Well, that was all very underwhelming really. If Peter Grant wants the job full-time that wasn't exactly a good first impression today. I think I said in my Preview that unless Nigel Pearson was demanding a pet Unicorn we should just give him what he wants. Well, does anyone have a Unicorn going spare? It's not even that we were horrifically bad today, I'm not saying there weren't bad points in our game today- but there we some definite good ones as well. Overall I'd say a point was the fair result on balance, neither team can say they deserved to win with a straight face- let's put it that way.
After the result today, and with no mid-week game this week the attentions will be firmly back on the Managerial Situation before the Preston game next weekend. I did see something Nigel Pearson related that came out last night that is the apparent stumbling block in us appointing him- his Assistants. Supposedly Pearson won't come on board without his Assistants that he had at Leicester, the problem with that of course being they're still at Leicester. I'm not even considering the compensation angle to the whole thing- although that is of course an issue. Ranieri clearly likes them enough to keep them on board, so why would they leave Leicester who are currently top of the Premier League in order to join Fulham where our ridiculously ambitious aspirations at present are to get 6th in the Championship. As I also said in my Preview, if not Nigel Pearson then I want Oscar Garcia. If we don't get a new Manager in soon, it's not the end of the world to me- however if we can appoint someone soon and capitalise on the good run of fixtures we've got to generate some momentum then who knows where we'll end up as a result of it.
Right then, onto the goals. Not for the first time this month Dan Burn's had a hand in a goal we've conceded. I can't exactly say it's surprising that he did so, at least Peter Grant saw enough sense to not want to start him prior to the game and it was only because of Ream being ill that he did so. In fairness to Bowditch it was a pretty good finish all things considered, and within the context of the game MK Dons did deserve the goal at the time. I'm not quite sure how Dembele didn't already have a goal when he put the ball in the back of the net for the equaliser. With that said, he made up for without a doubt a contender for the "Miss of the Season" by getting the goal- however fortunate it may have been to get through to him.
I thought Joe Lewis was pretty decent today. He couldn't have done much for the Bowditch goal, which has been the main criticism of him as a result of a handful of the goals we conceded against Burnley and Birmingham. Lewis made a number of decent saves throughout the game, not necessarily any outstanding ones- but he did his job when called upon for the most part.
Dan Burn is a complete liability. As I already said, thankfully it appears as though Peter Grant wasn't actually going to play him today- therefore we don't have to send the Men in White Coats to Motspur Park. That's a positive. It wasn't even just the goal today, he was the worst player on the pitch. It's genuinely baffling to me how some people rate Dan Burn- but Haters Gonna Hate, right Dan? Stearman was better, but that isn't necessarily saying much. The thing I've noticed with Stearman is as far as performances go he usually performs to the level of the players surrounding him- but in general he's just that bit better than said players because of his ability. Garbutt had another shocker today, I'm genuinely thinking the whole Garbutt coming in thing was just an excuse for Roberto Martinez to fast-track Galloway without annoying Garbutt. Garbutt is supposedly the next Leighton Baines, but at the rate he's going he's going to end up at Leyton Orient. He's done absolutely nothing to make himself be considered above James Husband. Once Husband's gone back- and hopefully without a Transfer Embargo I'd be getting a Centre-Back in January to partner Stearman and then be starting Ream at Left-Back. I said in my Preview that Ryan Fredericks had to be managed carefully when it came to Injuries, and I don't think it's been confirmed yet- but I can't see Grant wanting to inflict Kay Voser on us unless he had to.
