I just wish I lived a bit closer to Wycombe. I could then make a decision whether to attend the next game based on the team sheet. I don't attend every game but the 433 I haven't seen work ever when we have deployed it. Against Cambridge we were overrun in the first 15mins and had to drop Thompson into midfield. Against Stevenage we showed a massive improvement when we went to 442, and last night, no comment. It's not the losing per se, it is the style of play at the moment. It did improve when Hayesy came on, but worryingly he appeared to be limping within minutes of coming on, so I wouldn't expect him to feature on Saturday.
I do have trust in Gaz though, he is not Alan Smith in wig. The dropping of Pierre to turning up late if thats what it was, I agree with. We have the players, but are not playing as a team, and to our strenghs, and it seemed last night we had no fight in us.
We will improve though, let's just hope the lessons are learnt sooner rather than later, and lasts night dire performance is the wake up call everybody needs.
On a positive note we have dropped to 10th, but if we were to win our game in hand we would be up to 5th as things stand at the moment, and while we are at it lets just take a moment to thank our friends in Bristol for postponing our game until December, to ensure we are in a better vein of form.
Now do I order those tickets for Mansfield away or not today?
@mooneyman Think I would like to see Sellars given a start. I know he's young, but surely he could provide some of that missing energy/spark that GA admits has gone AWOL?
I came away from the ground last night feeling quite depressed. Playing a 433 isn't working for us without a creative mid such as Saunders. We're getting crowded out in the centre of the park and this results in Bean getting confused thinking he's playing rugby as he only passes the ball sideways or backwards......
Stick Harriman on the wing, try a 442, do something different.......playing constant hoof ball and loosing at home to a poor team like Newport is embarrassing and depressing, yes we overachieved last season but now we are truly underperforming.
Come on Gaz, try a 442 Saturday
Ingram
JJ
Pierre
McCarthy
Sido
Wood
O'Nien
Bean
Harriman
Thompson
Hayes
@mooneyman Three strikers can work but not the three similar strikers we play. In theory a narrow midfield three should outnumber a wider four in the middle but your full backs go one on one with the wide players.
I wouldn't right off Sam Wood. He'll come back strong soon. We do though need Harriman further up the pitch.
Has it occurred to you that that may well be the team that GA would like to play and sees as his strongest 11 but has been unable to virtually all season because of injuries to hayes and Wood and recently Harriman and loss of form of obvious alternatives such as Holloway and Banton. We have a tiny squad forcing GA to make the best out of extremely limited choices. Last season we were generally lucky with injuries and massively overachieved, even achieving results when teams had to be improvised from restricted choices. Similarly for the start of this season until the last few games.
Do supporters really not have the simple intelligence to understand that we continue to have financial difficulties, we continue to operate with a tiny squad, we continue by all accounts to have one of the lowest player budgets in the league. Within those constraints we cannot expect to overachieve ad infintum. So no a run of three league defeats is not surprising, it is not an indication that GA is suddenly tactically naive, it is not an indication that GA has lost the dressing room. The only surprise in the circumstances is that a run of three league defeats hasnt happened for a while.
If you want to win virtually every game and enjoy virtually guarenteed success, go buy a season ticket for Man City. If you want to support a small cashstrapped club with pitiful resources enjoy the good days when they come but accept that from time to time there will be periods when it doesn't go so well.
I wonder where ive heard someone before desert a small cash strapped club in favour of a nearby top flight club. "Do what i say, not as i do" YCMIU !!!!!!!
Be interesting the next few games if any changes made to the squad will make any difference. Personally I think it's more of the way there told to play than the players themselves. I mean calling gozzi dosie really is there any need, it will be someone else next week when our two 6 footers are on the bench I'm sure.
