The worst run since Mad Dog left...three consecutive home defeats. I'm not advocating any head rolling...but there has to be a very serious reason behind this type of catastrophic collapse. If the team weren't low in confidence before, they will be now. How on earth will JE raise the team to face Burton and Millwall who were around 18th in the table when we stuffed them 3-0 on their own ground at Christmas. I've never known any team cave in like this. No point saying 'there's always next season' as the heart of the team will be gone. It's a re build job.......obviously the foundations just were not there this season. Seemed to go wrong from the moment JE came out and said we were overachieving. Devastated........anyone any ideas?
I've already done this once three months ago but for those that missed that thread; I think Gill's sometimes are just jinxed by fate to never achieve. You only have to look back on the last two seasons where the points tally we have now would have been enough to see us in the play-offs. Yet overall we did mess it up big style, if JE had done his own statistics, we are in a strategy game, he would have known that to achieve play-offs in any average season you need 74 points, albeit a laughable faintest glimmer of hope that is still possible. I said at the time and it is more relevant now, TRANMERE ROVERS....now looking back on what I said at the time, it appears since 2000 they are now not the only team that were to go into complete freefall, Gills can also join that glorious accolade...http://www.not606.com/threads/just-over-the-half-way-mark.319856/ So besides all that where has it all gone wrong, personally I think JE changed the way we played, you cannot help injuries I accept, but when you have chance of reverting back to what you did have and fail to do so you have to ask questions. Now I don't want to blame a certain person, you will realise who I mean in a moment, my favourite friend - At Rochdale it was not pretty many supporters may agree, but we gained a point by roughly following a front line I'd advocate. But yesterday we changed it again, ok the messiah scored a goal but the fact remains we lost again, we gained ZERO points! So it don't matter how good the goal was it means NOTHING, we have dropped to 7th is that the first time this season? It was MadDogs downfall, it was PT's downfall, stop reverting to what you once had and do what we did at the beginning of the season. JE's done a good job, forget we might not make it, but Mr Edinburgh if I can give one piece of advice it is play the pretty football, I say it time and time again, if a goalie hoofs the ball chop his ruddy legs off. If someone's gets in Dack's space take him out the side. You need ONE up front and Dack behind. Stick someone like Jackson or McGlashan down the wing but the most important aspect of all I will leave to Brian Clough at 1 minute 10 seconds in...
Looking back on the game. I must stress that Gills did not deserve to lose but they did. Again i feel the ref had an awful game and how there number 4 stayed on the pitch was a joke. He was booked in the first half but must of given away 4 more fouls with the ref warning him but still no second yellow. This was our big chance this season to make the play offs which looks like we have blown. Big changes in the team next season with Dack and Egan sure to go. Nelson Loft Cody Mcglastion and Wright all out of contract and think they will be gone aswell. Morris could aswell. So basically a whole new midfield and need 2 strikers and another centre half. If they dont start well think we will struggling to stay in league 1.
Good post brb, not sure I agree with the Cody bashing because I think your looking at the wrong end of the pitch. below are 2 tables showing the teams in the top 10 positions and where they would be if taking just the defence or just the Attack. Attack. Wigan..............77 Gillingham.......69 Millwall............68 Barnsley..........64 Rochdale.........64 Sheff/Untd.......63 Walsall.............61 Scunthorpe......57 Burton..............55 Bradford...........52 Defence. Burton..............36 Bradford...........40 Wigan...............41 Walsall..............47 Scunthorpe.......47 Millwall..............48 Barnsley............51 Gillingham.........52 Sheff/Untd.........54 Rochdale...........58
Pointless grumpy . We WERE top scorers for a long time with Dack scoring 15 but he has not scored for ages. We have never been great at the back. Home form has deserted us. 3 loses on the bounce. If we had won one of those we would be in a much stronger postion. Brb Cody played well on sat and was unlucky not to score more than one goal.
