After six decades of supporting this club have seen lots of highs and lows, Don't know if I got it in me to keep it up if they go into the Second Division, Never seen it so dire. Sangaard are must be breathing a sigh of relief he dodged a bullet.
hope it's not 'meet the new boss, same as the old boss(es)' .. PLEASE Jones Boy, do NOT persist with 3 5 2 or variations thereof, our defenders/ and (so called) wing backs are not good enough to get away with it .. Lincoln is now a big game, but I suppose, ain't they all from now on
EDIT .. Hear the echoes reverberating about a crazy back 3, a back 4 please
I just can’t bring myself to believe we’ll be playing in league 2 next season it’s almost beyond comprehension. Yet when you look at what’s been going on for the last few seasons it’s a death from a thousand cuts and an inevitability that sooner or later that’s where we’ll be. Even if we do stay up what hope is there that the current crop will transform into a promotion team or that the fuckwits running the club will bring in the players we need to make us so much better than we are.
SID as much as I wasn't a fan of CBT it was quite obvious that along with Alfie May, he was a potent threat on his day, and would be considered in our top three players. Dobson showed more passion than anyone in that team and once again would be considered in the top three players in the club. So that means we've got rid of two of our top three players without replacing them, do that to any team in any league and watch what happens.
Surely Small and Ramsay must be better than Watson and Edun. Camara in and Kanu for Ladapoo and we have a great chance of a draw. Sad to watch players hesitate, maybe that will get better when they play together more and get some confidence. Reckon NJ will have some hard conversations Monday.
I’ve tried very hard to stay patient, not turn on anyone and contribute to an already negative atmosphere that is unlikely to help our situation, but there’s just no more defending them.
Kanu the only one who gets any credit and that’s just because he was the only one who truly like he was giving it his all. I rarely think players just aren’t trying or don’t care, but I saw too many not trying hard enough and not caught enough today. That is an extremely worrying sign.
If our technical director truly has looked at how we’ve been in recent weeks and decided that the solution is to force out one of the only two senior players that play with genuine passion and desire, then I just don’t know how to debate that kind of stupid.
I think Isted did well and earned number 1 shirt for rest of the season. Alfie looked knackered but still put a shift in. L Watson put in a performance with a glimmer of creativity and potential that has surely been hindered by his lack of first team football this term which has been inexplicable. Camara also showed us what we have missed in his absence with his late cameo and Kanu came on and tried his bollocks off when he came on and unlucky not to get a goal.
Don't think the others did anything of note which is grim.
Disagree on Isted, thought it was mostly more of the same. May yes he ran around a lot I’ll give you that. I do expect a bit more from him though, all his quality has been absent. Maybe harsh on him. Louie Watson had flashes but really, not enough.
Camara I agree did ok.
It’s clutching at straws though. No meaningful sights of goal, soft goals conceded, and lost out in too many one on one battles. Not to mention the number of casual touches from certain player meaning balls ran out of play, crosses barely became airborne, and possession was repeatedly cheaply surrendered.
Relegation 6 pointer. New manger. Large vocal away crowd. If they can’t all, at the very least, be up for that then what hope is there?
Not having the majority blame being passed on to Sandgaard & Roland, these so called football people created this team, hired the likes of Appleton.
If we are relegated it is all on them.
I agree about the Appleton hire but there is something at the club that is rotten to the core. We've signed players with decent pedigree who just don't seem to live up to it time and time again. That is surely a club issue. I think most people on here will know I think Dobbo isn't perfect but one thing he would have showed today is passion and it didn't seem like anyone on that pitch had that.
Going forward our main issue is that the 2 up top are incredibly isolated. How you fix that with our current squad is a mystery to me
Why play 3-5-2 when you don't have the players to play it? Seems particularly stupid to me.
Although I don't disagree with your point, what formation do we have the players for?
Buggered if I can work it out. It just sums up how poor recruitment decisions have been.
This is the issue. We can’t play 4-3-3 as we don’t have the wingers, and May has not looked good up top by himself.
I can see us moving to a 4-1-2-1-2, but it is also a bit risky to start with a formation we have not played all season (and we are still relying on the same full backs to provide us with some width).
Why play 3-5-2 when you don't have the players to play it? Seems particularly stupid to me.
Although I don't disagree with your point, what formation do we have the players for?
Buggered if I can work it out. It just sums up how poor recruitment decisions have been.
This is the issue. We can’t play 4-3-3 as we don’t have the wingers, and May has not looked good up top by himself.
I can see us moving to a 4-1-2-1-2, but it is also a bit risky to start with a formation we have not played all season (and we are still relying on the same full backs to provide us with some width).
