Viking Supporters Co-operative
Viking Chat => Viking Chat => Topic started by: In the box on December 22, 2023, 08:54:50 pm
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Why are we easy to beat .
Tactics wrong for each game ?
Players selection ?
Players just not good enough ?
Manager too popular ?
Performances are over all poor even for L2.
Injuries played a big part this season , yet it’s a squad that lacks depth in its experience and leadership.
I like McCann but it hard to see with these performances where he has the stamped his mark this time around .
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Players just not good enough! No team character imo. What a sad state our club is in.
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Why are we easy to beat .
Tactics wrong for each game ?
Players selection ?
Players just not good enough ?
Manager too popular ?
Performances are over all poor even for L2.
Injuries played a big part this season , yet it’s a squad that lacks depth in its experience and leadership.
I like McCann but it hard to see with these performances where he has the stamped his mark this time around .
He hasn't.
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No better than schofield
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Recruitment has been shite for years. It's unbelievable that we're still having the same conversations season after season.
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I dont know how much longer i can stomach watching defensive displays like this.
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Another manager on the way out who will, quite rightly, claim a lack of investment. Rovers are becoming a place for poor young misfits to claim to be professionals and a retirement home for senior players gaining a nice little earner whilst being "unfit" to play for years on end.
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We are abysmal beaten by a far better team and will be struggling over the next few games. How anyone can see anything good out of the recent games I don’t know.our defence is rubbish.
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Anderson has not been great ( or even good) for a couple of seasons now. Needs to go. As does Rowe, Taylor, Biggins,
Get the youngsters in. They will learn but will give it there all.
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It will all be ok.
The experienced football scout JC is out talent spotting.
Great player.
Current waste of wages.
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Another manager on the way out who will, quite rightly, claim a lack of investment. Rovers are becoming a place for poor young misfits to claim to be professionals and a retirement home for senior players gaining a nice little earner whilst being "unfit" to play for years on end.
McCann had to take responsibility and if he’s to be given funds to bring players in it has to be that some of the current players are just sidelined indefinitely and put on the transfer list as all the focus is salvaging this season and building 100% for next in mind !
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It's not McCann's fault. We were improving until the injuries hit again. There is still the problem that we have players who cannot perform at this level.
Yet again players who've been rubbish for 1-2 years continue to be rubbish. Biggins didn't find a pass again all night, oluwu does a lot of good things but continually switches off. Rowe has offered nothing all season, Faal looks like he needs a few weeks off but we've no option to replace him.
Then again molyneux a good bit of play then he gives a throw in straight to them to score. You can't blame the manager for that.
The route out of this is investment in the playing squad behind McCann, there's no better option.
But I'm fed up of watching us lose to shite teams, yet again tonight a rubbish team beats us. They barely strung a pass together. Woeful.
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No better than schofield
What a load of shite that is.
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On a night when we could barely muster a shot, how frustrating was it to see Close hit a free kick straight into their keepers hand then 2 min later a corner that barely got off the ground, straight to the first man.
We are shocking at the basics.
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Our side is lightweight and has no characters, we were always going to struggle against Bradford.
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On a night when we could barely muster a shot, how frustrating was it to see Close hit a free kick straight into their keepers hand then 2 min later a corner that barely got off the ground, straight to the first man.
We are shocking at the basics.
Set pieces were very poor largely. Nixon did a decent job with corners in first half.
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We are quite simply lightweight. So easy to play against.
We lost again not because Bradford are a very good side but because we can’t do the basics of defending.
To give Cook a free header at the far post was criminal. 1st goal
Frightened to put. Tackle in on Cook led to 2nd goal.
3rd goal came from us losing the ball in our own half. Ran through us as though we had 2 players on the pitch.
What did we create. Almost nothing. We hardly put 2 passes together.
No physicality, no leadership whatsoever on the pitch.
We are going backwards at an alarming rate at present.
Where do we go from here because after seeing that tonight I am seriously concerned.
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So drearily predictable that Cook would outmuscle us and score. So, so boringly predictable.
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On a night when we could barely muster a shot, how frustrating was it to see Close hit a free kick straight into their keepers hand then 2 min later a corner that barely got off the ground, straight to the first man.
We are shocking at the basics.
And that first man heaved the ball out for a throw which we f****** up , they got the Ball and 4 passes later the first man then belted ball on bottom corner
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Lawlor
Jones
Olowu
Anderson
Biggins
Rowe
Wood
Lavery
Ravenhill
Degruchy
Long
Taylor
All these players on our books all fall into the category of either not being good enough or an absolute waste of time because you never get them out of the treatment room. We need every one of them off the books within the next 2 windows. I wonder how much of the budget that group of wages is taking up? Only Rowe and Anderson out of that lot can we say have served the club well but, the bottom line is they need to move on now. The rest i very much doubt would find a club even at this level.
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Lawlor
Jones
Olowu
Anderson
Biggins
Rowe
Wood
Lavery
Ravenhill
Degruchy
Long
Taylor
All these players on our books all fall into the category of either not being good enough or an absolute waste of time because you never get them out of the treatment room. We need every one of them off the books within the next 2 windows. I wonder how much of the budget that group of wages is taking up? Only Rowe and Anderson out of that lot can we say have served the club well but, the bottom line is they need to move on now. The rest i very much doubt would find a club even at this level.
Mental Lawlor, Jones and Anderson recently given contracts.
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No better than schofield
What a load of shite that is.
this guy had funds schofield had nothing. FACT
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Agree Keith 79
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Can you guys name a better manager than McCann who would want to manage Rovers? No you can’t.
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Agree Keith 79
Well you're as clueless as he is then. Schofield was abysmal.
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A complete insult to Grant comparing him to Schofield. It’s unbelievable.
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Opinions!!! How rude !
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Anyone who rate’s Schofield as a manager knows sweet FA about football…..end of.
As with Dickov before him, I bet he never managers another EFL team.
