Oh no, someone has disagreed with me, it must be time to throw my toys out the park and insult them. Errrr, no, I’m not going to do that, this is a fans forum and I think (hope) we all wants what’s best for itfc. We are going to have differences of opinion but we should all be able to realise that there are always 2 sides to any argument. The world would be a boring place if everyone agreed with each other all the time
This is quite true Royston, unless it was me they agreed with and then it would be rather interesting. On the other hand, if it was everyone else they agreed with my God that would be hell.
In my world though Ipswich are top of the Championship and Jackson is the top scorer in the league! Thank you EA sports
That's the story of the past few games. **** in the first half, slightly better than **** in the second.
Nolan was appalling. Offered absolutely nothing positive for us all evening sadly and was a passenger. Hopefully dropped for Swansea
Oh dear what a tale of woe. Missed the whole match so I can only summis as follows: Bart must come back to give confidence & distribution Nolan, out Graham out Edwards Jackson, Dozzel stay in Chambo out sadly...time to bring in fresh blood Knudson not sure, does offer something at times. Thing is who to bring in on Saturday. Oh, and yes lets see an out and out attacking formation and give target man up front, not the tallest, AN Other alongside. Unless Hurst can bring back some degree of confidence, trust with this team which is largely his making, I fear he wont last beyond Xmas. To be fair, to inherit very little, your best forwards sold off, no real serious funds and to come thru the PR gates so late before season starts...were all going to make things exceedingly tough for him. I feel sorry for him, and actually like the guy. And would be the first arms around his shoulders buying him a pint of Adnams in his local!
I like the guy too gaffer, but he has had 11 games since the Blackburn match to try something different in the forward areas and he hasn't, so why do we think he might now? It was his decision to let Woolfenden and Morris to go out on loan, who were both excellent in the opening game, making the situation far worse than it needed to be.
The whole club is in decline, both on and off the pitch and has been for years now. I have little enthusiasm left for the season and going forwards. The fact we are in October and we have a manager with a 0% win record is embarrassing. Hurst sounded like a good idea on paper - proven success in lower leagues, young and ambitious manager, better style of football, got teams punching above their weight, and could identify stand-out lower league talent that we were all wanted. In practice, he has largely ignored our promising youth players, brought in players from lower leagues that mostly look out of depth, has reverted to the long-ball, rubbish football we played last season but minus the results, alienated players and appears to have drained confidence. And apparently he has done all this, and fostered a negative atmosphere around the club, without Evans intervening. As I posted elsewhere, Evans is somebody who I blame the most. but I've got to hold my hands up and admit I was wrong about Paul Hurst and fair enough to those of you on here who could recognise all these red flags and warning signs sooner.
That second half performance didn't look to me like a group of players who had been alienated and neither do I really see a negative atmosphere (apart from disappointment last night / today). I take Evans' non-intervention as a sign that sacking Hurst is an option in his thoughts rather than being asleep at the wheel. At this point, I am pretty happy for him to go or for him to stay and see if there is a reaction from him and a change of style over the next couple of fixtures.
When has Nolan been our best player so far? Mind you amongst this lot it's not difficult to achieve, the season is a quarter over and we can't beat a top side, a mid table side, or a bottom Club, in fact we can't beat anyone, time is up for those waiting for us to gel whatever the Hell that means and time to face up to facts, we are just not good enough because the players are not good enough, tba manager makes puzzling line up decisions because he doesn't know what else to do. The prospect of relegation and financial disaster looms larger with every game which is very worrying, yorkie says he's not overly concerned about relegation so I suggest he checks with BetFred and then give an opinion, I don't know whether our Club could even survive as an entity in the 3rd division. Hurst is clearly in over his head and is responsible for our predicament, get rid Evans and then sell up, show some respect to our Club and supporters.
fieldmarshall, as everyone knows the club has been in decline since Evans came in. I would rather be relegated and have a revolution than keep scraping Championship survival with the narrative that we don't have money so that's the best we can hope for. It has not been terminal for anyone else so it's very unlikely to be for us. But trust me I would much prefer a revolution without the relegation. I don't blame Hurst for the playing staff, I think he did a good job in personnel in the summer and the shortcomings in the squad were never going to be solved in one window. I do blame him for the puzzling line up decisions and this is why I am losing confidence in him.
We had one shot on target for the entire match. We created very little in the way of clear-cut chances against a Middlesbrough team that was coasting, content that their two goal lead was not getting overturned. We look completely incapable of winning matches. We are currently two points off safety in what is looking to be one of the most average Championships in recent season. There are an abundance of negative stories leaking from the club in recent weeks and it's worth acknowledging there must be some truth in the stories. Negative atmosphere - next time you go to a game, look around you. If someone is nearby, talk to them. Look on social media and forums. People have lost hope. The talk around playing a more entertaining, pressing style of football has been reversed completely and we're now playing long-ball, boring football but minus the results. I honestly can't see how Hurst will remain in the job any longer. At the least, he clearly needs an experienced assistant manager / director of football to help implement some kind of plan and guidance, because this management set-up clearly needs it. Baffling selection decision almost every week now. Is it pride that is preventing him from playing the youth players? I've been patient and understanding with Hurst, and I completely understand the wider issues within the club, but that does not excuse his mismanagement and mistakes. And it does not excuse our inability to win a game of football.
Hi nuggets, there were a hatful of times that we put a good ball in, no-one was on the end of most of them but it was a big improvement on what we have been watching and my point was more about application than end product. When players don't want to play they stop running and the heads drop. I haven't seen anything like that. Post links to some of these 'rumours' or 'stories' if you would, I have not seen them. However, if they are players complaining about training or tactics that is really a legacy of Mick's unprofessional approach and to be honest I wouldn't have much sympathy for it, more so prefer those players not to be at the club. If they are about Hurst screaming and shouting and throwing things, I wouldn't blame him. So I am intrigued to see what the rumours are.
Classic away performance.. And one you'd expect from a seasoned campaigner like Pulis, who is famed for his 'Game Management' Firstly. I think we'd have lost that game whoever was in charge, particularly when we make silly errors like we have done (which have been happening for a few years now, so nothing particularly new or surprising) Our biggest issue this season is that we play well in 15 minute bursts, which we seem unable to score from.. Add in the muddled and error prone passages of play that make up the rest of the match.. where we (almost always) gift the opposition a goal. Being terrible in both boxes will get you relegated.
So we put in a few balls that could have and should have been attacked, but were not? We were disjointed and there is a sustained record of us failing to score goals and win games. Eight goals in eleven games, it's shocking. Either Hurst needs to change his approach and training attacking moves or Jackson, Nolan, Graham, Ward, Edwards, Sears, and Harrison are not Championship quality or are not consistent enough. I suspect, like you probably do too, that it's the latter, with the exception of Edwards. What concerns me is that Hurst is responsible for bringing all but two of those players into the club. We've got some good characters in the squad who huff and puff and mean well, but we've always been a team that chases lost causes and try to cause a nuisance. Unfortunately, these lost causes are becoming more common and we barely caused a nuisance to a coasting Middlesbrough side who restricted us to one shot on target. They have a knack of doing that, but it's becoming quite frequent. Only two weeks ago, a ten-man Bolton team, who avoided relegation on the last day of the previous season, were comfortably keeping us at bay. This is quite an interesting conversation and mentions several of the rumours - . See also the leaked team sheet before the Brentford match.