Couldn't disagree with DevC any more . Yes we have a small budget (as along with 75percent of this division ) but this is not responsible for continually playing an incorrect formation . Every time without exception we revert to 442 in the last 15 minutes of games it transforms the side from the previous ineffective long ball rubbish . We have ridden our luck in the first 10 games and that luck has now run out . I think most on here accept we have our limitations but the manager seems to be using the "small club" excuse for an unnecessary brand of hoof ball and poor tactics . Nobody expects us to win every game but is the nature in how we are playing that is what is upsetting . You certainly do not have to be a fan of Man City to desire football played the right way with some width and we do have the players to do this it is just that we are never set up to do it !
Yeah, DevC is wrong on this one, in my opinion. Even with our injuries we've always had enough players to set up in a 4-4-2. The problem has been Ainsworth's lack of trust in Rowe in central defence and Banton and Sellers on the wings. I can't think of a single occasion we wouldn't have been able to play a 4-4-2 with Harriman in midfield given our squad. And I bet we wouldn't all be in such an awful mood this morning if we'd been treated to that formation more often this season.
I'm usually loathe to criticise or be negative as I tend to see my role as a supporter to be just that - supportive of the team, manager, players, etc. As a consequence I normally bite my tongue, strop around the house in a mood for 24 hours annoying the family and then start looking forward to the next game in the (sometimes naive) hope that the last poor performance was just a blip.
However last night really was such a depressing - and predictable - spectacle that I've actually been moved to comment on here with my thoughts. As others have already said it was obvious on seeing the lineup that we were going to struggle as we've seen it too many times now. No width, no pace & no creativity.
We did see in all too infrequent flashes last night that when they want to they are capable of playing some good football. As soon as the ball was moved around the pitch and out wide we created chances. But it was so depressing to see on many occasions JJ with the ball desperately looking for somebody in front of him to give him an attacking option, but nothing except a massive empty patch of grass where a winger should have been. And to see Wood come on and then roam around the middle of the pitch was just bizarre.
My take on the problem is that I think this all stems from a lack of confidence in the defence, mainly due to the (mostly) enforced changes that Gaz has had to make. Last year the back 5 was so reliable, both in availability and performance levels, that he didn't really have to worry about the defensive side and could concentrate the tactics and team balance towards the attacking side. This year we are obviously weaker for the loss of Alfie Mawson, but also have had to contend with injuries to key players, Pierre's World Cup adventure, etc. As a result I think that Gaz is now worrying too much about the defence, tinkering too often, and sending the team out to play the percentage game - knocking it forward, hoping to nick a goal off the scraps. 4-3-3 looks attacking on paper but when you've got 3 narrow midfielders without an ounce of creativity in their bones it really isn't.
As others have said - and it is painfully obvious to me - we need to go 4-4-2 to get the best out of the players we have. Settle on a back four of Jombati, McCarthy, Pierre, Jacobson - and stick with it unless forced to change. Harriman on the right to make the most of his pace and ability to whip a ball in. Bean and O'Nien in the middle (hopefully a creative ball player can be brought in on loan at some point) and Wood or Sellars on the left. Up front perm two from Hayes/Holloway/Thompson.
That team, playing with belief in themselves and attempting to play football, should be good enough for the playoffs.
I just hope that Gaz sees sense sooner rather than later. More of the same on Saturday and I can see the boo-boys getting on the players backs quite early on, which helps absolutely no one.
There were a few that we were deserved winners I have to admit but there were plenty where I was astonished , along with others on here that we had won. We without a shadow of a doubt rid our luck and got away with it , until now it seems .
It is the constant default position of the English football supporter to call for 442 whenever a couple of games were lost. As I recall we were top of the league a couple of weeks ago despite having to play players out of position and in differing formations as the manager strived to make the best of his limited resources.
It is generally believed that we have a bottom six playing budget despite being geographically located in a high cost area. If that is the case we have no right to EXPECT any better than a bottom six finish although obviously we HOPE for better.
Yes we could have played 442 all season, even when Harriman was required elsewhere, with Banton (with a reputation for being a big game charlie at Plymouth out of position and seemingly not having shown more commitment at Wycombe ) on the right and Sellers (primarily a left back who has yet to play a full league game) on the left. GA who sees him in training every day presumably does not believe that Sellars is ready yet to start league games.
