Dear LJ

[Bobfish]

In the forlorn hope that someone from the club actually reads this forum, I wanted to put up the lessons from last season that our club, but not the fans, have started to forget. My faith was restored in LJ, and still is, but I don’t want it to slip again so LJ please remember what it took the last oh-so-painful season to learn:

 

- Square pegs for square holes. Bailey wright may be a centre back, but as his game is defensive, he is at least a rhomboid peg for a square hole at right back. This is a better fit than playing central midfielders at right back. Much as Mags is a viable LB option, a rhomboid peg, he would be a square peg solution as a CB in our current situation. When we had four centre backs across the back line (wright,flint,baker,maggs) we were at least resilient.

 

- stop having favourites that you try to fit the team around. Like with tomlin last season, trying to fit in players who are off the boil. Players should have to earn the shirt every game. Paterson has been off the boil for 5-6 games – give someone else a chance. Stick Eillison out wide or better yet brownhill - which leads to my next point - but before that, why has Diony, and Woodrow, already been given the chances that Engvall hasn’t? Especially when Engvall will have trained much more with the team tactic-wise than Diony.

 

-we always concede from crosses from out wide (partly due to poor keeper command of our box) unless defensive duties are doubled up on the wings – the wide midfielder must track back and help out. Brownhill does this as a wide midfielder (rhomboid peg) – paterson has been slack at this lately. Cod and jb works well on the left because of the defensive cover cod does to help. Eillison was dropped because, I guess, he doesn’t provide this. But neither does Kent, which is why we have been so frail down our left for the last two games defensively. Jb with Mags behind supplies this. Hell, Jb and Kelly, Brownhill and wright would be better pairings than our current setup (if maggs was at cb).

 

- It is better to be hard working and resilient than a Kevin Keegan-esc team. That is why we stayed up, why we turned it round, because that is what we learnt at the end of last season. That is why we did so well at the start of this season. The above three bullet points are why I think resilience can, and has, slipped.  

 

- Our rb situation is a mess due to the club’s transfer policy being taken to fanatical levels whilst ignoring basic common sense. Buying for the future is a good idea, but not having a current right back is not. And, no, it isn’t about not blocking vyner’s pathway as he is now playing as a centre back as LJ believes he has a “higher ceiling” there. So where are the “two players competing for every position” at right back now, considering we have not even had a defender playing at right back for the last two games? Another example is Walsh, who I think is a good player, much potential, but we don’t play central attacking midfielders as we need two defensive holding/ball-winning midfielders to protect our slow centre backs. This is why we suffer when Korey or pack isn’t in midfield as we don’t have a replacement for their roles. Isn’t this why bobby and, partly, why tomlin never fit into our midfield last season? Why bobby now plays up front?

 

- And don’t get me started on game management.

Many of us doubted you last season LJ and you have done much to restore that faith, but since Christmas we have been poor in the league. Back to basics. Strong foundations. Don’t let us down.

[Wrongagain]

Hope he does read this - spot on!

[cityexile]

Agreed, and upvoted for best use of term 'rhomboid' this season.

[Nagy Mahal]

11 minutes ago, cityexile said:

Agreed, and upvoted for best use of term 'rhomboid' this season.

Plenty of competition

[054123]

6 minutes ago, Tiree said:

Articulate but inaccurate in many ways. I think Lj would counter all these points, as I would if it was worthwhile.

 

Fingers crossed and hopefully you mean by performances on the pitch?

[DirtySanchez]

I would think no-one from the club reads or even entertains coming onto this forum for advice, tactics, knowledge and who we should buy - FFS!

[cidered abroad]

I couldn't have put it any better, Bobfish.

