We finished the game with 4 centre-forwards on the pitch and nobody to create anything. If a local league junior football coach did that the parents would revolt.
The game was long gone before then & are you suggesting a revolt ? Do you not think over the season that the players are culpable for the position we are in or are you blaming Hecky ?
What I`m saying is that last Saturday we lost with the team/set up the manager picked and at no time from when we fell behind did I feel that he did anything to improve our chances of winning or getting back in the game. In my opinion (for what it is worth) I thought he weakened us by taking off Malan and not Potts and then the subsequent changes just made us worse off.
Mallan’s performance went from pretty good to awful after the error. I said to the guy next to me after 20 mins that we’d been crying out for someone of Mallan’s quality as he’d made 2 it 3 cracking passes forwards which no one else has done this season. He dropped a clanger and from then in his confidence were shot and Millwalls players bosses him and therefore midfield. For me the Millwall game was flat but there was not much between the teams. The difference (mistakes apart) were purely down to confidence. They are on an amazing run of good results and we are on an amazing run of bad results. First goal was crucial and they got it. I’m not sure there’s many managers that can give the confidence back to the players but the way that people are turning on Jose is ridiculous when there was very little noise for the previous 40 or more games. Time will tell if he can cut the mustard but he’s not to blame for our position. That’s for sure.
I agree completely that Jose is not to blame for what went on before his arrival. However he is now charged with trying to get us out of the situation we are in and I want to see him doing something different to the way he has set the team up for the last two games or repeating the same things are most likely to bring us the same results. Do you believe that more of the same will get us out of our current situation?
I believe the players have put us in this position & although Jose is trying different things to find the right formula , time is against him & we will pay the price for a lack of quality which has been evident all season & we will drop , the test for Jose will be to see how he goes about the job next season when he has been allowed to put his own stamp on the team , if he his given the chance
Not sure he's going to change much. In one of his first interviews he said he wanted his teams to play 3 5 2 or 4 5 1.
Does that mean you think we should resign ourselves to going down right now without a change of plan? I personally don`t see playing McBurnie wide on the left and giving Thiam another go on the right as him trying different things.
He tried different things last saturday & appears to have tried different things in his short tenure , what I am saying is , that time is not on his side , in my opinion we will drop but I sincerely hope not , however , if we do drop its because of what has happened all season & to me the players are the ones that are culpable
Honestly, I don’t know if we’ll get out of it, I guess no one does but I’m not gonna chalk **** on it after the Millwall game. There’s always a clamour to change things after a result doesn’t meet expectations but some of the stuff I’ve read since last Saturday are utter nonsense. Goals have been coming from crosses even with a front 3 so the clamour to go 4-4-2 doesn’t really mean we’ll be any better. Our deficiencies are not IMO tactical. When a player can’t beat the first man with a cross it’s irrelevant how many players you have in the box. When your corners either hit the first man or go out of play on the far side, it’s irrelelevant again. When your free kicks are floated into the box it’s unlikely you’ll see power headers flyin into the goal. We’ve been poor at the basics all season. We’ve tried 4-5-1, 4-4-2, 3-5-2 and 4-3-3. Nothing has changed results wise. The only thing that will get us over the line is to stop making mistakes at the back. I’m sick of stats against us where every shot on target results in a goal.
I`d ask why any of the different things he tried didn`t include playing his only goal scorer upfront.
I think mcburnie will score in whichever forward position you play him. He has a nose for a chance and reads the game so well. Played wide left of a 3 for every game since Jose came in, and has ended up smack in front of goal for the majority of his goals which have come from the right. Drifted in and almost scored v Millwall but for a goal mouth clearance. It's a lot more difficult to pick a player up if he drifts in like he does and his game wouldn't be made any easier if he was central because they'd be paying him more attention. This clamour for him played more central is like asking him to do more and keep us up single handedly because the others can't hit a barn door.
To be fair to the players, they can't really help that they aren't good enough either. For the most part, they do seem to put the effort in but it's not their fault that they were signed to play for a Championship team that they weren't quite ready for, or, more likely, that they perhaps would have been ready for if they'd have had some more experienced/better players alongside them. The problem is the team and whoever is responsible for signing and making up said team. I don't think it's necessarily the person/spreadsheet that identifies the player's fault as the players probably are all (or at least most, you can never expect 100% success) potentially good enough to play a part in a decent team but the problem is that we got too many of the same type of player in one position and not enough in another. Had we balanced the team better then perhaps the players we have would have been good enough (skills wise) but they don't make a good team when mixed in together.
Agree, and too many of the same standed. when you do your best but still can't win a game... then were do you go..?