The Manager and players are completely bereft of confidence, it started last season and has run into this one. We no longer play with any freedom and our players fear making mistakes.
Bowyer's attitude towards attacking, flowing football isn't going to suddenly change. I had hoped he'd stopped mugging his players off to the media, he hasn't. Was Albie's decision to shoot really a poor one? Well after clipping the bar not long before probably not, sure the execution wasn't fantastic but he created enough space and another day that's on target. Under Bowyer we will continue to pass to midfield, pass to defence, pass around defence until either a mistake or a long pumped ball forward.... That is all we have style wise. We're constantly waiting for gaps to open up further up field and it's not happening, because this isn't Sunday league.
In addition to this Chuks has looked like off the boil lately, we've not adapted to play in our new striker, we've not adapted our play to allow for Washington's injury and we look all over the shop. We nick Swindon's best two players and they go on and win their next game... We know that'd be another excuse for Bowyer to have lost a game after losing two players. I'm surprised he didn't use it about Jonny, Maddison and Bogle tbh.
I'll finish by saying I liked Lee Bowyer, what he did in 18/19 was stunning, but it's been 23 wins from his last 72 games. Sure 46 of those were in the league above, but that run including a relegation would see most managers elsewhere sacked, even in spite of his challenges faced.
He hasn't stayed for us the fans or his love of CAFC, he has stayed because Southall put him on a big tasty contract with a high pay out if he were to be sacked. That has two years left on it and Lee won't walk away with that payout hovering in the background.
If he were to miraculously change his ways and we return to winning ways and made the playoffs of course I'd accept I was wrong. But it is not about to happen. I imagine when he does get sacked, he will be straight back to his fishing lakes with enough money to never have to care about Football again.
It's remarkable how we make the opposition's chances for them. They don't even have to do anything. 19 times I counted that we gave the ball to Portsmouth in our own half in a dangerous area. There you go - have away with it. And then the free-kicks around our own box. Go on - have a pop.
We must be the softest touch in league one.
There is an absolute foundation in football you need to stand a chance of winning games and we keep doing the absolute opposite.
And it's experienced players. I was over the moon when we signed them - it seemed very smart. Get the senior pros in, they'll get us out of this league, they can manage games, etc. But they've cost us time and time again.
Watson in particular I am going to dig out here. It is not nice to see him laughing and joking with a Portsmouth player 5 minutes after he's gifted them their third goal in the fashion that he did. The guy looks a stone overweight and he is so far off the pace. I genuinely don't think he gives a shit.
And I don't understand the obsession with freshness and rotation. It has not served us. The settled teams continue to soundly beat us with their well-gelled principles and playing styles and our fresh legs continue to look disjointed and woeful.
Well I've slept on it and had a nice bowl of porridge this morning. But I still feel the same as last night - that was a blooming awful performance.
Bowyer's continual changing of personnel and tactice is really winding me up. After a few games of reasonable results - not great performances but at least looking promising - he changes back to a diamond again.
And his decision to drop Millar was mind blowingly stupid. That was bad enough on its own but to compound it by dropping Purrington for Maatsen - a young man who is starting to look like he needs to go back to the reserves to learn his trade - was daft. And WTF was playing Morgan at the tip of the diamond all about? I bet he has never played there before.
One final point. Pratley was hailed by many as some sort of midfield genius for his display at mk dons and the way he marked Fraser out of the game. Yes he did brilliantly then but as I said, we need far more from our midfield players than he can consistently provide now. He was awful last night and should have been sent off. In fact, most games he is a red card waiting to happen. He simply shouldn't be starting regularly now.
After the Peterborough game where Pratley made about 12-15 fouls, his number is now being marked by players and managers. He needs to change is approach to casual fouls now, as is a marked man.