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I'm going to repost what I posted some time ago, as it seems some fans are quite happy for this cycle to just keep repeating itself. At some point we have to stop doing the below. But hey, with some of the fans we've got - who needs opposition support:
- Fans start booing team and manager and vent on message boards.
- Board tell fans they understand their frustration.
- Board sack manager and start a "thorough recruitment process".
- After 12 long weeks, the board sign a manager with limited experience as he "buys into the ethos of Club Doncaster", or sign an also-ran as we have to be realistic as a club about the type of manager we can attract.
- Manager asks the board for help in signing some quality players.
- Manager struggles to attract any decent players due to not being adequately supported by the board with funds, and because quality players don't see playing for Doncaster Rovers as an attractive prospect anymore.
- Manager and team struggle for form.
- Rinse and repeat.
In my opinion we broke the above cycle by convincing Grant to return to the club. He has experience. He has fight. We just need to let him build something. He hasn't even finished half a season with us since his return and some of you are calling for his head. Comparisons to Schofield, McSheffrey and Butler are ridiculous.
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Can you guys name a better manager than McCann who would want to manage Rovers? No you can’t.
[/quote Nathan Jones …
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Steve Evans
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Michael Duff
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Point is that this manager as with previous managers were given a budget to spend/work with. So as good as a Manager as Grant is or was he is responsible as much as the board for this ongoing Debacle that is yet again unfolding in front of us loyal paying supporters!!
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Steve Evans
Get back in your box you numpty.
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I'm going to repost what I posted some time ago, as it seems some fans are quite happy for this cycle to just keep repeating itself. At some point we have to stop doing the below. But hey, with some of the fans we've got - who needs opposition support:
- Fans start booing team and manager and vent on message boards.
- Board tell fans they understand their frustration.
- Board sack manager and start a "thorough recruitment process".
- After 12 long weeks, the board sign a manager with limited experience as he "buys into the ethos of Club Doncaster", or sign an also-ran as we have to be realistic as a club about the type of manager we can attract.
- Manager asks the board for help in signing some quality players.
- Manager struggles to attract any decent players due to not being adequately supported by the board with funds, and because quality players don't see playing for Doncaster Rovers as an attractive prospect anymore.
- Manager and team struggle for form.
- Rinse and repeat.
In my opinion we broke the above cycle by convincing Grant to return to the club. He has experience. He has fight. We just need to let him build something. He hasn't even finished half a season with us since his return and some of you are calling for his head. Comparisons to Schofield, McSheffrey and Butler are ridiculous.
Gm agreed with the booing after the Morcambe game.
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Steve Evans
If he comes anywhere near rovers I think many, myself included, would be taking a sabbatical from supporting.
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Promise !!
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Michael Duff
Either you’re an utter moron or a rival fan on a wind up mission
Find me an even remotely positive post you’ve done
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Many rude posters on this site!! People/fans are entitled to their opinion!! Merry Christmas
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Michael Duff
Either you’re an utter moron or a rival fan on a wind up mission
Find me an even remotely positive post you’ve done
You could say this of virtually every one for a few seasons now .. but we all still pay for our ST every year and offer our opinions .
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No better than schofield
Yep it was Mad Friday with comments like that.
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Arsenal fans wanted Arteta sacked a couple years ago but eventually he brought in the right players for his team and challenged for the title. Managers need time.
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Arsenal fans wanted Arteta sacked a couple years ago but eventually he brought in the right players for his team and challenged for the title. Managers need time.
Getting rid of GM would be the most stupid thing this club has ever done.
I do think he made a mistake with his formation last night
Senior and Nixon were redundant
They both played so far forward most of the time. Got no service and when they did get the ball were given no room to play. Nixon looked Knackered to be frank.
Molly should have started. He is our best playeer at opening up a defence.
Biggins is running around like a headless chicken and Tommy Rowe is finished. No legs anymore.
I would play him at centre back if he is going to play. His midfield days are gone.
He has to go to a back 4 because the 3 ain’t working. But quite frankly until we get Wood and Faulkner at CB then we are going to ship goals from set pieces.
Anderson and Olowu are both soft touches. They have gone so far backwards in the last 2 yrs it’s scary.
Our midfield has gone without Westbrooke and Close a pair. We looked so disjointed last night. Clueless in fact. They played as if they had only just met each other this week and had never even played a match before.
Faal is also Knackered and needs a rest.
If we had a team of,
Lawlor
Nixon
Faulkner,
Wood,
Maxwell
Close
Bailey,
Westbrooke,
Molyneux
Faal or Miller
Ironside
We would be a far better team than what we are seeing at present.
We need to clear out the rest imo. And add at least 4/5 quality players inc a keeper.
I would keep Senior and Hurst as back up. Hurst has ability. GM has to get him to use it effectively.
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Arsenal fans wanted Arteta sacked a couple years ago but eventually he brought in the right players for his team and challenged for the title. Managers need time.
Getting rid of GM would be the most stupid thing this club has ever done.
I do think he made a mistake with his formation last night
Senior and Nixon were redundant
They both played so far forward most of the time. Got no service and when they did get the ball were given no room to play. Nixon looked Knackered to be frank.
Molly should have started. He is our best playeer at opening up a defence.
Biggins is running around like a headless chicken and Tommy Rowe is finished. No legs anymore.
I would play him at centre back if he is going to play. His midfield days are gone.
He has to go to a back 4 because the 3 ain’t working. But quite frankly until we get Wood and Faulkner at CB then we are going to ship goals from set pieces.
Anderson and Olowu are both soft touches. They have gone so far backwards in the last 2 yrs it’s scary.
Our midfield has gone without Westbrooke and Close a pair. We looked so disjointed last night. Clueless in fact. They played as if they had only just met each other this week and had never even played a match before.
Faal is also Knackered and needs a rest.
