Genuine question..

This bit too:

From the outset the Board determined that it was seeking young candidates


Why? Why were they not seeking good candidates, regardless of age?

 

I quite like the idea that upon hearing his 100 day plan they thought "yes, sign here Lee". Then, a few minutes afterwards, Barry says to Ben "but what about after the 100 days?"

 

Very discriminatory of them. Danny was clearly too old.

 

The messiah Wilson's name keeps appearing on here.
Why?
Too many folk on this board blinded by the 1st time round.
2nd time round Carp of the Highest Magnitude!
York job up for grabs. Will be right up his street.

 

I disagree.

 

Because he was the last manager. It was the same when Danny was under pressure from morons in January/February, folk kept referring to Flicker. Tis ever thus.

 

It wasn't that bad. Had us playing decent stuff until the Chezzy away game. We at least were winning our home games right up to his dismissal. He should have been afforded the time to build that LJ is seemingly now getting.

 

Because he was the one most recently sacked.

 

Who would you say has a more talented group of players?

Do you think our talent reflects where we should be?


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He'd lost Bree, Berry, Dudgeon, Williams, Cole and Winnall around that time, Ramage was in and out with injuries, but some were close to a return and of course, JOS was about to sign.

I'm convinced we'd have finished around mid table, similar to where we ended anyway, had he been given time. But it's all ifs buts and maybes.

However, what isn't ifs buts and maybes is how ***** we've been since for the majority of games and how we're only missing one or two yet LJ tells us it'll be okay once he gets his strongest XI out there. I might be daft, but I'm not that daft. We've had Williams out all season pretty much, and Hourihane's missed the last three. Other than that? I think he's stretching it by calling us depleted. He even referred to Davies missing through injury, the keeper he dropped for no reason.

I need to give up, I'm thinking of things that make me want him to piss off..

 

Deservedly so.

Now why hasn't the plank in charge gone the same way?

Answers on a post card to Benji and Co

 

Sorry, long post as it isn’t a simple answer. Feel free to all ignore and tell me to bore off. I’ve bored myself with it. But here goes.

Its funny but as awful as Saturday was, first half we did a lot of the more difficult things in football. We were able to quickly switch play from one side of the pitch to the other, stretching the Fleetwood defence and creating potential gaps to exploit. But then the easy element just didn’t follow. When the ball came to the left none of our players shifted over to that side of the pitch. Time and again Wabara would get the ball and the new lad was his only potential outlet and so the advantage gained was wasted.

There were two major causes of this for me. Firstly one of my favourite players, Winnall. He is not suited at all to the role he is playing. He doesn’t make runs across the front of defenders or across and in behind into channels for the ball to be played to him. Furthermore he never drops short into the gap to get the ball to feet. He hangs on the shoulder of the furthest centre half from the ball all game. Smith showed far more than any other Barnsley player on the pitch when he came on, and him up front in this system it would make an immediate difference.

The second was the midfield three. At times they were stood in a flat line, way back from the goal. Blackpool (when they were good) used to do this but they had Tom Ince and Matt Philips to provide the attacking threat. We certainly don’t. The biggest culprit was Crowley, who had a very poor game, as he should have been 20 yards up the pitch. I’m guessing LJ agreed seen as he took him off at half time. Scowen was equally culpable for not pushing on.

I appreciate that this seems a bizarre reason to keep LJ, but the point I’m trying to make is that it isn’t the shambles people are trying to make out. First half we controlled the ball and possession and Fleetwood offered no threat apart from a terrible error for which the manager can not legislate. I absolutely agree possession in isolation is meaningless and we didn’t offer a threat either, but it shouldn’t be underestimated how difficult it is to get a team to be able to retain the ball and work it quickly from one side of the pitch to the other trying to create openings. It also restricts the opposition’s ability to score because we have the ball. It is the firm base on which any successful team is based, yet at times we seem to have decided the ability to pass and keep a ball is a bad thing.

I genuinely believe that if we commit more men from midfield and play Smith up top (and Winnall on the wing) the opportunities will come and attacking threat. LJ needs to take the lead in doping this, but if we do I think we will start to create more and more chances. He can clearly get the team passing the ball, he just needs to up the tempo and commit more men forward around a forward who holds up the ball. This would change boring football in to really exciting football. That isn’t to say 4-4-2 can’t work but the flaws in that system where shown second half where we played aimless balls forward and sacrificed stability – Fleetwood should have had another couple of goals whilst we still created nothing. Aimless punts forward and pointless crosses from deep are even more boring IMHO.

I appreciate all the above could be used as an excuse to sack him - if it is so easy, why doesn’t he just put it right? I prefer to take the view that he has laid a firm base and relatively small changes will bring rewards. I might be wrong, but if we sack him we’ll never know.

HOWEVER, the rewards will always be limited by the second factor as to why I would keep LJ. This is a young inexperienced team completely lacking on field leadership and their confidence is shot to pieces. Whoever was manager would be dealing with the exact same issue under the current strategy (which I don’t believe is LJs). The worst example of this was when Digby made his error. He clearly wanted the ground to swallow him up and needed someone to go and put his arm round the lad. Instead people (looking to exonerate themselves from blame) berated him. When things are going well kids can fly. They play without fear and everything they try comes off. But a couple of unlucky losses (Donny and Crewe) and it begins to snowball, fear creeps in all over the pitch and inexperience reigns supreme. There’s nothing you can really do about that from the sideline or through the week than to pick them up and get them ready to go again.

