Statement Required By The Club

Absolutely agree. There is no need to write everything off that Johnson has ever done, as some posters are insistent upon doing. We will improve when older players are added in the appropriate positions, and they bring their experience to bear on the younger group.

 

But he did change it. He moved the two full backs narrower.

 

I don't think he's got anything to change it to. We're very reliant on Sam Winnall, Conor Hourihane & Adam Hammill. If one has a bad game, we're struggling. All three were ***** on Saturday so we didn't have a prayer.

 

The fact that Wilkinson is useless does not make Rhys Oates worthy of another contract. The conclusion is neither logical nor sensible.

 

The problem here is that the manager HAS been playing 4-4-2 (and I feel there HAS been some improvement as a result). So, it's understandable for him to stick with that.

So, imagine for a minute that (after) we go a goal down against Wigan, LJ decides to substitute one of the strikers and bolster the midfield in order to match up with the opposition. Maybe that is what he should have done, but I can guess what the crowds reaction would have been to this. I don't think LJ was brave enough on Saturday for fear of being ridiculed, and that is a worrying stance for him to take.

 

You can add all the players you want to the team, young old whatever but if the man in charge is incompetent then it changes nothing.
You can try and justify him all you want Red Rain but until he is removed then more pain will forthcoming for us supporters.
Wrong appointment by the powers that be who need to relinquish the reigns before its too late!

 

With no Hammill and no Williams we were struggling for decent wingers earlier in the season. Johnson tried to find somebody in the loan market but the players that joined us on loan were just not up to it. Without decent wingers, 4-4-2 is out of the question. Johnson has been struggling to find a team and system that work all season, and as I have said before, he has been 4 players short whatever system have has tried. We could not have matched Wigan's system on Saturday, because we do not have the players available to us. He did the only thing that he could do in the circumstances. He brought our two full backs narrower. If you know of something different that he could have done, well be specific and we can debate the effect of what you suggest, but to suggest that there was a magic formula that our manager was just to stupid to see is ingenuous.

 

You have a point and make it well.

 

This has been an interesting thread. Not what I expected on reading the title.

I agree with this post. Our failure in the first half of this season is mainly down to poor recruitment and Saturday was a perfect example. That said, I thought the team that we started with was decent, particularly the front 6. Swap Williams (who now looks to be fully fit) for Watkins and that's a very dangerous team. However, its not at all flexible. None of the players that started that game are any good in any other position.

When you come up against good opposition who can play in a number of different ways (like Wigan), you need to be able to make changes to nullify their threats. I think its generally accepted that 4-4-2 doesn't work particularly well against 3-5-2/3-6-1 - you're outnumbered right down the spine of the team.

However, what could Johnson really have done to counter it? We don't have another strong central midfielder who could have come on to sure up the centre of midfield. Although Hourihane has improved in a central 2 he's still not the best defensively. It looked as if instead of a futile attempt at changing formation any playing players out of position, Johnson decided to narrow the whole team, with Wabara and Watkins in particular tucking in.

That left James (their RWB) in acres of space. Unfortunately for us, he's also a pretty decent player and looked very dangerous. How do you counter the threat in the middle and the threat out wide? We just don't have the players to change formation and our players aren't good enough defensively to cope using the formation we had. I think you just have accept that in some games, the other team is better than you.

 

No itt isn't axiomatic but you tell the player come on impress me show me you deserve a contract and they play very well against Rochdale but then still ditch him and replace him with someone far worse. Not good decision making.

Again we bemoan our lack of experience but we let go some players with decent experience in Bailey, Laikovich and Berry. Two of whom are playing well and scoring goals. Again not a great example of decision making and again something that Johnson retained control of.

 

Maybe Patrick's internet connection is down so he can't get on Facebook

 

I'd agree with the sentiments of if the players are ***** it doesn't matter who the manager is to an extent. I think we are an average to poor team. Lower mid table. But I don't think Shrewsbury, Port Vale, Fleetwoood, Crewe, Doncaster or Blackpool are better teams with better players than us. At that point it comes down to management, selection and the managers decision making. We got 1 Point from those 6 games. We should as a lower mid table sort of team be looking to get 10-12. It's that sort of return from teams of equal/worse qualities that gets you relegated. It's those games you need to look at not games against Wigan or Wallsall or Coventry and it's in those games that Johnson's lack of managerial ability has been the issue.

 

This is where I disagree. IMO, he's lost his right to another transfer window due to appalling mess made on recruitment in the summer, of which he is as equally culpable as anyone else involved. I agree it's not solely his fault, but he also not blameless in the matter, and if he's not happy with the personnel in the squad then he should have been doing everything in his power to address this. Instead, he's allowed the situation to develop around him, which gives me concerns that he's nothing more than a 'yes man'.

Any manager knows from day 1 that they will ultimately be judged by what's happening on the pitch. He allowed the summer recruitment debacle to happen under his watch and he's entitled to be judged by the quality of the squad that he's allowed to be assembled in his name in the best part of a year in the role. Mark Robins ultimately left the club for his refusal to accept a similar situation. I suspect there were similar issues regarding Danny Wilson's departure too. In LJ, we appear to have a manager who's too comfortable in his own job security to want to fix the things that so obviously need addressing, and his attempts to do so to date have, on the whole, been lamentable.

