Bristol City....

Paul Lambert, rightly or wrongly, has insisted on a consistent starting line-up and style of football over his four games, in the hope that familiarity will breed results. I think he is now in a position where he can determine what has worked and what has not, and should now be willing to drop a few players. If he had the quality, I imagine he'd like to make wholesale changes, but he doesn't have that. If I was in his shoes, I'd drop Bart (whose confidence has taken a sledgehammer this season), Spence (so poor), Chambers (cannot play from the work, is not vocal enough) Chalobah (makes far too many mistakes and too defensive), and Roberts (poor player, not a stiker) and replace them with Gerken, Donacien, Nsiala, Dozzell, and Lankester.

Morale was certainly low. I believe the players are happier, more or less, with the new man in charge. It's far from a happy club though, these players are playing with nerves, which is possibly natural considering they've only won once all season. We hoped that the Swansea win would be a catalyst for change and further victories, but that didn't prove to be the case. We've got two tough away games coming up (Forest and Stoke) and I think we're going to struggle to close the points difference.

 

The Swansea win wasn’t a catalyst because Evans decided to make a change after that game and for the last two matches against very good opposition Hurst was a dead man walking for heaven’s sake!

Dozzell was just coming back in but now he’s nowhere near the squad. Lambert has said Donacien is not a right back. I don’t agree that Bart should be dropped in favour of the worse shot stopper and equally error prone Gerken.

Never mind closing the points difference our form since that decision is much, much worse. That is the only basic, demonstrable fact that matters nuggets.

 

As if our situation and the matches weren’t bad enough I now have to bear the tedium of listening to Lambert make excuses for his ineptitude for whoever knows how long. We effectively have a zombie manager.

 

One win and 6 draws in 13 matches (9 points from 12 league matches) is poor but are we really happy that we have followed that with 2 draws and 2 points from 7 matches (probably 2 points from 9 matches after Stoke and Forest).

In that time we’ve also gone from second bottom and level on points with 21st to rock bottom and adrift by six points.

Superb logic nuggets. Really superb.

 

Lambert's task coming in was taking control of a failing club, replacing a failed manager, and motivating a downtrodden squad (one which he couldn't make any additions to), in the hope that they turn around terrible form. When Lambert joined, we were bottom of the table.

Compare that to Paul Hurst, who had an entire pre-season to train, develop, and analyse the squad. Hurst had an entire transfer window, and a decent transfer budget, to bring in his own signings. He had the goodwill and positive atmosphere around Portman Road, and the fans had low expectations, happy to witness a lower mid-table finish if it meant tangible signs of progress. Our pre-season predictions ranged from across the middle of the board, but none of us predicted relegation.

That's taking a logical look at our situation with some basic analysis. You should try it sometimes.

 

Agreed, but I don't think he'll make too many changes (and I don't believe he should)

I'd stick with Bart (for now at least) as he's still the better of the 2 keepers and had begun to look a bit more like his old self in the last couple of weeks. I would however get Spence out of the team (for his sake as much as anything) and replace him with Donacien. Lambert may see him as a centre back, but he would hopefully add a bit more steel and defensive capability to the back 4 as first and foremost we need to stop conceding. Not too sure what to make of Chambers or Pennington as I don't think Nsiala or Donacien at CB would be much better.. And i don;t buy into the "anyone would be better" argument as that approach has not worked for us this season.

Midfield is an area where we are well stocked in terms of numbers, though perhaps not in quality. and agree that we need to shift the balance slightly. Chalobah or Downes should be replaced by someone like Dozzell, Nolan, Bishop or Ward just to get a little more dynamism in there as it's a bit too pedestrian and predictable.

Hopefully Harrison will get a run out soon as Roberts is trying hard, but playing in a new position in a tougher league that he's never played in and is never going to be the answer. Personally i'd like to see Folami given a run late on off the bench as I think he looks like he'd suit this system well as he has far more technical ability than Jackson (currently)

 

Forgive me, I thought Paul Lambert was brought in to keep us up.

 

I do wonder if it's worth abandoning wingers and adopting a diamond-style formation in midfield in an attempt to try and get our more creative players on the pitch? Edwards has blown more cold than hot over recent weeks, and could arguably do with a rest. I don't think we have anyone in left midfield that can actually contribute anything, so nothing missed out there. Skuse as the holding midfielder, Dozzell and Nolan as the more central midfielders, and Teddy Bishop as the attacking midfield. Would that make us a more creative side? I know Nolan has few fans on here, but I would like to see him given another opportunity to prove himself at this level, and hopefully in a clearer, more attacking system that we have under Lambert, Nolan would flourish more. Playing a diamond would mean two players up top, I'd go for Sears and Jackson to start against Forest, but I think Folami is a good prospect and will hopefully be provided with some minutes.

 

The last thing we should do when our full backs are so exposed already is switch to a narrow formation.

