Davefevs

It’s the usual stuff that comes out. We had this last week, when VT said players has been thrown under the bus, then had to re-state, not everyone gets on with Nige. Massive difference. And pretty usual in the workplace, and even more so in football squads.

It is his squad. But it’s not a squad he’d have chosen given the constraints imposed is it? That’s a Big difference. In an ideal world he might’ve kept one or two that were OOC, he’d have moved on two or three that are in contract to either retain those he let go….or generate funds for other players. The recent trend of performances isn’t great, but you have to see if that trend reverts to better performances like earlier this season. For 55-60 minutes we played fine with a bit of a lack of quality when it truly mattered. But we did create good situations last night in that hour. I’d say we were the better team, not by much, but were. What is indisputable is the financial mess we are in. And that is stifling squad building.

Wouldn’t mind Lowe and Pearson.

I agree. For me the biggest issue is that we can’t afford the luxury of a number 10 / in the hole player whether that be 4312-diamond or 5212. In Weimann’s case, playing him there limits his effectiveness. In some respects it reminds me a little of Cotts 3412 in 15/16, where Freeman was all bustling energy, but in the tightest area on the pitch, and he continually got caught on the ball….that’s when we could find him. I’d rather we played a flat 3 last night, even if that meant Weimann RCM, James CM, Bakinson LCM. @JonDolmani disagree re Wells. Since coming back in he’s looked pretty sharp, been a good option. Last night he was below par, but his performances have been pretty decent. Bard - yes we need to manage the workload of all 3 better, most definitely Martin.

Williams back in training.

But at other times this season have you seen worse? Because I have. We’ve played alright at times this season. We need to ensure the current form doesn’t continue. We need to drag that back.

I like your posts Ray….very sensible, well articulated. My view during the summer was that I thought we were more like the summer of 16/17 season in terms of where we are, e.g. coming off the back of a tough Champ season, but stayed up, ready to kick on. But my nagging doubt was the financial side, and I did wonder (but doubted) whether we were more SOD 12/13 through 13/14, e.g. slashing the wage bill and picking up frees and young players. I do start to think it is more like the SOD era, hence my I’ve posted a few times whether Nige might not see the 3 years out in the capacity as manager, but might slip more into a “DoF” role in time with a younger manager coming in. But I think he will set the foundations. I like your posts too Steve. Sensible! We can start the Pearson Out stuff now, but we are just re-starting the re-build. The foundations aren’t there at the mo’. We will end up back in the same cycle of bringing a manager in mid season, he does ok for a bit because it’s all done with short term success in mind, and then it breaks, you sack him and it’s back to square one. It’s hard, but we have to take on some pain, and as a set of fans I don’t think that many are prepared for that. They want it all now, and then moan that Luton and Coventry are flying. Well, guess what, they did their rebuild and because they did a good job and were patient, they can now build a two storey extension without planning permission or having to knock half the house down to do it. Its gonna be tough, I’m prepared to go through that….jeez we did 1981/2.

I’d play him down the middle with Wells.

24 now….needs to stamp his authority on his career….but I don’t think he’s a bad player at all.

Good business (£s), shit awful timing and succession planning. Is that fair?

Why? I thought he played ok tonight. He came in and did a reasonable job in a different position (most, me included thought he’d play RCB3, but he played in the middle). He got done by Deeney for their second, admittedly. He tried to pass the ball out at the back, not always successfully, but it was a bit better than we’ve seen of late…for the first hour. Fine if you have a different view.

Who is describing as that? Not me for sure. I might describe others as that, and some we are left with, but not Pato. I’m a great admirer of his tech ability, I don’t subscribe to the 1 in 10 either….I might critique some other parts of his game though. When I was working on a huge programme for an ex-employer, I was genuinely surprised how much some of my seniors flapped when things got a bit scary / fraught. Yet people at my lower level remained calm, stuck to our methods and processes and held some of it together. I had no problem them coming to me for info to help them make a decision….that’s my place in the food chain. But what I objected to was them coming to me and expecting me to give them the answer they wanted to hear. OTIB seems to be the place at times like these to knee jerk and think about it later, if at all.

