Don’t forget the complete capitulation at Stoke on the final day last season There are little, if not no obvious signs of improvement throughout the team to my mind this season so far, and it’s very very disappointing And as I said all along, O’Leary is not a Championship keeper
I completely agree RR and I have been a big supporter of LM however it is worrying that we are not seeing any progress. LM still has my support but we need to see some signs of progress and improvement quickly.
Tell you something with the backing Manning has had Pearson would have been the man. Nige would not lose two games 3-0 on the bounce. We got LJ MK11 I’m afraid. The forums are in meltdown he will get all barrels if we lose at home to Oxford.
RP believe me he ain’t going to improve us-get Nige back with these players and then we would see a difference
I agree with RP, surely we must continue to to give LM time, 1 win in 5 is poor but lets make a judgement after 10 to 12 games, Lansdown cocked up with previous coaches, Junior and BT have instigated this regime, big Stevie is not going to react yet, patience is required, history is repeating. For now lets just wait and see and not panic for what might have been.
I was about to say the same thing. I’m angry and upset - 2x3-0 defeats in a row is dire. For me it’s how he learns from this. It’s half time. He’s had 5 games. He has 5 more - possibly 7 (12 in total) then if nothing has improved we will have to make changes. We absolutely must NOT go down.
Absolute conjecture. Nige’s style of football was confusing at best, there was no clear style and identity to his football, so why would he have been the man? Jeez, the guy did an ok job for us and you have him on a pedestal. He’s still living off his legacy of getting Leicester promoted to the PL. He has done precious little since, hence why he was free to come to us in the first place and has been since. He’s a busted flush these days, like Hughes, Bruce, Pardew et al. I’m not saying LM is the man, I was as shocked and disappointed as the rest when he was announced, as we all were with LJ, but, I do believe NP had done the job he was brought in to do and the board, and those of us not blinded by his past could see that. He is not the man to get us where the board want to go, or play in the style they want.
The bits I watched were after 15 mins to about 40 mins then 54 mins to 80 mins and thought Blackburn were far far superior in their running and skill sets. other than saying we were total c*** I couldnt see any real cohesion or game plan!
Nige v Liam no comparison -Liam been backed i know for a fact that the powers that be ain’t happy. Monster game Saturday for Liam
Stupid to panic so early in the season or to even think to changing the manager.. time must be given for the players to learn how LM wants to play also LM needs to be able to figure out the players we now have, how to get the best from them.. Yesterday and the game v Derby was a shambles but games where we should learn from.. but I do agree with the doomers he does need to show that he has the character to change things for the better soon.. Stupid mistakes are costing us.. these need to be eradicated sooner rather than later or it’s all back to square one..
Agree, we are where we are. The worrying thing for me is not just the defeats but the manner, that we didn’t learn from the Derby game, and that we aren’t able to adapt in game. Add to that players playing out odd position despite having had the chance to bring his own players in. Just getting rid of LM isn’t going to achieve anything though unless our manager recruitment improves, because otherwise we’ll just bring in someone similar. It feels to me that we are lacking experience, both on and off the pitch. Could we bring in someone over LM, not NP, obviously, but someone like him to assist LM?.
We have a much better squad now than what NP had and we look even worse than when he as here, that’s on the current Head Coach. Also chasing a number 10 all summer long then playing him on the wing isn’t helpful either. NP team was hard working, always committed and never gave up, they gave 100% always despite lack of quality, they never once bickered between themselves pointing fingers blaming each other. They all knew what their jobs were even though it wasn’t good to watch at times. He needs to stop over complicating things, not all of his games have been bad, some have been really good to watch but it’s very little. I can see us top 10 maybe even top 6 with the quality of players that we have, he simply has to find a formation and way of playing to get them all firing, but will the AG crowd give him that time ?
