My Thoughts - Longish Read

This a depressing place?
Your taking the piss.
Get to Oakwell and you'll need more than a tub of prozac to relieve the depression! !!!!!

 

How can he say that not having Williams is a long term blow, we've never had him this season and who's to say he would have been as effective if we had had him available all season.

 

Passing the ball quickly and accurately is what we all want. No-one wants to see the ball being played along the line of the back four. However, it is a symptom of the real problem, and not a deliberate policy. If you look forward when it is happening, you will find that no-one is in space and no-one is unmarked. The opposition defence is push up to near the half way line and 20 players are confined in about 30 yards of space. Because there is no-one ahead of them with a realistic chance of retaining possession, when the defender with the ball is challenged, he moves it sideways in the hope that the next man will find a better angle, etc, etc.

If that cycle is to be broken, we need pace to drive the opposition back line back towards their own box. If you can drive them back just 10 to 15 yards, the space in midfield is increased by 40% to 50%. The second thing you can do in this case is you can encourage your full backs to break more quickly when we win the ball back, and if you have pace ahead of them, they are breaking into a vacant area, but the full backs need to be quick as well. But, there is no point in a full back getting forward if our passing is not secure, because if the full back breaks forward and the ball is lost, then there is an open area for them to attack.

If you simply hit long passes from back to front in the hope that something will result, the defenders are favourite to win the ball, even if you play a big man up there. Even if he wins the ball, he relies on his midfield support reaching him before the opposition can take the ball off him. This is not as easy as it sounds. We all remember the days when it seemed so easy. You signed just one player, the right player, and everything else slotted into place. In those days, every team played 4-4-2 every week. There were few complications and the better teams, with the better players and the most settled sides won most of the time. Today things are much more complex and our team is in flux. No system, team or style has yet emerged and constant changes are not helping the settling in process. It is less obvious than it used to be what the problem is, and it is far less easy for the amateurs (the fans) to make a telling contribution to diagnosing the problem. It is frustrating, but we have no alternative if we want to be successful. Be patient and let the professionals sort it.

 

Professionals?

Who are they?

The club is a laughing stock!

 

To be fair it's not as depressing as Oakwell on match days and that's not having a go its a statement of fact.

 

Good grief. So of all the problems both on and off the field, you've decided the main contributary factor to the current situation is the expectations of the fans. I would have thought that was the least of our problems but I suppose it's always easy to blame the fans. The same fans who have stuck by the club through fifteen years of poor to mediocre football. Let's blame them then.

As for hounding the manager out, if the club are seriously looking on here and acting on what's being said then they are even more inept than I feared.

 

I can't agree with this. I don't think expecting our club to be up and around the top six of the third division is raising expectations.

 

The comparison to the Wednesday manager is a strange one reevy.

The guy replaced Stuart Gray for one, who wasn't doing a bad job at Wednesday. He'd laid the foundations for them to build on, taking them from the bottom 4 to an established midtable side who had a brief flirt with the play-offs.

After doing this he was replaced, presumably at great expense, by a manager who has managed in the top flight mainly in Portugal for the majority of his managerial career. To add to this, he's been bankrolled by a Thai billionaire, and allowed to bring in players like Gary Hooper, Fernando Forestieri, and Barry Bannan, who have the pedigree and experience of playing in top Championship teams.

It's a distant memory that poor start to the season that Sheffield Wednesday had, where they went without a win in 6 games after winning the opening game. The Wednesday fans were calling for a managerial change then too. 6 league games and 4 wins later, combined with wins over Newcastle and Arsenal in the cup and they think they're European champions again. There's little comparison between Carvalhal and Johnson I'm afraid reevy.

As for the OP. I agree with everything except your dislike for George Smith, who I feel is getting better everytime I see him. Whilst it's not great at the minute, I feel it's no more than a dip in bad form. The players are clearly lacking confidence, and a win aginst S****horpe, Altrincham and York would certainly help improve that.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

I think pages of nonsense & tripe is harsh. People have every right to be concerned.

Completely agree on the next paragraph. I've never seen a team as inept at scoring from open play. Even when we had Gray & Macken up front in the championship playing against much better sides we carried a bigger goal threat than we do now.

As for changing the manager? I don't really want to because we've had a shitload of them but I really think the guys clueless. His inability to play Winnall in his best role (in a front 2) worries me. He's had him out wide, playing as a no. 10 & as a lone striker which he's completely unsuited to. His match losing subs have become a regular feature as well.