For several weeks we've had a glaring defensive weakness through the middle. It's not just a CB problem, it's the lack of shield in front of the defence which is highlighted by the number of goals we concede to quick counter attacks. Attacks where we lose the ball and the opposition break at will through our midfield to get a shot away. Pompey had several breakaways (including the "comedy" one in the Tweet above) which they could/should have scored from
And we've done nothing about it. No new centre back, no new defensive shield in midfield, no change of tactics to prevent this happening. And until we stop this, we'll continue to drop lots of points.
Pratley could be that shield or Watson, but if you don't have a back four that are competent then it's irrelevant.
Watson can't do it, I still have visions of MK players running past him with ease at The Valley
Pratley is great if you want someone to follow around an opponent, to do a job on them. What he isn't is someone who will sit in front of the back 4 and protect them, as his natural game is to charge around
SouthWest_Addicks said:If we had supporters in the ground the team would have been booed off in every game now for last 7 games. Plymouth booed at half time, Accrington booed, Rochdale at half time, Swindon half time, tonight booed.
And if we’d had crowds in the ground we’d have had all the it’s everything else’s fault blaming the boooooing fans for our dismal run.
You know the sort of apologist shit that gets bandied about when we lose and it’s not the players or managers fault
They don’t wanna play at home cos the crowd has put them on edge , it’s the Valley of fear , every mistake they make they know the crowd will be on them , he doesn’t wanna receive the ball , the booooing can’t help them in this run , we’d be better off with no fans than some of our lot who boooo . He’s the scapegoat and you can almost hear the gasp in the crowd when the ball gets to them that can’t help . We’re doing better with less fans at away games .
oh we may be doing worse than this current run if the ground was open , yeah righto
That's a great point. Especially as I'm one of the 2000 at the MKD game that Bowyer slagged off
Indeed one thing lockdown has proved is that home fans have a positive impact on results, as everywhere teams are doing worse at home without fans. Any manager who uses the tension/home fans booing excuse in the future can have that thrown back at him now!
Did any of our local journos ask about Millar? I can understand why Minto can't as he is in-house but it's such a strange thing to do. He wasn't injured, he didn't play Saturday, so why drop him? Is there a football reason?
Having a think about our formation, even with the same starting 11 we would surely have looked more comfortable with 442. Morgan on the right, JFC on the left with Shinnie and Pratley on the left.
Anything that avoids JFC on the right having to put in crosses with his weaker foot
Having a think about our formation, even with the same starting 11 we would surely have looked more comfortable with 442. Morgan on the right, JFC on the left with Shinnie and Pratley on the left.
Anything that avoids JFC on the right having to put in crosses with his weaker foot
I'd probably have gone 442 with Purrington LB and Maatsen LM.
I watched the match yesterday and must say that i kept asking myself, why do i continue to do so, but as with most posters, i hang onto the hope and expectation that things must improve, because they can't get any worse. The whole game was played in slow motion by us, no width, no ideas how to get back into the game, no movement in the last third, indeed Maatson played like there was a brick wall built across the half way line, and certainly seemed to be bereft of ideas without his outlet of Millar. Why do we always make whoever we are playing look like worldbeaters, and almost like they have a couple of extra players on the pitch, i lost count of the amount of misplaced passes, and we certainly should show up on the stats as an assist for on a couple of their goals, what was Watson attempting to do prior to their third?, showboating. I will no doubt give it another go Saturday, more in blind faith than expectation, but everyone has their limits, and mine is getting very close, and Lee needs to step up and take some of the flak, or the good times we have had with him will be overtaken which would be a shame.
- no athletic CB in the window, obvious mistake. - constant ‘one in a season’ blunders, why is this happening so regularly?! - it’s not just the obvious blunders either. Our build up play is so slow and predictable, as it grinds it’s way through it’s routine additional players commit forward then comes the misplaced pass leaving acres of space for the opposition. I’m convinced now that other League 1 coaches know we’ll give at least 5 situations like this in a match and they play to it. Easy goals. We are not Barcelona or Man City. - wank team selection in leaving Millar out. - Schwartz is not the answer. He may be the greatest ‘fox in the box’ since Gerd Muller, who knows, but that’s not what we need right now. Washington’s energy would contribute to the team much more, don’t see a Stockley/Aneke front two as working (unless the match situation demands it).
