Bit of both... but its starting to look as if Johnson is running out of time, I give him a few more weeks...it also depends who we can bring in... ..Yes changes had to made last night... but he made the wrong one initially.
Unfortunately I have to agree. I have tried to be up beat about him all season but last night left me absolutely fuming. I believe we have the players to walk this league we were comfortable last night. He talks about being a progressive manager but he’s stuck in his own rut and refuses to change while trying to convince everyone he’s moving the club forward. We are going around in circles.
Something needs to change or be changed. Hes leading us down a dark path at the moment and seems incapable of making the changes required. Therefore he needs to be changed before the season is utterly lost. We should not be put in a situation, before Christmas, where promotion is beyond us - that is unforgivable and is very much what we are facing at the moment.
thing is, we can outplay any team in this league when we settle and pass the ball and that is not 'big team bollox' we have done it time and again...yet for some reason we always fall back into 'default mode' where we cannot pass to a team mate more than 5 yards away, we run the ball into brick walls (defenders) or give it away under little pressure and we forget how to defend properly. now one or the other will obviously weaken a team but all at once and we are constantly on the back foot.
That's the problem with LJ, O’Brien may have been ineffective but we were controlling the game and would have won the game, he brought on Evans so had to move 3 players to different positions to accommodate it, so why make the substitution in the first place , we were 1-0 with an extra man we should have been ripping them apart not trying to settle for 1-0
I wonder if he's trying to be a bit too clever. He's trying to be a third division Pep. Constant changes of tactics,formation and players' positioning just isn't working. It's confusing the players with far too much information. Most of them aren't Einstein,they're limited in the amount of info they can take in at one time.I think he tries to adjust his selections and formations according to the opposition,instead of picking a line up to play in a way the players can understand.O9,Gooch and Winchester can't know if they're punched or bored. Time to settle in a formation which plays to our strengths and stick to it.
Exactly mate, let's find a formation that works for us, where we can dominate teams and play the game we know we're capable of. Let other teams worry about changing their tactics to combat ours rather than us changing ours every week!
So this is an interesting point in light of the game I was at last night. I watched a team top of the league and flying play a team struggling at the bottom who have replaced their manager and most of their squad (no transfer windows in non-league) in the last couple of weeks. The high fliers took my team apart a couple of weeks ago and I was expecting the same last night. Talking to coaches before the game, it was said that the high fliers were so good, so dominant, that they could play in any formation they liked and whoever they played had to adapt to play against them. As it turned out, the strugglers set up really defensively, closed down quickly and were fast into every tackle. They gave their all. The high fliers looked off their game and like they didn't want to be there. Nevertheless, they won 2-1 and had a couple of goals ruled out for questionable offsides. If Johnson is constantly tweaking things (and a week or two ago people were accusing him of having no Plan B) then it suggests to me that the squad is not good enough to not have to adapt to the opposition. We're not good enough to dominate other teams, as is suggested by the repeated criticism of several of the first team.
well, 'Plan A' got us wins and good play mainly but you are 100% correct there is nothing apart from that and when it is not working we simply tread water. my positive thought for the week is that we have stopped the rot, but now we need to see improved performances that we know this squad is capable of.
Absolutely. As little as he had the ball second half, O’Brien must’ve been frustrated to ge hooked as he had a very decent first half and, when he had the ball second, used it well. There were so many changes he could’ve made ahead of that one. An attacking sub would’ve stayed intent and I think they’d have shrivelled m. Bringing a DM on for an attacking player would’ve given them a lift. As someone who’s big on analysis, that was a massive error. If I was playing against a team, 1 goal down and they take an attacker off for a DM, I’d be right up fir it. Be shouting “lads they’re trying to hang on to this” to my team mates. It’s give me a lift
Interesting post mate. However,most of us think this squad is good enough. Most good teams play the same way every week....they learn it,practice it and become good at it. The players know what their role is.The onus is then on the opposition to counter it effectively for 90 minutes. The high fliers you watched last night still won,even though they were challenged.
So, what's wrong with that? A manager controls every movement a player makes on the pitch? Johnson's not infallible and bringing Evans, who seems to have been consistently poor, was the wrong move last night, but its illogical not to apportion blame to the players that were actually on the pitch.
Completely agree with this. LJ sending the wrong signals. Exactly the same when he's jumping around on the touch line,getting stuck into the 4th official,picking up yellow cards all over the place. The players see that and they get the notion that we're being hard done by,the Ref's against us,it's not going to be our day. I know the standard of reffing is utter ****e,but we would be much better if we stayed calm and got on with our game,instead of playing into the opposition hands by shifting our focus and losing our heads.
I think the squad is good enough. After last nights tactics and substitutions I really now believe its the manager His tweaking involve shuffling the players but keeping the same tactics He gives the impression of progressing and developing but in reality he's just doing the same thing. We are going around in circles. When we have the ball we are OK although don't create that much. However out of possession the team seems clueless. Half the team press half the team drop back into position leaving huge gaps. I really don't think he works on what we do when we lose the ball. Sick and tired of letting poor teams have loads of the ball and just run through us. Bit of an "Emperors new clothes" moment last night realization that actually he's not the clever tactician he talks himself up as. On the pitch he is offering very little Whats that saying "Empty vessels make the most noise"
This is true but, if he is making changes, it suggests that Johnson doesn't think we're good enough to do that. Evans, Gooch, Wright, and several others have been criticised quite heavily in recent weeks. If you're as dominant as the team I watched last night, you don't get that kind of criticism.
I've watched 2/3rds before switching it off again....same as the last six I've had to switch off after his patter. World class goal my arse.