Jamie O'Hara wasn't the best he's been this season, but the fact he improved as much as he did from the last few games before the Internationals to today means it was his fitness that was causing the problems for him. Of the three options up for the Man of the Match today I'd be going for O'Hara, but it's not as if we're spoilt for choice on that front off the back of the game today. The Tunnicliffe injury is a really unfortunate one. I said it at the end of last season, some people won't realise how crucial Tunnicliffe is to the balance of the team until he gets injured- and while I obviously hope I'm wrong I think it'll hit us quite hard. Tom Cairney was quite indifferent today, it's annoying because in the sort of game we were in today a player with Cairney's ability may have been able to provide the extra bit of quality we needed to turn the 1 Point into all three. I'm willing to give Peter Grant some leeway, because he's simply not a Manager. However, what on earth possessed him to start Sean Kavanagh today? Going back to what I was saying in my Preview yesterday, there must be some reason we're not aware of as to why Kacaniklic isn't starting. He wasn't even on the Bench today, and we were starting Sean Kavanagh! Kavanagh proved himself to be a complete lightweight last season, and he didn't do much to get rid of that label today. I can get my head around, and rationalise a lot of what happened today- but the Kavanagh selection is just truly baffling.
Speaking of things I'm strugging to get my head around, I genuinely have absolutely no clue how Dembele missed the chance he did. You've got Dembele, who's just been given the "Young Player of the Month" for October at most 3 or 4 Yards out with an Open Goal- how he managed to miss it is beyond me. However, as already said he did make up for it with the goal he later scored. Dembele's still young, and he will make mistakes like the one he did today as he develops. Thankfully, he's also got enough ability and the mental strength at the age he's at to not let it become "one of those days" and get the goal he did. McCormack had a weird game, I'm starting to question what his "best" is- because I seemingly say McCormack wasn't at his best in every game this season. On another day McCormack would have had another Assist and possibly a Goal to add to the Assist he got between Dembele's miss and his shot that was cleared off the line.
The Subs Grant made were quite good all things considered. I'm working on the basis that both of the Subs were enforced- and with that in mind I thought they acquitted themselves well enough when called upon. Neither Voser or Mattila are going to set the world alight, but especially in Mattila's case they look like good enough players to play a part when called upon. It may just be because Voser's Voser, but I never quite trusted him when he was on the ball- but on the whole he do anything to cost us the game- so by Voser standards that's at least an 8/10.
Depending on when we make the Managerial Appointment, I may well be doing a separate post where I'll expand on this. I fundamentally believe despite the good work Mike Rigg did in the Summer we're still a bit short in some areas of the squad- and a new Manager/Head Coach will have to address those before we even start thinking about the Top 6. Depending on what Formation we want to play we perhaps need another Winger, especially with Alex Kacaniklic seemingly being Satan. But, the key area where we need to improve is at Centre-Back. I genuinely believe that if we paired Stearman up with a genuinely quality Centre-Back they'd both get the best out of each other. Tim Ream isn't a Centre-Back and Dan Burn is- well Dan Burn. We don't have any depth at Centre-Back, it's one thing to say "we need to build a proper defensive foundation"- but we really only have one Centre-Back who's Championship Quality. Especially if a Transfer Embargo's likely, which nobody who doesn't know the Clubs Finances will be able to tell you- and we can't get a Centre-Back in this season may as well be written off now.
It goes without saying that we need to appoint a new "Head Coach" as soon as possible, but just because we've drawn with MK Dons it doesn't mean we should be panicking and potentially make an appointment we'll regret later. I'd genuinely rather we spent a bit more time sounding out Managers and getting in the "right" selection, than go in for someone who's appointed because it's convenient. Would I like a new Manager in by Monday or Tuesday? Absolutely. Will I be getting on Mike Rigg's back and demanding the sacrifice of his first born child if we haven't done so? Absolutely not.
Thanks for reading as always, as I've made reference to- depending on when we make the new appointment there may well be a separate post going up. So, perhaps keep an eye out for that one- and if there isn't one I'll be back here on Friday for the Preston Preview. It goes without saying that regardless of who's in charge we really need to be winning our Home Games especially against the teams below us. So hopefully we'll be more fortunate on that front, in the meantime let's not hope for a new Manager- let's hope that those in charge make the right decisions for the Club. If that means not panic-appointing a new Manager I can live with that. Thanks again for reading, I hope you have a good week- and hey! It could have been worse.
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