@glasshalffull said:
I think what has happened is a complete lack of collective confidence. As soon as the opposition score we revert to basic long balls because players are afraid to make mistakes. It’s a worrying period but calling for the manager’s head is not the way out of it. He’s not responsible for the defensive errors that are leading to conceding so many goals. Playing with a back 3 got us to the top of the table, but perhaps it’s time to consider a return to a back four just to shore things up. We need to get two or three wins in a row to restore belief and the swagger we had not so long ago.
Fully agree with this. I think GA has far too much credit in the bank for him to go after a run like this.
As much as I’m frustrated at the current run, football can change quickly after a few results. Look at Oxford’s forum after they lost to us, and the run they’ve been on since.
I think we’ll see changes on Tuesday again, but if we keep a spine of Stewart, Scowen and Vokes, we’ll start getting the results soon.
It would be madness to call for GA to go. Utter reactionary madness. But it’s ok to say ‘we sucked today’ and to blame the tactics and changes as well as the players individual performances.
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub said:
It would be madness to call for GA to go. Utter reactionary madness. But it’s ok to say ‘we sucked today’ and to blame the tactics and changes as well as the players individual performances.
Both things can indeed be true.
Do I think we need a tactical re-think and certain things can be done better by both the players and management staff? Yes.
Do I think GA is still the best manager for us? Yes
It really is hard to believe we were top of the league 5 or so weeks ago. A four at the back with two real CBs will help us be much tighter as per @glasshalffull. Come on Gareth give up on that five at the back please!
A win on Tuesday followed by an away win at Crewe and then a magnificent home win against Rotherham would see us back in the hunt. So COYB!!!!!
Last post from me tonight, but I think that might be Vokes’ best goal for us so far. Not the finish itself, but initial hold up play and ball out wide.
He’s really coming into his own. I must admit, I worried that he was more of a trophy signing, but he’s been great.
@Jonny said:
Last post from me tonight, but I think that might be Vokes’ best goal for us so far. Not the finish itself, but initial hold up play and ball out wide.
He’s really coming into his own. I must admit, I worried that he was more of a trophy signing, but he’s been great.
@Jonny said:
Last post from me tonight, but I think that might be Vokes’ best goal for us so far. Not the finish itself, but initial hold up play and ball out wide.
He’s really coming into his own. I must admit, I worried that he was more of a trophy signing, but he’s been great.
@Jonny said:
Last post from me tonight, but I think that might be Vokes’ best goal for us so far. Not the finish itself, but initial hold up play and ball out wide.
He’s really coming into his own. I must admit, I worried that he was more of a trophy signing, but he’s been great.
he will be off if we do not get promoted
Where?
You stay around @Wanderers82 and you've HATED the team and players for years!
GA stuck with us when we were shit. Let's all stick by him. We are punching well above our weight vs teams that have spent 6 figures plus and have followings far greater than ours.
All in a season when the toughest game on paper in WORLD FOOTBALL....MAN CITY AWAY....and we went 1-0 up.
@Jonny said:
Last post from me tonight, but I think that might be Vokes’ best goal for us so far. Not the finish itself, but initial hold up play and ball out wide.
He’s really coming into his own. I must admit, I worried that he was more of a trophy signing, but he’s been great.
he will be off if we do not get promoted
Where?
he can walk in any team and some championship teams , would not be surprised to see him go to mk dons or Oxford
Does he not understand the concept of the amount of stoppage time being a “minimum”, as Phil C is so careful to point out on every commentary?
In the fifth minute of stoppage time one of their defenders stayed down in his box after yet another debatable decision was given their way. The ref (who I thought was below par in the most part) stood over him pointing to his watch, so everyone in the ground should have been aware he was going to add another minute or so on.
@Jonny said:
Last post from me tonight, but I think that might be Vokes’ best goal for us so far. Not the finish itself, but initial hold up play and ball out wide.
He’s really coming into his own. I must admit, I worried that he was more of a trophy signing, but he’s been great.
he will be off if we do not get promoted
Where?
he can walk in any team and some championship teams , would not be surprised to see him go to mk dons or Oxford
Neither of those teams would play with a traditional number 9 like Vokes. I think regardless of outcome this season, he’ll be here next year
@ValleyWanderer said:
Begs the question of should we continue along that route if MK, Oxford and others are not.