If we had a team of,
Lawlor
Jones
Nixon
Faulkner,
Wood,
Maxwell
Close
Bailey,
Westbrooke,
Molyneux
Faal or Miller
Ironside
We would be a far better team than what we are seeing at present.
We need to clear out the rest imo. And add at least 4/5 quality players inc a keeper.
I would keep Senior and Hurst as back up. Hurst has ability. GM has to get him to use it effectively.
Very good post, just one amendment from me
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We need one in goal.
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The big difference is McCann decides who goes as well this summer.
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We make too many bad decisions as a club. Until we start making more decisions that add value than ones that take value away, we will struggle.
Just to name a few recently-
-Giving Butler and Gary Mc the managers job.
-The head of football restructure shambles.
-The binning of the HoF role.
-The amount of 30yo+ players we sign that add zero to the cause.
-The amount of sentimental contracts we hand out that end up setting fire to money. Taylor, Anderson, Rowe.
-The trap we fall into every January signing awful strikers that end up offering Zero. Agard, Bogle, Lavery.
-Signing players that have never ever proven to be anything other than average (or less than average) L2 players. Sterry, Molyneux, Biggins, Lawlor, Miller.
-Signing players that become surplus to requirements a few weeks into the season due to changing the system. Roberts, Sotona.
-Too many players signed that are unproven at the level with no history of being able to identify this profile of player well. Bailey, Marsh, Roberts, Faal, Broadbent, Senior, Nixon. Some have been ok admittedly but too many question marks there.
It’s easy to say “hindsight has 20/20 etc” but these were things I highlighted at the start of the season (and last season) and it’s all playing out in a way that’s certainly not positive.
We have zero concept of risk when managing the club, controlling operations and assessing signings.
To improve any business, venture or situation you need to make more positive expected value decisions than negative expected value decisions. These small value additions then compound. We are doing the reverse, compounding the negative ones.
It’s not even a case of making more better decisions at the minute, we have to start making less bad ones first of all. Will TB replacing DB as chairman improve this? Potentially as I’m sure Gavin will get a bit more influence on the sporting side and I think he’s got a better instinct than DB had regarding the big decisions.
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We make too many bad decisions as a club. Until we start making more decisions that add value than ones that take value away, we will struggle.
Just to name a few recently-
-Giving Butler and Gary Mc the managers job.
-The head of football restructure shambles.
-The binning of the HoF role.
-The amount of 30yo+ players we sign that add zero to the cause.
-The amount of sentimental contracts we hand out that end up setting fire to money. Taylor, Anderson, Rowe.
-The trap we fall into every January signing awful strikers that end up offering Zero. Agard, Bogle, Lavery.
-Signing players that have never ever proven to be anything other than average (or less than average) L2 players. Sterry, Molyneux, Biggins, Lawlor, Miller.
-Signing players that become surplus to requirements a few weeks into the season due to changing the system. Roberts, Sotona.
-Too many players signed that are unproven at the level with no history of being able to identify this profile of player well. Bailey, Marsh, Roberts, Faal, Broadbent, Senior, Nixon. Some have been ok admittedly but too many question marks there.
It’s easy to say “hindsight has 20/20 etc” but these were things I highlighted at the start of the season (and last season) and it’s all playing out in a way that’s certainly not positive.
We have zero concept of risk when managing the club, controlling operations and assessing signings.
To improve any business, venture or situation you need to make more positive expected value decisions than negative expected value decisions. These small value additions then compound. We are doing the reverse, compounding the negative ones.
It’s not even a case of making more better decisions at the minute, we have to start making less bad ones first of all. Will TB replacing DB as chairman improve this? Potentially as I’m sure Gavin will get a bit more influence on the sporting side and I think he’s got a better instinct than DB had regarding the big decisions.
I’ve said it before DB ran a business, not a Football Club, great for a business like Keepmoat, awful for a football club
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Shocking standard of players who don’t deserve to wear the shirt, I would have all these so called professionals training all over Christmas
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It sounds like Grant is already on the same page as you with the profiling also agree with the statement about GB as he was instrumental in bringing Grant back. Wonder if some of the preseason signings were already signed before GM came in
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It sounds like Grant is already on the same page as you with the profiling also agree with the statement about GB as he was instrumental in bringing Grant back. Wonder if some of the preseason signings were already signed before GM came in
For sure a couple. No way McCann signed Wood.
All the contracts were given out too before he came from memory
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It sounds like Grant is already on the same page as you with the profiling also agree with the statement about GB as he was instrumental in bringing Grant back. Wonder if some of the preseason signings were already signed before GM came in
For sure a couple. No way McCann signed Wood.
All the contracts were given out too before he came from memory
There were rumours Wood was coming before McCann. I think I started a thread on it in the rumour mill that Wood had told someone at the Rotherham end of season awards.
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We make too many bad decisions as a club. Until we start making more decisions that add value than ones that take value away, we will struggle.
Just to name a few recently-
-Giving Butler and Gary Mc the managers job.
-The head of football restructure shambles.
-The binning of the HoF role.
-The amount of 30yo+ players we sign that add zero to the cause.
-The amount of sentimental contracts we hand out that end up setting fire to money. Taylor, Anderson, Rowe.
-The trap we fall into every January signing awful strikers that end up offering Zero. Agard, Bogle, Lavery.
-Signing players that have never ever proven to be anything other than average (or less than average) L2 players. Sterry, Molyneux, Biggins, Lawlor, Miller.
-Signing players that become surplus to requirements a few weeks into the season due to changing the system. Roberts, Sotona.
-Too many players signed that are unproven at the level with no history of being able to identify this profile of player well. Bailey, Marsh, Roberts, Faal, Broadbent, Senior, Nixon. Some have been ok admittedly but too many question marks there.
It’s easy to say “hindsight has 20/20 etc” but these were things I highlighted at the start of the season (and last season) and it’s all playing out in a way that’s certainly not positive.
We have zero concept of risk when managing the club, controlling operations and assessing signings.
