A few people on here mentioned it last season but Phillips excellent end product last season covered up the fact his general play was often quite poor. This season he’s been pretty much pointless. As have a fair few others.
That end product was the thing that dragged us into the Playoffs. 20 goal involvements in that post Christmas purple patch. We need to find that player then it doesn’t matter how poor he is overall (which I definitely agree with).
Absolutely, considering he didn’t register a goal or assist until he scored in the FA Cup in November, 20 G/A for a midfielder who’d mainly played in League Two is insane. The question is whether it was a fluke, if not how do we get him back into form and if there’s a way can Collins do it. I’m not really sure of any of those answers but I’m not optimistic at the minute.
Yeah he’s either the key or a pointless answer. I definitely don’t think Collins is the man to inspire a flair player or give them confidence happy to be proven wrong though.
Players don’t become bad overnight, nor do they (often at least) consciously down tools and stop trying. These midfield players were all more than good enough last season. Styles wasn’t here in the main but injuries aside he didn’t do too badly at Millwall. Recruitment has been terrible this summer yes - the back line isn’t of the required standard, the second of two needed goalkeepers is also way below the requirement. But the worst error in recruitment of all is clearly the head coach. The more time he’s been here, the more influence he’s had, the worse things have got. It’s hard to think of a game we’ve actually played well in. Other than in very short patches. Even the 7-0 against port vale we might have been 2-0 down in or worse. A good proportion of the games we’ve won have contained an inspired goalkeeping performance from Liam Roberts. How much more do we have to see? It’s all well and good castigating the players - and I’m not saying they aren’t culpable at all - but hasn’t it become clear already that they aren’t ever going to perform under the current regime? You can’t change the whole squad. And I won’t be convinced that the issue isnt Collins. A fish rots from the head. A better coach would get more than a tune out of these players - and there are a number that we could realistically go for that might not break the bank. The alternative is to swan along longer and do it later. But it does appear inevitable he’ll go - and at some point this season. Might as well be now before the season is completely ruined.
I agree, but I suspect we will ‘swan along a little longer’ - which means to all intense and purposes, our Season has just ended tonight.
Just back. A really uninspiring display that was! A Blackpool team with I think two starters from their team that won at Portsmouth against a Reds team with only really Connell and Cole missing and yet they were superior all over the pitch. Nothing's changed for me - it all starts at the back and however bad we were further forward we'd have won that 1-0 last season. Collins didn't recruit these awful defenders and so for me he gets January but he needs to grow a pair and be in Neerav's ear 24/7 to bring in three dominating centre-backs - all five of the existing first team paid CBs can go for mine in order to free up wages Yet again the three slow, unathletic stooges were driven through time and time again like a knife through butter by a team with only one up front. Killip, De Givigney, Lopata and McCart is at best a mid-table National League defence, at very best.
What is he now, 25 games in? The worrying thing for me is trajectory. First 10 games, ok. Lots of work to do, but top 6, problems with injuries, weakened squad, Cole on fire and in touching distance of top 2. Not a brilliant start, but ok. Second 10 games, and the quality of football continues to look patchy; we're struggling with consistency and a lack of identity. Top 2 is looking further away, but we're still top 6. 25 games in, and neither the quality, the consistency or the identity is getting better. In fact it's getting worse, with some of the worst performances so far, out of all Cup competitions before Christmas, out of the top 6 and top 2 now feels a million miles away. There are players out there now, who just look lost. Attitude and quality both really poor for large spells, Cole's goals have now dried up and our strike force looks utterly woeful. We're still only 2 points from being back in the top 6 though. It's easy to forget that. 30 games in will take us to a critical point for me. We will have played everyone, will be through the Christmas fixtures and the transfer window will be due to open. In fairness, we could find ourselves right back in the mix at that point. But we could also find ourselves closer to mid table than top 6. If the latter plays out, there's gonna be very little confidence around, that he's the man to finish strongly and get us back in top 6. We'll see...
Watters, Styles, and you can add Phillips to that. None of those three should start at Reading. The bench - at best.
I’m not giving him January. I suspect he’ll get it from the ones who matter though. And I’m not sure the back three are as bad as we have seen either. Jamie McCart has played a lot of football, including some at Championship level, as well as Scottish Premier League. He’s proven himself at league one standard you’d argue. Kacper Lopata had started to look pretty good in the middle prior to his injury; Mael has switched from looking like a competition winner to a rolls Royce, and back again. We know Williams can play in a back three much better than we’ve seen this season. Is it all them? Collins was a bloody centre half; you’d think he’d be able to coach them on a bit. Even if they weren’t the right standard from the outset, you’d expect some organisation and a bit of improvement. We are getting worse defensively. We are getting worse everywhere. Three centre backs in January? I’d be moderately surprised if we even sign one. It won’t be three. And given I also suspect we are about to lose Liam Roberts, the man with just about the longest absence for a broken finger in history, I fear we are going to drop like a stone. It wont happen, but he should be removed from role tomorrow and let disco take them to Reading. As it is it’ll be the same again. He might even get a result, they’ve improved of course but they aren’t the greatest, Reading. But we’re just about as likely to lose as win I’d say. To a team who even without points deductions would still be bottom four. Nothing changes in my eyes, either way. I’ve seen enough. I know some differ, but it seems to me that more and more are getting to the same conclusion. Hopefully that will include Neerav soon.
We lost again and to be fair i dont think its because were a bad team, weve got a lot of good players, infact weve got a fair few very good players for a league 1 side. The problem is getting them to play as a team, me, myself an i, players are what we have in abundance. Keep the faith, things are gunner get better, C,O,Y,R.