Agree on one striker not been boring but it has to be someone who can either hold up a ball (Smith) or someone who can run in behind like Bradshaw did for Walsall. Winnall can do neither.

Don't have an issue with Smith. For me he's been the best of our back 4 of late. All of Wabara, Mawson, Nyatanga & Roberts have had bad games lately & in Wabara & Mawson's case a bad run of games.

Digby's not ready to play first team football for us yet. He's up there with Noble-Lazarus as the worst managed academy player we've had. We're so willing to use the loan system to develop other teams players but don't use it to develop our own. He should've racked up at least 40 appearances out on loan over the past 2 seasons, instead he's been sat in our reserves not developing. I want to see him get a run of games before I judge him, whether he'll ever get that I don't know.

I think people's issue is that we signed 6 loan players before a ball had been kicked & at least 3 of them have proven to be shocking signings. Other clubs calling us Wonga. It's all a bit embarrassing. We probably thought it was the cheaper option but after all the sending players back & bringing others in meaning more money spent on agent fees & hotel rooms I think it's obvious we should've spent that bit more in the summer & brought in a few experienced free agents who could've had a proper pre-season with us & been ready for the season starting.

Agree on the last paragraph. The clubs lost its soul. I've lost the interest in going. If it wasn't for the season ticket I wouldn't be paying on the gate that's for sure. The big thing for me is that there's no connection between players & fans. A few years back we had Hassell, Foster & Steele who virtually everyone liked & they loved the club, now we've got barely anyone who's been here longer than 18 months & the whole club feels like a production factory for bigger clubs. Penny pinching & running the club better is all well & good but you've got to keep the fans on side & give them a team to care about.

 

Great post. A voice of reason. Post more.

 

As always, I find myself pretty much in agreement with your opinion. Especially the last two paras.

 

It's quite a sad reflection on the evolution of the human brain that people are put off by something which is introduced as a "long read". Bloody hell.
What's just as sad is that the poster has to apologise for posting a "long read".
......and in addition to that, the third sad thing is that the long reads usually are the best posts, with well informed opinion and considered thought.

Ps JOHNSON IN

 

I think you've completely misunderstood. I was the only person to mention the 'long read' and I certainly wasn't put off. When I'm not at work or sleeping I spend 90% of my time reading; I even wrote that I enjoyed the posts. I was merely posting a joke - clearly not a funny one if I had to explain it.

 

My apologies to you jam drop!

 

I guess that your pseudonym relates to the number of years that you have supported the Reds. I got 50 up last year, which means that we both went through our first visit to the fourth tier of football and the near death experience that resulted. This gives us a different perspective to those who have experienced only the recent years, spent mainly in the second tier. To them, playing football in the third tier is an embarrassment. They criticise Wednesday fans for believing they have a right to a place in the Premiership, but fail to recognise that they believe that Barnsley has a right to a place in the second tier.

In my early years, I saw Barnsley lose 7-2 to Bradford Park Avenue, 6-3 to Wrexham and 5-4 to Luton Town, all in the fourth tier of football. After 10 games of our second season we were 92nd. It gives you humility, it makes you realise that no team has a right to anything, it makes you doubly thankful when the good times arrive. There are posters on here who believe that they have suffered for the last 15 years and who question whether they should continue to attend if improvement does not come soon. They have no comprehension what supporting means. They have no understanding that in football, budget is all, and that if they withdraw their support they lower our budget. They have no comprehension of the meaning of the word supporter. You support the club. You are not supporting the players, the manager or the people who run it. They are all temporary, but the club is for ever. SUPPORT THE CLUB.

 

Your guess is correct. The old fourth tier days, despite the results, were where we all developed a love for the club. in my case it was built on hope and the dream of getting better. You're right, that experience does bring with it a certain humility and the knowledge that we have to be patient and keep things in perspective.
The current set of fans, I'm sure live with the same hope and dream but these days its strongly flavoured with impatience. I guess the saving grace is that they still care, despite the fact that it is illustrated in a bizarre fashion.
what I know is that as I get older the same excitement and anticipation still fills me with tingles whenever we play. Its the only thing in life that makes me feel like that little boy all those years ago. I'm not big on nostalgia but our club has given me so many happy memories that I can't help indulging myself at times recalling games of yore.
There is nowhere else in my home town where 8000 people get together every other week and all want the same thing. that's the power of football for me. thats where the romance of the game is. if we were relegated and were getting 3000 every week, supporting the club would still be part of my life. I will never give up on my club.