Interesting that the 3 times Baker has played LB this season we’re Cardiff, Preston, Luton….a win and 2 draws, he scored and we kept a clean sheet. Dont write of Vyner just yet. He was the RB in those three too….got an assist and the same clean sheet. Funny old game chief ?

Disagree. Ignoring personnel / names / systems for the mo’. If you have two players coming back from injury that might be better than 2 of your current eleven, then dropping out your two worst and bringing two better is likely to improve you. Is that a fair statement? Obviously it doesn’t always work out that your best eleven players fit into a football formation, and sometimes lesser players work better in a system that supposed better players. If I said just 2 out of Baker, Semenyo and Williams were better than 2 of tonight’s team, then I think their return from injury will improve us. Maybe all 3 improves us a smidge more? So I don’t see it as rearranging the deck chairs, I think we have a couple of nice sun loungers with padded head rests and back supports to come back, whereas I’m fed up of trapping my finger in those wooden monstrosities. ?

Arrrrrggggggggghhhhhhh, I’m not gonna have to do another effing net spend bollax post am I. It’s late! ? My simple response is…..you cannot judge on net spend. There are too many variables for starters….e.g. who signed them in the first place, what about the values of the players he signed that are still here. Then for seconds, there are far more things going on than net effing spend! I will never blame Lee alone, he did some good things. But together with MA (with SL the biggest culprit) they wasted a tonne of money. As a collective, they lost £41m in 4 seasons. So feel free to give Johnson the credit for net spend, but it’s very blinkered way of looking of it. Sorry to rant….you touched a nerve on the whole financial thing….if you have haven’t seen me rant at @lukebcfc1989on exactly this subject, I apologise. It’s an area I e spent countless hours looking at. I just posted a response on another thread where someone wrote. Thank you.

I like this post I like this one too, actually I like this one even more. Yes, but he was suffering ill-health and had stepped back a bit from what I recall. Was chatting to someone in recruitment the other day and he said Keith was bonkers!

I will be disappointed if we end up in a relegation battle. I think we are (?), will be better than that. Undoubtedly, Nige has to do better on the playing front. A re-build isn’t pretty is it. But it’s better trying to do it in the Champ than League One. I’m not lowering my expectations of this season….but we need to improve.

Supposedly back on the grass this week. Think Conway and Williams were meant to be yesterday, and Antoine was Tues (today) / Wednesday.

A financial decision….pretty much forced on him, because of the wasteful years of MA. Nige himself said Pato was unlucky not to get a contract offer. Unfortunately budgets dictate, it doesn’t become a football ability decision when racking up £35m losses. I think most of us saw the talent of Pato, but he’d just been through a series of recurring hip injuries too. Walsh was never staying according to some, so what do you do? We can’t treat it like playing a game of Football Manager.

He was poor tonight, he’s been below average most games of late. He had some good games earlier this season. As a team we generally aren’t playing well at the mo’, and therefore most players aren’t looking anywhere near what they were 6-8 games ago. Martin isn’t being played to his strengths, and I think he’s now tired. For me, it’s not a case of “just get through Saturday Chris, then you get a week off”, he needs a rest on Saturday. The last thing we want is for him to get injured….some may disagree!! But what we want is him to be used strategically, play one, rest one, play a couple, sub a couple. Maybe Antoine will be back Saturday?

Good post, I think we are beyond the days of signing name players, but I guess you are referring to resigning Weimann and Baker for example. I said last week, I think we will see us more go down the young route we’ve seen with Tanner and Atkinson. If I was SL I’d get the accounts out for 20/21 asap and spell out in no uncertain terms what the FFP situation is. If he can delegate to Richard Gould if he likes. Because as it stands there will be a proportion of fans who will be getting restless. If they do point to a bit of a horror show as expected it may take some pressure off of Nige or at least manage expectations in the Jan window.

It looked like Benarous was getting called back from warming-up on 66mins….then Hogan scored.

You could argue that despite not having a great game personally, that one “leader” going off on 54 minutes cost us our shape and discipline.

Think you mean Jane Austen or is that Pride and Prejudice! ???

Quite like using the skills I’ve acquired in the job I do thanks . And I can guarantee the pay won’t be anywhere near comparable either.