3 wins in our last 6 league games, 10 points from a possible 18. Playing 4-4-2 and creating lots of chances. I wanted LJ out but that isn't going to happen and credit where credit is due he is starting to improve things. There's a way to go I'll admit but this slagging him off at every opportunity is ridiculous, he has also made moves to rectify mistakes he made earlier in the season (E.g hammill and white signings, playing winnall up front with someone else) And the talk of relegation trouble is a massive overreaction, yeah the defence is still ropey but with Hammill, Watkins, Hourihane and Winnall in the team we can outscore most teams. It seems some have a vendetta against LJ on a personal level which is ridiculous, he's made a lot of mistakes but he deserves to be given a chance to put things right considering recent results. Sent from my thl 5000 using Tapatalk
It's too early to say there's been any upturn in fortunes. We have beaten 3 appealing sides. If we can beat Millwall who are a better team and then move onwards then maybe. I have nothing against Johnson ( a rainy day in Altrincham notwithstanding) but I'm yet to see anything resembling a good manager or someone capable of developing young players.
Wigan as as bad as anything I have seen this season, with the exception of maybe Rochdale away. Blackpool was better but they are a diabolical team, and even without Nyatanga we managed to concede two. This will be the problem going forward. Not sure how you can say relegation is an over reaction when we managed to go on an eight match losing run, lose in the cup to a Conference side and at one point find ourselves bottom of the table. Johnno still has a lot of work to do.
I agree with most of what you say but it isn't an overreaction to say we are in relegation trouble. We have lost to some of the league's worst teams at home and are just a few points above the drop zone.
We've also lost to appalling sides though. We need to reign in this 'Blackpool were terrible' stuff, not because they weren't, but because they can't have been any worse than Port Vale or Crewe who managed to beat us. Were they that bad, or is it just more evidence of how poor this league is? They'd not conceded in 270 minutes prior to us banging four past them.
A win is a win. I don't give a toss who the opponent is, their form etc. I used to give a toss about us 'losing' to certain opponents though. But then we lost to that many of a particular size club that it just became amusing, and if anything, helped me to accept the current state of affairs. Once you've hit the bottom and all that jazz. I do think we've improved though in the last month or so. But it'd have been hard not to. If Pearson has gone back to Man Utd now though, who the **** plays next to Hourihane? I'd love to see Digby or Abbott given a chance but I think there's more chance of Frimpong re-signing.
It's surely blindingly obvious that people will be a lot happier if the Reds can produce displays like Monday's (for all it's defensive ineptitude) on a regular basis. So I don't see where this is a "great post". Those six league games that include three wins also include two cataclysmically bad performances against Sheff Utd and Wigan, so perhaps it's not time to order the open top bus just yet. But more like Monday and I'll be happy to change my view of LeeJay's capabilities. Sending Smith and Wilkinson back is a further plus (people deserve credit for recognising their mistakes).
Josh when he's fit. Brad or Williams until then. But let's not hear any more of that Digby talk please. :nails:
The toughest games can sometimes be against the weaker teams and Blackpool were on a 3 game winning run without conceding a goal so to score 4 past them was pretty good going. There have been games that we've lost that have seen good performances, just for 45/60 minutes rather than 90. Even Wigan for the first 10 minutes was good but the less said about the other 80 minutes the better. Colchester and Oldham might be bad sides but Barnsley showed the ability to grind out a win which is something they have struggled with all season. All you can ever ask for is improvement and as long as that improvement continues then more wins should follow. It's not great by any stretch of the imagination but it's something to build on. Millwall will be a tough game but they're not unbeatable, they had been on a poor run of form until a 4-0 win over Southend on Monday.
More on the positive side was that we scored 4 and Hourihane didn`t get on the score sheet and all four goals were from open play.
You can only beat what's in front of you and we have beaten the awful sides we have played recently which is an improvement on losing to terrible sides. I'm just not one to get carried away with a few wins ( or defeats for that matter) Since Johnson's hand was forced and we started playing 4-4-2 we have played better but then maybe if he had tried it earlier we wouldn't be in the position we are in. As of now we are in relegation trouble if we start beating the slightly better teams like Millwall then we might get to mid table. An abject failure but better than it looked a few weeks ago. My main issue with the manager is that none of our players look to be developing in any ways other than backwards and surely with his brief that is the one area he needs to succeed in.
I'm really not convinced we are improving much at all. We've signed better players & thrown money at it but is the team gelling any better or are players individual qualities showing? Good league one players consistently under perform under Johnson. We have players who most of the division would love to have in their side yet it's took signing a player of top end championship ability in Hammill for us to actually win a few games. On the evidence I've seen so far this season Johnson can't change a game when we go behind, he struggles to impact a game with his subs & we have four quality centre backs for this level yet none can go without making errors under Johnson. 10 points from 18 is the sort of form we should be expecting throughout the season. I'm sorry if this sounds a bit Sheffield Wednesday but compared to some of the teams in that top 6 we're massive, far better individual players & a far bigger budget. I can't say for sure but I'd imagine only Sheff Utd & Coventry can outspend us & Bradford & Bury are probably in similar financial positions to us. And there's no hate of Johnson from me. I prefer him to every other manager I can remember expect Wilson in terms of personality. I've met him & really like him. I just don't rate his abilities as a manager
Agree wi all that and aren`t gerrin carried away with it just that the 442 was a big thing for me and whilst it will be our undoing against the better sides in the division it would I`m sure have gained us more points than the one up front and being reliant on set pieces to score. We gone from growing mushrooms to now seeing a chink of light in which hopefully the green shoots will appear.