Were we to have done so, would we have won the games we ended up losing or lost the games we ended up winning by playing different formations? Nobody knows. Given GA extraordinary achievements over the last 18 months, does seem to me he is entitled to a little more trust and respect for a good while yet based on the surely indisputable fact that he knows a little more about how to win football matches than any of us. .
You would think it was a crime against supporting a club to be critical of the team listening to some on here. Sometimes you have to call it as you see it and not hide behind fan worshipping bullshit. Last night was poor - no excuses - and Gaz didn't make any either, therefore I'm not sure why some on here are chirping on about small squad / lack of money etc. Gaz has shown he can get massive amounts out of very little and I expect the team will turnaround and the players remaining will be the ones fighting like dogs to make it happen. What really surprised me last night was the lack of any spark - physical or creative - as we have always had a blend of this under GA.
I think that was the biggest shock for me last night too. We've lost to better teams before and we've also lost to poorer teams too when luck deserts us but I haven't seen a Wycombe side with so little energy and fight as last night. Whether the late Pierre incident affected them I'm not sure but it was a worrying performance.
Under Ainsworth our side has rarely lacked fight and effort. Basically Newport played exactly like we have for 18 months away from home. Press hard and high up the pitch, soak up pressure and take your chance when it comes. That would be easier to accept if the Wycombe players fought and battled but they simply didn't. No formation or team change will help if the basics are being lost.
Last night was as depressed as I've been watching our side since that fateful Bristol Rovers game two seasons ago
Few people have mentioned Kretch pull out of a 60/40 in his favour that led to JJ giving away the free Kick for Newport's first. Along with the refusal to put his head in where it hurts at Stevenage with the goal at his mercy. These sought of things will infuriate Ainsworth. With Max contract running out at the end of the season,he may soon follow the route of a Jesse Kewley Graham, rather than be at the start of what was once a promising career.
RITM.
Not surprising as it's the first time we have lost three straight league games since then.
But surely you are not in any way comparing as equivalents losing three straight league games to the feeling post BR that our league status was gone and very possibly the very existence of the club. Surely there was no comparison in emotion.
Chas, big season for Kretch. I suspect he will not get too many more chances. Right IMHO to give him a couple of games to impress, especially if he was looking good in training.
I'm not making a comparison DevC. I'm just saying I felt depressed watching the game last night and the last time I was depressed (more depressed just for clarity) was that horrible day against Bristol Rovers.
I've been proud of the manager and the players since that day. Proud that the club stayed loyal the manager and he saw a need to change to improve. Last night that pride took a big dent and I feel the manager and the club needs to undergo a similar period of evolution to move the club on again. For me a crack appeared last night I wasn't expecting to see.
Chas - agree about Max but ... why did JJ give away that free kick with such a stupid challenge? I think Pierre made a similar idiotic mistake (clumsy, needless barge) in the Plymouth match - which gave away a goal. Since most goals at this level come from set plays/dead ball situations our continuing indiscipline is costing us. Especially as we don't look as if we know how to score now.
The best thing about being a paying supporter of a football team means you have the right to vent your frustrations, if there are people on here that don't agree with you then that is fine also. Yes we have the smallest playing budget in the league or at least one of and yes Gareth Ainsworth knows more about football than us and yes three league defeats on the bounce does not constitute a sudden relegation scrap.
However, if we, as paying customers are unhappy with the quality of the product then we have every right to come on here and have our say. I can handle a defeat, its part and parcel of the game. The Plymouth match is an example where we played well but were unlucky to lose, we can write off the JPT game as to be honest our small squad could not handle that extra fixture.