I kind of agree and would like to see a diamond. The issue is that Edun & Watson are poor defensively so with a back 4 we will be very vulnerable in wide areas
I stayed away from the match thread as I’ve been saying the same thing for 2 months, and what’s the point of repeating myself again? It’s a shit situation for all of us so me saying I told you so isn’t helping anyone. And anyway - loads of people also shared my view.
1) I still insist the signs were there months ago.
2) No CBT and Dobson means the ‘excitement’ of new signings was false all along.
3) Jones will turn out exactly as I said. He’s the wrong hire… this isn’t his fault and he could be very good in another situation. But not for what we need.
The heart of the club is broken and a hire like NJ won’t fix that. We are crashing and needed a once in a generation special moment when hiring a manager. A chance to genuinely get the place pumping and not a load of pretend emotions.
The infrastructure of the club and wages of new signings / Jones will simply not be sustainable in league 2.
I will keep on saying it - this isn’t gonna end well.
Who would you have appointed? This isn’t solved just by putting a former player and fans favourite in the job. Powell has said he doesn’t want to be a manager anymore. Bowyer is said to be happy where he is. I’m struggling to think who this potential manager is who would bring something unique and lift the place so much that things turn around.
We have one winger so play 3-5-2 with a diamond being another option, but our wing backs aren’t a threat going forward. We have no physical presence up front, we don’t have a striker who can reliably with headers and hold up the ball. Nine signings in January but no real improvement. Having to hope Ramsay and Small add something, and Chuks stays fit and makes a big impact.
We’ve been riding our luck for a few seasons, players like Rak Saki, have papered over the cracks, but it’s quite astonishing at the rate of progress downwards this season.
Appleton was useless, basically bringing him in, has set us on a downward trajectory, can NJ get us out of trouble, I really hope so, but he’s got a huge task on his hands.
Think we will very quickly see Edun and T Watson put in the bin.
I think Jones is going to really struggle to impose his tactics with them two on either flank. They were both absolutely useless today defensively and from an attacking point of view.
I still think we will turn it around but by god that was terrible today.
Fair play to Reading though, I think they are play to their strengths and certainly not a relegation candidate.
Why play 3-5-2 when you don't have the players to play it? Seems particularly stupid to me.
Although I don't disagree with your point, what formation do we have the players for?
Buggered if I can work it out. It just sums up how poor recruitment decisions have been.
442 Campbell on the left plus three CMs. Bakinson could be a Graham Stuart type as a narrow RM. Kanu and May up top....plenty of movement. Let the full-backs concentrate on defending. It's that bad at present, the whole thing needs to be kept simple for this lot. We need to walk before we can run and a 0-0 or a 1-0 wouldn't go amiss.
Grim. Not all down to them, but T Watson and Edun were terrible today, not solid Ben Purrington types defensively, but also providing zero attacking flair.
Desperate lack of quality until Camara came on. Couldn't see very well from the away end, so who was at fault for the first goal?
Comments
EDIT .. Hear the echoes reverberating about a crazy back 3, a back 4 please
If we are relegated it is all on them.
Sad to watch players hesitate, maybe that will get better when they play together more and get some confidence.
Reckon NJ will have some hard conversations Monday.
Buggered if I can work it out. It just sums up how poor recruitment decisions have been.
him though, all his quality has been absent. Maybe harsh on him. Louie Watson had flashes but really, not enough.
Camara I agree did ok.
It’s clutching at straws though. No meaningful sights of goal, soft goals conceded, and lost out in too many one on one battles. Not to mention the number of casual touches from certain player meaning balls ran out of play, crosses barely became airborne, and possession was repeatedly cheaply surrendered.
Going forward our main issue is that the 2 up top are incredibly isolated. How you fix that with our current squad is a mystery to me
I can see us moving to a 4-1-2-1-2, but it is also a bit risky to start with a formation we have not played all season (and we are still relying on the same full backs to provide us with some width).
Get rid of this wingback formation as well
Its the players we have are crap however they line up.
We have one winger so play 3-5-2 with a diamond being another option, but our wing backs aren’t a threat going forward. We have no physical presence up front, we don’t have a striker who can reliably with headers and hold up the ball. Nine signings in January but no real improvement. Having to hope Ramsay and Small add something, and Chuks stays fit and makes a big impact.
This team was re-re-built to play 3-5-2. We just don't have the wingbacks, creative Midfielder, or hold up player to do that.
The latter two will still be a problem with 4-4-2 diamond, and we only have one winger so 4-3-3 isn't a great Idea.
we didn’t have a shot
jones won’t save that one
Shit
Desperate lack of quality until Camara came on. Couldn't see very well from the away end, so who was at fault for the first goal?