Some on here have implied I've been over-critical of our home performances recently even when we've managed to win under Slade, so in order to redress things a bit, I wrote this last week after the Watford game....... "Looks like consistency will get its' rewards come May and even if a bit difficult to watch on times" Difficult to watch FFS! That was utter garbage yesterday - a shameful performance from the team and manager. I've just calmed down a bit this morning - but not a lot. Slade's "consistency" seems to mean average performances at best because I've not watched a decent half hour of football from City since he's been here. I've taken the 4 home wins against Forest, Ipswich, Leeds and Reading at face value - 3 points for each and thank you very much, but in all honesty we've been distinctly average - until yesterday when it sunk even below that. Consistency has come to mean consistently poor on the footballing front. Other than pleading for "togetherness" in the camp and alienating some of those players that don't fit his "Championship player profile", the guy seems to have no idea how to motivate and change things around when it isn't working. If he takes this same formula to Bournemouth next week, we'll get a thrashing.
Don't fret Spark. I'm sure well stay up at the end of the season, but imagine how good we'd be in League 1 with Slade's experience. I think there is a wake up call and a right royal hammering on the horizon the way some teams are peppering the onion bag.
Bob -I've edited the "joke" word out of the title because it's far from that. 4-4-2 wasn't working so Slade changed it to a 4-4-2. At least that's consistent.
just waiting for mason to come back and for slade to get his own players in then i'll lambast him for bad performances
He's got enough players under his belt without Mason to do that now. A wishlist of additional players in the New Year can't disguise the defects in playing a system that doesn't work. Even when it wasn't working yesterday, he brought on Macheda to replace Jones and stuck to the same system. The game was crying out for some control in midfield. Ravel's introduction with 6 minutes to go was far too late - he should have come on for Kenwyne and changed the system to combat Rotherham's obvious superiority in the middle of the park. I'm all for having the courage of your convictions but Slade is pushing his down our throats.
I turned to my Mrs after 5 minutes and said if he sticks with 4-4-2 against this we'll have a f**ing long afternoon here. 4-2-3-1 was almost invented to combat 4-4-2. It plays in all the spaces 4-4-2 leaves whilst giving the side cover defensively with the 2 holding mids. It needs a hardworking effective lone front man (which Revel is). Their 2 holding mids ran the game v a horribly ineffective whits and gunnar. The 3 then joined onto Revels hold up play and picked the ball in the space behind our central midfield 2. The only way 4-4-2 can succeed against that is if you overwhelm them out wide down both sides of the pitch and turn them into a much more defensive 4-5-1. We would have needed Fabio to try to make that work. I will add I'm sure the game would have played out to the same pattern but they probably would have scored if we'd had Fabio in defence all game. I haven't got over Saturday because it has cast a huge shadow over Slade's tactical ability. I'm just some mug who spends his hard earned watching the professionals but it was screaming clear from the first 5 minutes whits and gunnar had absolutely no chance in the formation we set out in. A little bit of better pass selection or finishing from Rotherham and we would have had the defeat we totally deserved. What chance of us progressing as a club when our manager seems to believe tactically we're still in the 1980's?!?
So right Steve. Is Slade DJ in disguise but with players of lesser ability? At least when we had Chopra, Bothroyd and Burkie playing together we looked good going forward.
Don't want to get on the Whitts bandwagon again but the concern expressed on here a few weeks back that Whitts had lost it in this setup has been silenced for a while by a couple of goals against Forest and Ipswich and some scrappy wins overall. The problem is still there and it's not all his fault. I've looked at some of the archive footage of him in the side 3 or 4 years ago and he is nowhere near the standard that he was back then. He was never that quick on his feet but his brain more than made up for it. Now he seems so indicisive that he's slowing down the whole process of getting the ball forward quickly. Once again I'll say it's not all his fault, but the "two in the middle" format of a 4-4-2 system does not suit him now - he's not a "dynamic" player and he's being pushed off his game. Stick another man in there to take some of the pressure that the likes of Rotherham put on us and he'd be a different player. That would of course mean a system change which up till now appears to be beyond Slade. He needs to have a bit of vision and revisit this vital combination of system and players because the current set up isn't working.
Whitts was at his most effective for us playing left midfield (after Ledley left). Not as congested as the central area, he had more time and space to pick his pass and get forward to score (accepting in his best season around 10 of the goals were pens). We don't get the ball in the box often enough now to even have a shout at penalties. However, I'm not sure Gunnar and Adeyemi would work well in the centre as neither has the greatest of touches and passes. Also, could Whitts do the covering for the full back that the modern game needs?