That being said however, the last three league performance have been dire and i don't mean the result i mean the actual performances. Yes Gareth has won manager of the year but how is it that he can't see that during those matches changes were needed. Crawley away sticks in mind where he even came out afterwards and said he didn't want to make a single change in case it upset the balance of the game, maybe taking those kinds of chances are what he needs to start doing. His reluctance to adapt is frustrating at best, not alarming, just frustrating.
How can a person not see how flat we look in a 433 and not see how attacking we looked in 442. This isn't a discussion about which formations work best but how best to utilise the squad we have, we simply do not have the creativity to play a 433 which for the record would be my preferred choice. We have four wide creative players in JJ, Harriman, wood and Sellers. Lets use that to our advantage instead of wasting the talent we have in Thompson.
For me Hayes is not a goal scorer and we can certainly see that neither is Holloway or Ugwu, Thompson can be a fifteen goal a season striker if he is played in the correct way.
I worry that Thompson may regret coming to our club and that Sellers may leave if he is not used. Banton has plenty of pace but his inability to avoid tripping over his own legs after doing the hard work is frustrating, I personally am glad he has gone.
Other than your last point about Banton, I agree wholeheartedly with @fedup1980 . I've not noticed your posts before today but I hope you remain a regular contributor as you're a refreshing new voice for this board!
Missed last night because of work...but it seems to me GA has lost confidence in the defence and seems to be chopping and changing unnecessarily. Rowe or McCarthy can play CB alongside Pierre...but I think he has let a couple of bad games get to him. No
need for Sido to be moved into the middle and Harriman should be playing wide midfield where he can attack. I don't see the point of signing wide players just so they can cover at the back!
you are of course free to express yopur opinion. others are surely then equally free to critique it.
Do you include Exeter as a dire performance - we hardly played a pass on the grass. but we won, so does that make it not dire?.
If you counting JJ as wide creative players, you would probably add Sido to the list. But of your four, JJ has played every game, Wood has been injured much of the season, Harriman is coming back from injury and Sellers, seen by some it would seem as the prodigal son, has yet I believe to start a league game in his illustrous career. he is primarily seen as a left full back.
It may very well be that if all were fit, the best formation for the club would be 442. But GA has to find the best formation on the night given the fitness of his players. In his view the team he put out last night was that best team from those available. over the last 18 months he has got that right massively more often than not. I propose to trust his judgement for a good deal longer.
Incidentally Thomson has played most of his career wide right. Hayes has scored more goals at a better strike rate than thompson. Sellers I should imagine is thrilled that at the age of 21, he has this season made is league debut and is now playing football fairly regularly. He will know that if he works hard he will get opportunities at Wycombe to play. Feels a little unlikely that two months in he would go off in a huff. thompson at 34 may not have had too many options.
you are of course free to express yopur opinion. others are surely then equally free to critique it.
Do you include Exeter as a dire performance - we hardly played a pass on the grass. but we won, so does that make it not dire?.
If you counting JJ as wide creative players, you would probably add Sido to the list. But of your four, JJ has played every game, Wood has been injured much of the season, Harriman is coming back from injury and Sellers, seen by some it would seem as the prodigal son, has yet I believe to start a league game in his illustrous career. he is primarily seen as a left full back.
It may very well be that if all were fit, the best formation for the club would be 442. But GA has to find the best formation on the night given the fitness of his players. In his view the team he put out last night was that best team from those available. over the last 18 months he has got that right massively more often than not. I propose to trust his judgement for a good deal longer.
Incidentally Thomson has played most of his career wide right. Hayes has scored more goals at a better strike rate than thompson. Sellers I should imagine is thrilled that at the age of 21, he has this season made is league debut and is now playing football fairly regularly. He will know that if he works hard he will get opportunities at Wycombe to play. Feels a little unlikely that two months in he would go off in a huff. thompson at 34 may not have had too many options.
