Little Lee's first test .?

[Port Said Red]

10 hours ago, ScottishRed said:

I think that is somewhat harsh. Any manager of any club will get some stick after a performance like tonight. It was men against boys for all of the 96 minutes.

You are right when you say who amongst us know the best team and the best formation, but then we are not working with these players or played a part in buying these players, however LJ did.

I do not expect us to win every week, actually no team does in this league,but I do expect a more tactically aware manager who does his homework and trains his players in preparation for the next game.

Brighton are a good side, they are extremely organized,fit and confident, and very quick and direct on the counter, I would have hoped that we might have realized that prior to KO.

Their centre backs won everything in the air, it didn't help that for the most part we threw the ball in their area at every opportunity to aide their cause.

We lost two ridiculous goals but really did we ever remotely look like scoring ?

A lot of things concern me about where we are at the moment, not least that we have a 19 year old lad being expected to deliver goals every game, and when that doesn't happen we bring on a bloke that technically is old enough to be his dad.

Why did we not bring in another FIT striker as the Swedish lad never gets a kick! Why?

The RB situation is almost farcical, Little is nowhere near the standard required and Mathews didn't even make the bench!

i could go on, I am not expecting promotion, far from it, but I do expect more than I saw tonight, we were static, one dimensional and bereft of ideas, and that comes down to coaching, game planning and motivation - all part of a head coaches remit!

You see i like this because it is a balance well thought out view. The other posts are people who have decided that a faltering in form means that the Manager was always shit and they have always known this but they couldn't say so because we were winning more than we were losing. This is the same mentality that is applied to otherwise good players who make a mistake or have a drop in form. 

Yesterday we lost to a good side by giving away two goals to poor mistakes early on, allowing them to defend in numbers which they did very well. No manager can legislate for those errors made by otherwise good players, I felt the same when Man Utd fans were calling for Mourinho's head last week, because his strikers failed to convert any of their 37 chances, how is that his fault?

[Portland Bill]

19 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

You see i like this because it is a balance well thought out view. The other posts are people who have decided that a faltering in form means that the Manager was always shit and they have always known this but they couldn't say so because we were winning more than we were losing. This is the same mentality that is applied to otherwise good players who make a mistake or have a drop in form. 

Yesterday we lost to a good side by giving away two goals to poor mistakes early on, allowing them to defend in numbers which they did very well. No manager can legislate for those errors made by otherwise good players, I felt the same when Man Utd fans were calling for Mourinho's head last week, because his strikers failed to convert any of their 37 chances, how is that his fault?

I agree that the fact we gave them a 2 goal start obviously didn't help.

We played exactly the same way v Cardiff and Blackburn though ( to name 2 games) 

Ok we got a win against Blackburn, but that particular game was for me one of the most boring games I've ever seen!

We are predictable, all of us know it, I can't see how anyone can deny it.

If we turn up knowing exactly how we are going to play, then you can guarantee professional coaches for the opposition will know!

[Marlborough Red]

11 hours ago, ScottishRed said:

I think that is somewhat harsh. Any manager of any club will get some stick after a performance like tonight. It was men against boys for all of the 96 minutes.

You are right when you say who amongst us know the best team and the best formation, but then we are not working with these players or played a part in buying these players, however LJ did.

I do not expect us to win every week, actually no team does in this league,but I do expect a more tactically aware manager who does his homework and trains his players in preparation for the next game.

Brighton are a good side, they are extremely organized,fit and confident, and very quick and direct on the counter, I would have hoped that we might have realized that prior to KO.

Their centre backs won everything in the air, it didn't help that for the most part we threw the ball in their area at every opportunity to aide their cause.

We lost two ridiculous goals but really did we ever remotely look like scoring ?

A lot of things concern me about where we are at the moment, not least that we have a 19 year old lad being expected to deliver goals every game, and when that doesn't happen we bring on a bloke that technically is old enough to be his dad.

Why did we not bring in another FIT striker as the Swedish lad never gets a kick! Why?

