My Thoughts - Longish Read

After reading the pages and pages of nonsense and tripe from the last number of weeks I thought it was about time to try and add a voice of reason and maybe a touch of perspective. Well that and I like people having a pop at my opinions. So here we go....

I'll start off by saying results and performances are utterly woeful. It doesn't matter if your a happy clapper or a pessimist. If you've got eyes and watch our team it doesn't take a genius to see we are rubbish at the moment. The losing streak is worrying to say the least and we don't appear to know how to snap the cycle. We are lacking movement, real pace (barring one or two), a couple of old heads, a defensive steel, a whole load of confidence and that's without mentioning struggling at times tactically. I don't see how people can disagree with this. It's pretty matter of fact. We are far too easy to beat and simply don't know how to break teams down when they put 11 mem behind the ball.

Now. Where I probably don't agree with people:

Changing the manager. What's the point? We've whined and moaned about stability and giving a man time. Yet people are wanting the manager sacked. I don't get it. 'We should never have got rid of Wilson' doesn't stack up as an argument. The football was equally as poor and turgid under him too. In my opinion we haven't improved but we have got no worse. This one is open for debate. Such is football.

Playing one up front. I don't buy into the fact that it's boring OR negative...IF it's done right. Walsall play one up front and he ran us ragged at times. Providing your wingers add balance it is a perfectly viable attacking formation. However, where we are falling down is we don't play it right. The striker needs more help from those around him and the midfielders need to offer more in my opinion.

Persisting with players that aren't up to it purely because they came through our academy. Digby and Smith (no doubt I'll get lambasted for this but I don't rate him at all). Players should earn a shirt on ability not because they are local. Im not bothered if you're from Dodworth or Botswana if you've got the talent AND attitude you should play. That goes for permanent players or loans. Wilkinson should be sent back for offering nothing at all. But again we all see this.

Moaning about loan players in November. At the moment barring freebies we can sign NO players on a permanent basis. We can all see we need players and a fresh impetuous. The only way we can do this at the current time is loans. If Johnson does nothing now he gets screamed at. If he signs loans to try and alleviate some pressure and he gets screamed at. It's a lose-lose. HOWEVER, Unless it's a real superstar, all future loans should have a built in 'buy in next available transfer window' clause.

At the moment there is a poor feeling between the fans and the club. Results and performances are dire. There are terrible feelings between certain sections of supporters and the manager, the CEO and the Chairman. I don't know what the remedies are, I don't have a magic wand or a crystal ball but what I do know is id be a damn site happier if we give Scunny a slapping this weekend.

I await being called a moron.

 

good post ted.....however why keep a manager just because we have already got rid of a load of carp ones beforehand? If he is carp, he has to go i am afraid.

What gets me is this we need to give em a couple of years to build a team....no we don't....they have everyday, everyweek to get this right. it is not as if they only practice once a week. By now, we should be seeing improvement but it just gets worse and from my view, Leejay is just guessing with team selection now. Hate to say it but look at Wendy manager, he hasn't been here 2/3 years and improvement is showing through. 'I need 2 years' is just an excuse for not having a scooby do.

the problem is with the people setting cr.ap managers on one after another. I don't know Leejay personally and it ain't his fault he was offered the job so someone else needs to carry the can for constant failure / bad choices.

hth

 

Agree with some bits and disagree with others but a great post nonetheless. A refreshing change when very few on here seem capable of backing up their own views with a modecum of rhyme or reason.

450ish posts in nearly 5 years?!? The Ted needs to frequent this forum more often me thinks.

Ps Botswana? Is than in Lincolnshire?

 

I think that you are right to identify the lack of real pace as being one of the teams biggest problems. Whether it be a player with pace running at a retreating defence, or a player with pace timing his run on to a through ball, pace is the key. It forces a defence to play deeper and gives midfield more room and more options. I think we would see much less of the so called tippy-tappy football that is thought to be a deliberate policy by most of LJs detractors if there was more pace in the team. As you rightly point out, it is nothing to do with how many players we have up front. Most teams play that way in the modern game, and you are out-numbered in midfield if you do not, and consequently the two forwards see less of the ball and spend more time not involved in the game. However, I do not think that Winnall is particularly happy in the role, which is a second problem.