Bowyer has to change things (definition of insanity and all that). We’re way to easy to read at the moment and I think we can afford to be more direct.
They absolutely do. You don't need advanced tactics to counter it. Just honest players that work hard.
Jayden Stockley looks a great addition, no doubt about that. Maybe its me but after the game, Chucks was first seen doing sprints across the pitch and then later, when bowyer was being interviewed, was running around the pitch - could be coincidence but could also be a message to say, look, i'm bursting with energy, get me on the pitch, along with the other player who can make things happen, Millar - for 90 minutes !!!!!!!!!!!!
Did any of our local journos ask about Millar? I can understand why Minto can't as he is in-house but it's such a strange thing to do. He wasn't injured, he didn't play Saturday, so why drop him? Is there a football reason?
Bowyer said Millar had tight hamstrings after the MK Dons game and he wanted to rest him to avoid a longer lay-off.
Why is Deji winning headers a surprise. Since he has come back into the team he has been one of our most consistent performers and definitely our best defender (not that he's had much competition) but some people still want to put him down. Things like "he's a mistake waiting to happen" being one of the favourites. We're already in a shit state without him it would be a lot worse.
Did any of our local journos ask about Millar? I can understand why Minto can't as he is in-house but it's such a strange thing to do. He wasn't injured, he didn't play Saturday, so why drop him? Is there a football reason?
On the Millar thread someone quotes Bowyer as saying Millar had been feeling a tight hamstring so he put him on the bench as a precaution.
Did any of our local journos ask about Millar? I can understand why Minto can't as he is in-house but it's such a strange thing to do. He wasn't injured, he didn't play Saturday, so why drop him? Is there a football reason?
On the Millar thread someone quotes Bowyer as saying Millar had been feeling a tight hamstring so he put him on the bench as a precaution.
It has all been said on here. Why would Bowyer not start Millar? It's incomprehensible. Why does he make these decisions? I would think 90%+ of people on here could see what a baffling decision that was. Mind-blowing actually. So, why can't Bowyer see it? Why would he choose to leave out our motm from the previous game, one that he had heralded himself in his post game press interview? Why would he do that? An absolute baffling decision. Bowyer is the expert but 90%+ of the non experts on here could see what a bad decision that was. Many called it out on the match day thread before a ball had been kicked. And, this isn't the first time he has done this kind of thing. In fact two of the players who he did it to have just recently left the club.
I think if you get into the answers to those questions you can see the personality that Bowyer has. The same personality that has made so many changes week by week to the starting lineups. The same personality that continues to not start with his best team. The same personality that has continually had to make wholesale changes at the half because we are chasing a lead and the balance is all wrong. The same personality that blames everyone or everything else but never himself. My personal opinion is that this is an arrogance that comes from Bowyer, probably because he has a too high opinion of himself from when he was a player. To the point that he will make decisions just to break the 'norm' because it's edgy or different or intelligent or whatever other adjective fits the bill in his head. No Bowyer, it's stupid. And it's stupid because it's just not working.
He's not learning is he? Not a good sign.
Exactly the way I see it. He's just trying to be too clever. That wasn't the case when he first took over, when he'd mostly pick a side 90% of the fans would agree with. As we saw with Pardew, bringing in more and more players, isn't the answer. A good manager works to get the best out of what he has and only brings in a player in order to help complete the jigsaw. That was why Curbs was such a great manager for such a long period. I also have to question the role of Johnny Jackson who seems to have gone very quiet of late. Somebody close to Bowyer needs to be acting as a counter balance and really questioning some of his daft recent decision making, such as leaving Millar out last night, for Bowyer's own good, as well as for the Club and fans.
