Recommendation for Jones : (Go west) in the open air (Go west) where the skies are blue (Go west) this is what you need to do (Go west) Let's see the back of you.
May wouldn’t be scoring goals in this system. Jones made the decision that May didn’t fit his way of playing and he wasn’t going to change his way of playing for May.
The signings we made were, if I recall correctly, bought with the Championship in mind. They’re not even cutting it in this league so is it the players that is the problem, is it the formation, or the manager?
We are on a downward spiral and it doesn’t appear there is a clear way of halting it.
Changed more than half the personnel and the result was exactly the same, turgid, rigid football with zero creativity and a lack of spark.
At what point does NJ decide it's not the players, it's the tactics he's got them playing, and when he does realise, will it be too late to change them for the better?
Changed more than half the personnel and the result was exactly the same, turgid, rigid football with zero creativity and a lack of spark.
At what point does NJ decide it's not the players, it's the tactics he's got them playing, and when he does realise, will it be too late to change them for the better?
But it is the players sadly.
And who signed them? We're constantly told Jones is the manager not a head coach they're his players, and so far this season Berry, Docherty, A.Campbell, Godden and Ahadme have overall failed to impress.
Combine that with the fact that Anderson has been bang out of form and Coventry, whilst decent in open play, has managed to make our dire set pieces from last season even worse. But if he changes the team yet again, and we get the same result, the common denominator is Jones. And remember, the results were slightly different under him last season, but the football was the same, and that was with completely different players.
On train back from Stevenage - pub in Knebworth pre match was nice - but what a shit show the football was - we are devoid of ideas going forward - and to concede from our own corner is quite frankly criminal
I'm not as doom and gloom as a lot of you seem to be at the moment! We're much more solid than we've been for years, and for the first time in a long time, I don't panic every time one of our defenders has the ball at his feet.
BUT (and this is a huge but) if Jones can't figure out how to get this team more creative and better at finishing soon, we will rapidly fall behind the top 6 teams.
No complaints - the better team won, as the stats bear out. There was certainly a very marked difference in quality between the teams in their respective set plays.
We look like - and are - a team out of ideas. Humping it long has become our default mechanism. 7 goals in 8 league games says it all and I fear we have been found out. To compound matters, we’ve also become more shaky at the back in the last couple of games. With the exception of Tyreece Campbell, we have almost zero creativity.
We now face a very difficult run of fixtures, which - realistically speaking - may well see us cut adrift of the contenders (at best) going into November. I hope I’m wrong but Jones really needs to find a way to turn this around. This is very much his team now and it shows no sign of having any credible and realistic plan for winning games.
I can’t understand why Taylor still isn’t being considered. It was only a Leyland Daf Pizza Paint Cup game but he looked to offer some of what we’re missing in that he actually might be able to see and execute a forward pass and take a set piece to an at least moderately acceptable standard for someone paid to kick a football. He did that without seeming to offer a great deal less than Coventry in terms or work rate or tackling. I don’t think Coventry has especially been the problem, btw, but he also not been so good that he should be untouchable.
Also, yeah Coventry's set pieces were awful today, but what does that say about the set-piece quality the rest of them possess?? He's a good player who does his job in active play, he doesn't need to be shown up like this. But there's no quality in the rest of the side
If the managers of Brum, Wrexham, Huddersfield or Rotherham were allowed to poach a couple of our players do you think they’d go for Coventry? I could be wrong, but I don’t think they would.
Ramsey or Jones maybe, but none of our midfield or strikers, sadly.
Didn’t Coventry turn down Sheff Wed??
He’s not the issue here. It’s his midfield partners.
Also, yeah Coventry's set pieces were awful today, but what does that say about the set-piece quality the rest of them possess?? He's a good player who does his job in active play, he doesn't need to be shown up like this. But there's no quality in the rest of the side
If the managers of Brum, Wrexham, Huddersfield or Rotherham were allowed to poach a couple of our players do you think they’d go for Coventry? I could be wrong, but I don’t think they would.
Ramsey or Jones maybe, but none of our midfield or strikers, sadly.
Didn’t Coventry turn down Sheff Wed??
He’s not the issue here. It’s his midfield partners.
No, Sheff Weds thought the sell-on clause was too big so turned him down.
Utterly terrible, a desperate watch. What is particularly worrying is that the things many of us were concerned about pre-season - lack of creativity/too many similar players in midfield, lack of width, replacing May's goals etc - have absolutely come to pass. So if we could see it coming, etc etc.
But what has compounded it for me is the fact that in a team that struggles to create chances, attacking set-pieces are even more important. So how have we found ourselves in a situation where nobody in the matchday squad can take a decent setpiece? That's unforgivably poor planning, especially now we have 4 or 5 good targets to aim for in the side. It's that bad now that l would restructure the team to get Terry Taylor in it, who actually can hit a quality ball. It won't happen l know, but l would dearly love to see us try because it can't go on like it has.
is it the players or is it us? O’Connell, Dobson, Lee and even Morgan seem to be doing Okay and 3 of them weren’t deemed “good enough” for us. We have won 9 from 26 under Jones, and 1 from 5 in current form.
Grim viewing. I'll give Jones the benefit of the doubt after getting us out of a hole last season but we're pretty awful.
He's been backed to bring in players for his system but his system is shocking. Unfortunately a lot of those brought in have so far been pretty poor. No discernable tactics and zero creativity. We did well in our first few games by being defensively solid but if we concede then we've got no chance of 3 points as it stands.
He may well get us working better and we can't have a knee-jerk reaction but I'm yet to see anything that shouts Jones is a tactical genius. Really hope he proves me wrong.
