Usually have a soft spot for them since the memory of promotion there still makes me smile. Tarnished today!
In our great 1975-76 season, we had pretty much the same side every week. I've just looked it up and we used a total of 17 players in the whole season, 5 of whom managed just 20 appearances between them. Loading, my arse - just play your best 11.
On could say that then it was a different game. We have recent newer examples. Ok. We lost the game at the end. Very disappointing, but not a disaster. This season we need to push out of the bottom three to safety and build a team (platform) for next season. I personally think that we are going in the correct direction. There is no need to panic.
Not a good result and in my opinion, our weakest performance to date. For the second game in a row, I believe that our half time subs actually changed the game out of our favour. Having said this, it's still a million miles away from where we were under Ainsworth and I am confident we will survive comfortably. Not a great game to watch live and one I wish I had missed.
I'm still smarting over the defeat. To lose a game that we should have seen out hurts. On 85 minutes, i couldn't help but take a peek at the league table and seeing us well out of the bottom 3 warmed the heart. 10 minutes later, i could barely look. It's the hope that kills you. How we didn't even salvage a draw baffles me. I do think the mentality of the team is very fragile. Marti is doing everything he can to sure this up but it won't be an overnight thing. I love what Marti is doing and i'm sure we'll be alright in the long term - but these short term demons will haunt us in the short term.
Marti likes possession and we struggled to have any in the second half. So many times throughout the match we gave away the ball cheaply. We have to make sure we don’t start reverting back to pre-Marti QPR.
You're right, the mental fragility in this team has been apparent for a long time now, Critchley knew it, called it out and the players promptly downed tools. GA tried to build spirit in the most clumsy, ham-fisted of ways and no one bought it. Marti at least has the team playing in a manner they like but when the chips are down this group crumble. Really hope Marti still has some more magic up his sleeve.
We can call it many things including mental fragility/team spirit etc, the stark fact remains that we don't score enough goals and that players who should be popping up with a few don't. 22 games gone and the top scorer has 3!
Surely it's legitimate to question whether the new man is indeed the Messiah? There's an obvious improvement in our style of play, but I'm really not sure about his rotation policy - he's had a while now to decide what his best eleven is. Of course he's handicapped by the fact that he's inherited a bunch of crocks, but I'd like to see him settle on a preferred formation and line-up instead of ****ing around as much as he does. I remain hopeful but not convinced.
Surely that is part of the managers job though. To look at and study our next opposition, and change the formation and starting 11 to best expose the weaknesses of the opposing team. If we only ever played the same 11 in the same formation, and we lost, some would come on here saying we lost because we are too predictable. I think we have to accept the manager will make changes that sometimes will come off and sometimes won't...and we just have to hope they'll work more than they won't. The maturity and ability of players to adapt from game to game must also be a factor, and that will require some getting used to for them, and a willingness from some players to play different roles from game to game.
I'd rather we played our best available eleven in our favoured formation and let the opposition worry about us. Simplistic, of course, but I'd stand by that principle.
Not really what I was trying to say, but I’m not at my most coherent at present. Bars stay open late on Sunday in Bilbao. If we continue this season losing 2 out of every 8 I’ll be both amazed and delighted. With this paper thin squad which is shy of goalscorers and has some very ponderous creatures in it there would be alchemy at play. Fans can think and say what they want, that’s what being a fan is about. There is a doom tendency at the slightest setback (which you are not normally a part of) that I find hysterical, in every sense. I assume it’s also legitimate for me to comment on this.
Yeah, I've never been part of the doom tendency, but I'm not either going to be an immediate happy clapper for the new man. He's not convinced me yet.