I'd much rather give the transfer window opportunity to a new manager than to one who has clearly failed already in this aspect of the role, given that our very survival in the division, and potentially our long term future, depends on us fixing the mess that's been created this season. In simple terms, I'd rather take a chance on someone else fixing this than on a proven failure.

Something like that would at least be better than nothing. In public terms, we've had nothing that I'm aware of from the Board on the mess we find ourselves in. It's even more galling when you compare this to the reasoning behind the sacking of Wilson, which many people are using as the obvious comparison. We, as a small minority of the fanbase on this forum, have access to far more information than the typical 'casual' fan, but much of that information is reported to us second hand from people attending various private/restricted meetings or from access to the owner's Facebook posts.

As far as the general fanbase goes, the experience of this season is that when the going gets tough, the CEO and Board withdraw into a conspicuous silence which only encourages the belief that saying nothing equates to them doing nothing.

Consequently, we're now led to believe that the strategy is to simply hang on until the January transfer window when the exact same management personnel are magically going to fix the mess in one month that they so spectacularly created over the summer. I'd have liked, long before now, to have heard some explanation as to why we should give any credibility to that so-called plan.

 

I think a lot of people are pretending that the players are worse than they are because they want to keep Johnson as he's a really nice bloke who's very likeable.

The truth is man for man that starting 11 on Saturday is full of talent for this level.

The truth is -

Davies - Quality league one player last season - Got worse under Johnson

Wabara - Played in the championship a fair bit & a lot better when previously in league one than he is now. Gone backwards under Johnson

Long - Hard to judge as it's the first time I've watched him but Burnley a top end championship side signing him suggests he's a very capable player for this level

Nyatanga - Spent most of his career in the championship & is currently having the worst spell in his whole career. Gone backwards under Johnson

White - Proven at championship level. Should be very comfortable at this level.

Watkins - Scored for fun last season, started this season well but has gone backwards under Johnson

Pearson - Playing worse now than he did last season even though the team is on paper better & he's a year older / more experienced. Gone backwards under Johnson

Hourihane - Pretty much the only one who's not gone backwards. Playing to a similar level as last season

Hammill - Too good for this level & virtually every club in the division except Sheff Utd, Wigan, Coventry & Bradford would struggle to afford him.

Winnall - Proven league one goalscorer. Gone backwards under Johnson.

Toney - Quality at league 2 level, signed by Premiership club, done well for reserves & should be finding it more comfortable in league one than he is.

That's a bloody good 11 for this league. There's teams in the top 6 who'd love to have that kind of quality in there team.

Walsall, Burton & Bury could only dream of players like Hammill & Hourihane yet they're at the top & we're at the bottom.

I'm just not having this 'the players aren't good enough' talk. It's not true

 

Fair points, however, I think it's very harsh if he's been asking for experienced players to then be told no you're getting x. That may be construed as being a yes man but at the end of the day he's a man in a job where his superiors are setting the strategy. He's let it play out, that strategy has now seemingly been accepted to be absolute b.llocks & he deserves the chance to rectify it. IMHO.

Certainly not fool proof & I do expect him to leave this season if results don't pick up but I know where my frustration will be pointed if that happens.

 

Agreed we have some quality players, but together they make a crap team.

 

Our board and head coach are killing our club. Attendances are dwindling, we don't have a sense of unity and our owner will lose much more money with relegation than he would to pay off his latest failed appointment. Alot of pass holders can't be arsed and go to home matches because they have already paid for it but see it as a chore. It was months ago the last time we could leave Oakwell genuinely pleased with the performance and result of what we've just seen. Our club is dying on it's arse.

Now is definitely the time for a change so the new person can bring in who they want and get shut of alot of LJs garbage as early as the next few weeks. I don't know how much say he's got on transfers, just what we get told by the higher ups. But whoever is responsible has been a total failure. Our best players are guys brought in by Danny Wilson. I can't see anyone from the LJ era being talked up in years time as great for us like guys like Hourihane and Winnall from the previous management could be.

 

I accept that it will cost the club more to drop to the third tier than it will cost to sack LJ. I do not accept that the two things are linked. I do not accept that we are certain to be relegated if we hold on to LJ. I do not accept that we are certain to stay up if we replace him. You are linking two things together that logically are not linked.

However, two things that are linked is that there is a sum of money that can either be spent on sacking the manager, or it can be spent on strengthening the team. Now those two things are linked because it is the same pile of money. So what do you want, LJ still in charge but with a better set of players or LJ not in charge but with this set of players. Given that I think the players are the problem, I vote to spend the money on new players.

 

Or they are sticking with this one because they know that no other head coach will be as spineless and that a new man might know what players we need to improve things.

 

What makes you so certain that we will sign better players ? Every single player at the club has been signed with a view to improving the team and look where that has got us. The clubs management will always talk about the next window or next season as being pivotal just to buy time and fool you lot.