Whether I want him or not is immaterial, Holden will make that decision, of course if Mark Ashton allows him to.
I see that Stoke are above us now, earlier in the season they were described as **** after we beat them, by somebody unimpressed with our win.
It feel like we're now in a time warp as Holdens reign is fast becoming the same as Johnsons was towards the end, there are so many parallels 1) I know we have a lot of injuries but highly paid and feted professional football players that play for City still can't do the basics - such as controlling a football 2) Weak/non existent midfield 3) Negative goal difference despite being in the top half of the table (for now!) 4) Failing to win many home games and also giving dismal performances 5) Going through 90 minutes and often only managing a single shot on target 6) Giving away stupid goals I know Holden has been given the job as Senior Management decided he was the best applicant. All I can say is that he's lucky there are no fans allowed into home games as they'd be sure to let him know that what is being served up is not only awful, but it's also getting worse. Reading - Hadn't won in 5 or more games but beat us easily Millwall - Hadn't won in something like 10 games but beat us easily Preston - One home win all season until last Friday, but we managed to buck that trend as well. I'm not even sure where we go from here tbh.
In a way it's all a bit weird....We've not really changed anything apart from the coach. Everything else has stayed the same!! I think SL was blackmailed by Redprintt & co for something just to get LJ out
I agree I saw 100% being given by everybody from the start of the season, recently I have seen several players just going through the motions, Wells and Martin seem to have all but given up that maybe they will be given a presentable chance or Semenyo shooting on sight from great distance perhaps he try to provide again something he showed that he was good at earlier in the season. I find it laughable people complaining about lack of goals from our strikers, when they are not being properly supplied with presentable chances, there isn't a striker around who would be remotely prolific with our midfield and wing backs and pushing them wide is a desperate policy. As I said in another post I am not sure that Holden was considered 1st choice until he told them that he could bring in 2 renown coaches, so not only was he was a saving on wages compared to bigger names, he brought in 2 new coaches and the Lansdowns and Ashton knew that they had another manager that they could manipulate. I would also like to say, I still do not see any leaders on the pitch, not one, it is evident defending corners and free kicks, I see loads of pointing but very little shouting and if necessary pushing a player to mark somebody properly, the shouting usually comes after we ship a goal or nearly ship one, when usually it's too late. Also in midfield there is zero organisation nobody takes responsibility to make sure we still have cover and when we get into the final third there are a lot of times when our strikers take up some great positions, only to see the midfielder either take the wrong option or 1 touch too many and get dispossessed or a tamely feathered back passesque excuse for a shot or the said Semenyo sending one into the car park. PS: You left Birmingham out of your list of teams who couldn't buy a win until playing us.
LJ had 4 years to make it look as though we were at least going to challenge for a play off place and he failed. I have seen BS excuses like one reason for our falling off in the 2nd half of 3 seasons was because of selling our best players, I repeat only Brownhill out of our 'best players' was sold in January and even that was a desperate attempt to sign goalscoring striker (which has failed because even strikers who can actually score need quality supply). The truth is yes we have sold a lot of high quality players for huge fees, but we were still not what you would call a consistent team, especially in midfield where Brownhill and Smith played together on many occasions but it could never be claimed that they were consistent. We had/have a very strong spine to our team, keeper, centre backs and strikers, LJ had that and Holden still has it, the missing link has always been the midfield including wing backs and that is what wins games consistently.
There are so many parallels. 2 things stand out, I have been taking a leaf out of Realreds book, and we have been lining up 3-5-2 more times than not, a system that Steve Cotterill tried and was the death of him. I compared, not over many weeks to be fair, what line up the successful opposition uses, it is not 3-5-2. The other of course is the injury list, but looking at it I think there is only 2 or 3 that would starters? and 1 or 2 regular match day squad. At Plymouth Semenyo and Janneh did very well, I would like to see them along with 1 of Wells, Martin, Diedhu forming our main attack, we have Paterson to join them! 1 target man and 3 behind! play 2-4-3-1 or 4-2-3-1. I am not a manager or a coach, and base most of my opinions on what others succeed in doing, could this work?
And look who's up next for us.....Wycombe haven't won in 10. Their last victory was at Birmingham on 4th November
I have to admit that I'm not a fan of 3-5-2 especially when we have so many lightweights in our midfield. Personally I think that formation had been working better for us away from home, but results on the road have also taken a nosedive recently. I think Martin is worth a start more often than not. Wells doesn't always seem very sharp (or interested) and Diedhou is maybe better coming from the bench ? Thoughts ?
3-5-2 worked perfectly for Cotterill in our record breaking 1st division championship wining season, it never worked in the championship because the midfield was never up to championship quality and for whatever reason our recruitment for the team as a whole was shockingly inadequate and ultimately desperate and left to the very last minute. Unless the miracle of Christmas happens and our 2 mystery players apparently one is called Joe Williams and the other is called Liam Walsh, suddenly appear like 2 of the 3 wisemen and we get to see if they will provide the midfield that we have been lacking lacking since promotion. We do not have the players who will do that for us in midfield on the books, we have tried every single permutation possible amongst the players that we have available on the books and IMHO if we managed to sneak everyone of them on to the field without the referee noticing, we would still get beaten more often than not. Paterson can still be the great player he was during our great half season in 2017 and in very odd flashes since, but we need desperately to find midfielders who can do his share of donkey work like tackling and tracking back and picking up midfield runners, otherwise our midfield IMHO will always be unfit for purpose.
OH NO! maybe they will be gentle with us and play for a draw? A couple bottles of Planeta Chardonay and some home made mince pies will soften the blow
I mainly agree with this, especially the lack of creative midfielders and a proper leader/s on the pitch. IMO that was LJ failure. Should have been priority to his target scouts and could go as far as saying failure from the academy. But I do believe the players we have need to take some responsibility, whether it's Dean setup (still not really sure what it is) or not all being on the same page....we seem to have spells where we look good, just don't seem to have the end product......most of it looks lacking in confidence & lacking in composure .. A lot of our play does seem to come from the right, Hunt gets in good positions, but his delivery IMO lacks big time, The player never looks up, pure hopeful crosses, easy to defend!! Semenyo needs to learn how to shoot, then he could be a really decent player!!!
I agree but I do not see the benefits so far from our super coaches, Semenyo is either playing to instructions or to have suddenly grown an ego the size of Texas, he needs to be taught some composure, one of his shots the other night was close to 40 yards out FFS. If he is not scoring (which he is not) and stopped creating (which he has) he doesn't add value to us and sadly we have a list of those type already. The only improvement that I have seen is Bentley and he is not coached by the new coaches. I suspect we will bring in a wingback and nothing else in January maybe a hopeful loan, I cannot see midfield being strengthened because I am not convinced that Holden just like LJ sees it as a problem. As I keep saying Holden got the arse when he was told that Rowett said we struggled against physical teams, I don't know why it has been true for 4 years and counting.