There’s more than one way to win a football game. I think we go over the top with the direct football and would like to see us play on the ground more as I believe we have the players to do it, but I wouldn’t say Oxford and MK are the model teams to follow. Yes they’re in red hot form at the moment, but when Oxford lost 2-0 at AP, my PNL supporter friend said that they felt they could learn something from our style.
Rotherham play very direct football and are top of the table. Styles will always be judged upon form, but I don’t expect / or feel it’s necessary for us to complete change our DNA overnight.
For me it feels like a certain amount of chickens are coming home to roost in regards to secretiveness around injury’s or reason why players are out.
There are posts in this thread saying GA is chopping and changing every week, or he doesn’t know his best 11 and we all make that observation with only some of the information.
Our midfield pairing has been unsettled for the last 6 games+ (If not start of the year) because of various injuries and suspensions.
Taf and Stewart were out, rumours abound that a falling out happened but they may have both hand knocks/needing a rest and the constant changing needing here has clearly unsettled us in the area so important to the way we play.
But the problem is we are largely left to question and wonder why players are out rather than know players x y and z have picked up knocks or something.
The one absolute positive we can and should highlight is the relatively good form at the other end of the park. But you can’t expect them to out score an opposition every game if you defences confidence is shot.
I have my concerns that the patterns seems to be that we can’t play in the second half. But our first half performances certainly suggest to me the management team and players have the ability to set up and approach the game correctly.
However there is an issue somewhere were we seem to lose all confidence and belief in being able to see the game out in the second half and I include the players and management in that, not just one or the other.
@ReturnToSenda said:
The more quality technical players we acquire, the more frustrating our style becomes. It's 'fine' when we're winning, but it is not entertaining.
Surely that’s contradictory? I don’t see how you can be satisfied with our style when we win but dislike it when we lose. It also depends on your priorities, for me there’s nothing more entertaining than winning.
@ReturnToSenda said:
The more quality technical players we acquire, the more frustrating our style becomes. It's 'fine' when we're winning, but it is not entertaining.
Surely that’s contradictory? I don’t see how you can be satisfied with our style when we win but dislike it when we lose. It also depends on your priorities, for me there’s nothing more entertaining than winning.
I don't like it whether we're winning or losing, but you can overlook that when you're getting results. That doesn't mean it's entertaining.
@ReturnToSenda said:
The more quality technical players we acquire, the more frustrating our style becomes. It's 'fine' when we're winning, but it is not entertaining.
Surely that’s contradictory? I don’t see how you can be satisfied with our style when we win but dislike it when we lose. It also depends on your priorities, for me there’s nothing more entertaining than winning.
Peter Taylor’s promotional winning side.
It wasn’t entertaining, we won enough to get promoted. You can hate a style of football in winning and losing, and recognise when it’s god awful.
I remember seeing a home game against Rochdale two seasons ago. They tried to play out from the back and keep possession. They were relegated. Some fans prioritise style over success, I don’t.
In an ideal world, I want to win playing nice football - but if it were a straight choice between or the other, I'd pick winning as I'm sure all fans would? But that's a completely hypothetical situation.
Comments
As the great Bill Shankly said "if you can't support us when we draw or lose, don't support us when we win"
If we got relegated - anything else is still in the ‘4th highest ever finish’ camp
Seems like @PJS is saying that we need to look at trying a new tactic to get more out of the games
Fully agree with this. I think GA has far too much credit in the bank for him to go after a run like this.
As much as I’m frustrated at the current run, football can change quickly after a few results. Look at Oxford’s forum after they lost to us, and the run they’ve been on since.
I think we’ll see changes on Tuesday again, but if we keep a spine of Stewart, Scowen and Vokes, we’ll start getting the results soon.
It would be madness to call for GA to go. Utter reactionary madness. But it’s ok to say ‘we sucked today’ and to blame the tactics and changes as well as the players individual performances.
Both things can indeed be true.
Do I think we need a tactical re-think and certain things can be done better by both the players and management staff? Yes.
Do I think GA is still the best manager for us? Yes
It really is hard to believe we were top of the league 5 or so weeks ago. A four at the back with two real CBs will help us be much tighter as per @glasshalffull. Come on Gareth give up on that five at the back please!