Agree.
We had all summer to bring in the players needed & we finished up with no creativity in midfield and wingbacks who can't cross. We also can't create anything from dead ball situations even though they spend 5 days a week "honing their skills".
And then to cap it all we sell last seasons top goalscorer without adequately replacing him, along with the 2nd top goalscorer (CBT). We now have very little threat up front and if the opposition scores first then you might as well go home. 4th time we've conceded first this season and the record stands at L3, D1 with just 1 goal scored in those 4 games.
I just hanker back to the days where you left a match that was entertaining, saw 3 or 4 goals and other efforts saved by the keeper or hit the post/ bar.
At the start of the season we were solid at the back, but lacking creativity up front. The hope was that as the players had time together, the attacking side would click.
Except it hasn't. We look devoid of ideas, and desperately ORDINARY as a footballing side. Opposition sides know how to defend against us. And our set pieces are poor too, so we can't even use that as an attacking threat. Stevenage were consistently dangerous with their's, it's not rocket science.
This is NJ's team, he can't complain about inherited deadwood when much of that squad now are his signings.
Watched the game in the home end due to the ticket sell out and had some concerns about keeping it low key if we scored or there were some exciting moments. I needn’t have worried…
We could have Hoddle, Messi and Gerrard in midfield and all they would do in this system is watch the ball fly over their heads. It is utter shyte. Stevenage were very poor yet we created almost nothing. Its found to be a long hard winter I’m afraid unless something g changes and I can’t see what that is.
Jones appears to have stumbled upon a formula that makes opposition sides look far better than they actually are. At this rate he will be lucky to still be in the job at Christmas. I think that the best thing for us would be for Cardiff to come knocking at the door for him and for us to get paid some compensation.
Also, yeah Coventry's set pieces were awful today, but what does that say about the set-piece quality the rest of them possess?? He's a good player who does his job in active play, he doesn't need to be shown up like this. But there's no quality in the rest of the side
If the managers of Brum, Wrexham, Huddersfield or Rotherham were allowed to poach a couple of our players do you think they’d go for Coventry? I could be wrong, but I don’t think they would.
Ramsey or Jones maybe, but none of our midfield or strikers, sadly.
Didn’t Coventry turn down Sheff Wed??
He’s not the issue here. It’s his midfield partners.
I’ve agreed he’s the best of a bad bunch, and I’d replace others before him, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t mediocre, sadly.
Campbell played well today, the one person who actually looked like creating something.
As for Coventry, his general play is good, but he's nowhere near good enough as a set piece taker. Someone has got to start pressing NJ about the absence of Taylor. Even if he doesn't create much in open play, better set piece delivery would surely trump that.
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Combine that with the fact that Anderson has been bang out of form and Coventry, whilst decent in open play, has managed to make our dire set pieces from last season even worse. But if he changes the team yet again, and we get the same result, the common denominator is Jones. And remember, the results were slightly different under him last season, but the football was the same, and that was with completely different players.
Jones clearly can’t get a tune out of this team
BUT (and this is a huge but) if Jones can't figure out how to get this team more creative and better at finishing soon, we will rapidly fall behind the top 6 teams.
No complaints - the better team won, as the stats bear out. There was certainly a very marked difference in quality between the teams in their respective set plays.
We look like - and are - a team out of ideas. Humping it long has become our default mechanism. 7 goals in 8 league games says it all and I fear we have been found out. To compound matters, we’ve also become more shaky at the back in the last couple of games. With the exception of Tyreece Campbell, we have almost zero creativity.
We now face a very difficult run of fixtures, which - realistically speaking - may well see us cut adrift of the contenders (at best) going into November. I hope I’m wrong but Jones really needs to find a way to turn this around. This is very much his team now and it shows no sign of having any credible and realistic plan for winning games.
He’s not the issue here. It’s his midfield partners.
But what has compounded it for me is the fact that in a team that struggles to create chances, attacking set-pieces are even more important. So how have we found ourselves in a situation where nobody in the matchday squad can take a decent setpiece? That's unforgivably poor planning, especially now we have 4 or 5 good targets to aim for in the side. It's that bad now that l would restructure the team to get Terry Taylor in it, who actually can hit a quality ball. It won't happen l know, but l would dearly love to see us try because it can't go on like it has.
We had all summer to bring in the players needed & we finished up with no creativity in midfield and wingbacks who can't cross. We also can't create anything from dead ball situations even though they spend 5 days a week "honing their skills".
And then to cap it all we sell last seasons top goalscorer without adequately replacing him, along with the 2nd top goalscorer (CBT). We now have very little threat up front and if the opposition scores first then you might as well go home. 4th time we've conceded first this season and the record stands at L3, D1 with just 1 goal scored in those 4 games.
I just hanker back to the days where you left a match that was entertaining, saw 3 or 4 goals and other efforts saved by the keeper or hit the post/ bar.
Except it hasn't. We look devoid of ideas, and desperately ORDINARY as a footballing side. Opposition sides know how to defend against us. And our set pieces are poor too, so we can't even use that as an attacking threat. Stevenage were consistently dangerous with their's, it's not rocket science.
This is NJ's team, he can't complain about inherited deadwood when much of that squad now are his signings.
I think that the best thing for us would be for Cardiff to come knocking at the door for him and for us to get paid some compensation.
As for Coventry, his general play is good, but he's nowhere near good enough as a set piece taker. Someone has got to start pressing NJ about the absence of Taylor. Even if he doesn't create much in open play, better set piece delivery would surely trump that.
We take fewer than shots than pretty much anyone else in the league.