I can’t see how any manager is going to effect this until January when the strategy has to change. Send back half of the loans and bring in older players with proven quality on permanent deals. Which will cost money. Money that shouldn’t be wasted on compensation leaving another new manager to face the exact same problems as LJ without any budget to change them.

 

What he said!

 

Yes.

As someone as mentioned, Lee Johnson is probably not involved in player recruitment. Is tactics need to change, but im backing him 100%

The board though, they can **** off.

 

I think we have a lot of average players with potential and very few stand out players. Given their age we are performing a little worse than expected by not too much. The injury or Hourihane one of best and most experienced players is pretty crippling.

To my mind Johnson has gone down a cul-de-sac and needs a helping hand/ kick up the arse to get out. Keep things simple. Play players in the correct position. Remember to provide a modicum of entertainment in your home games. Set up to win at home. Stop worrying about the opposition. He doesn't need the sack but needs reminding that he has to start moving forwards and should relegation be one a more consistent worry then his position will be reviewed.

You need to give someone both time and guidance from time to time.

 

While trying to back LJ youve touched upon the very essence of why his tactics are so bad. The possession in isolation, boring and totally deflating to watch, it gets us absolutely nowhere and as you say we offer no threat at all, ever. Not quite sure where the restriction to the opposition to score comes in though as it hasnt worked too well this far...

Playing Winnall on the wing shouldnt be an option, we should be setting up the team to get the best out of him, our main goal threat, which is IMO 4-4-2. If not, you have to drop him and play a winger on the wing because Winnall has no attributes that point to him being a success out there.


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I agree with you. I said a few times at the match that we were playing some really nice stuff at times. We really do need players to attack more and I'm not sure what it is that's preventing that at the moment. I think we have all the pieces it's just that we are not playing them together and/or in the right places.

We seem to be very static and a few times on Tuesday Jackson tried to start things off but his crosses went to no-one as no-one was prepared to get on the end of them. Similarly, he was often pointing where he wanted the ball and would make the run but the ball would be passed backwards or sideways to someone else instead. Isgrove was also looking for some quick 1-2s at time and would pass it and make a run to where he wanted to receive it back, only to turn around and see that it had been passed backwards or sideways yet again.

Crowley and Harris both try and get forward but they remind me of kids in PE who are perhaps more talented on the ball but are a complete liability in a team as they refuse to use or trust those around them and so they let the whole side down.

We seem to have good individuals but they have no understanding of what each other is going to do. I guess this is a by product of bringing in lots of loans who haven't had time to develop an understanding, coupled with a lack of communication. Watkins, Isgrove, Jackson and M Smith all look quality to me but no-one else on the pitch seems to be able to read what they are trying to do and so passes are being mislaid.

Perhaps the solution is one of those summer training camps abroad that Flicker used to love?

 

Clubs from 1st in the division, right down to 20th.

We've lost 8 of 14 games, mate.

We've a few technically gifted lads, but they're quite feeble aren't they, easily bullied? I'll do my best to give an opinion on em based on what I've seen so far...




We've a quality striker for this division, but he looks knackered to me and no surprise considering the work he's had to put in this season playing a role that doesn't get the best out of him.

The only loanee that made sense when he arrived for me, was Smith. Proven scorer, target man at this level. You'd expect him and Sam to work as a two together pretty well. Yet we're not seeing that tried out really.

Our centre mids are all feeble, as referred to earlier. I like Scowen, Pearson and Hourihane, but with all three in there you're asking for trouble, especially against certain opponents. I suppose you look at Digby and assume he'd be ideal with his build, height etc. But he's never given a run of games, because he makes big errors whenever he plays, probably because he never gets a run of games. It's a cycle that needs breaking.

Watkins has been our best player, in my opinion. Wide right, but supporting Sam, he's decent. We've nobody anywhere near good enough down the other flank though. Harris has all the technical quality you need, but his decision making and end product is missing completely. Not seen Isgrove but looking at him from afar, he's another small lad isn't he, with very little experience? Like Crowley, who's been a big let down and just isn't what we needed.

At the back, Mawson and Roberts are starting to be found out after a decent start initially. But they're young and inexperienced. I like Nyatanga, as a centre half, and I reckon in Bree, Wabara and Smith we've decent enough full backs. But not much experience there either.

Can't complain about the two keepers, they're both good enough for this level, but yes, again, very little experience.

It's quite astounding when you think about it, just how brave/stupid this decision was to go down the route of building a squad with so little experience. Right now, it looks very stupid.


The testimonial game was a bloody big clue, as were the interviews we did with Bobby and Disco pre-season on Radio Barnsley, both couldn't believe we were attempting to go into a season without any experienced players. In fact, they both suggested the lads (during that testimonial) at BFC now weren't just young, they were all quiet, shy and probably too nice. Disco said it helps having a couple of characters in your squad, even if they weren't playing, he referred to Kozluk, Bobby referred to Harewood. It sad then to see it all playing out as feared.



So no, mate, I don't think we've the most talented squad in L1.

 

Brilliant post. Not in agreement with it all, but yep, great to read. You must have gone to a very good school, Andy.

 

Mature response to our predicament at the moment. Good read that.