 

[Son of Fred]

9 hours ago, Bobfish said:

In the forlorn hope that someone from the club actually reads this forum, I wanted to put up the lessons from last season that our club, but not the fans, have started to forget. My faith was restored in LJ, and still is, but I don’t want it to slip again so LJ please remember what it took the last oh-so-painful season to learn:

 

 

- Square pegs for square holes. Bailey wright may be a centre back, but as his game is defensive, he is at least a rhomboid peg for a square hole at right back. This is a better fit than playing central midfielders at right back. Much as Mags is a viable LB option, a rhomboid peg, he would be a square peg solution as a CB in our current situation. When we had four centre backs across the back line (wright,flint,baker,maggs) we were at least resilient.

 

 

- stop having favourites that you try to fit the team around. Like with tomlin last season, trying to fit in players who are off the boil. Players should have to earn the shirt every game. Paterson has been off the boil for 5-6 games – give someone else a chance. Stick Eillison out wide or better yet brownhill - which leads to my next point - but before that, why has Diony, and Woodrow, already been given the chances that Engvall hasn’t? Especially when Engvall will have trained much more with the team tactic-wise than Diony.

 

 

-we always concede from crosses from out wide (partly due to poor keeper command of our box) unless defensive duties are doubled up on the wings – the wide midfielder must track back and help out. Brownhill does this as a wide midfielder (rhomboid peg) – paterson has been slack at this lately. Cod and jb works well on the left because of the defensive cover cod does to help. Eillison was dropped because, I guess, he doesn’t provide this. But neither does Kent, which is why we have been so frail down our left for the last two games defensively. Jb with Mags behind supplies this. Hell, Jb and Kelly, Brownhill and wright would be better pairings than our current setup (if maggs was at cb).

 

 

- It is better to be hard working and resilient than a Kevin Keegan-esc team. That is why we stayed up, why we turned it round, because that is what we learnt at the end of last season. That is why we did so well at the start of this season. The above three bullet points are why I think resilience can, and has, slipped.  

 

 

- Our rb situation is a mess due to the club’s transfer policy being taken to fanatical levels whilst ignoring basic common sense. Buying for the future is a good idea, but not having a current right back is not. And, no, it isn’t about not blocking vyner’s pathway as he is now playing as a centre back as LJ believes he has a “higher ceiling” there. So where are the “two players competing for every position” at right back now, considering we have not even had a defender playing at right back for the last two games? Another example is Walsh, who I think is a good player, much potential, but we don’t play central attacking midfielders as we need two defensive holding/ball-winning midfielders to protect our slow centre backs. This is why we suffer when Korey or pack isn’t in midfield as we don’t have a replacement for their roles. Isn’t this why bobby and, partly, why tomlin never fit into our midfield last season? Why bobby now plays up front?

 

 

- And don’t get me started on game management.

Many of us doubted you last season LJ and you have done much to restore that faith, but since Christmas we have been poor in the league. Back to basics. Strong foundations. Don’t let us down.

Our best form strangely coincided with a period when Lee had few options to chop & change.. he's started making the same mistake as last season-overthinking...cryptic for "tinker".

[Baldyman]

Totally agree with this post . I have an additional concern that his decision making may also be shattering the confidence of our bench , thus rendering changes ineffective . Mags seeing 2 midfielders in defence instead of him. ( Brownhill and Smith seemingly not sure which of them was supposed to be at RB yesterday)! Ellison seeing Patterson struggling yet getting no chance at all . Engvall seeing an unfit and slightly desperate looking Diolny playing ahead of him . Where must there heads be at ? 

[petehinton]

Your comments re transfers are absolutely spot on. I’ve been screaming something similar for weeks. 

We were 2nd/3rd going into January. Just beaten Man Utd. Our stock couldn’t have been higher, probably in our history, to any player. 

We could’ve made huge signings to get us over the line. Instead we bring in someone for £1m, who can’t even get in the team now, who hasn’t played a game since September. Bring in someone on loan who has played in about 5 games since August. Bring in a striker who HASNT SCORED ALL SEASON. I get that we have injuries coming back...but not soon. And at what cost. 

COD & Djuric probably won’t play for the rest of the season. By the time Pisano & GON are fully fit it will be the end of the season. 

