Aye, he did alright by all accounts tonight, he at least looks positive on the ball. I've always liked Doc, a very honest player.
Yeah, he is. He's back out in training. Hopefully they'll play him in a stiffs game this week to get his fitness up.
Can't disagree with that,was disappointed in the second half but not sure one of the managers of the "Failed English Manager Roundabout" will help.We'd be following the Scottish model of "Failed Scottish Managers Roundabout"and that leads only one way.I don't claim to have the answers though *edit
Also think that anyone scrutinising the 2 Chelsea lads coming in need to consider the requirement to name 7 home grown players or U21s in any matchday 18. That has always been a consideration. Same as defining a budget to spend up to with regard to FFP - with a little wiggle room.
Apologies, yes he is (which is good). Just replace the Sinik example. Rest of the post remains in tact. Edit: I honestly thought we would win tonight, so to loose 0-3 at home, and in the piss poor manner we did, on the back of recent results (which at the time seemed easy-ish to brush aside "good sides", "injuries", etc), has now left me utterly deflated. Hopefully Shota finds a way to put so many things right come Saturday ... but at the moment, for the first time, I am now starting to have doubts. Not sure I want to bump into him tomorrow in Beverley even.
When you get beat it's always tempting to be angry and blame this or that, but I don't even think they were better than us tonight. Huge chunk of luck gave them the lead and nothing fell our way. I find it harder to take than when we're just **** like we were last season, but it happens. We're not a bad side, just need to tighten up in both boxes on our last few performances.
The biggest worry for me is that we have no identity. I wouldn't mind losing, if I could see what the plan is. For whatever reason Shota is also reluctant to switch to 4 at the back. I don't see why 3 CBs were needed for that second half when already 2 down. I think he'll keep his job for the time being, but that's mainly due to a lack of quality candidates. For me, Dyche isn't the answer and I wouldn't risk another manager from the continent.
Seems to me Shota's got a mixed bag of players, some fit, some not and some he might not have chosen himself. I have some sympathy but I do feel he's got enough now to put together a side that doesn't get beat 3 nil at home. I didn't see tonights game but from posts on here it sounds much like previous games where we've seemed to be basically a bit clueless. On balance I think he's probably not up to the job, but I'm not sure how easily/quickly another manager could turn it round. I think we're in for a rough season, after tomorrow's games we could be within a couple of places of the drop, not a good look!
The ref in question in my example was having a laugh with the other team the entire game, would blow for a foul whenever we touched one of their players, at one throw in I went up to head the ball and one of their players pile-drived me from behind and the ref laughed at the player and said 'Be more careful next time' then yellow carded me a few minutes later for a clean tackle that he said 'Well you could have hurt him if you hadn't got the ball'. Some refs do ruin games, but not at the professional level to the extent plenty make out.
Ingram, Greaves, Jones, Elder, Coyle, Slater, Baxter, Longman, Woods, Williams, Fleming (when fit), possibly even Docherty and McLoughlin (not sure on Scottish/Irish v English for home grown) all qualify as home grown. We have no worries with that and wouldn't be loaning in players just to cover it off.
The only reason we are in the Championship is down to the results under Grant. We had the excuse was not shotas squad or players. We have 16 new players but we had a few lucky results in the early part of the season and now been exposed how easy we are to be turned over. Shota a great player but as a manager/ coach only coach he is going to make is as the driver of team bus
A lot that needs correcting... We've debatably been outplayed by every team we've faced this season so far. And frankly most of them haven't looked like world beaters. QPR schooled us. The rest of those games we either let them in and made things difficult for ourselves or they could have gone either way and we've been fortunate. The teams we've got points out of would all have been kicking themselves because we've dominated nobody. Coventry was probably our best game and we were still hanging on by the end. A general lack of movement is a big issue, there's often no options. Possibly caused by a lack of fitness. Allahyar and Tetteh missing is really showing. Should get more mobile with time... Hopefully. 4 at the back is a must. The 5 isn't working. We have genuine quality further up the field (even without the players we're missing to injury) but they never see the ball because many of them aren't on the pitch, so get them on the pitch and try to use them. The vast majority of our possession is mainly our CBs aimlessly passing it between themselves. We should start our strongest side to give us a chance of going ahead, not give ourselves a mountain to climb then bring quality on while taking other quality off. Tufan and Pelkas weren't on the pitch together that long tonight. It's like every game starts off as damage limitation and then we start trying to have a go when it's far too late. Shota is happy to make changes early enough if needs be, but we always seems to start off bafflingly weaker than we need to and his subs can be debatable too. It feels like when we attack it's hard fought and we're lucky to have a striker that can make something out of half chances that we probably shouldn't be converting. Whenever the opposition attacks however it feels like they just cut right through us with simple stuff. The teams we've faced have rarely done anything special against us and have squandered their chances as well. Yet we're still the worst in the league for conceding. The below lineup, or similar needs to happen against Swansea. We need to get back to scoring goals. We're conceding either way so perhaps some positive football might just breed some confidence and a clean sheet. Even if we lose, I'd applaud us having a proper go and it would breed some positives. If our defence is as bad as it seems, let's at least give the opposition something to think about and keep the ball away from our back line as much as possible... ---------------Baxter--------------- Coyle--Figs--Greaves--Elder ----------Jones--Seri------------ ---------------Tufan---------------- Pelkas-----------------Longman ---------------Oscar--------------- I don't think Figs needs to be dropped yet, personally. Baxter gets a chance now. The full backs get protection with wide forwards and can venture for an overlap if the opportunity arises. Slater loses out so Jones can add some mettle in the middle and give it to Seri or play it to various options in front if they're obvious passes. If they're not, Seri would find them if it goes to him. Oscar sees more of the ball this way, where he's been brilliant to be fair to him. The bench we have at the moment would sub into this formation fairly nicely too. Slater or Simons for Jones. Woods for Seri. Vale for either of the wide players. Pelkas could swap for Tufan to bring Vale on too. Mac for a CB if needed. Christie for Coyle if needed. Longman dropping back for Elder if needed. We'd be able to keep this positive shape even if we need to make subs is my point. We'd have width and chances created too, surely. We play good football in flashes despite having a negative setup. Let's see more of that attacking play then. We might find ourselves with more possession and God forbid in their half too. This might leave us weaker at the back but it's not like we can get weaker than second worst defence in English football right now is it. Let's use this apparent attacking prowess we have, sitting there waiting to be used.
I should add too... Clinging onto players like Smallwood and Honeyman is not the answer. You could debatably say Smallwood might be getting game time right now, but Honeyman wouldn't be starting ahead of anyone other than maybe Slater, but we'd see the same problems we're having now. We have the players to win games in this league. We have the quality right now. A lot of it is injured at the moment, but we also have new players, better than we had last season that are available now and not getting enough game time. Say what you want about the Chelsea lads, but they deserve to at least be on the bench after the last two games. It can't get any worse giving them a go can it? If the issue with starting, let's say Pelkas for example, is fitness... Then let's start him and bring him off when he gases. We're far less likely to be chasing the game once we weaken ourselves with subs. We let Tufan start games when he joined us and he was notorious for fitness related issues. He's one of our best performers right now.
I agree with you to an extent but my philosophy coming into this summer was that we should be slowly transitioning not throwing everything out. I think if we had brought in enough players to overhaul our starting XI, with our previous starting XI then dropping to the bench, and gradually transitioning in that manner we may have had a better squad chemistry. However that's done now so no use re-treading old ground.