Pointless why? We managed 6 games undefeated, then Jed changes the defence and we lose 3 home games on the trot. Football isn't only about scoring goals.
grumpygit & gioblues, on the point of Cody, I fully accept what you are both saying but just from my own personal perspective I'm more reflecting on the possibilities of the team as a whole - we started our season endeavours without Cody and I was an advocate of that, but once again we rely on a player that will be out of contract next season. Our building blocks are going to be torn apart during pre-season and once again we go full circle. Cody can and is a match winner, but we need to stop trying to emulate the past, we had a new foundation to move forward and on the back of tactical changes, injuries, loans, we have pressed the self destruct button once again. Aside from above... our saving grace maybe Wigan's last home game versus Barnsley, but the negative to that is we need to beat Burton this coming weekend, which even if we achieve that, then a win away for Wigan at Blackpool the same weekend, will mean Wigan with a massive GD can just put their feet up for the title on the final day, which leaves the door a jar for the current 6th placed team. Assumption has to be, one win now for the Gills over two games is unlikely to be enough, we probably need four, unless Barnsley fail to win any of their remaining two. Thankfully the outside threat is in our favour with Sheff United v Scunthorpe on 8th May.
I except that against Walsall we fell apart once El Abd went off, however that isn't the whole story. We had been on a poor run so Jed started to play with 3 CB's, the plan obviously worked as we went 6 games undefeated whilst conceding only 1 goal. We had a blip against Walsall after El Abd went off and Jed over reacted and reverted to a flat back 4 with a CB playing LB, we lost. Against Rochdale he went back to the 3 CB's and we got a hard fought draw at a inform side, yet against Shrewsbury he tinkered again with a flat 4, this time using a CB in the right full back position. Had we continued with the defensive formation that has proved more robust (all be it less exciting) getting just 1 point from the 2 games (Vale and or Shrewsbury) we would still be in the playoff places.
WTF.....absolutely outrageous..........however after this season's success should easily get a league manager's job. Good luck for the future Ade.
alwaysbloodyright ! I can really hate myself sometimes. When I posted the above, we still had 7 league games to play. We were 'comfortably' ( 5 points ) ahead of the 7th placed club ( not including Scunthorpe --where did they come from ? --please don't tell me Lincolnshire ).--------- so you could be forgiven for thinking that my prediction was a little far fetched ( even if you couldn't have got odds of 5000 / 1 ). So what did we achieve in those 7 games. The answer ; beggar all ( I'll let you edit the vowel I used ). We managed to gain 2 points out of 21 and absolutely NO win ( not to mention 4 home league defeats on the trot ). Our record for those matches was Played ( I use the term loosely ) 7, Won ( I apologise for this waste of space ) Drawn 2 Lost FFFFFFIVE or should I say FFFFFFFar too many. Enjoy your summer everyone - more misery begins in early August.
Got to give it to you mate, you was right! Even I never foresee the free fall we went into, probably worst collapse for a team since Tranmere, something I highlighted many months back. Having said the above, I was consistent about one thing, on here and all social media, we played the wrong team, with the wrong tactics, and although I would steer away from saying I was right, proof in the pudding so to speak, I stand by every word I said, despite most people's opposite opinion of my views.
Always......I'm with you and held back until the end of the season. We finished 9th and only 2 wins in 3 YES THREE MONTHS. Absolute Cr*p and any other manager would be collecting his cards and taking the walk of shame. How does a team go from Hero to Zero like this? Only one person can answer and that is the manager.......so he should now answer.... Come on JE how did it all go so wrong.? And please don't give us the bull about punching above our weight....Burton, Barnsley, Scunthorpe et al from the dismal depths succeed where we have so abjectly failed. You owe us an explanation....... There are plenty of other managers out there....we found you and I'm sure we can (eventually) find one that delivers other than flatter to deceive.....
The mind boggles as to what has gone so (spectacularly) wrong? I will offer the following: Was JED just living off the momentum started by the gang of four at the end of last season / start of this season? Harsh perhaps, seeing as we were still picking up good results 10 months on from him taking over He has been shown up to be tactically short - I know people have pointed out Cody's return causing Dack's performances to suffer - I have noticed he has been playing very deep of late. Which leads me on to... We seem to be hopeless without Bradley Dack (or when he plays too deep) - very worrying for next season! Luck does also come into this. Early season - everything went our way; last 5-10 games - no luck whatsoever (e.g. for me we could have easily beaten Burton/Millwall on another day; missed pen v Walsall; Shrewsbury scoring 3 goals from 3 shots) Could there be a fitness issue? Late goals conceded. Players running out of steam late on in the season. What does everyone think?
The main difference is we were more accurate in front of goal higher percentage to shots taken. We had luck then key players missing at the wrong time luck ran out Confidence. Some wrong tacktics wrong subs players played out of postion. Basically without Dack playing well we could not create and score goals. So with him gone in the summer we will need somone else decent or we will be in the bottom fighting to stay up
