I hope Longman gave his missus a serve. He was one bloke I liked in that squad, worked hard to get back in the fold and is keen to go forward when he has the ball, unlike Kamara and others. These sorts of 'likes' on social media show everything that is wrong with current professional footballers. A few years ago the dressing room would have delt with them internally, I imagine now it will be a big laugh on the squad whats app group. Take some accountablilty for christs sake.
I’m not arsed about Longman’s partner. Burstow knows exactly what he’s doing though. Footballers are thick but they’re not that thick. But you’re right, some of them love the passive-aggressive hints and sly digs on social media. I mentioned Rangnick because he was brought in to whip that dysfunctional Man Utd squad into shape before the new manager came in and a little clique of arsehole players called him ‘specs’ in their WhatsApp group chat and pretty much said to each other ‘disregard anything he says because he won’t be here long’.
"You imagine" says it all. Players have always found ways of letting their feelings be known. The media by which they do so is largely irrelevant. And as Coyle did last night by pointedly backing the players to get themselves out of it, sometimes the significance is in what they don't say, or what they say via proxy. It has always been such.
They don’t need to perform miracles. Staying up and getting things moving in a positive direction would be a successful season.
Rashford is still poison now and puts in a performance once every 6 games to make sure he keeps the fans off his back. Total dick
Bannan and friends ran rings round us because they played good football. They passed it in triangles, played the way they were facing and made us chase our tails. That's the kind of thing we used to do with many of these same players before we appointed the fantasist who could only communicate that just playing forward was the answer to everything. Kamara needs to sort himself out, yes, but targeting the three long servants as usual is embarrassingly wide of the mark. They've each been written off and proven people wrong so many times now people really should've learned. They'll do it again. Jones, Coyle and Slater aren't even a small part of the problem. It's Ashbee syndrome.
Excellent, I am glad you're content with your membership money being used to fund the boys club. I would rather see a team of professionals showing some respect for the manager and their employers and not least the supporters. A sacrifice of being a well paid footballer is that you are expected to conduct yourself as a decent individual with professionalism shown at all times.
If you're suggesting that because they're well paid they should always be 100% motivated then that's a nice ideal, but it doesn't happen in real life. If our players are dragging themselves out to play with a sense of duty, and trying to give 100%, that's never going to match a team who are naturally giving 100%. Human nature I'm afraid. It's the biggest part of a managers job.
He’ll up his game for a bit to show off for Amorim then him and his mates will stab him in the back, as they’ve done for the last four managers. Bit like our current lot. They might actually look like footballers for a bit under Dawson and then the new head coach before they get complacent, start going out on the piss the night before games again and the honeymoon period will be over and it will be the manager’s fault.
You're imagining that's the situation. When I watched them latterly I saw players who knew they were flogging a dead horse trying, but generally losing any sense of belief the longer the madness went on. Now it's come to an end, I expect a reaction on Saturday. We may not win, because we're coming to a club in form from a pretty low base, but you'll see a reaction. And then you'll probably see another when the next permanent is appointed. Whether that's a good or bad reaction depends on the appointment. But if you really think this generation of players are any more capable of being drama queens when they're not having a gaffer than in the 80's, 90's or 00's then you're deluded. They just did it in the pub back then not on WhatsApp.
The three ‘long servants’ are like any incompetent clowns who refuse to improve or adapt and get away with it due to their long service. I’ve worked with older teachers who have been teaching for decades but still can’t open a PDF or input data collection and refuse to learn how because ‘oh, I’m just not good with technology’ so their colleagues have to pick up the slack with anything technology-related. That’s those three.
No it isn't. They're three of our best players and have been consistently for two or three years now. They're easy targets because they played for us at a lower level, which gives some people a feeling that they're less talented than other players even though they repeatedly prove otherwise. Again, Ashbee syndrome. All three were a crucial part of a team which finished just outside the playoffs last season, playing week in week out. That's more than most of our squad have achieved realistically. Blaming the easy target players every time we have a bad run makes people look juvenile and/or FIFA-brained. Simons is another one who shouldn't be getting stick, by the way. Oh, and Longman too.
No he shouldn't. Simons should be commended cos he's one of the few who it's fair to say has probably overachieved on his expectations this far. How much of that is down to circumstance as opposed to design though the jury's still out for me. Hopefully we'll find out for sure when we actually play something which traditionally resembles a midfield.
It's amazing managers keep coming in and think they can sign new players to replace Coyle, Slater, etc. in the line up, but Coyle was playing so well that Walter shunted Drameh to LB just to get him in the XI. Slater and Simons starting in CM despite shiny new CM signings, etc. People slate them but manager after manager gets won over by their determination and endeavour. We're crying out for players to give 100% then slate the players that do! I think from a shape perspective both Slater and Simons starting probably doesn't work, and agree that Alzate and Slater should be the duo going forward, but the hyperbolism from some is remarkable.
Drameh is a great example because I think he can be really sloppy at times, gives the ball away loads and doesn't have half of Coyle's fight. But he doesn't get the criticism. He came in as the new RB and people assumed he'd replace Coyle, which was never going to be a simple thing because Coyle is a bloody good player. But a new signing is always more exciting and shiny, even though he's achieved less prior to joining us than Coyle has here, so he has this unwarranted reputation boost that longer-serving players don't get.
The irony of this post when managers are the easiest targets and our supporters treat the players with kiddie gloves this season. Slater, Coyle and Jones are technically-limited, always have been and always will be. Ömür, Kamara, Puerta, Giles etc. are the ones who are supposed to be a level above in terms of technical ability and they’ve been utter dogshit as well. Longman, along with Hughes and maybe Palmer, were the only ones that could come away from yesterday’s game with any sort of pride. The rest were embarrassing.
I don't think you can really fault Drameh personally. He's playing on his wrong side and still keeping Giles and Jacob out on merit as a 3rd choice on that side. If we did go to a back 3 and wingbacks with Giles on the left, then I'd probably go with Drameh ahead of Coyle on the right. If someone left sided owned the left back spot in a back 4, it'd be an interesting competition between Drameh and Coyle for RB. He's not really let us down when so called natural left backs blatantly have. He's been a bonus for me too this season, overall - given what he's been asked to do.
Drameh’s been ****e and underwhelming too but at least he has the excuse that he’s a right-back playing left-back. What’s Coyle’s excuse when playing on his strong side and being unable to look up and see the game in front of him? Coyle’s a somewhat decent defender at this level. He can tackle and run. He doesn’t play with any sort of intelligence though. He gets the ball on the right, doesn’t look up to see the runs the right-winger or other forwards are making and he either passes back to Jones or he’ll just run with his head down into a blind alley before whipping in an atrocious cross. Sometimes he’ll mix it up by shifting inside and floating a cross with his left-foot that goes out for a goal kick. Wow, truly amazing stuff. Jones flatters to deceive. He can also defend okay and does the odd drop of the shoulder that makes him look like Maldini but like Coyle also suffers from tunnel vision and cannot see the game in front of him. They are both extremely limited players who kill any chance to quickly start attacks because their passing range is Sunday League level. Hughes can look up and see the wingers making runs. Greaves could do it. Jones and Coyle can’t.