To improve any business, venture or situation you need to make more positive expected value decisions than negative expected value decisions. These small value additions then compound. We are doing the reverse, compounding the negative ones.
It’s not even a case of making more better decisions at the minute, we have to start making less bad ones first of all. Will TB replacing DB as chairman improve this? Potentially as I’m sure Gavin will get a bit more influence on the sporting side and I think he’s got a better instinct than DB had regarding the big decisions.
I’ve said it before DB ran a business, not a Football Club, great for a business like Keepmoat, awful for a football club
Recent games have been horrific. Games before that we have been doing well. Definitely some improvement this season.
But if you step back and take a deep breath, we have been going backwards as a club at an alarming rate the last 3 seasons at least. Rarely have we consistently played well, we have cycled through managers, made diabolical signing after diabolical signing, none of which have we managed to monetise ultimately and indeed in Watters and May managed to somehow give away for free players that were sold by lesser clubs than us for big fees, got relegated, seen attendances dwindle to an embarrassing level, and ultimately find ourselves in the bottom 6 of the 92.
This is in spite of having stable ownership with a more than adequate budget to compete in this level, excellent infrastructure, support despite thinning out still way more than most of this league, and a top manager for this level.
Anyone care to figure? It's a disaster zone.
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We all wanted a HoF didn’t we
Well we got one and unfortunately it backfired
Copps simply recruited players who were lightweight. Players who will not get a team out of this league.
Ever since I have been watching League 2 football the promoted teams have a spine of the team that has been very physical. I don’t mean dirty players. Just players who can handle themselves, don’t get bullied and have a winning mentality.
Every successful team has a proper leader in the team. Preferably 2/3 of them.
The only one we have is Richard Wood and he has hardly played.
The only players we have right now who are winners, players with a winning mentality are Nixon ( who is on loan ) Faulkner, Bailey & Ironside.
Tommy Rowe has gone, he is just going through the motions. His heart isn’t in it anymore. That’s how it looks.
Anderson has one good game in 4, the other 3 he is way off where he needs to be as a centre back. He is not a leader. Far too quiet on the pitch.
Olowu has gone alarmingly backwards in his development.
His confidence is shattered it looks to me.
Sterry and Senior are not physically strong enough although i would keep Senior as a back up full back.
Biggins I don’t know what to say but he looks lost at present.
Broadbent simply not good enough at this level.
Hurst needs to step up and show what he has and use his undoubted ability.
Faal has potential. He has been overplayed due to injury to Miller & Lavery & Goodman is not quite up to a regular starting place.
Molyneux needs to be given an attacking role behind the strikers or play on either wing. He is NOT a wing back.
He is potentially our match winning player but needs believe in himself and be more ruthless in the final 3rd.
Close and Westbrooke both good footballers but need someone to do the nasty stuff along side them. A proper mister which we are lacking.
The injury situation is not helping obviously but there simply is not enough leadership, physicality or pace in our current squad.
Major surgery required from GM in the next 2 windows.
First of all we need to get some points on the board. I think 40/42 will keep us up as thankfully the bottom 2 are very poor teams.
If we get complacent though we could do a Fergie and get relegated.
That would be an unmitigated disaster & one we might not recover from.
Alarm bells ringing. We need to batten down the hatches and show some real fight and desire to address this slump.
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Yes, going through the same cycle then sacking the manager is not the answer.
Most sensible fans would say it will take two or three windows to change things around, yet here we are again, some are questioning McCanns position after only one window.
He has to have the chance to weedle those contracted players out that are the legacy of the losing cycle and are very much at the end of their sell by dates. Anderson, Olowu, Rowe, Taylor, I think it's fair to say aren't the future of this club. Yes, there are others inc Wood, Biggins, to add to that list but, there has to be a transition. We can't keep pulling the plug in the middle of that transition.
For richer for poorer, for better or worse, we must allow McCann to see through this transition. Minimum two more windows I think.
Folk will try to blame summat or someone but it would be harsh to blame Copps or McCann for recruiting the players mentioned above. Of course we can question the merit of Lawlor and Wood. I can see the logic of Wood as a short term risk but Lawlor for me was a symbol of the very cycle we're trying to break.
The others Senior, Sterry, Bailey, Nixon, Broadbent, Ironside, Faal, Westbrooke, Maxwell etc are all players that have added value to different degrees and who are more likely to be able to see us through the remainder of the season and the transition ahead. These were not bad signings and we need more of them.
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We make too many bad decisions as a club. Until we start making more decisions that add value than ones that take value away, we will struggle.
Just to name a few recently-
-Giving Butler and Gary Mc the managers job.
-The head of football restructure shambles.
-The binning of the HoF role.
-The amount of 30yo+ players we sign that add zero to the cause.
-The amount of sentimental contracts we hand out that end up setting fire to money. Taylor, Anderson, Rowe.
-The trap we fall into every January signing awful strikers that end up offering Zero. Agard, Bogle, Lavery.
-Signing players that have never ever proven to be anything other than average (or less than average) L2 players. Sterry, Molyneux, Biggins, Lawlor, Miller.
-Signing players that become surplus to requirements a few weeks into the season due to changing the system. Roberts, Sotona.
-Too many players signed that are unproven at the level with no history of being able to identify this profile of player well. Bailey, Marsh, Roberts, Faal, Broadbent, Senior, Nixon. Some have been ok admittedly but too many question marks there.
It’s easy to say “hindsight has 20/20 etc” but these were things I highlighted at the start of the season (and last season) and it’s all playing out in a way that’s certainly not positive.
We have zero concept of risk when managing the club, controlling operations and assessing signings.
To improve any business, venture or situation you need to make more positive expected value decisions than negative expected value decisions. These small value additions then compound. We are doing the reverse, compounding the negative ones.