Comments
I just wish I lived a bit closer to Wycombe. I could then make a decision whether to attend the next game based on the team sheet. I don't attend every game but the 433 I haven't seen work ever when we have deployed it. Against Cambridge we were overrun in the first 15mins and had to drop Thompson into midfield. Against Stevenage we showed a massive improvement when we went to 442, and last night, no comment. It's not the losing per se, it is the style of play at the moment. It did improve when Hayesy came on, but worryingly he appeared to be limping within minutes of coming on, so I wouldn't expect him to feature on Saturday.
I do have trust in Gaz though, he is not Alan Smith in wig. The dropping of Pierre to turning up late if thats what it was, I agree with. We have the players, but are not playing as a team, and to our strenghs, and it seemed last night we had no fight in us.
We will improve though, let's just hope the lessons are learnt sooner rather than later, and lasts night dire performance is the wake up call everybody needs.
On a positive note we have dropped to 10th, but if we were to win our game in hand we would be up to 5th as things stand at the moment, and while we are at it lets just take a moment to thank our friends in Bristol for postponing our game until December, to ensure we are in a better vein of form.
Now do I order those tickets for Mansfield away or not today?
@mooneyman Think I would like to see Sellars given a start. I know he's young, but surely he could provide some of that missing energy/spark that GA admits has gone AWOL?
You are right about Sellars. I am proper mystified as to why he isn't featuring...he is just what we need at the moment.
I came away from the ground last night feeling quite depressed. Playing a 433 isn't working for us without a creative mid such as Saunders. We're getting crowded out in the centre of the park and this results in Bean getting confused thinking he's playing rugby as he only passes the ball sideways or backwards......
Stick Harriman on the wing, try a 442, do something different.......playing constant hoof ball and loosing at home to a poor team like Newport is embarrassing and depressing, yes we overachieved last season but now we are truly underperforming.
Come on Gaz, try a 442 Saturday
Ingram
JJ
Pierre
McCarthy
Sido
Wood
O'Nien
Bean
Harriman
Thompson
Hayes
Bringing on as subs AAH, Sellers, Rowe
a solid team with width.......
@mooneyman Three strikers can work but not the three similar strikers we play. In theory a narrow midfield three should outnumber a wider four in the middle but your full backs go one on one with the wide players.
I wouldn't right off Sam Wood. He'll come back strong soon. We do though need Harriman further up the pitch.
Has it occurred to you that that may well be the team that GA would like to play and sees as his strongest 11 but has been unable to virtually all season because of injuries to hayes and Wood and recently Harriman and loss of form of obvious alternatives such as Holloway and Banton. We have a tiny squad forcing GA to make the best out of extremely limited choices. Last season we were generally lucky with injuries and massively overachieved, even achieving results when teams had to be improvised from restricted choices. Similarly for the start of this season until the last few games.
Do supporters really not have the simple intelligence to understand that we continue to have financial difficulties, we continue to operate with a tiny squad, we continue by all accounts to have one of the lowest player budgets in the league. Within those constraints we cannot expect to overachieve ad infintum. So no a run of three league defeats is not surprising, it is not an indication that GA is suddenly tactically naive, it is not an indication that GA has lost the dressing room. The only surprise in the circumstances is that a run of three league defeats hasnt happened for a while.
If you want to win virtually every game and enjoy virtually guarenteed success, go buy a season ticket for Man City. If you want to support a small cashstrapped club with pitiful resources enjoy the good days when they come but accept that from time to time there will be periods when it doesn't go so well.
I wonder where ive heard someone before desert a small cash strapped club in favour of a nearby top flight club. "Do what i say, not as i do" YCMIU !!!!!!!
Be interesting the next few games if any changes made to the squad will make any difference. Personally I think it's more of the way there told to play than the players themselves. I mean calling gozzi dosie really is there any need, it will be someone else next week when our two 6 footers are on the bench I'm sure.
