Has this lad got a point? Maybe that's where we have gone wrong?

Yes, thats right. End of August 2009. I still remember it vividly for the reason that I worked in Reading at the time and got the piss ripped out of me on the Monday morning.... Happy Days ....

 

Your post the day he was sacked

I always said Macken would get Davey sacked.
Davey struggled to pick a team without Macken in it , how many strikers couldnt form a partnership with him? 433 today was a joke, it should have been Gray & bogdanovic up front, with wingers supplying them.

 

He has a point 100% - Yes as fans we all want to see our side playing lovely football and pass teams off park much like what we saw last season under DS. But teams going up into a new division like us and Norwich need to alter their style to compete at a higher level. Yes you don't see pep going long to a target man when 1-0 down, thats because they have one of the best squads in world football and can dominate pretty much every team in their league. But teams like us and Norwich moving into a higher league are going to be one of the 'weaker' teams in the league, so are not going to have all the ball and quality like in the previous season. For that reason teams need to adapt, go back to basics a bit and first and foremost be hard to beat and solid. We have lost so many games this season due to sloppy errors when trying to play lovely football etc. Same with Norwich too and guess what both of us are going back down this season.

As a Barnsley fan it doesnt make relegation any easier to take just because we tried to play nice football, in fact in some ways it makes it more frustrating as we have gifted teams goals by being too naive and making silly errors.

 

We've conceded most of our goals by being ultra defensive and pissing about with it at the back simply to stop them getting the ball

 

Fooking hell, you've got a good memory

 

We went 1 up, think they got it to 1-1 by half time and we then imploded - can remember that little scrote Noel Hunt scoring a penalty then immediately scoring again after. Think we'd been battered by Coventry and PNE in the homes games preceding that, but beaten Reading away earlier that week in the league cup.

Our subsequent home performances vs Reading have gone about as well as that game under Davey. Hate playing them.

 

But what style of play would suit our current squad? We don't really have a forward that can win the ball in the air, or hold it up. We're not very good at keeping hold of the ball. Our crossing is generally poor which means we can't get around a defence, and our creativity is lacking which means we can't get through a defence.

How have we got to 43 points?!

 

I think we're good between both boxes. Some of our passing to get the 18 yard box is quick and accurate. However, when it gets near goal Chaplin, Woodrow or Brown have a brain fart. Shoot when they should pass. Pass when they should shoot. Pass to the wrong player when we're three on two. Brown crossing and hitting the first man. Woodrow with his back to goal. Just no organisation.

 

Yeah they did actually lol I stand corrected lol

 

That is where the board and managers have failed. They needed to make sure we had players to operate in a few systems/styles. Losing Moore was the worst decision of the summer window for me. He offered that different dimension in attack.

The managers and coaches have also failed by not highlighting key weaknesses in our game and working on them to adapt our style or improve the players in those areas to make us more effective at them. As you highlighted our crossing and set pieces are awful, yet each week we see same the poor standard of crossing. Where is the improvement?

 

Norwich (like us when we were in the PL) aren't aiming to beat the top 6. A draw is a bonus from those games and a victory is almost fantasy-land - they might as well go out and play their normal game and enjoy the experiences. Their aim is to do better against the other teams in the league than 3 other teams from the lower half of the division. *That* is where they failed this year.

It wouldn't matter if they lost 3-0 or 6-0 to Liverpool if they beat Villa, Bournemouth, Southampton, Watford and West Ham

 

If we hadn't given so many goals away on a silver platter I'm pretty sure we'd be safe. Individual errors and inexperience are what's relegated us.

 

The problem was we sold players like moore, pinnock and lindsay who would have gave us a good chance of staying in the league had they stayed untill at least January. Then said that wasnt bad enough selling our top scorer 4 days before the window shut and 2 key defenders, the players we replaced them with and Infact every signing was brought in to eventually try make the club money in the future. Schmidt, sibbock, anderson, diaby..... never kicked a ball in the championship before but let's throw them in the deep end and hope for best.
Stendel said after the freindly defeat to sheffield United he needed experience but the board said no. You cant run a successful championship team and bring in every signing in the hope they will come good eventually and make some money.