I read into Jacksons silence that Bowyer is a bit overpowering and JJ know's his role is to support him and do as he is told. I'd blame Bowyer for that more than JJ. Would it help if he questioned Bowyer's decisions? I seriously doubt it. If I was Sandgaard, I'd like to know what JJ thinks of recent months but it isn't a question he can ask until Bowyer has gone.
For me, at this stage of the season, we could give JJ 20 games to do something. He knows the players and I understand he is well liked so he may have a positive effect on things. If not him, Euell. Then if one or the other gets us up or at least in the play offs maybe give them next season. In the meantime it gives you time to consider a replacement.
I know Pardew is not popular, but he is an example of a manager who lost his way, and was never going to find it. He left and did well for a time with other clubs. Even being talked about for the England job at one point. Bowyer has lost his way here. It has been clear to me from his behaviours and the results have gone with them.
The team might have been shit again last night, but the quality of posts on this thread is first class (not being ironic). I find myself wanting to like pretty much all of them even when they argue in different directions, and in a bizarre way it cheers me up. That there are so many variations in theories behind our demise makes me think the problem is a very complex one.
But the trickiest question of all, who is Waterson?
I think it's just part of Aneke's specifically tailored warm-down, but it did appear that way!
yes, but i've never noticed him doing it before and certainly not the sprints which looks to be about getting rid of excess energy after being pumped for action - it wasn't his greatest display but the game was half shot by the time he came on - surely we have to get our best team out there from the start against a promotion rival and he has to be part of our best team.
I get the clamour for Barker. He had pretty much a fairy tale start for us. But that was pre season and not a fair indication of what the demands of a league programme are especially the current schedule.
Bowyer has to look after the player too. If Barker came in and had a mare then it could affect him long term. I think the same happened to Pigott under Powell when he played against Millwall. It was almost as if he realised how far he was away physically from the demands of the professional game and it has taken him several years to get back to his current level.
Bringing Barker into an already makeshift back four that is conceding goals for fun would be a bad move. He isn’t the answer at the moment and it would be unfair to put that on him.
I agree with this but thendon’t understand why we are happy to blood an 18 year old from Chelsea and accept the mistakes he is making?
Don’t get me wrong, I think Maatsen has generally been okay for us but he is very raw and, as you would expect from a kid, his performances have dipped probably because he’s played too much.
Purrington is a decent left back and played well in his last appearance (after not even making the last few match day squads) in which we kept a clean sheet yet the next game he’s binned.
If you look at the squad with an independent eye you would agree that it should do well.
If you look at our results with that same eye then the manager should be in deep trouble.
However, newness to the role of our owner and sentiment is getting in the way.
I want us to try a new manager but I doubt it will happen... The more games go by the less it will happen.
There is something seriously not right but is it a dressing room thing? I haven't a clue.
If we lose to Rochdale then a normal person would think that's it..but I can't see it happening.
The sad fact is despite a poor run we are still around the top 6...
Its a dreadful league this year and its more than possible to make a run for it... Look at Donny 8 wins out of 9...unfortunately keeping LB through sentiment though is not going to work... If we want to challenge then take a gamble because sticking with LB is not going to work.
Comments
We must be the softest touch in league one.
There is an absolute foundation in football you need to stand a chance of winning games and we keep doing the absolute opposite.
And it's experienced players. I was over the moon when we signed them - it seemed very smart. Get the senior pros in, they'll get us out of this league, they can manage games, etc. But they've cost us time and time again.
Watson in particular I am going to dig out here. It is not nice to see him laughing and joking with a Portsmouth player 5 minutes after he's gifted them their third goal in the fashion that he did. The guy looks a stone overweight and he is so far off the pace. I genuinely don't think he gives a shit.
And I don't understand the obsession with freshness and rotation. It has not served us. The settled teams continue to soundly beat us with their well-gelled principles and playing styles and our fresh legs continue to look disjointed and woeful.
Bowyer's continual changing of personnel and tactice is really winding me up. After a few games of reasonable results - not great performances but at least looking promising - he changes back to a diamond again.
