too.
I wonder if part of the problem passing wise as well as defensive positioning that he's not really played that much as a left back. He comes from Southampton who play a tight passing game and spent a lot of time under O'Driscoll as Doncaster who also played that way. To me he, more than anyone is trying to play the ball more accurately into feet so as such his margin for error changes.
Here, although I think we've mixed it up a lot better recently, we tend to play down the channels a lot more and he's not quite getting this right either. I think it's still a case of getting used to our way of playing and gaining experience of playing as a left back at this level as well.
There's plenty to work with there but equally he's got plenty of work to do to get to a good championship standard full-back. I just dont think he's anywhere near as bad as some appear to be making out.
Have to agree with a lot of your observations whilst being gobsmacked that some describe Mills defending as "horrifying"
I would apply that description to the afternoon I spent at Wembley watching Swansea lob the ball over Harte's head and wondering whether he and their right winger would be in the same post code when the ball reached our penalty area
As far as I can see, despite much nonsense from the usual sources Mills has been culpable for one goal when he was muscled off the ball whilst other more experienced defenders should be envious of that record
As for his passing, what makes him any worse than Pearce? As for his corners, what makes him any worse than the vast majority we've entrusted with this task over the last decade?
For years we used to say "We never score from corners" largely because the delivery could often be described as "horrifying" and that from professionals with far more experience than Mills who had had all week to practice
Like Shorey before him, dead ball specialist Harte was often guilty of "horrifying" contributions in this respect but never got the same stick as Mills.
Without doubt Shorey had a sweet left foot but he was often guilty of aimless punts down field yet was always beyond criticism from the adoring East Stand.
IMHO, we have the makings of a very good young side interspersed with just the right amount of experience in Gorkks, Leigertwood and McAnuff.
Fans who think Mills is not ready to be brought into this team merely confirm my belief that, as a club, many of our supporters have forgotten what it takes to develop our own first team players. It took some a matter of weeks to go from slagging off Long as "not good enough" to bricking it for fear he would be sold!
As Ian says, we now have a team we can look to develop over several seasons and my main doubts at his stage would be over Church and Pearce rather than our 2 young full backs who have transformed the way we play whilst being part of an improving defence.
I thank Ian Harte for his goals last season and wish him genuine best wishes for the future but it's time to move on and I was very impressed with what I saw against Derby and Southampton from a team still very much in it's infancy.
