Did you really see a lack of effort last night?

Or is it just frustration that the result hammered a few more nails in the coffin?

I saw a lack of quality, some of that down to the way Burnley marshalled us, some of it down to our own poor play - passes constantly going astray, the final ball in to the box simply not good enough - but I never once thought we weren't trying. Jennings for instance, he put himself about just as much as he has since becoming a regular in the team, but he just wasn't on it last night, he barely managed to find a Barnsley shirt all game. I don't get what Woods is for, almost every pass goes backwards, often to a man that is covered, putting us in terrible trouble, but it was his ability as footballer that frustrated me, not his lack of effort. Even Mellis was chasing things down.

I don't buy that different personnel in midfield would have produced a different result either. Burnley are second in the league on merit, they're a good side, they wouldn't have given us room to breathe whoever we played. RNL was given half an hour and did precisely nothing, which makes me question in what way he'd have been different had he been on from the start. The last two games that Frimpong started, a 5-0 loss at Huddersfield and a 3-0 defeat at Watford resulted in those who saw him demanding he never be picked again. I still think Hassell is a quality player, if he's still capable of lasting a full game, but he's quality at stopping the opposition playing, he offers relatively little going forward. We looked pretty solid last night, it was our attacking play that let us down and I'm not sure what Hassell would have added to that. Then there's McCourt, who last started a game at home to Leicester, was subbed at half time and slagged off by all and sundry on here. Personally, I would have played him, but had we done so and not got a result, Wilson would have got it in the neck just as much as he has for playing Woods and Mellis. Our central midfielder who has made a difference now he's up to full speed, wasn't available for selection last night. Eventually, we're going to have to hold our hands up and say that we simply don't have the players, it's why we're down the bottom of the league and playing this player or that at the expense of another makes bugger all difference as has been shown time and time and time again.

There's been some legitimate criticism about last night. We persisted with a formation that was never going to get us a goal for far too long and the changes to personnel came too late. It's debatable if that would have made any difference, but if Wilson can take the accolades for the improvement over the last few games then he's big enough and experienced enough to take the criticism when things don't go well. It's disappointing that should result in a return for calls for his head though. 2 away wins, a home draw to a play-off challenging club, a loss to a team about to be promoted and he's the wrong man all over again. I don't get that.

 

I saw no lack of effort whatsoever.

I just think we lost, and looked ineffective, because they've got far better players than we have. Simple as that.

 

War & peace

 

Lack of ability, direction and hope

outclassed, out thought and out of our depth. Depressing.

 

Re: Lack of ability, direction and hope

I didn't see a lack of effort. I just saw a team that were better than us all over the park.

 

Effort can be measured in various ways though, not just the amount that they run about. For me effort constitutes being brave, trying to get on the ball and actually pass it. I didn't see one player last night do something brave or courageous, no one took any responsibility for the performance. It was clear that the plan wasn't working, Steele could see it wasn't working but every time he was going to pass it short Dawson was stood in the middle telling him to hoof it. There was no effort to try and work the ball at all, no effort to try and break down the opposition. It was totally gutless last night, they should be ashamed of themselves for that. An example last night, McClaughin got hit with the ball in front of the West Stand, he then just laid on the floor whilst the ball was in play. He showed no effort to get back up and fight. At the same time as this O'Grady was laid down in the middle of the pitch, funnily enough neither needed physio attention. I didn't see any effort from any of the midfielders to run past O'Grady. We didn't even close them down effectively. I know we're crap but I expect a lot more from a team at the bottom in a scrap, I saw nothing there last night that gave me an ounce of an inclination that there's any guts, effort or, indeed, quality in that team whatsoever.

 

To be honest I was quite surprised at how ordinary Burnley were. Perhaps they never had to get out of second gear given how poor we were, but their defence did appear to flap a bit on the rare occasion we managed to put them under any pressure. Bottom line is that we are not good enough, but I can't help feeling a little bit of resentment at what I perceive to be negative team selections. I also can't agree that a genuinely class player (arguably our only one) shouldn't be picked just because some people can't tell the difference between a footballer and a donkey.

Pains me to say it, but our time in this division is about to end.

 

As my mate pointed out, their 2 central defenders should be playing for Real Madrid they are that good. After all, they didn't commit one foul all game - well, according to the ref that is who allowed them to get away with man-handling O'Grady all the time and the only time the ref gave anything was to give a foul against COG.
Yes, Burnley were a much better team than us, but it's at times like this when you need an half-competent ref to at least give you a chance.

 

I'd play McCourt too. He's my favourite player. But the one argument I can't make stick is that his inclusion improves our results, because it doesn't. That wouldn't make any difference to me like, I'd play him just to watch him, but the only concern of Danny Wilson at the moment is to get out of the horrible mess we're in and he clearly doesn't see Paddy as a way of achieving that. Maybe he'd get a lot more game time in a better squad that was chasing promotion rather than fighting against relegation, I dunno, but the sad thing for me is that he'll be gone in the summer and even though he's been at our club for a year, I will have hardly gotten to see a player, who to me, is one of the most skilful we've ever had.

 

Agree with all of this, as well as the sentiment of the original post. There was no lack of individual effort last night, but the lack of intelligence displayed by the team in trying to break Burnley down left me on a real downer.

Danny Wilson has to burden some of the responsibility for that. OK, once the 11 step over the line it's up to them, but there are basics that should be happening and just aren't. If you're going to lump it to O'Grady all match, you need to have players getting close to or beyond him. No-one ran past him all night. You need to pose a threat from set plays - our delivery and variation now is no better than in January. You need a plan B, to take some risks and change the shape if it isn't working - last night we didn't, even when RNL came on and gave us the option he spent more time at left back covering Kennedy.

