Majority of BBS posters recently appear to be moving towards the negative side of the spectrum. I'm sticking by BFC's current structure and see where we are by Christmas. If we're stranded in relegation positions, then I'm confident Mansford and Watkins will have a plan B.
Wednesday brought on their massive centre forward (who is actually a good player) and we struggled to get to grips with him, partly indicative of our lack of confidence. But other than that the difference between the two teams is that we are capable of playing football and the they are useless. I actually thought coming away from the game that a draw was a fair result but when I watched the full game back I changed my mind. Not saying we were brilliant, far from it, but we were the better team over the game as a whole, as we were against Donny, Ipswich, Reading and Boro. We should have more points from those games. We haven't which is worrying and may come back to bite but I can't be ar5ed with this rewriting of history.
Fair enough JC, but I'm sticking by my feeling that BFC have improved over last couple of months. It's easy to pick a statistic that proves it otherwise, I'm just going on the fact we've conceded far less goals, appear to have a more settled structure/team, creating chances (not finishing them is the problem), not getting cut adrift in the league table, sending fringe players out on loan and generally tidying squad up, etc.
If we're turned over meekly by Millwall, will you still find summat to cling onto Andy? Not having a pop, pal. I admire your loyalty, and ability to look for the positives. I used to do similarly with Keith. Just wondering what would be enough for you to be concerned/lose hope etc...?
I'm not saying it's all cack just that we shouldn't overestimate the recovery. It's better to remain on the realistic spectrum then you don't find yourself either defending the indefensible or calling for the managers head. We should concede less goals play 6 defensively minded players plus another in O'Brien who is more of a harrier than an attacker. It stands to reason. At the same time you create less naturally.
Whitey, it's easy to use statistics/facts either way.....I'm on the positive, quite a few are on the negative (including yourself......keep out of the kitchen knife drawer). That's all I'm saying.
Flitcroft is certainly not above criticism from me. Going right back to Wolves last season I've been critical of the inconsistencies in our play and the lack of coherence in our style. We won that game based on momentum. We were far too direct and didn't retain the ball well. When we get the ball down we're a good team but we lapse far too easily in to lumping it at O'Grady. But I completely understand Flicker's response to our start to the season. We were far too open and had new players who were getting used to each other. For me you don't deal with that by going gung ho and chucking kids in. You make yourself hard to beat and get some experience in. He's done that and we should have more from it. No it's not been great to watch but it's stabilised us and given us a platform to build on. Personally I can't see us winning games regularly until we go 4-5-1 and get Mellis (or Paddy or A N Other) in the Butterfield role, and start to pass the ball more consistently. Which we are capable of doing. I like my board and fans to have faith in their convictions. Flicker was deemed almost universally to be the man to take the club forward in the summer (Whether he has a more competitive budget than Hill won't be known until the accounts are published but i reckon it is still one of the lowest in the league). But he was allowed to make structural changes to the playing side and precipitated changes in the boardroom which (should) bring longer term success. Having given that trust we should be prepared to see it through. I'd rather spend the huge levels of compensation we would pay him and his backroom staff to spend on a player of Drinkwater's quality which IMO would have a greater impact than bringing in another manager who gets hounded after the first bad run.
I was being humorous, hence the smiley face. And I'm not negative. As anyone who knows me will testify. I'm just honest. And I honestly disagree with the notion that the football club is improving. For the reasons I've outlined so often this last 24 hours or so.
Cheers. Interesting stuff as always. So you would be quite happy to stick with Flicker and his 'plan' even if it means relegation by March?
We may well be entering into a period where Mansford and Watkins will decide whether we are making progress or not! Let's see mate......I hope Flicker keeps improving, but he's putting himself under a lot of pressure now, that's for sure.
Hmmm. Tough question because I don't think we will be relegated by March. At some point in time we will be relegated, partly because of the cyclical nature of football, partly because we aren't being infinitely bankrolled. I give our managers lots of leeway because they are expected to outperform the natural order of wage expenditure. I don't think relegation should automatically result in the sacking of a manager, it would depend on the circumstances of the relegation and if they had a coherent long term vision that was likely to bear fruit in the long term. If your asking me if Flicker has this I honestly don't know. I can see some elements of it, although he certainly needs to improve the style of play. But I believe he needs to be given much longer than many seem prepared to give him.