by Hoop Blah »
24 Aug 2011 12:30
Ian Royal Big Foot I fear that he actually could retire before the season is over
He looks completely disinterested - point in reference him jogging back to the goal vs Barnsley for their 2nd goal
Wonder whether his new kid has affected him? Maybe thinking more about spending more time with his family?
I think it has to. He wasn't great defensively last season, but he's been an utter shambles in both the games I've seen this season. He can't have suddenly lost his positioning, awareness, heading and tackling ability in three months.
I don't think it's much of a difference to last year, although he's been more obviously caught out a few times already.
As some of us alluded to last season, his deficiencies were being well covered by his team mates (a good bit of management by McDermott at the time) but that's changed this season. He no longer has Kishanishvilli and Mills covering behind him and that's probably having quite an effect, not only on them covering him but also what he needs to do to cover others.
Listen to McDermott last night and he says how the team isn't defending as a unit at the moment, that they're not covering each others mistakes (as I think I also pointed out recently btw!). That's more the issue than a massive slump in Harte's form (there is,without doubt, a slump though).