It’s not even a case of making more better decisions at the minute, we have to start making less bad ones first of all. Will TB replacing DB as chairman improve this? Potentially as I’m sure Gavin will get a bit more influence on the sporting side and I think he’s got a better instinct than DB had regarding the big decisions.
I agree with most of this, although I do think molyneux is a very good player for this level. Some games he’s been unplayable, and he’s only 25.
The season he had with Hartlepool I think he proved he was above average for this level.
He’s been much better this season for us in my opinion
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We all wanted a HoF didn’t we
Well we got one and unfortunately it backfired
Copps simply recruited players who were lightweight. Players who will not get a team out of this league.
Ever since I have been watching League 2 football the promoted teams have a spine of the team that has been very physical. I don’t mean dirty players. Just players who can handle themselves, don’t get bullied and have a winning mentality.
Every successful team has a proper leader in the team. Preferably 2/3 of them.
The only one we have is Richard Wood and he has hardly played.
The only players we have right now who are winners, players with a winning mentality are Nixon ( who is on loan ) Faulkner, Bailey & Ironside.
Tommy Rowe has gone, he is just going through the motions. His heart isn’t in it anymore. That’s how it looks.
Anderson has one good game in 4, the other 3 he is way off where he needs to be as a centre back. He is not a leader. Far too quiet on the pitch.
Olowu has gone alarmingly backwards in his development.
His confidence is shattered it looks to me.
Sterry and Senior are not physically strong enough although i would keep Senior as a back up full back.
Biggins I don’t know what to say but he looks lost at present.
Broadbent simply not good enough at this level.
Hurst needs to step up and show what he has and use his undoubted ability.
Faal has potential. He has been overplayed due to injury to Miller & Lavery & Goodman is not quite up to a regular starting place.
Molyneux needs to be given an attacking role behind the strikers or play on either wing. He is NOT a wing back.
He is potentially our match winning player but needs believe in himself and be more ruthless in the final 3rd.
Close and Westbrooke both good footballers but need someone to do the nasty stuff along side them. A proper mister which we are lacking.
The injury situation is not helping obviously but there simply is not enough leadership, physicality or pace in our current squad.
Major surgery required from GM in the next 2 windows.
First of all we need to get some points on the board. I think 40/42 will keep us up as thankfully the bottom 2 are very poor teams.
If we get complacent though we could do a Fergie and get relegated.
That would be an unmitigated disaster & one we might not recover from.
Alarm bells ringing. We need to batten down the hatches and show some real fight and desire to address this slump.
A lot of what you might be true but I very much doubt that Tommy Rowe’s heart isn’t it, admittedly he’s not the player he was but he still looks dedicated to the cause
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We all wanted a HoF didn’t we
Well we got one and unfortunately it backfired
Copps simply recruited players who were lightweight. Players who will not get a team out of this league.
Ever since I have been watching League 2 football the promoted teams have a spine of the team that has been very physical. I don’t mean dirty players. Just players who can handle themselves, don’t get bullied and have a winning mentality.
Every successful team has a proper leader in the team. Preferably 2/3 of them.
The only one we have is Richard Wood and he has hardly played.
The only players we have right now who are winners, players with a winning mentality are Nixon ( who is on loan ) Faulkner, Bailey & Ironside.
Tommy Rowe has gone, he is just going through the motions. His heart isn’t in it anymore. That’s how it looks.
Anderson has one good game in 4, the other 3 he is way off where he needs to be as a centre back. He is not a leader. Far too quiet on the pitch.
Olowu has gone alarmingly backwards in his development.
His confidence is shattered it looks to me.
Sterry and Senior are not physically strong enough although i would keep Senior as a back up full back.
Biggins I don’t know what to say but he looks lost at present.
Broadbent simply not good enough at this level.
Hurst needs to step up and show what he has and use his undoubted ability.
Faal has potential. He has been overplayed due to injury to Miller & Lavery & Goodman is not quite up to a regular starting place.
Molyneux needs to be given an attacking role behind the strikers or play on either wing. He is NOT a wing back.
He is potentially our match winning player but needs believe in himself and be more ruthless in the final 3rd.
Close and Westbrooke both good footballers but need someone to do the nasty stuff along side them. A proper mister which we are lacking.
The injury situation is not helping obviously but there simply is not enough leadership, physicality or pace in our current squad.
Major surgery required from GM in the next 2 windows.
First of all we need to get some points on the board. I think 40/42 will keep us up as thankfully the bottom 2 are very poor teams.
If we get complacent though we could do a Fergie and get relegated.
That would be an unmitigated disaster & one we might not recover from.
Alarm bells ringing. We need to batten down the hatches and show some real fight and desire to address this slump.
Could I add to that Camps in that all our recruits had the same agent (same as Schofield if I recall) so it may have been mr agent turning up with his catalogue and saying who do you fancy from this lot
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It's not McCann's fault. We were improving until the injuries hit again. There is still the problem that we have players who cannot perform at this level.
Yet again players who've been rubbish for 1-2 years continue to be rubbish. Biggins didn't find a pass again all night, oluwu does a lot of good things but continually switches off. Rowe has offered nothing all season, Faal looks like he needs a few weeks off but we've no option to replace him.
Then again molyneux a good bit of play then he gives a throw in straight to them to score. You can't blame the manager for that.
The route out of this is investment in the playing squad behind McCann, there's no better option.
But I'm fed up of watching us lose to shite teams, yet again tonight a rubbish team beats us. They barely strung a pass together. Woeful.
Here here. Exactly how I feel, currently there is no one better than GMC to take us forward, we know this is going to be a long rebuild, simply there are players at the club who aren’t up to it anymore. We need to move a large number on and improve that going forward.
Under blunt I think it’s clear how things were run had a massive impact on the player recruitment, we have gone for young unproven players because it was cheaper and filled out the squad.
Going forward hopefully under the leadership of TB we will start to improve on better more physical players
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Anyone who rate’s Schofield as a manager knows sweet FA about football…..end of.
