From the outside looking in the problems at Oakwell are

IMHO
Head Coach: One trick pony whose tactical ability is questionable his system works away from home but clearly doesn't at home often enough and he either doesn't want to change it or hasn't got the balls to tell whoever orders him to play that way at home that they are wrong.
Squad: Poor at both ends of the pitch decent in midfield but too easily bullied outfought and out muscled mentally fragile.
People in day to day charge at the club: Either coasting or inept you choose.
Board: Well meaning willing to put some money in to fund the club but useless at actually running the club and wasting the money they put in on a failing plan which is responsible for the poor squad.
Recruitment team: Seems to be a figment of someone's imagination given the lack of action. But then again they're recent attempts are hardly worldbeaters so maybe they've just given up.

 

Isn't point 1 directly effected by point 2. The recruitment team led by a DOF have so far had one window not much time to right all the wrongs. I agree the board are well meaning unfortunately they haven't a clue how to run a professional football club thats why they have gone down the DOF route. I think patience is needed if we aren't in a much stronger position come this time next year I think Mladen needs to go.

 

Look at what we recruited in Jan last year a free transfer in pines and then took a midfielder on loan from a division below who didn’t even play that often for them and Josh Earl a defender from a team that was ultimately relegated.

we clearly haven’t got a pot to piss in we have ended up with a bloated squad with players we are struggling to move on - obviously everything more than likely now conclude in the last couple of days of the window but due to rank bad recruitment and management of the squad that’s why we find ourselves in this position.

 

The fact that the DOF and Head Coach between them haven't had the football intelligence to see that while the formation and playing style works away from home but clearly is not working at home with the players they have at their disposal and yet have done nothing to change either formation or playing style in over half a season means patience is a little thin on the ground in the fan base. The failure to resolve the Striker issue after nearly two full windows also suggests the DoF is asleep at the wheel.

 

But surly he can only change it if he has the player's at his disposal to change the system. I think that's part of the thinking of bringing in the Irish lad he can play wide right or left but obviously he needs to be able to through 90mins first. The striker situation needs to be sorted I think we were massively committed to was he a Scandinavian lad but we should have had a plan B. The DOFS had one full window I know there's only a week left of this window but it's when most business is done. His Mladen the the answer I've no idea but he's got to be given time.

 

I get all the above points. The problem at home is we don't play how we do away. Simple.

We try and re-invent the wheel at home because of the formation.

Five at the back gives the deceptive idea we have numbers. We don't, as soon as we lose the ball up field because O'Keefe or Gent have put in another bit of wing wizardry...we're f cuked.

Repeating myself but because we have the "numbers" Roberts, Earl, DVG, Pines or Franz FC uking Beckanbauer are sucked forward too.

When the opposition break on us we have forward centre backs colliding with Connell or Russell. Two players that should be filling the gap behind the wingbacks because the centre backs have been playing too forward down the middle.

If we played slightly deeper at home and allowed Connell or Russell to get on the ball and spread the play to O'Keefe or Gent instead of playing out to them from defence we'd be better equipped to deal with counter attacks.

Been really impressed with Nwakali because you can see he's a footballer but the team comes first. We need shut of Connell and two of him. I'd say get shut of Russell too but I think he's let down by crap players and tactics.

As for strikers. Humphry's should start with DKD and Watters...every game because we have no one else.

Needs must. Daft rant over

 

That's technically not true, first home game of the season v Mansfield DC changed a 352 to a 442 bringing off Gent after 30 mins when we were 2-0 down.
He's also played a 4411 and a 4231 so saying he hasn't had the balls to change it is simply not true.
The reason we are back at 352 is because of a lack of options, we've no proper recognised full backs who can defend and no natural wide players in the final 3rd, our width soley relies on wingbacks, which tbh aren't good enough to play the system despite improvement from Okeefe.
I will accept recruitment hasn't addressed the obvious positions and lack of quality, you'd think playing a 352 you'd want wing backs with good engines, ability to deliver quality balls into the box and strikers who can get on the end of them, instead we pay 750k for a small number 10 and play him as a striker, even if our wingbacks delivered quality service how is DKD meant to win it versus big centre backs.
The whole thing needs some serious thought as to what we are trying to achieve, but Clarke can only work with what he's got it's unfair IMO to say he's not tried to change it, he has and it didn't work.