The RB situation is almost farcical, Little is nowhere near the standard required and Mathews didn't even make the bench!

i could go on, I am not expecting promotion, far from it, but I do expect more than I saw tonight, we were static, one dimensional and bereft of ideas, and that comes down to coaching, game planning and motivation - all part of a head coaches remit!

Bang on  with your comments. It was painful and boring to watch, we played as if we didn't believe we could score.

[RedRobin13]

So so much negativity on here! I would have bitten your arm off if you'd offered me 9th and 2 points of the play-offs at the start of the season. Throughout the season, unless you are one of the contenders for automatic promotion you are going to go through a bad spell of results/performances at one point or another so to be where we are in the table considering this I am delighted with! Think the international break comes at a perfect time for us and will allow the likes of freeman/ekstrand/smith/engvall the opportunity to get up to full match sharpness!

And WRT the comment about not creating any chances, yes for all our possession we should have created more but the Tomlin chance in the first half and Abraham in the second half were both golden opportunities which we probably should have scored from. Add into this the Wilbraham penalty and if we were a little more clinical it could have been very different.

[pillred]

15 hours ago, old_eastender said:

1 win in 6 is genuine cause for concern

 

yes I think its a good job we have some points in the bag because at the moment its hard to see where our next win will come from we really have gone right off the boil

[downendcity]

Splitting hairs but Lee's first big test was keeping us in the championship last season - and he passed.

This season I see as work in progress.Did not expect us to be near the play off placeds, so feel that we have been overachieving slightly. 

Having said that, we have shown that we can be good enough but cannot do this consistently and especially not in the first half.

LJ and SL will now believe we can challenge for a ply off place and if so expect reinforcements to come in January. if this happens then I think LJ is going to have to find his best 11 as I think this the only way to build consistency.

[Portland Bill]

18 minutes ago, RedRobin13 said:

So so much negativity on here! I would have bitten your arm off if you'd offered me 9th and 2 points of the play-offs at the start of the season. Throughout the season, unless you are one of the contenders for automatic promotion you are going to go through a bad spell of results/performances at one point or another so to be where we are in the table considering this I am delighted with! Think the international break comes at a perfect time for us and will allow the likes of freeman/ekstrand/smith/engvall the opportunity to get up to full match sharpness!

And WRT the comment about not creating any chances, yes for all our possession we should have created more but the Tomlin chance in the first half and Abraham in the second half were both golden opportunities which we probably should have scored from. Add into this the Wilbraham penalty and if we were a little more clinical it could have been very different.

I don't think people are intentionally being negative, most are asking questions of why we are playing the style of football we are.

Its no coincidence that a lot of us can clearly see the flaws in the way we are playing, the opposition clearly see the same.

Its been clear to see for weeks that we have no width, I find it baffling that LJ isn't trying to rectify this.

 

 

 

 

[Son of Fred]

17 hours ago, Doozerchris said:

Have we been sussed out by opposing coaches .? and now we see what he's made of as a tactician . 

The gears have been grinding for a while now.were pedestrian and lacking ideas-and belief.

It will be interesting to see how Lee freshens us up.not so sure we were ever really play-off potential so think Lee will  just shuffle what he has until one or two join in January.

 

[RedM]

1 hour ago, downendcity said:

Splitting hairs but Lee's first big test was keeping us in the championship last season - and he passed.

This season I see as work in progress.Did not expect us to be near the play off placeds, so feel that we have been overachieving slightly. 

Having said that, we have shown that we can be good enough but cannot do this consistently and especially not in the first half.

LJ and SL will now believe we can challenge for a ply off place and if so expect reinforcements to come in January. if this happens then I think LJ is going to have to find his best 11 as I think this the only way to build consistency.

I would agree. We got given a harsh footballing lesson yesterday by a club who have been in playoff contention for the past couple years haven't they? They have their squad assembled and playing very well together, we are a couple of windows behind, and had a settled Manager too. They are where we want to be, but as much as we want it we aren't there yet. So it's not a fair comparison to judge us against them and expect to come out on top. 