As with Dickov before him, I bet he never managers another EFL team.
I don't think anyone rated schofield.
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We make too many bad decisions as a club. Until we start making more decisions that add value than ones that take value away, we will struggle.
Just to name a few recently-
-Giving Butler and Gary Mc the managers job.
-The head of football restructure shambles.
-The binning of the HoF role.
-The amount of 30yo+ players we sign that add zero to the cause.
-The amount of sentimental contracts we hand out that end up setting fire to money. Taylor, Anderson, Rowe.
-The trap we fall into every January signing awful strikers that end up offering Zero. Agard, Bogle, Lavery.
-Signing players that have never ever proven to be anything other than average (or less than average) L2 players. Sterry, Molyneux, Biggins, Lawlor, Miller.
-Signing players that become surplus to requirements a few weeks into the season due to changing the system. Roberts, Sotona.
-Too many players signed that are unproven at the level with no history of being able to identify this profile of player well. Bailey, Marsh, Roberts, Faal, Broadbent, Senior, Nixon. Some have been ok admittedly but too many question marks there.
It’s easy to say “hindsight has 20/20 etc” but these were things I highlighted at the start of the season (and last season) and it’s all playing out in a way that’s certainly not positive.
We have zero concept of risk when managing the club, controlling operations and assessing signings.
To improve any business, venture or situation you need to make more positive expected value decisions than negative expected value decisions. These small value additions then compound. We are doing the reverse, compounding the negative ones.
It’s not even a case of making more better decisions at the minute, we have to start making less bad ones first of all. Will TB replacing DB as chairman improve this? Potentially as I’m sure Gavin will get a bit more influence on the sporting side and I think he’s got a better instinct than DB had regarding the big decisions.
I’ve said it before DB ran a business, not a Football Club, great for a business like Keepmoat, awful for a football club
Recent games have been horrific. Games before that we have been doing well. Definitely some improvement this season.
But if you step back and take a deep breath, we have been going backwards as a club at an alarming rate the last 3 seasons at least. Rarely have we consistently played well, we have cycled through managers, made diabolical signing after diabolical signing, none of which have we managed to monetise ultimately and indeed in Watters and May managed to somehow give away for free players that were sold by lesser clubs than us for big fees, got relegated, seen attendances dwindle to an embarrassing level, and ultimately find ourselves in the bottom 6 of the 92.
This is in spite of having stable ownership with a more than adequate budget to compete in this level, excellent infrastructure, support despite thinning out still way more than most of this league, and a top manager for this level.
Anyone care to figure? It's a disaster zone.
Lack of competence from the player conditioning coaching
Lack of competence from the medical team
Lack of competence from those responsible for player recruitment.
All of those factors have impacted our ability to compete for the last three seasons. It would appear with the new Head of Medical that at least one of those problems is now recognised but whatever, Grant McCann isn't responsible for any of this shit-show.
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Anyone who rate’s Schofield as a manager knows sweet FA about football…..end of.
As with Dickov before him, I bet he never managers another EFL team.
I don't think anyone rated schofield.
Dickov’s job was a lot more difficult than Schofield’s and in my opinion he didn’t get a fair crack of the whip.
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Factually and objectively, Dickov was within the tiniest of margins of keeping us in the Championship during the 2013/14 season. If he had done that, it would have been a huge achievement.
Somehow he managed to make a harder job of competing in League One and was another manager in recent history who made horrific transfer decisions that held us back for a number of seasons after he left. Front of mind is the two year deal for Dany N'Guessen (played 9 games in two seasons, zero goals), Gary MacKenzie and Abdul Razak. Probably more just as bad.
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It’s getting harder to see why we struggling when there is so much support for McCann …
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Anyone who rate’s Schofield as a manager knows sweet FA about football…..end of.
As with Dickov before him, I bet he never managers another EFL team.
I don't think anyone rated schofield.
Dickov’s job was a lot more difficult than Schofield’s and in my opinion he didn’t get a fair crack of the whip.
Dickov was a horrific manager. One of few men who couldn't work out how to get Billy Sharp scoring goals.
We had a squad of Turnbull, Johnstone, Khumalo, Coppinger, Cotterill, Duffy, Sharp, Brown, Tamas, Meite, Macheda.
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Anyone who rate’s Schofield as a manager knows sweet FA about football…..end of.
As with Dickov before him, I bet he never managers another EFL team.
I don't think anyone rated schofield.
Dickov’s job was a lot more difficult than Schofield’s and in my opinion he didn’t get a fair crack of the whip.
Dickov shouldn't have got the job in the first place. Only got it because he lived next door to the chairman at the time.
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The elephant in the room is the trapdoor to the National lge. Very few seem to be talking about it.
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The elephant in the room is the trapdoor to the National lge. Very few seem to be talking about it.
This. Even just a week ago absolutely nobody was talking about it given the points totals of the bottom two. Now, in just two games see how different things look, we are in serious trouble without some seriously good early incomings in the transfer window.
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The elephant in the room is the trapdoor to the National lge. Very few seem to be talking about it.
This. Even just a week ago absolutely nobody was talking about it given the points totals of the bottom two. Now, in just two games see how different things look, we are in serious trouble without some seriously good early incomings in the transfer window.
This form is three seasons old not just a week old , motivating players to complete is McCanns job and every other manger before him so let him pull HIS fingered out and prove that the supporters weren’t deluded when he was handed to job.
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McCanns problem is that it is the same 11 or 12 players week in week out. He is trying to find a system that will fit the players available rathet than players to fit the system. The biggest problem is that at least 4 or 5 don't fit in to any system he tries
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The elephant in the room is the trapdoor to the National lge. Very few seem to be talking about it.
It's there & staring us bang in the face. We'll just have to trust GM,TB, & GB to steady the ship & get the points needed to survive. Next month is massive, make no mistake.
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The elephant in the room is the trapdoor to the National lge. Very few seem to be talking about it.