Couldn't disagree with DevC any more . Yes we have a small budget (as along with 75percent of this division ) but this is not responsible for continually playing an incorrect formation . Every time without exception we revert to 442 in the last 15 minutes of games it transforms the side from the previous ineffective long ball rubbish . We have ridden our luck in the first 10 games and that luck has now run out . I think most on here accept we have our limitations but the manager seems to be using the "small club" excuse for an unnecessary brand of hoof ball and poor tactics . Nobody expects us to win every game but is the nature in how we are playing that is what is upsetting . You certainly do not have to be a fan of Man City to desire football played the right way with some width and we do have the players to do this it is just that we are never set up to do it !
@bourne70 how many of those 10 games have you seen?
Yeah, DevC is wrong on this one, in my opinion. Even with our injuries we've always had enough players to set up in a 4-4-2. The problem has been Ainsworth's lack of trust in Rowe in central defence and Banton and Sellers on the wings. I can't think of a single occasion we wouldn't have been able to play a 4-4-2 with Harriman in midfield given our squad. And I bet we wouldn't all be in such an awful mood this morning if we'd been treated to that formation more often this season.
Every single one home and away
I'm usually loathe to criticise or be negative as I tend to see my role as a supporter to be just that - supportive of the team, manager, players, etc. As a consequence I normally bite my tongue, strop around the house in a mood for 24 hours annoying the family and then start looking forward to the next game in the (sometimes naive) hope that the last poor performance was just a blip.
However last night really was such a depressing - and predictable - spectacle that I've actually been moved to comment on here with my thoughts. As others have already said it was obvious on seeing the lineup that we were going to struggle as we've seen it too many times now. No width, no pace & no creativity.
We did see in all too infrequent flashes last night that when they want to they are capable of playing some good football. As soon as the ball was moved around the pitch and out wide we created chances. But it was so depressing to see on many occasions JJ with the ball desperately looking for somebody in front of him to give him an attacking option, but nothing except a massive empty patch of grass where a winger should have been. And to see Wood come on and then roam around the middle of the pitch was just bizarre.
My take on the problem is that I think this all stems from a lack of confidence in the defence, mainly due to the (mostly) enforced changes that Gaz has had to make. Last year the back 5 was so reliable, both in availability and performance levels, that he didn't really have to worry about the defensive side and could concentrate the tactics and team balance towards the attacking side. This year we are obviously weaker for the loss of Alfie Mawson, but also have had to contend with injuries to key players, Pierre's World Cup adventure, etc. As a result I think that Gaz is now worrying too much about the defence, tinkering too often, and sending the team out to play the percentage game - knocking it forward, hoping to nick a goal off the scraps. 4-3-3 looks attacking on paper but when you've got 3 narrow midfielders without an ounce of creativity in their bones it really isn't.
As others have said - and it is painfully obvious to me - we need to go 4-4-2 to get the best out of the players we have. Settle on a back four of Jombati, McCarthy, Pierre, Jacobson - and stick with it unless forced to change. Harriman on the right to make the most of his pace and ability to whip a ball in. Bean and O'Nien in the middle (hopefully a creative ball player can be brought in on loan at some point) and Wood or Sellars on the left. Up front perm two from Hayes/Holloway/Thompson.
That team, playing with belief in themselves and attempting to play football, should be good enough for the playoffs.
I just hope that Gaz sees sense sooner rather than later. More of the same on Saturday and I can see the boo-boys getting on the players backs quite early on, which helps absolutely no one.
There were a few that we were deserved winners I have to admit but there were plenty where I was astonished , along with others on here that we had won. We without a shadow of a doubt rid our luck and got away with it , until now it seems .
Well said Fidget
Seems we've got the stubborn ainsworth of 2 seasons ago,odd team selection and sticking by players who don't perform.
It is the constant default position of the English football supporter to call for 442 whenever a couple of games were lost. As I recall we were top of the league a couple of weeks ago despite having to play players out of position and in differing formations as the manager strived to make the best of his limited resources.
It is generally believed that we have a bottom six playing budget despite being geographically located in a high cost area. If that is the case we have no right to EXPECT any better than a bottom six finish although obviously we HOPE for better.
