This has been us for about three years now. Doesn't even seem to matter how many new expensive attackers we sign.
On Monday I watched the 1904 podcast and Prutton was saying what then difference was between good teams and poor teams is a simple case of consistency. That being each player not scoring 8 one game and 4 the next, rather scoring 7.5, 8, 8.5 consistently. He went on to say that’s Hull City’s problem with unfortunately some players having no consistency at all. If you watched it you would know who the conversation started around. That’s why we are where we are. No leader, zero consistency. ‘Some’ of these players need to take a long hard look at themselves and know they are stealing a living. Today, when Mattazo went off, the whole demeanour of the team changed, it was a bit like them looking at each other and saying ‘what do we do now’ such has been the impression and difference Mattazo had made in 4 games. Puerta tried hard to drive them forward, but in truth clueless is being kind to them. Which brings us on to the manager. He is not the messiah and despite having some bad luck with injuries, he and his staff are just as inconsistent and culpable as the players. Let’s just be factual here, in 15 games, he has twice managed to put one draw and one win together (I haven’t counted in a draw against a League 2 team in the FA Cup). In a 5 or 6 game spell Rowett almost guaranteed Oxford survival with a squad probably worth a third of ours. Jury is out on whether TW was the issue or if he spoke truths about the quality and mentality of the players. We have just ‘again’ offered a gift to those below us. A win against a crap Stoke and tonight against a mediocre Cardiff might just have given us breathing room. If I was the Plymouth managerial team (a team with 2 wins, 3 draws and one defeat in their last 6 , not counting beating Liverpool incidentally ) I would know that barring a miracle I was going to get beaten on Saturday and I’d be resting my players for Tuesday. Had we won tonight they may have planned differently with 3 winnable games to follow against Massive, Derby and Portsmouth.
The teams around us might seem to have more fight than us, but in reality they don’t – which is why they’re all down at the bottom of the table threatened with relegation. I’d wager that if you spoke to their fans they’d have most of the same complaints we do. I said this on the Sunderland thread, but every team from 18th down will likely only pick up between 9 and 13 points before the end of the season, us included. Some of the teams around us will probably turn up and beat us, and for others we’ll wonder why we ever worried. That’s the nature of inconsistency. I can’t see us beating all three of Plymouth, Derby, and Luton because our home, and season-long, form suggests otherwise. Hopefully we continue to pick up a few results on the road.
The teams around us, mostly are doing even worse than we are. Despite Cardiff winning tonight - no one in the bottom 6 are putting together any decent run to get themselves clear.
For all his faults, and he had a few, Tim Walter was actually right about the players lacking bravery on the ball, the mentality and the home atmosphere being ****e. He also comfortably beat both this Cardiff team and Stoke. I prefer Sellés but the inconsistency in mentality from game to game is astonishing. You’d think they’d play more for a new coach after they threw the previous guy they couldn’t stand under the bus but the form and performance levels are bipolar. They beat Sheffield United and Sunderland and think ‘yeah, we’re **** hot, no way we’ll go down, we’re too good to be relegated’ and then they go a goal down against relegation rivals, cack their pants and then look at each other waiting for someone else to take responsibility. Woeful mentality. Reminds me of a **** school when Ofsted are in. Everyone briefly puts on a performance for the inspectors then it’s back to a disorganised mess on Monday morning.
I’ve just now realised that Sellés has lost all the reverse fixtures of Tim Walter’s only three wins as Hull City coach.
We’re never going to beat all four of them. Everything we’ve achieved so far this season, home and away, suggests otherwise. However, they’ll also drop points to teams they’ll expect to beat because they’re all as inconsistent as we are. We still have better form than the teams around us, and if we continue picking up points like we are we should be okay, even if we lose to the odd team around us.
After I started watching Championship games closely in last 2-3 years, I noticed a lot of goals happen with deflected shots, chaotic positions etc instead of organized attacks or clean finishes around box. I first noticed it when Oscar scored bunch of goals when he arrived, half of them were like deflections, mistakes by keeper or defender, I thought its something unique for Oscar thanks to his combativity. But after our last 2 games and watching other games, feels like goalkeepers or defensive players in this league are quite dodgy or may be both, so trying to shoot as much as possible is a good option to increase numbers, no need to build up until goal area or look for best shot available, just test the keepers more. I don't know if anyone have stats about it or any comparisons, feel free to share if you have an input, just an observation on my side.
We're a bit better now than under Walter, but we've also improved the team somewhat too. In terms of 'winning' performances the difference isn't too vast between the two managers - which as you point out means the problem likely lies elsewhere. Your post sounds harsh, but to be perfectly honest I can't argue with it. There's clearly a mentality issue. There's clearly a quality issue. The two go hand in hand.
He's also flipped the results of some of Walter's most controversial losses - Sheff Utd and Sunderland - where we conceded from our own corners.
Doesn't sound good on Barry with City and Villa to make an announcement supposedly, although Selles saying 'hopefully not' season over, so doesn't suggest ACL.
Yes and I think if you check the stats from all of Sellés’ wins (or draws against superior opponents like Leeds and Norwich), I wouldn’t be surprised if we had significantly less possession than the other team in all of them. He’s done a good job setting us up to hit teams on the counter and nick crucial goals but against teams that sit deep and let us have the ball for large periods, we struggle. This was the case under Walter and also under Rosenior. We are actually crap at breaking down teams when they allow us to have 60%+ possession, especially if the other team scores first. In these sorts of games, you really see the limitations of Jones and Coyle in possession. They don’t move the ball quick enough, they don’t see passes ahead of them and they’re not progressive.
Let's see if Oxford have almost guaranteed survival. They had a new manager bounce but have reverted to type.
Not for me. If anything, the constant transfers and squad churn this season is the biggest reason we're in this mess. Pandur is probably the least of our problems. I'll go so far as to say if we can stay up this season and keep most of this squad together next season, with only a small number of key signings and outgoings, we'll have a completely different experience next time around. Whenever we get near their box when we're trying to break a team down, you can see everyone just does their own thing and nobody knows each other well enough to know what their teammates next moves are going to be. That's why we always turn the ball over, or make a pass to nobody, or cross to nobody, or don't pick runs out etc. If we could stay up and keep this team together into the summer, assuming the loans turn into permanents I'd want nothing more coming in than a LB, a RB that can progress the ball, a backup goalkeeper that could maybe challenge for #1 and a striker. We've done way too much business this season and compared to other teams in this division, our players are essentially strangers to each other, certainly the further up the field you go.