 

He hasn't even tried anything different with the players he as at his disposal he's just plodded on with the same failing game plan.

 

It's not daft We are all frustrated not least with the home and away been chalk and cheese. The only thing I can see is most teams come to Oakwell and sit deep and like yesterday we struggle to break them down. We just don't have the player's with pace who can drop a shoulder and beat a man. Away from home teams come at us which allows us to pass through them.

 

Sorry but he has we finished yesterday with a front three Humphry's right dkd left Watters down the middle. Look I'm not tryng to convince you of anything we have opinions that's just what they are not matter's of fact. We have had too much change for me recently but not saying keep Clarke for the sake of it but I think he's earned the right for time with having this squad in and around the playoffs.

 

I agree and we do not have forwards (including DKD) with any pace or defenders either. Our midfield is easily muscled off the ball as we lack an Alex Mowatt type midfielder who is prepared to mix it in midfield if needed.
We have an abundance of average League1 players and who have lost a winning attitude at home. Fortress Oakwell didnt last very long and the fans have had to tolerate 18months of mediocrity at home with conceding goals late on the norm. The performance on Saturday was a disgrace. Goodness knows what they must be doing in training during the week because we just don't seem to be able to stem the flow of conceding late on and the head coach and staff has to take responsibility.

 

I agree with you but the problem comes from the ponty end who cant wait to get on players back, away its almost always encouragement at oakwell if its not 100% then they are not good enough I misplaced pass and get him off, players can hear and it makes them play safe, scared to make that pass incase it goes wrong.and people start . like sat, gent made a poor pass they score it happens in every football stadium,

 

I agree but it's the chicken and egg syndrome do the crowd lift the players or the player's lift the crowd. Never been a player obviously but we all know as fan's it's easy to cheer and shout encouragement when things are going well, when your witnessing dross it's almost impossible. The Oakwell grumble has always existed but when everybody else is quite it more obvious.
The atmosphere is rubbish, for me we need to attract younger fan's and I speak of a man of a certain age. It used to be free for u10s then £10 now £29 now that's not a lot of money per game but it's a fair old increase. A young dad fetching a couple of kids his increase was it around 60-70 quid kid's another 40 it all adds up. The pay on the day too expensive ,season ticket should always be the cheapest way but the difference is too big. You could sort all this but if the product on the pitch is poor to watch nothing will change.

 

Nah sorry - how the hell are these players ever going to progress to bigger and better things if they can’t deal with a bit of criticism - sorry don’t subscribe to that theory. It’s a bit chicken and egg scenario for me - I thought we had cracked it (no pun intended) following the Wrexham game but we came out with the same lethergical, no tempo and no urgency to try and take the game to them until we went behind as we had done before the Wrexham game. We basically ran out of ideas and as happened many times teams know they can take advantage of us if they stick in long enough.

one thing I did find interesting following a chat with Aiden Marsh a couple of weeks ago the club don’t do anything related to “mindset” training which is massive in football currently but seems like we haven’t explored this yet at Oakwell - now might be the perfect time.

 

We have an abundance of below average League1 players, and we are finding it virtually impossible to move any of them on. Poor recruitment and a lack of development from the under 21s has left us struggling. A manager that thinks MDG is the answer "Massive miss. He’s Mr. Consistency. I love the kid to bits. He’s professional every day, the way he plays, the way he performs. You’re always going to miss a player of his calibre" has me convinced that if we manage to stay in the play offs it will be a minor miracle. We have missed a striker since Norwood left and defensively we have struggled all season. The poor display at the weekend only highlighted our team and managers shortcomings.

 

I completely agree with Clarke on Mael. Drastically underrated by our fan base. Nobody will convince me we are better defensively or as a team without him after that debacle against Stevenage.

 

I agree. He's unfairly Mael-igned by our fan base.

 

I was trying to think of centre halves who are worse than DeGevigny.

I'm sure there must be... But the names aren't coming thick and fast. M'Voto probably, but aside from that I can't think who.

 

Pines. McCarthy. Lopata. Shepherd.

 

the one thing we really missed was his runs with the ball through midfield - it opens up gaps for those in midfield.