And his decision to drop Millar was mind blowingly stupid. That was bad enough on its own but to compound it by dropping Purrington for Maatsen - a young man who is starting to look like he needs to go back to the reserves to learn his trade - was daft. And WTF was playing Morgan at the tip of the diamond all about? I bet he has never played there before.
One final point. Pratley was hailed by many as some sort of midfield genius for his display at mk dons and the way he marked Fraser out of the game. Yes he did brilliantly then but as I said, we need far more from our midfield players than he can consistently provide now. He was awful last night and should have been sent off. In fact, most games he is a red card waiting to happen. He simply shouldn't be starting regularly now.
Pratley is great if you want someone to follow around an opponent, to do a job on them. What he isn't is someone who will sit in front of the back 4 and protect them, as his natural game is to charge around
Indeed one thing lockdown has proved is that home fans have a positive impact on results, as everywhere teams are doing worse at home without fans. Any manager who uses the tension/home fans booing excuse in the future can have that thrown back at him now!
Bow dropped Maddison after he scored in his best game for us, he did the same with Millar. As Tony Hancock would say, "Is he stark raving mad?"
No wonder the players cannot function as a unit, he never picks the same team twice.
I am losing patience.
Anything that avoids JFC on the right having to put in crosses with his weaker foot
The whole game was played in slow motion by us, no width, no ideas how to get back into the game, no movement in the last third, indeed Maatson played like there was a brick wall built across the half way line, and certainly seemed to be bereft of ideas without his outlet of Millar.
Why do we always make whoever we are playing look like worldbeaters, and almost like they have a couple of extra players on the pitch, i lost count of the amount of misplaced passes, and we certainly should show up on the stats as an assist for on a couple of their goals, what was Watson attempting to do prior to their third?, showboating.
I will no doubt give it another go Saturday, more in blind faith than expectation, but everyone has their limits, and mine is getting very close, and Lee needs to step up and take some of the flak, or the good times we have had with him will be overtaken which would be a shame.
Since he has come back into the team he has been one of our most consistent performers and definitely our best defender (not that he's had much competition) but some people still want to put him down.
Things like "he's a mistake waiting to happen" being one of the favourites.
We're already in a shit state without him it would be a lot worse.
For me, at this stage of the season, we could give JJ 20 games to do something. He knows the players and I understand he is well liked so he may have a positive effect on things. If not him, Euell. Then if one or the other gets us up or at least in the play offs maybe give them next season. In the meantime it gives you time to consider a replacement.
I know Pardew is not popular, but he is an example of a manager who lost his way, and was never going to find it. He left and did well for a time with other clubs. Even being talked about for the England job at one point. Bowyer has lost his way here. It has been clear to me from his behaviours and the results have gone with them.
The team might have been shit again last night, but the quality of posts on this thread is first class (not being ironic). I find myself wanting to like pretty much all of them even when they argue in different directions, and in a bizarre way it cheers me up. That there are so many variations in theories behind our demise makes me think the problem is a very complex one.
But the trickiest question of all, who is Waterson?
Purrington is a decent left back and played well in his last appearance (after not even making the last few match day squads) in which we kept a clean sheet yet the next game he’s binned.
In that position, Maatsen's strange passing straight to an opposition player would have less dangerous consequences too.
We opted for a diamond for 4 CM's and a Little/Large combo up front.
If you look at our results with that same eye then the manager should be in deep trouble.
However, newness to the role of our owner and sentiment is getting in the way.
I want us to try a new manager but I doubt it will happen... The more games go by the less it will happen.
There is something seriously not right but is it a dressing room thing? I haven't a clue.
If we lose to Rochdale then a normal person would think that's it..but I can't see it happening.
The sad fact is despite a poor run we are still around the top 6...
Its a dreadful league this year and its more than possible to make a run for it... Look at Donny 8 wins out of 9...unfortunately keeping LB through sentiment though is not going to work... If we want to challenge then take a gamble because sticking with LB is not going to work.