Yes we could have played 442 all season, even when Harriman was required elsewhere, with Banton (with a reputation for being a big game charlie at Plymouth out of position and seemingly not having shown more commitment at Wycombe ) on the right and Sellers (primarily a left back who has yet to play a full league game) on the left. GA who sees him in training every day presumably does not believe that Sellars is ready yet to start league games.
Were we to have done so, would we have won the games we ended up losing or lost the games we ended up winning by playing different formations? Nobody knows. Given GA extraordinary achievements over the last 18 months, does seem to me he is entitled to a little more trust and respect for a good while yet based on the surely indisputable fact that he knows a little more about how to win football matches than any of us. .
You would think it was a crime against supporting a club to be critical of the team listening to some on here. Sometimes you have to call it as you see it and not hide behind fan worshipping bullshit. Last night was poor - no excuses - and Gaz didn't make any either, therefore I'm not sure why some on here are chirping on about small squad / lack of money etc. Gaz has shown he can get massive amounts out of very little and I expect the team will turnaround and the players remaining will be the ones fighting like dogs to make it happen. What really surprised me last night was the lack of any spark - physical or creative - as we have always had a blend of this under GA.
I think that was the biggest shock for me last night too. We've lost to better teams before and we've also lost to poorer teams too when luck deserts us but I haven't seen a Wycombe side with so little energy and fight as last night. Whether the late Pierre incident affected them I'm not sure but it was a worrying performance.
Under Ainsworth our side has rarely lacked fight and effort. Basically Newport played exactly like we have for 18 months away from home. Press hard and high up the pitch, soak up pressure and take your chance when it comes. That would be easier to accept if the Wycombe players fought and battled but they simply didn't. No formation or team change will help if the basics are being lost.
Last night was as depressed as I've been watching our side since that fateful Bristol Rovers game two seasons ago
@bourne70 fair enough, I've only been to one game so can't really comment
Few people have mentioned Kretch pull out of a 60/40 in his favour that led to JJ giving away the free Kick for Newport's first. Along with the refusal to put his head in where it hurts at Stevenage with the goal at his mercy. These sought of things will infuriate Ainsworth. With Max contract running out at the end of the season,he may soon follow the route of a Jesse Kewley Graham, rather than be at the start of what was once a promising career.
RITM.
Not surprising as it's the first time we have lost three straight league games since then.
But surely you are not in any way comparing as equivalents losing three straight league games to the feeling post BR that our league status was gone and very possibly the very existence of the club. Surely there was no comparison in emotion.
Chas, big season for Kretch. I suspect he will not get too many more chances. Right IMHO to give him a couple of games to impress, especially if he was looking good in training.
I'm not making a comparison DevC. I'm just saying I felt depressed watching the game last night and the last time I was depressed (more depressed just for clarity) was that horrible day against Bristol Rovers.
I've been proud of the manager and the players since that day. Proud that the club stayed loyal the manager and he saw a need to change to improve. Last night that pride took a big dent and I feel the manager and the club needs to undergo a similar period of evolution to move the club on again. For me a crack appeared last night I wasn't expecting to see.
Fair enough Righty. Thought it was a clarification worth making.
Chas - agree about Max but ... why did JJ give away that free kick with such a stupid challenge? I think Pierre made a similar idiotic mistake (clumsy, needless barge) in the Plymouth match - which gave away a goal. Since most goals at this level come from set plays/dead ball situations our continuing indiscipline is costing us. Especially as we don't look as if we know how to score now.
The best thing about being a paying supporter of a football team means you have the right to vent your frustrations, if there are people on here that don't agree with you then that is fine also. Yes we have the smallest playing budget in the league or at least one of and yes Gareth Ainsworth knows more about football than us and yes three league defeats on the bounce does not constitute a sudden relegation scrap.
However, if we, as paying customers are unhappy with the quality of the product then we have every right to come on here and have our say. I can handle a defeat, its part and parcel of the game. The Plymouth match is an example where we played well but were unlucky to lose, we can write off the JPT game as to be honest our small squad could not handle that extra fixture.
