What another depressing night

No home wins since Feb 24th, and when I looked at that squad last night, it really stood out how weak this squad looks up front!! Starting with two players who had an awful season, (barring the last two games for Cosgrove) and the only option on the bench was a small young lad. I did think that Watters looked sharper, but needs confidence in front of goal!

The left back can’t have been fit, another late signing with no real pre season and training in one systems, and now anyone they do get in will have the same issues! Connell going off was a worry, he was brilliant and looked our only goal threat, so taking him off must mean an issue still exists with him!

I feel like we will just drop lower and lower with the current people running the club, they have no ambition. The crowds will be dropping, no way are people paying £27 or £30 for games this season when they are on tv.

How much more can our fans take until they really protest about this board??? I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already!

 

Why would fans protest? Have you read the accounts? I doubt anyone else would fund the club, I know I wouldn’t !

 

No more hiding places for JAQ, Neerav and James. Another **** show and they should come under massive scrutiny. They ****** Collins over last season and he took the brunt of the criticism and ultimately lost his job. There are bigger issues at the club than the head coach. Clarke urgently needs reinforcements because the squad as it stands isn't good enough.

 

The last couple of accounts do make for grim reading. Was it during Duff's season in charge that the owners had to put in an additional 5.5m working capital just to see us through the season? I'd hope with the recent sales of Anderson and Kitching that they've stablised things. If we're still losing significant amounts of money then serious questions need asking.

 

I’m not for one minute going to say what we have upfront is sparkling , but let’s not get carried away after 1 defeat - Mansfield could be a surprise package this season - they have a savvy manager at this level and have a side that reminds me of Luton - they’ve got a nucleus of 7/8 players who know each others game inside out.
Both of the forwards last night have had very little game time, but personally would’ve liked to have seen mcatee back as we know what he’s about and gives that unpredictability you need up top
I always think new seasons are best judged after a dozen games. Let’s not forget last season after the 7-0 win - Andy Dallas was the next Ronaldo

 

All the accountants on here will tell you that there is no other way the club can be run. That has meant a slow deterioration in the standard of the team since 2016. Many will say "It is my club - it doesn't matter!"

 

That's down to the poor management of the club by the owners. Are we going to allow them to hide behind club accounts for ever and ever.

 

Just as an idea (I think someone on here has already suggested it) why not go 4...5...1 until we can recruit better strikers?
Midfield looks our strongest department and up top our weakest.

 

You see, I would disagree.

football is not a profitable business. To the contrary it’s entirely loss making. I don’t have the stats to hand but I would have thought fewer than 5% of clubs would have made a profit in the EFL. In fact it might even be zero.

 

Where’s the width coming from?
Everyone’s going on about new strikers, I’d argue a couple of wide players would be money well spent.

 

It’s hard to see where and why we are haemorrhaging so much money, especially when you compare outgoing transfer fees against incoming

 

Clearly Gent was tactical. Anyone can see that.

 

I guess from the full backs bombing on?
I like the look of Gent but lack of width is defo a problem.

 

We get told we are skint but then split a role, bloat the coaching staff and offer a new contract to someone injury prone.

 

I suspect Mansfield will concede a lot of goals unless they strengthen. Any decent strike-force would have had 5 last night.

 

Very poor last night. Strikers have quite rightly been mentioned but I also thought there were loads of bad decisions all over the pitch, tactically and positionally especially. Too many technical errors too for me (passing particularly). Have to be patient however. The team are learning what the manager wants and the manager is learning about his team. Take a deep breath at the moment and see if there are any green shoots of improvement next league match.

 

Correct. O Keefe and Earl aren't good enough so it's not all down to strikers.

 

We looked a different proposition when Jalo came on against Derby. Someone who defenders are scared of, can go past players and is happy to play wide. That width on the right hand side changed the dynamic of the team and we looked ok. We need that wide option as much as anything, I would argue, ideally a quality loan. Then we would have the option of playing Jalo wide or in a more Conor Chaplin role.

 

Yes when we decided to try and score it looked like their defence is worse then ours.

 

Yea then we just need someone to finish.
We had 17 shots last night only 4 on target. We now seem over budget with deep laying midfielders. Imho we can't rely on Phillips to produce all of the time as he's either banging them from 30 yards or we don't know he's playing.
More goals from everyone would be nice...but I don't see evidence of that with the compliment we have at the moment but we have some tidy players.