This. Even just a week ago absolutely nobody was talking about it given the points totals of the bottom two. Now, in just two games see how different things look, we are in serious trouble without some seriously good early incomings in the transfer window.
This form is three seasons old not just a week old , motivating players to complete is McCanns job and every other manger before him so let him pull HIS fingered out and prove that the supporters weren’t deluded when he was handed to job.
A couple of weeks ago Selby on here wrote something about the desire of players when they get on the pitch comes from within them, their desire and tenacity to compete is a deeply embedded character trait (apologies to Selby if my paraphrasing doesn't quite hit the spot), and he is absolutely correct in that view. The manager can have only a very brief positive motivating affect on a player which is very quickly forgotten once they get into the heat of the battle.
On the other hand, it certainly is possible for a person to have a demotivating affect on someone and is less likely to be quickly forgotten, and I am certainly not suggesting this is happening with GM.
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The Manager's job is to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Most of us here believe Mc Cann is a man who can do this. Right now he is either failing miserably or our players are simply below league 2 standard.
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The Manager's job is to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Most of us here believe Mc Cann is a man who can do this. Right now he is either failing miserably or our players are simply below league 2 standard.
The current spine of the team.
Lawlor
Olowu
Anderson
Biggins
Is not league 2 standard.
We know for certain that the goalkeeper isn’t, being Dundee’s reserve in the Scottish Championship.
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The Manager's job is to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Most of us here believe Mc Cann is a man who can do this. Right now he is either failing miserably or our players are simply below league 2 standard.
The current spine of the team.
Lawlor
Olowu
Anderson
Biggins
Is not league 2 standard.
We know for certain that the goalkeeper isn’t, being Dundee’s reserve in the Scottish Championship.
Knows the club.
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I think this guy Grant McCann may be our saviour and by that I mean of the CLUB not the season.
The very best way of surviving this is with Terry Bramall , Gavin Baldwin and Grant McCann working together from Jan onwards when TB is back in U.K. from holiday apparently .
I would add to that trio ,John Ryan ,but as Fans’Honorary Representative with a brief to be the PR Ambassador of the club .
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I think this guy GM may be our saviour and by that I mean of the CLUB not the season.
The very best way of surviving this is with TB , GB. GMcC plyus JR as Honorary President of the DRFC fans . Meanwhile it may just depend on the fans NOT pissing GMcC off.
I think GM has the majority of fans backing.
It was telling at meadow lane with a very vocal “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” that’s directed very much at players, not manager. And in his after match interview, he as near as damn it supports the fans for their valid opinion. In GM we trust.
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The vast majority of right thinking supporters know that a manager like GM is more than enough for our salvation.
The results may be worse at this point than last season but if you bring in a manager like this you have to back him,injuries, lack of form and just plain lack of application has massively affected us. i'm not sure how many of the players who were brought in were actually GM picks or if he just went along with what was already in motion, either way he needs to be given time and the tools to work with.
Its very harsh to judge a manager until he's had enough time to build the squad in the manner he wants and to implement his style of play into players, even at this time with players who are obviously not suited to what he actually wants to do.
Im quite sure that given the time and opportunity with the players he actually wants GM will turn this club around and get us back on some sort of even keel to be able to push on, patience more than anything is required by us all.
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I think this guy GM may be our saviour and by that I mean of the CLUB not the season.
The very best way of surviving this is with TB , GB. GMcC plyus JR as Honorary President of the DRFC fans . Meanwhile it may just depend on the fans NOT pissing GMcC off.
I think GM has the majority of fans backing.
It was telling at meadow lane with a very vocal “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” that’s directed very much at players, not manager. And in his after match interview, he as near as damn it supports the fans for their valid opinion. In GM we trust.
I thought the opposite regarding the fans reaction at the end. He said it wasn't good to hear, or words to that effect
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I think GM declined to comment on the chanting as he probably agrees with the fans. The players are useless and he knows it.
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You would have to be an absolute fool to think that we need to change the manager. Regrettably we do have some fools amongst our fanbase, but hopefully not many are that foolish.
McCann is the best manager we could possibly have, anyone else would be a significant step down. We need to give him the time and opportunity to get this right, and he will.
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I think GM declined to comment on the chanting as he probably agrees with the fans. The players are useless and he knows it.
Out of interest, what were the chants that rattled him at FT?
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I think GM declined to comment on the chanting as he probably agrees with the fans. The players are useless and he knows it.
Out of interest, what were the chants that rattled him at FT?
You’re not fit to wear the shirt.
I’m not sure they rattled him to be honest, he just got asked about it and declined to comment.
I personally thought they were a bit harsh given the injuries.
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It is harsh although probably only aimed at a certain percentage of the team who won't be professional footballers for much longer. Some supporters are just idiots. There was one person around me at Tranmere booing the players for giving the ball away at the point we were 0-1 up. Also giving Mo dogs abuse every time he went near it. Those type of so called fans really need to find a new hobby.
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The elephant in the room is the trapdoor to the National lge. Very few seem to be talking about it.
This. Even just a week ago absolutely nobody was talking about it given the points totals of the bottom two. Now, in just two games see how different things look, we are in serious trouble without some seriously good early incomings in the transfer window.
This form is three seasons old not just a week old , motivating players to complete is McCanns job and every other manger before him so let him pull HIS fingered out and prove that the supporters weren’t deluded when he was handed to job.
A couple of weeks ago Selby on here wrote something about the desire of players when they get on the pitch comes from within them, their desire and tenacity to compete is a deeply embedded character trait (apologies to Selby if my paraphrasing doesn't quite hit the spot), and he is absolutely correct in that view. The manager can have only a very brief positive motivating affect on a player which is very quickly forgotten once they get into the heat of the battle.
On the other hand, it certainly is possible for a person to have a demotivating affect on someone and is less likely to be quickly forgotten, and I am certainly not suggesting this is happening with GM.
