Pretty much black and white I'm afraid.We didn't play well and lost.I don't get all this lets "blame the owners".If that was the case should we praise the owners for going 20 games without defeat? We can't have it both ways.
I can fully understand people bemoaning not adding in January, and also the age related part of the plan, which they will have to reconsider going forward. Some posts regarding the owners are pure kneejerk though. Asking about their intentions and accusing them of "pillocking' the fans are a bit much.
I wouldn’t blame January for costing us automatic promotion, I would look at the home fixtures like Wimbledon, Plymouth and burton where we should really have taken maximum points.
I honestly believe that we should have signed a striker in January - we were short at the start of the season & didn't do enough about it - we should have planned better for loss of form, suspensions & injuries - we couldn't have predicted Kieffer's injury but knew we were leaving ourselves open to it - others planned better (Sunderland, Luton) & we are paying the price.
We did sign a striker. He's playing for Bradford City. January is looking like another massive blunder. Been a good season, but I hope lessons are learned next season, I suspect L1 beckons.
First loss since November. In April. Too many draws mind. Try to win last 5 and see where we are. Teddy-chucking won't change anything.
We've cocked up a few Januaries now. It gets harder to believe that lessons will be learned when several months later someone from the club admits "We got it wrong and it won't happen again" and then it does ... ad infinitum.
These are my ramblings/thoughts, no moans just observations. Our recent form is down to a number of factors. Some go hand in hand, but can be seen as separate issues. Firstly I think fatigue is a huge factor! High pressing game coupled with a small core of players. The injuries have hindered this even more. Woodrow looks leggy and needs a rest, but has no real understudy with Moore being out. When a teams focal point isn’t performing well it’s always gonna struggle. Playing Thiam as a 2nd striker isn’t working, I had him down as being partially at fault for the 1st goal on Saturday, he didn’t press particularly well and looks off the pace. I hope we see Bahre playing just behind Woodrow on Saturday as he offers more currently or maybe even a full debut for Styles? The suspensions halted our momentum, loosing 2 inform players at the same time really affected the team and also their form dropped with the layoff. As good as our up and coming centre halves are they are struggling with lack of cover. Attacking fullbacks and no real natural defensive midfielder in front of them can leave them badly exposed. Saturday was the perfect example of a team exposing the space behind the fullbacks, especially down our right. Coupled with the covering centre half playing on his wrong side makes us weak in that scenario. Don’t get me wrong I think Pinnock is destined for greatness but as a left sided centre half. Left footed centre halves are a rare commodity and we seem to have unearthed 2 at once! £10m profit! Kerching!!! We don’t become a poor team overnight but this poor run is partially due to other managers/coaches finding the flaws in our system and exposing them.
Bang on! Moore’s injury if course is a big miss but the timing of the suspensions are the bigger contribution for me
Next two home games are very winnable. If we can win them both there is a chance Sunderland will drop points. Burton won't be pushovers, neither will Donny, then we have the small matter of Pompey vs Sunderland. It's looking like playoffs, but there may be one more twist. I'm hoping!
I think that's a pretty fair assessment of the situation. Early season we were an unknown quantity and now other teams work out how to frustrate and play against us. If we do go up then the youth policy may need looking at again. The better teams in League One have posed a challenge to the present team and Burton found us out - they were the better side on the day - took us on at the pressing game and did it better.