That being said however, the last three league performance have been dire and i don't mean the result i mean the actual performances. Yes Gareth has won manager of the year but how is it that he can't see that during those matches changes were needed. Crawley away sticks in mind where he even came out afterwards and said he didn't want to make a single change in case it upset the balance of the game, maybe taking those kinds of chances are what he needs to start doing. His reluctance to adapt is frustrating at best, not alarming, just frustrating.
How can a person not see how flat we look in a 433 and not see how attacking we looked in 442. This isn't a discussion about which formations work best but how best to utilise the squad we have, we simply do not have the creativity to play a 433 which for the record would be my preferred choice. We have four wide creative players in JJ, Harriman, wood and Sellers. Lets use that to our advantage instead of wasting the talent we have in Thompson.
For me Hayes is not a goal scorer and we can certainly see that neither is Holloway or Ugwu, Thompson can be a fifteen goal a season striker if he is played in the correct way.
I worry that Thompson may regret coming to our club and that Sellers may leave if he is not used. Banton has plenty of pace but his inability to avoid tripping over his own legs after doing the hard work is frustrating, I personally am glad he has gone.
Other than your last point about Banton, I agree wholeheartedly with @fedup1980 . I've not noticed your posts before today but I hope you remain a regular contributor as you're a refreshing new voice for this board!
Missed last night because of work...but it seems to me GA has lost confidence in the defence and seems to be chopping and changing unnecessarily. Rowe or McCarthy can play CB alongside Pierre...but I think he has let a couple of bad games get to him. No
need for Sido to be moved into the middle and Harriman should be playing wide midfield where he can attack. I don't see the point of signing wide players just so they can cover at the back!
you are of course free to express yopur opinion. others are surely then equally free to critique it.
Do you include Exeter as a dire performance - we hardly played a pass on the grass. but we won, so does that make it not dire?.
If you counting JJ as wide creative players, you would probably add Sido to the list. But of your four, JJ has played every game, Wood has been injured much of the season, Harriman is coming back from injury and Sellers, seen by some it would seem as the prodigal son, has yet I believe to start a league game in his illustrous career. he is primarily seen as a left full back.
It may very well be that if all were fit, the best formation for the club would be 442. But GA has to find the best formation on the night given the fitness of his players. In his view the team he put out last night was that best team from those available. over the last 18 months he has got that right massively more often than not. I propose to trust his judgement for a good deal longer.
Incidentally Thomson has played most of his career wide right. Hayes has scored more goals at a better strike rate than thompson. Sellers I should imagine is thrilled that at the age of 21, he has this season made is league debut and is now playing football fairly regularly. He will know that if he works hard he will get opportunities at Wycombe to play. Feels a little unlikely that two months in he would go off in a huff. thompson at 34 may not have had too many options.
you are of course free to express yopur opinion. others are surely then equally free to critique it.
Do you include Exeter as a dire performance - we hardly played a pass on the grass. but we won, so does that make it not dire?.
If you counting JJ as wide creative players, you would probably add Sido to the list. But of your four, JJ has played every game, Wood has been injured much of the season, Harriman is coming back from injury and Sellers, seen by some it would seem as the prodigal son, has yet I believe to start a league game in his illustrous career. he is primarily seen as a left full back.
It may very well be that if all were fit, the best formation for the club would be 442. But GA has to find the best formation on the night given the fitness of his players. In his view the team he put out last night was that best team from those available. over the last 18 months he has got that right massively more often than not. I propose to trust his judgement for a good deal longer.
Incidentally Thomson has played most of his career wide right. Hayes has scored more goals at a better strike rate than thompson. Sellers I should imagine is thrilled that at the age of 21, he has this season made is league debut and is now playing football fairly regularly. He will know that if he works hard he will get opportunities at Wycombe to play. Feels a little unlikely that two months in he would go off in a huff. thompson at 34 may not have had too many options.