There is a distinct lack of character, leadership, & togetherness, no talking, nobody to drag a game by the scruff of the neck. There seems to me to be players, & staff here that have it too easy a ride for far too long. Get them out of our club. Maybe the players get on ok with each other, but on the pitch team spirit looks miles away from what it should be, & certainly from a Grant McCann team.
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It’s the complete lack of ‘mesters’ in our team, as BST has said on many occasions, that sees heads go down. There’s nobody driving anyone on - not one player. They’re all mentally weak and most seem to be physically weak also, relative to any opposition you care to mention.
It’s to be hoped we get a steely motivator in January, preferably on the 1st. Untried and untested youngsters are not the answer right now.
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It’s the complete lack of ‘mesters’ in our team, as BST has said on many occasions, that sees heads go down. There’s nobody driving anyone on - not one player. They’re all mentally weak and most seem to be physically weak also, relative to any opposition you care to mention.
It’s to be hoped we get a steely motivator in January, preferably on the 1st. Untried and untested youngsters are not the answer right now.
There’s a great scene in Life on Mars where Gene Hunt faces down some criminals and says,‘Don’t move, you’re surrounded by armed bas**rds’.
When we won late at Stevenage with that late Rob Jones header my mate said on the way out , ‘we’ve got Gene Hunt’s armed bas**rds playing for us this season’.
Would love just a little bit of that back.
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It’s the complete lack of ‘mesters’ in our team, as BST has said on many occasions, that sees heads go down. There’s nobody driving anyone on - not one player. They’re all mentally weak and most seem to be physically weak also, relative to any opposition you care to mention.
It’s to be hoped we get a steely motivator in January, preferably on the 1st. Untried and untested youngsters are not the answer right now.
We need ‘mesters’ like Brad City’s No.6.
Now he just does know how to ‘kick someone’ while they’re down, apparently.
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Why are we easy to beat .
Tactics wrong for each game ?
Players selection ?
Players just not good enough ?
Manager too popular ?
Performances are over all poor even for L2.
Injuries played a big part this season , yet it’s a squad that lacks depth in its experience and leadership.
I like McCann but it hard to see with these performances where he has the stamped his mark this time around .
The Elephant is still here !!
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And so is the monkey. Anyone expecting a team with three new signings and two other changes to produce immediate results knows nothing about football and is just on here to show how stupid he can be.
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And so is the monkey. Anyone expecting a team with three new signings and two other changes to produce immediate results knows nothing about football and is just on here to show how stupid he can be.
McCann must have expected it to get a result? No? :whistle:
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What do the ‘elephant in the room’ smart arses suggest we do? Go out and get yet another manager?! Come on, how can anyone be that stupid.
We have an excellent manager but the problems continue. It’ll take time to fix. Dare I say patience and intelligence too, which it’s clear some people are lacking.
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And so is the monkey. Anyone expecting a team with three new signings and two other changes to produce immediate results knows nothing about football and is just on here to show how stupid he can be.
So why pick them if you aren’t expecting things to improve ?
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What do the ‘elephant in the room’ smart arses suggest we do? Go out and get yet another manager?! Come on, how can anyone be that stupid.
We have an excellent manager but the problems continue. It’ll take time to fix. Dare I say patience and intelligence too, which it’s clear some people are lacking.
My Elephant is tactics , too slow in the build up and often with too many players just not competing to hurt the opponent where it matters in their half of the pitch .
Poor goals conceded tells you that we aren’t fighting hard enough in the right areas of the pitch .? McCann has to take responsibility for this entire season as they’re nearly ALL his choices both tactically and player selection.
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And so is the monkey. Anyone expecting a team with three new signings and two other changes to produce immediate results knows nothing about football and is just on here to show how stupid he can be.
So why pick them if you aren’t expecting things to improve ?
The point is you expecting IMMEDIATE results. Two of the three debutants yesterday put in performances better than we have been getting with the personnel they replaced. The team created a handful of goal chances and were just plain unlucky that not even one got past the keeper.
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Has anyone said why so many others apart from Faal were missing from the squad yesterday?
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Still leadership, or lack of.
January is a notoriously difficult month to try and fix things so I’m not particularly hopeful. Managers roll the dice but it still requires a lot of luck for changes to be effective.
The best January I can recall was in the mid-2000s when we took on Kevin Horlock. To that point we were flirting with relegation from L1 but Horlock brought some bite to the midfield, protected the defence and gave confidence to the team generally. We knew we wouldn’t get rolled over. I think we need someone similar now but they’d be very difficult to get hold of given our position and limitations.
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And so is the monkey. Anyone expecting a team with three new signings and two other changes to produce immediate results knows nothing about football and is just on here to show how stupid he can be.
So why pick them if you aren’t expecting things to improve ?
The point is you expecting IMMEDIATE results. Two of the three debutants yesterday put in performances better than we have been getting with the personnel they replaced. The team created a handful of goal chances and were just plain unlucky that not even one got past the keeper.
Your probably right but we still lost from a comfortable position where a point was well earned . If you can’t win don’t loose !!
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What do the ‘elephant in the room’ smart arses suggest we do? Go out and get yet another manager?! Come on, how can anyone be that stupid.
We have an excellent manager but the problems continue. It’ll take time to fix. Dare I say patience and intelligence too, which it’s clear some people are lacking.
Sounds a bit condescending, but these 'smart arses' may have a genuine concern for our league status. I for one, as are many many others fully behind Grant & his staff, this is a slow process that he will get right, of that I'm sure. He has brought in some good young players, & a few not so good. What he needs to do in this moment in time is steady the ship, set the team up to get results to stave away the threat, & a real threat it is, of relegation. If this means parking the bus instead of playing expansive football & still losing at home, to Newport, then so be it. While I will back him to the hilt, he needs to get a few results, & quickly. The 'Elephant in the room' is still there.
So rather than what