I’ve read most of the posts today. Different opinions of to where blame ought to be apportioned are visible - but not one opinion I’ve seen suggests anyone thinks we will survive this season. How depressing is that? I’ve also read all the bumf about Sollbauer the club put out. How many times was the word ‘experienced’ used? Clearly trying to appease the fan base. I’d suggest they might want to look for players that don’t currently play for AC Wolfsberger to do that... We have gone from one manager who seems unwilling to change the way he played despite it not working to another who has so far refused to change despite it stopping working. We have signed three players from Austria who look no better than what we had - to be fair to Sollbauer and Ludewig they deserve more of a chance but Ritzmaier is a poor version of Mowatt and it appears he’s the manager’s pet project. Struber wears some nice gear, he has a number of different wooly hats and he is a cracking Voldemort lookalike. I’m not too convinced on his attributes as a manager as yet though. I know one thing for certain however. If these three signings are the only ones we make, I rate our chances of finishing outside the bottom three as slim to non-existant. There would still be a small chance as the division this season is as poor as I’ve ever known.
The only real brief window where I thought we would stay up was after the Fulham game. The next few weeks put paid to that. The recent upturn gave me a little hope we had a chance but I still felt we had left ourselves too much to do and that form wasn't sustainable. Nothing is certain in sport but if we lose at Charlton it will be a very long way back.
It is clear (whether or not you believe it is scatter gun or not) that our recruitment policy, is not fit for purpose in this league. We have sold good players and replaced with kids and as we have said sooooo many times the level is too high to do what we find last year. This is the hurtful bit, our board knowing from experience .....the standard required, blindly went ahead with their recruitment policy. Do i have the patience with them and the plan? No i dont....simply because i dont believe in their long term plan. I cite their involvement at Nice as my main reason. Loaning players is not a crime... is the anylitical, recruitment plan only suited for signing very young players, who we can make a few grand on? or can it be used to build a succesful team at this level ?mmmmmmmm.
I still think we can potentially stay up. I think Charlton, Wigan & Luton are as bad, if not worse than us. I think the problem with this league is that there’s no outstanding sides but not many bad sides like we used to see so there’s a lot of decent teams in the bottom half of the league who will achieve a higher points total than you’d normally see in the championship which makes staying up harder for us. I never thought for a minute that Stoke or Middlesbrough would go down or even Huddersfield due to the quality of players they have & also the money they have. Birmingham could be the one other side who might potentially slip into a relegation battle
My take on it First the board are as inexperienced as the Austrian players Look closely at them with CEO and Conway. No experience in championship football. Then I hate to say this and he needs a little more time, but Struber has no experience in championship football He is blinkered in thinking the diamond formation he used in Austrian leagues will work here The teams have now got his number and are set up to defeat the system, and to add to it all he brings in new players no better than ours I again say I will give him a little time but The name Morais keeps cropping up We will see if the last two games are just run of luck and the next few games will tell us that Finally Do Not blame the players , most of them are being asked to do a job that does not suit them. A couple in the defence are not the quality we need and this keeps being added to The bulk of our team are good enough and I feel sorry for the likes of our better players being slagged off because basically they are not to blame. It is how they are being told to play
I haven’t posted for a while. I’ve still been going to the games, but felt was becoming very negative, which normally I’m not and was tired of having the same arguments with the same posters. In my absence we have won a couple of games, but have now reached our lowest ebb of a already poor season. Based on the display against Pompey (and we weren’t great v Crewe) we appear to have a worse team than last season, yet we’re ‘competing’ at a higher level. The season as a whole has seen some pretty passing displays but rarely hurting teams, and rarely a game without Sunday morning errors. We’ve done well when we haven’t been punished. As things stand we have to win every other game to reach 50 points. That’s a big ask when we’ve only averaged 1 in 6 all season. Our away form is woeful so basically have to win every home now. I normally try to get to every game, but I’m starting to have a rethink now, it’s just bonkers if you’re not making a day of it, not to mention expensive.
All I wanted after promotion was to give the Championship a go ,at least get stuck in and if we lose we lose fighting . Some of the players attitudes are a disgrace some are trying to hide because they are afraid to make a mistake most are just not yet good enough . Whether they are not good enough , too young or inexperienced does not stop them doing the basics . We lose the ball by kicking it straight to one of the opposition players or out of reach of destined players. These are basics and done when not even under pressure . When they are done under pressure fair enough but most times it just seems lazy or a case of I don’t want the ball. I know many are still young and inexperienced in the league etc but that doesn’t excuse the basics which is instilled in them from a very young age. The attitude of Collins after he kicked the ball to Marquis was a disgrace as far as I’m concerned especially as at his back were hundreds of Reds Fans who had paid good money to suppport them. We know they can play better than that choose what system the manager chooses to play , if they are losing but showing some spirit the crowd will back them as we did Flitcrofts team who battled every game . Maybe boards to blame maybe managers but certainly a few players are shirking responsibility imo.
We can stay up if we get back to what we were doing in December. To do so Struber has to admit that he's changed some things for the worse. I can't see him doing that though.
We looked better in some games but as others have said the errors were still happening, we just weren't punished un those games
In the space of 9 games we came from bottom and adrift to almost out of the bottom 3, now we have lost 2 games in league, we now need a run of games again like the last run, it can be done even with everything stacked against us like qpr away and the last 3 games look stinkers anall. Struber must show what he is about narr because he seems to be tinkering with summat that was doing okay. Come on Grrrr for fecks sake.
It’s my opinion and I don’t want to call out individual players on here as others will have a different view but there’s certain players that go missing during games . This could be for a variety of reasons eg like fear of making a mistake etc or disagree with tactics.
Understood regarding not naming. I'd be very disappointed if players are not following coaching instructions. They're paid to do what the coach asks them. It's for the board to hold the coach to account - not the players, at least not once on the pitch.
Disagree. Yes they should clearly follow the managers instructions to a degree but I'm a keeper being told to tap the ball 3 yards to Andersen every 2 minutes and the whole ground is booing me because we can all see it isn't working I'd be using the brain in my head and making my own decision. After all it is my wages and my career that's on the line at the end of the day.