Whatever happens, if we drop Whitts then we really are up the proverbial without a paddle. Only player in the team who can score from outside the box and given a free reign can create havoc with his passing. I am putting it down to a bad day at the office. KTF
Isaw - dropping Whitts is a real option, but not the only one. Playing as he is now and in the system that Slade is using, he's not influential. Scoring goals from outside the box now and again isn't much cop when you compare it to his current lack of midfield influence. Creating havoc with his passing must be something in your memory.
At my age memory is a thing of the past. Creatively we appear to be a one trick pony where the race course have called for the vet with the bolt gun. For 10 years we've been on a roller coaster but now the wheels have fallen off. How many metaphors can I mix but more Importantly how did we sink so low?
Sparkey, still see him as one of the most naturally gifted players at the club, we need something in the midfield to complement him, which is so obvious at the moment, this reflects in the possession stats this season, have we had a game where we had more possession than the opposition yet ? once we get that right we will be ok, there are not enough chances being made, and the few that are, are being blown by the strikers, aka ALF at Millwall, Macheda at Brum. The 3 really bad games this season were, Boro, Rotherham and Blackpool. 1 point out of 9 from them is not good enough and the management will know this. If we can get to the window in January in or around the top 6 then we will have to see what Slade brings in and how it works. But i suspect he will have to off load a bucket full before the owner lets any new blood in. Well thats the stance i would take.
Isaw - there's no doubt that Whitts is a talented footballer and capable of winning games with a shot or a defence-splitting pass to put someone else in. The problem is that on the current showings, we're hoping he'll do it rather than him actually doing it. We need him to run the show in midfield, not get swallowed up in battle where he can't display his undoubted skills. I'm not suggesting he should be dropped because he's no good - in fact I think that should be a last option. It's more that he not being provided with the platform to show just how good he is. It's as much a system failing as the player himself. Dropping him would be the easy option for Slade to defend his beloved 4-4-2. Slade needs to free up Whitts to play his own game. That means help in controlling midfield, and that will only be achieved with the players currently at the club if we play a 5th man in there and just one up front. The other thing he could do is sacrifice a wide man and play narrower. It's obvious we're not getting enough possession in our games, and without the ball you're always on the back foot - that's not Whitts' game, he needs space and time.
It is patent how much someone like Jordan Mutch is missed. He has not been replaced, maybe Adeyami was supposed to be him or R Morrison, but we have not seen anyone in central midfield picking the ball up and running forward and passing into space for the forwards to receive the ball with them facing the goal or just ploughing on his own and shooting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC1sCKqpyN0 Look at his involvement in the goal v Man Utd last season Plus his goal v Sunderland When has anyone this season remotely replicated or even attempted to replicate his style of play? Time after time we see Le Fondre receiving the ball, either hoofed up from the back, or from Whittingham or a full back, facing his own defence. All that does is allow the opposition to block him off and deny him space. IMO until we see a central midfielder with some pace, and drive and power then we are not going to see much improvement. I am staggered that R Morrison has not been given much game time. It does not help that City have someone as technically incompetent as Scott Young as the assistant manager.
The Scott Young situation is laughable. Why doesn't he piss off out of the technical area and take a back seat rather than shouting the odds. To all intents and purposes we seem to have two managers calling the shots from the TA - one a 4-4-2 dinosaur, and the other doing a caveman act in support. This is rapidly becoming a comedy double act to rival Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. All we need now is for Tan to show up and we'd have the Krankies as well...........
I was sure that was going to end with Russell Slade. I've lost count of the amount of posts I've made about how Whits doesn't work as 1 of a pair in centre mid but where else do you play him when 4-4-2 is the only formation?!?
does he get a game for QPR anymore maybe a january transfer wouldn't be the worst option for him if he doesn't
He's been out injured a lot this season. No change there then!!!! Despite that I would like to see him doing what he does best for us.
I don't think Slade will want him to play against B'mouth away so surely Ravel Morrison must be given a chance in the home game v Brentford to try to bring some pace and drive from central midfield. I suspect Brentford won't play 5 in midfield and come for a point and so unless City want to allow them to run midfield like virtually every other team City have faced this season, stubborn one eyed Slade the dinosaur has to bring someone else into midfield instead of Whitt'm. Even if it isn't Morrison, then Ralls or Adeyami or even go 4-5-1. I think it will be his last home game before he is sent back to West Ham. Anyone agree?
