It is simplistic to say that Argyle were poor at both ends of the field – but the statistics do not lie.
They have conceded more goals than any other side in the Championship, while a recent flurry of eight goals in the past four games has seen them become the highest-scoring side in the bottom third of the table – but it was too little too late.
The lack of another striker was key – with Muhamed Tijani out for most of the season with hamstring issues, and Ryan Hardie’s patchy injury record over the Christmas and New Year period, goals were hard to come by.
“I still maintain that Argyle have not replaced Niall Ennis,” Savage said.
“In the League One-winning season, when the goals from Hardie dried up towards the end, Ennis was in the side and scoring goals.
“Argyle have failed to land anybody else who’s capable of consistently shouldering that burden.
“Tijani got injured and we’ve taken a while to work out exactly how to get the best out of Mustapha Bundu.
“But if we’d signed a striker, capable of scoring goals in the January window then we would probably be in a better position than we are now.”
Argyle head coach Muslic feels his side simply ran out of time to change course.
Having won four of their past six games they gave themselves a chance until Luton’s late heroics over Coventry on Saturday left them effectively down.
“We are empty. We are heartbroken, but we will get up again,” Muslic said.
“It was a massive, massive challenge and I think we took this challenge with courage, with enthusiasm, with positivity, with a completely different structure, different set up and we simply ran out of games.
“It takes a little bit of time to adapt, to change the structure, to change the mindset of the team, almost to change a mindset of an organisation, of a club and I think we have been fantastic, but it’s over.”