 

Yes, but he isn't going to achieve that after four games. It's too early to determine if he has failed on that front. You and I believe that we are going to be relegated, but at this stage of the season, Lambert bears little responsibility for that.

 

I sat down and thought, as a new manager coming into a poor side, what would i do to change it? How can we work to our strengths?
I sat there for a good 5 minutes, and could not come up with any strengths we have. Poor in defence, our full backs don't attack, and can't stop crosses coming in. Our centre mid are powder puff, they don't attack and create, and they don't stop the opposition from driving forward.
Our wide men don't beat men, can't cross (when they do) and don't create chances for our forwards.
Our forwards can't hit a barn door with a banjo (although sears has scored a few of late).
So what ARE our strengths? How can Lambert utilise the good in our team?
Other than dropping 4 or 5 from the team and replacing them with kids, i'm baffled. PL has tried to keep continuity in the hope it clicks....but unfortunately its not. ANOTHER change is needed, and that includes both personnel and formation.
I agree, that if all fit, at least two of Nolan, Dozzell, Bishop and Harrison need to start, as well as Nsiala ad Donacien.
Maybe drop Spence and put Chambers at RB, with Donacien/Nsiala in with Pennington?

I would also like to see a midfield four of Dozzell, Bishop, Nolan and Chalobah...Chalobah doing the Makalele role in sitting in front of the back four and staying put, Bishop being the more attacking of the three in a triangle formation.

I know it sounds rather leftfield, but we need a different approach, otherwise we'll end up with the worst points record ever at this rate.

 

The last thing we should be doing is persisting with a formation that has not been bringing us enough points.

 

So in almost the same breath nuggets, you criticise Hurst for trying different things and praise Lambert for keeping it the same and then come out with this statement?

I think exposing the full backs by playing without wide men would be a disaster.

It's not the formation that has lost us points under Lambert, it's the defensive drilling and concentration, or lack thereof.

 

There's a clear difference between trying a formation and near enough the same starting line-up for four consecutive games, which is what Lambert has done, compared to Hurst who more or less chopped and changed the starting eleven and formation every match. You can change too much, too often in football just as you can persist with something that isn't working as well.

Lambert has come in and given a formation and players a sustained chance over the last few weeks, I hope he can now use his experience to determine what has gone wrong with the formation, playing style, and players, and now make the right chances accordingly.

 

First of all, there was never going to be time for him to do this. Even if he does now, it's too little, too late. Secondly he is not even capable based on his track record at other clubs.

 

We are six points adrift off safety, but we have 27 games left in the season. The mathematical fact is that it's not too late and that we are not relegated, as downbeat as I, and some others on here are feeling about our chances. Lambert has several matches before he can even think of adding to this squad, and I hope that he can at least identify that we are struggling defensively, our full-backs cannot attack or defend crosses, and that we have arguably only a few youngsters that can actually play football with the ball to feet. I know we touched upon formations earlier, but if Lambert can find a formation that can accommodate Dozzell, Lankester, Downes, and Bishop, and use the rest of the team to defend and allow those players to play and create, we might be capable of getting ourselves out of this situation.

 

When people talk about mathematics in terms of football tables what they usually mean is that there are enough points for something to happen given something that is statistically very unlikely. A few weeks ago, our chances of survival were around 25%. Without re-running analysis I would imagine that has now dropped to around 10%.

We have played 19 games and got 11 points. 27 games to play and we need around 40 more points. With what's left to play we are talking about immediately becoming one of the best sides in the Championship and hitting form equivalent to 8th position in order to stay up.

It just ain't gonna happen.

 

I think we all know that we are in this situation because the players we have are just not good enough in the main, there are exceptions of course with Skues, Sears, and Pennington putting in some decent performances, as for the rest its hard to there credit any of them with consistenty reliable form with Bart being the most mystifying, if everything else was going wrong we could rely on Bart to keep us in the game but now he looks a player whose confidence is shot to bits.
I dont know if theres any manager that can turn this situation around now that years of neglect have finally caught up with us, and while most of us hope we can reinforce in January theres no guaruntee that Evans wont sell the likes of Sears in the window, there must be Clubs who are noticing that hes doing well in a failing side and might want away. Thanks for this shambles Evans your conduct regarding ITFC over the last decade has been disgraceful and any decent person would be too shame faced to stay.

 

Too right fieldmarshall, our Championship status has gone and I'm now concerned where we go from that.

 

Don't get me wrong, Hampy, I've said for weeks that I think we're as good as down. I think anyone looking at the level of quality in this squad can safely predict we will struggle, and indeed a lot of media commentators and neutrals predicted we'd be in for a season of struggle and potential relegation. However, while we still have a chance of staying up and our relegation is not confirmed, which it is not, then these players and the club staff are duty-bound to ensure they keep fighting and attempting to get points on the board.