past couple of seasons Middsbro have got off to a slow start.............. red on right is position LOWER when played 7 game large blue is higher than 1 Preston North End ............ 10 ..... 7 6 1 0 12 5 7 19 2 Leicester City .......................1 ..... 7 6 0 1 13 5 8 18 3 Ipswich Town ...................... 2 ..... 7 6 0 1 13 7 6 18 4 Sunderland ..........................16 ..... 7 4 1 2 15 7 8 13 5 Norwich City ........................ 6 ..... 7 4 1 2 15 10 5 13 6 Hull City ...............................7 ..... 7 3 3 1 10 7 3 12 7 Bristol City .......................... 11 ..... 7 3 3 1 9 6 3 12 8 Birmingham City ................ 22 ..... 7 3 2 2 8 7 1 11 9 Leeds United ........................3 ..... 7 2 4 1 10 7 3 10 10 Cardiff City ........................ 12 ..... 7 3 1 3 13 12 1 10 11 Millwall .............................. 13 ..... 7 3 1 3 7 8 -1 10 12 Blackburn Rovers .............. 19 ..... 7 3 1 3 9 12 -3 10 13 Southampton ..................... 4 ..... 7 3 1 3 11 17 -6 10 14 Watford ................................... 15 ..... 7 2 3 2 11 7 4 9 15 West Bromwich Albion ...... 5 ..... 7 2 3 2 12 11 1 9 16 Huddersfield Town ..............23 ..... 7 2 2 3 8 12 -4 8 17 Coventry City ...................... 9 ..... 7 1 4 2 11 10 1 7 18 Plymouth Argyle ...................21 ..... 7 2 1 4 10 11 -1 7 19 Stoke City ............................. 17 ..... 7 2 1 4 7 9 -2 7 20 Queens Park Rangers ......... 18 ..... 7 2 1 4 7 12 -5 7 21 Rotherham United ............. 24 ..... 7 1 1 5 7 16 -9 4 22 Swansea City ...................... 14 ..... 7 0 3 4 7 12 -5 3 23 Sheffield Wednesday ........... 20 ..... 7 0 2 5 5 11 -6 2 24 Middlesbrough .....................8 ..... 7 0 2 5 5 14 -9 2
you can see from the above table that there is [ always ] a number of teams that start well [ for them ] and either finish within 5 places of their start of season, or as indicated more than 6 places higher or lower. FACTORS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT ARE. ... Some high flyers [ above early position ] are there because they played teams of same "stature" or teams that will soon get act together and were not so easy pickings after first few games! EG PNE had 19 points [ 2.7 ppg ] from first 7 games but in 39 games afterwards only picked up 44 points [ 1.12 pts per game ] Middsbro ... in 7 were .28 and in next 39 were 1.72 Hull in 6th after 7 games finished 7th averaged in last 39 1.49 [ first 7 ... 1 .71 ] SO ARE WE a little red or a big Blue or just destined to floating around in black abovr relegation zone!
No coincidence we have come unstuck since Dickie was injured, I believe we had 52% passion in first half against Blackburn, mostly around our back 4 and midfield, we seem incapable of going forward with any intent - Confidence Issue?
I lost count of the times we had possession for up to 10-12 passes and ended up back where we started, or we’d pass it around for ages with no penetration for only for them to nick it, then within 2/3 passes be in on our goal. We over complicate things, or especially first half, pass it out from the back and then just whoof it long ball trying to find Mayulu, he may be tall, but he likes the ball to his feet. We can turn it around, but LM needs to adjust to fit the skill set of the players we have. That’s what was so disappointing with yesterday, after the Derby debacle and the international break to reassess, I was hoping he’d have realised this and set up accordingly. However he didn’t. Why chase his choice number ten to then play him wide left. Bird isn’t by nature a number ten, although he’ll do a job there. Put Bird deeper, Twine 10 and use a natural wide player wide. It’s so obvious, everyone else can see it why can’t Manning?
I think that’s why LM persists in playing Mehmeti. Anis runs at defenders (with limited success). I don’t know - I’m just trying to work out what Manning is trying to do.