Far from calling for his head, I want to see him lead us next season, which I expect will be in league 1. I actually think the spine of the team is there to put together a decent side at that level. But I do want to see some evidence that we have a management team and players that work hard at the basics to be greater than the sum of its parts. There have been too many games this season (admittedly far more in the first half of the season) where that drive has been sorely missing. Goes right back to the way we stood off Wigan and let them treat the last 30 mins of the opening game as a training exercise.

We know that man for man the players aren't as good as the opposition, and in some games the gap is so big we'll get smashed. But in the games where the gap isn't so big (last night being one of them, despite Burnley's league position), we haven't done nearly enough to try to level the playing field and give ourselves a chance of getting a result.

 

I agree with Wellslie on this one. Surely effort consists of some modicum of footballing intelligence? To me, the effort was coming from:

Steele, Nyatanga, MVoto, Jennings.

Going through the motions (i.e. not thinking about what they were doing:

Kennedy, Dawson, Woods, Mellis, O'Grady.

Jury out:

Cywka, McLaughlin.

I think Danny is the man to rebuild, but too many of this sqaud need scrapping, and not enough money (or scouting 'coups') will be forthcoming to replace them. I don't consider I've had value from my ST this season, and I can't see it will be much different in League One next season. What I can change is not dropping another £315 to be proved right.

 

But he hasn't been including him so how could we know whether he would improve our results? When he came on last night we suddenly had a player who could get the ball down and pass it. OK, he didn't really have anyone worth passing it to, I'll grant you that, but in just a few minutes he showed the folly of starting a game with the midfield we had last night. By far the biggest disappointment of Wilson's tenure is his inability to utilise the only bit of genuine class at his disposal.

 

I agree with this but I would just make one or two minor adjustments:

Effort from:
Steele, Nyatanga, MVoto, Jennings, Dawson.

Going through the motions:
Kennedy, Woods, O'Grady, Cywka, McLaughlin.

Couldn't give a flying ****:
Step forwards and take a bow Mr J Mellis.

 

I'm with you as far as McCourt goes, but it's obviously not clear cut, because for every one of us who claims McCourt is the real deal, there are two others telling us he's *****. Football is about opinions, I'll back mine up and argue my point, but all it ever is is an opinion, I'm not right. I'm disappointed that McCourt isn't included more often, many others are delighted. Why am I right and they are wrong? Particularly as they share an opinion with our manager who knows a hell of a lot more about football than I do. Maybe we would have performed better with McCourt in the team every week, or maybe we'd be already relegated.

Over a long enough period of time you can judge a manager by the results (although not at Barnsley because we never give them that long). I think it's a mistake to judge him for not including our favourite players.

 

Is it really a matter of him not including our favourite players? To me, it's about setting out to not lose football matches rather than win them, not taking risks, being relegated from a decent league to a pub league with barely a whimper. It's about Hunter picking Ronson rather than Glavin. It's about believing that football should be a thing of beauty rather than a scrap between people 'working their socks off' and 'putting a shift in'. It's about remembering a time when I used to relish the league leaders visiting Oakwell because we always played better against the better sides.

Actually, it's probably about time I stopped caring!!

 

I thought the effort last night was fantastic,you just cannot fault it at all,the way I saw the game was Burnley took the first half but in the second they dropped right off and we didn`t capitalise on it,everything booted up in the air for O`Grady,our old centre had him in his pocket,we should have moved up with the ball on the deck playing one two`s around them.
I really do believe we have some good players in this squad but you have to use them properly,everybody and his grandmother having a dig at Jacob Mellis but he needs the ball to his feet as does Paddy,and if everyone got behind those players we wouldn`t have a problem

 

I thought that our centre midfield was the area in which we were most out-played. The combination of Dawson, Mellis and Woods just never imposed itself at all. Burnley were very good at closing us down all over the pitch, which led to the errors in our passing and control of the ball. I kept thinking that Burnley are the team we ought to have been, if we had been able to keep Shackell and bring in Trippier permanently. They have not spent big money, but work hard in closing down when they don't have the ball and move the ball quickly and slickly when they do. Oh, that we could have held on to Shackell, Trippier, Drinkwater and the like. I couldn't understand 4-5-1 in a home game, as Burnley looked very nervous when we pressed. Loved the way O'Grady clobbered Shackell though - worth the booking!!! Twin strikers might have given them a more nervous ninety minutes.

 

Lack of quality, which in part comes down to effort.

I'm with Wellsie. His post summed it up perfectly.

I also think Bobby offers more than just defensive qualities. His performance at Leeds was probably the best individual display from a tarn laiker that I've seen this season. Bossed the centre of the park, covered for his defenders, picked out passes all over the field, drove us forward and his set piece delivery was as good as anybody's we've seen this season in a red shirt.

Not assuming he can do that every game or owt, but I'd sooner put my faith in him than the likes of Martin Woods who offers a big fat **** all in my opinion.


I'm just praying that this new found love from so many on here for Liam Lawrence is justified. I'm going to take the opinions of those who reckon he's 'the man' and run with it, hoping he makes a difference (again?) on Saturday and beyond. But I think I'd like to see him paired with his mate Bobby in there.

 

Lack of effort maybe a bit strong but there's certainly not the same effort being applied as latter part of last season with approx similar quality of squad imo.
The precedents we witnessed last season should not be one offs.