LJ pointed out, in today's interview with Radio Sheffield, what a huge blow the long term absence of Ryan Williams has been. We all saw how damaging his running with the ball could be for defensive organisation when he played at the head of the diamond for Danny Wilson, especially when it was allied to the pace of Devante Cole. I think that LJ wanted to play him on the wing though, and I believe that he could have been the key to opening up defences in this position as well, especially if we had been successful in finding another pacey winger on the other side. However, Blackburn could not be tempted to let O' Sullivan go, and the search continues.

Expectations of the fans is the real problem though. Their expectations were raised and they allowed themselves to believe that a new team could be assembled in just one transfer window. They seem to think that there is an endless supply of good players who all want to play for Barnsley within the framework of a wages structure that can be afforded. When it inevitably does not happen according to their grand design, their answer is always the same. Someone has to be sacked. Everything will be OK, just as long as someone loses their job. It is depressing that there is never any constructive answer to the problem, or that they can think of no better use for £250k other than sacking someone, or even simpler, simply refusing to attend any more home games until it happens.

Reading the BBS is extremely depressing at the moment as it seems to have been taken over by a few who are intent on removing LJ. It is boring and it is dumbing this place down.

 

You know you're in for the long haul when you see a post that says 'longish read' in the title and Red Rain has replied.

 

You said you were a teacher. They read books and everything.

 

Don't get me wrong, I read the posts and enjoyed them - it just made me chuckle when I refreshed the page and saw the combination.

 

A refreshing change from 'LJ and Benji out' threads.

Good stuff. Disagree massively on Smith though. Opinions and that.

 

This^^^^^^^^^ Theirs two names that now appear in ever thread (maybe its the same person).. same point over and over

boring as ****...

 

Benji and Leejay out!

hth

 

Interesting point about pace. For me this is not just about having faster players in terms of their physical pace its also about moving the ball from back to front a lot quicker. ie the ball is moved faster. This is just as much a mental mind-set issue as it is a physical issue. Players seem locked in a "must not lose the ball at all costs mode" and aren't able to change this mind-set quickly enough and then they eventually lose it. Crack this and we may make progress.

 

I've thought they're the same person for a few weeks now, it wouldn't surprise me.

 

Excellent post, mate, even if I disagree with one or two of your interpretations. You've argued your points very well and shown how enjoyable the BBS can be when used in such a manner.
'Like'.

 

I think we're in a real sticky place. I'd go along with "keep the manager" if I thought there were signs that given time, he could get it right. Frankly, although I like the guy I can see no such signs. The team is woefully unbalanced, and lacking in every department. On the other hand, as the OP says - sack him and we begin the whole depressing cycle again. What really struck me is the Chronicle's assertion this morning that lose tomorrow and on Tuesday (both distinct possibilities) and we are on the worst league run since 1958-59 - i.e. in my lifetime!

Like the OP, I don't know what the answer is. Except to say that at some point, the finger must surely begin to point at the people who continue to make these poor managerial appointments. As I said here:

http://bbs.barnsleyfc.org.uk/showthread.php?234082-Disastrous-Managerial-Appointments

 

I'm not sure you can single out fan expectations as a problem. What should we expect? A decent season every 10 years for example? For my part my expectations are realistically low.

 

I expect us to win every game, totally unrealistic, but what is the point otherwise?

 

This sums it up for me. Living 5,000 miles away, this is one of the only ways I can keep up with my team and town. A few individuals who just keep posting negative feedback to anything and everything BFC related, make this a depressing place.

Anyway, Go Aussies for the RWC Final tomorrow.

 

Oh dear! That would be my lifetime too, being an August 1959 bairn.

 

September 1959 for me.

 

Some good bits but let's get down to the nitty gritty.
Keep Lee Jay and his mate and we'll flounder like the Titanic.
The history of getting things wrong gains even more momentum as we speak.
Why do we continually get things wrong?

Because the people who appoint managers and run the club have presided over one shambles after another.

The good folk of Barnsley barring the odd die hards are sick to the back teeth of such mismanagement.

Easy choice BFC.

Change the structure of the club or meander back to the olden days of 5 to 6 k languishing in League 2.

Resign the lot of you!