[Bazooka Joe]

3 hours ago, Portland Bill said:

I agree that the fact we gave them a 2 goal start obviously didn't help.

We played exactly the same way v Cardiff and Blackburn though ( to name 2 games) 

Ok we got a win against Blackburn, but that particular game was for me one of the most boring games I've ever seen!

We are predictable, all of us know it, I can't see how anyone can deny it.

If we turn up knowing exactly how we are going to play, then you can guarantee professional coaches for the opposition will know!

You're sure right about that - we were lucky to scrape a win which covered up the fact that we have become too slow-paced and predictable.

Colin sussed us out and now have the other managers. We need a Plan B with more options and alternatives to keep the opposition guessing and put them on the back foot.

For starters, we need to start playing with passion and urgency from the start, and make a fist of it in the first half. We seem to try to do everything in the second half, and that ain't always gonna work, especially against good sides like Brighton.

 

[Offside]

So far LJ has done well overall and our league position is better than I thought it would be. However, this does seem to be the first time that our form and style of play over a run of games have started to by called into question under LJ. Lots of the criticisms (e.g. too narrow, static, Tammy isolated) are justified in my view. On the plus side Lee has been adept for the most part at making good tactical changes during games.

I have always thought we'll finish mid-table this season and if I'm right about that there will bound to be times when we are not playing as well. I am confident we'll continue to progress under LJ. Compared to a year ago things are looking much better and in a year's time hopefully we'll be able to say the same.

[Ivorguy]

I have believed in Lee from the beginning.  A modern, thoughtful and articulate coach.  His published comments on Saturday's game simply reinforce my view that he knows what he is doing.  Bringing nee players in in January is obvious but his comments about getting rid of players not up to it and bringing in new players as well as bringing on our own are realistic and shows the deciveness and long term aims of the man.

I truly believe he will get us to The Promised Land, and his assessment of Saturday is excellent. He saw what many of us saw and is dealing with it.

BELIEVE in LEE

[Nogbad the Bad]

25 minutes ago, Ivorguy said:

I have believed in Lee from the beginning.  A modern, thoughtful and articulate coach.  His published comments on Saturday's game simply reinforce my view that he knows what he is doing.  Bringing nee players in in January is obvious but his comments about getting rid of players not up to it and bringing in new players as well as bringing on our own are realistic and shows the deciveness and long term aims of the man.

I truly believe he will get us to The Promised Land, and his assessment of Saturday is excellent. He saw what many of us saw and is dealing with it.

BELIEVE in LEE

Yes, he's certainly articulate, but ultimately belief in the coach from fans will come from what they see on the pitch.

Your own total belief in LJ seems to derive from gut instinct, and being impressed by what he says: others may need a bit more than that to be share your conviction!

[Nogbad the Bad]

2 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

Yes, he's artriculate, but ultimately belief in a manager from fans can only come from what we see on the pitch.

Your total  belief in him seems to come from gut instinct, others may need more convincing!

 

[Ivorguy]

1 hour ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

Yes, he's certainly articulate, but ultimately belief in the coach from fans will come from what they see on the pitch.

Your own total belief in LJ seems to derive from gut instinct, and being impressed by what he says: others may need a bit more than that to be share your conviction!

Last season I received a lot of personal abuse because I was arguing from the Autumn that SC had to go and was accused of being so negative.  I said then and say now I base my views on realism.  LJ has already revitalised our club, and although I agree that all, or at least the vast majority, of head coaches's careers end in failure, I think we have a long way to go yet before LJ hits that wall (and of course I hope he never does, he could move on before that point or he could meet that point at some future date with us i.e. When we have not won a game in The Prem by November).  However, I see no reason to suspend my belief in Lee after one defeat.

 

 

[Robbored]

Good grief.....

City have had a run of poor results and as others have said otib has gone into meltdown.

Imagine how the Norwich fans are feeling right now...........

I for one am confident that LJ knows what he's doing and a mid table finish is perfectly fine by me.

[downendcity]

Our form and results have taken a dip since the last International break.

Fingers crossed this next International break will have the opposite effect.