A win on Tuesday followed by an away win at Crewe and then a magnificent home win against Rotherham would see us back in the hunt. So COYB!!!!!
He does put in a few good curlers
Last post from me tonight, but I think that might be Vokes’ best goal for us so far. Not the finish itself, but initial hold up play and ball out wide.
He’s really coming into his own. I must admit, I worried that he was more of a trophy signing, but he’s been great.
he will be off if we do not get promoted
Where?
You stay around @Wanderers82 and you've HATED the team and players for years!
GA stuck with us when we were shit. Let's all stick by him. We are punching well above our weight vs teams that have spent 6 figures plus and have followings far greater than ours.
All in a season when the toughest game on paper in WORLD FOOTBALL....MAN CITY AWAY....and we went 1-0 up.
It's a blip.
So proud of our boys.
Nick Freeman.
Love the post, @thecatwwfc!
he can walk in any team and some championship teams , would not be surprised to see him go to mk dons or Oxford
In the fifth minute of stoppage time one of their defenders stayed down in his box after yet another debatable decision was given their way. The ref (who I thought was below par in the most part) stood over him pointing to his watch, so everyone in the ground should have been aware he was going to add another minute or so on.
Neither of those teams would play with a traditional number 9 like Vokes. I think regardless of outcome this season, he’ll be here next year
Begs the question of should we continue along that route if MK, Oxford and others are not.
There’s more than one way to win a football game. I think we go over the top with the direct football and would like to see us play on the ground more as I believe we have the players to do it, but I wouldn’t say Oxford and MK are the model teams to follow. Yes they’re in red hot form at the moment, but when Oxford lost 2-0 at AP, my PNL supporter friend said that they felt they could learn something from our style.
Rotherham play very direct football and are top of the table. Styles will always be judged upon form, but I don’t expect / or feel it’s necessary for us to complete change our DNA overnight.
The more quality technical players we acquire, the more frustrating our style becomes. It's 'fine' when we're winning, but it is not entertaining.
For me it feels like a certain amount of chickens are coming home to roost in regards to secretiveness around injury’s or reason why players are out.
There are posts in this thread saying GA is chopping and changing every week, or he doesn’t know his best 11 and we all make that observation with only some of the information.
Our midfield pairing has been unsettled for the last 6 games+ (If not start of the year) because of various injuries and suspensions.
Taf and Stewart were out, rumours abound that a falling out happened but they may have both hand knocks/needing a rest and the constant changing needing here has clearly unsettled us in the area so important to the way we play.
But the problem is we are largely left to question and wonder why players are out rather than know players x y and z have picked up knocks or something.
The one absolute positive we can and should highlight is the relatively good form at the other end of the park. But you can’t expect them to out score an opposition every game if you defences confidence is shot.
I have my concerns that the patterns seems to be that we can’t play in the second half. But our first half performances certainly suggest to me the management team and players have the ability to set up and approach the game correctly.
However there is an issue somewhere were we seem to lose all confidence and belief in being able to see the game out in the second half and I include the players and management in that, not just one or the other.
Surely that’s contradictory? I don’t see how you can be satisfied with our style when we win but dislike it when we lose. It also depends on your priorities, for me there’s nothing more entertaining than winning.
I don't like it whether we're winning or losing, but you can overlook that when you're getting results. That doesn't mean it's entertaining.
Peter Taylor’s promotional winning side.
It wasn’t entertaining, we won enough to get promoted. You can hate a style of football in winning and losing, and recognise when it’s god awful.
I remember seeing a home game against Rochdale two seasons ago. They tried to play out from the back and keep possession. They were relegated. Some fans prioritise style over success, I don’t.
I'd be amazed if any fan prioritised style over success, but there is a balance to be struck and we don't strike it.
Hang on, you said above that you don’t like our style whether we’re winning or losing.
I did, but I don't prioritise it over success.
In an ideal world, I want to win playing nice football - but if it were a straight choice between or the other, I'd pick winning as I'm sure all fans would? But that's a completely hypothetical situation.
I like our style, it’s direct and exciting, and I enjoy watching a talented target man like Bayo or Vokes. It’s an under-appreciated skill.