[Slick_Footwork]

Allardyce using players in their proper positions is not true. He did continue to play Sawyers as a deep midfielder and even went one step further than Bilic did by playing him as a lone 6 rather than in a double pivot. Pereira was used as a winger during February and March before he was finally moved back to the middle. Snodgrass had a couple of ineffectual games in the centre of midfield. Maitland-Niles came to the club having spent 3 seasons at full back and Allardyce put him into the centre of midfield, the position that he wanted to play in but hadn't played in for a couple of seasons. Gallagher has spent a couple of matches on the right side of midfield.

I could go on but that would be boring.

The thing is Josh, the with the exception of Maitland-Niles, these examples are before Allardyce got his new men in.

Sawyers for example, hasn't been selected at all since Yokuslu joined.

We didn't have a sitting midfielder at the club before Yokuslu's arrival, so Sam was going to select someone out of position whoever he selected for the role. Snodgrass came in to the centre of the park replace Sawyers as a stop-gap prior to Yokuslu's arrival and Sam is criticised for selecting him there. My question is, who else could he pick? At that point, Snodgrass was the best tackler at the club despite being a winger traditionally. This is what you get after a summer window which centred exclusively around acquiring luxury players.

The only player we had that even half resembled a sitting midfielder at the club was Jake Livermore and he was sent off in Allardyce's first game. So he had his hands tied. He inherited a lopsided squad with no depth or quality in defensive positions.

Not that I agreed with Big Sam continuing with Sawyers as long as he did, I'd have selected O'Shea or Ajayi in holding midfield myself. Ironically, had Sam did that, he'd be criticised for playing square pegs in round holes too! I suppose there was Sam Field, but he'd been injured for the best part of 2 years.

There's only 2 wing positions up for grabs, so with a squad of 10 wingers, someone is going to be out of position!

And I'll not knock Sam for playing Maitland-Niles in midfield. Yes, I think he's better at full back but our only chance of getting him was agreeing to play him in midfield and we were desperately short of legs in the middle of the park. He's been a massive improvement on what we had even if that's not his best position.

IMO we were relegated as a result of our woeful summer business...

Spending £30m on Grant and Grady while failing to strengthen the defence and protective midfield was suicide. I'm not knocking the Grady transfer - which I was chuffed about at the time - but I had alarm bells about Grant from day 1. When you consider he operated on the left for Huddersfield, it seemed mental to spend big on him after already acquiring Grady and Robbo in the summer, turning Pereira's loan permanent, loaning Krovi again and having Grosicki, Edwards and Phillips. All of them could operate on the left.

Defensively we lost Ferguson and Hegazi who were probably our best 2 defenders and brought in Kipre and Ivanovic, who even the most optimistic fan would say was a gamble.

If only Sam had a couple more defensive players to work with, maybe he wouldn't of had to play the likes of Sawyers at all. Unfortunately, he inherited a squad put together by a duo who had a winger fetish!

That's why I thought it was only fair to judge him after the January window closed...

Anyway, Sam is out the door now so we'll see what the next manager can bring to the table...

We could do better or a lot worse, but it's in the hands of Dowling. I certainly am not holding my breath that he's going to select the right man for the job.