Derby brought in Cameron Jerome - numerous promotions and experiences. Gone straight into their 11. Cardiff brought in Gary Madine - scored a lot of goals this season, fully of confidence. Gone straight into their 11. Fulham brought in a PL striker on loan & the best RB in the league. 

Unfortunately we haven’t learnt from this exact same position last time we were after promotion to the Prem. We couldn’t have kept playing a CB/CM at RM, only have 1 fully fit good enough out and out striker, and expect to keep winning games as we were.

[ScottishRed]

8 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Your comments re transfers are absolutely spot on. I’ve been screaming something similar for weeks. 

We were 2nd/3rd going into January. Just beaten Man Utd. Our stock couldn’t have been higher, probably in our history, to any player. 

We could’ve made huge signings to get us over the line. Instead we bring in someone for £1m, who can’t even get in the team now, who hasn’t played a game since September. Bring in someone on loan who has played in about 5 games since August. Bring in a striker who HASNT SCORED ALL SEASON. I get that we have injuries coming back...but not soon. And at what cost. 

COD & Djuric probably won’t play for the rest of the season. By the time Pisano & GON are fully fit it will be the end of the season. 

Derby brought in Cameron Jerome - numerous promotions and experiences. Gone straight into their 11. Cardiff brought in Gary Madine - scored a lot of goals this season, fully of confidence. Gone straight into their 11. Fulham brought in a PL striker on loan & the best RB in the league. 

Unfortunately we haven’t learnt from this exact same position last time we were after promotion to the Prem. We couldn’t have kept playing a CB/CM at RM, only have 1 fully fit good enough out and out striker, and expect to keep winning games as we were.

Completely agree fella. Last month was the time to throw the kitchen sink at it, who knows when we will be back in this position, but they didn't do it for whatever reason. Again I agree with you , our stock was high and we would have looked an attractive option to the type and level of player we needed - even as a loan.

And there were more than a few on here that didn't want the club to do that which I simply don't understand, I got the impression some were scared of promotion, which would be utterly bizarre given this is professional sport.

The fact that we did not bring in a RB beggars belief - I like Eros and we have missed him, but even if he starts next week there is no guarantee that he won't have a set back.

And we really needed to bring in a goal scorer , you can never have to many of those, Diony may be that man but I fear it won't be this season, if we keep him. He looked nervous, unfit and unsure of what he was meant to do. Both LJ and Aden ripped him a new one a couple of times yesterday.

[Bobfish]

58 minutes ago, Baldyman said:

Totally agree with this post . I have an additional concern that his decision making may also be shattering the confidence of our bench , thus rendering changes ineffective . Mags seeing 2 midfielders in defence instead of him. ( Brownhill and Smith seemingly not sure which of them was supposed to be at RB yesterday)! Ellison seeing Patterson struggling yet getting no chance at all . Engvall seeing an unfit and slightly desperate looking Diolny playing ahead of him . Where must there heads be at ? 

I worry about this too, especially as they are our players – Maggs, Engvall, Eillison, Walsh – not loans. I do feel some concern for these young players, like Eillison and Engvall who come from another culture, no doubt sold by MA and the club to how good a fit they are for our pathway and dna, only to find themselves strangers in a strange land. If you watch the tunnel cam on the official site for the man u game, you can see all the familiar faces jumping up and down in a huddle celebrating smith’s goal when smith enters the tunnel. Yet Eillison is standing there, wanting to join in, but feeling that he can’t. Now, he finds himself sitting on the bench, knowing he needs to improve his defensive game, yet watching patterson and Ryan kent not doing this either, yet they still keep getting picked ahead of him, regardless of how poorly they may play.

 

Talking of the bench, we had three strikers – Diony, Woodrow, and Engvall on there yesterday. Why three when we only play two upfront? Why not put Kelly on there? Isn't that the whole pathway thing the club loves?  I may be mistaken, but I cannot remember hearing that he has gone out on loan. Perhaps he is injured? Yet we had one defender – maggs - on the bench and only three defenders on the pitch. And if the rumour is true that Diony had a cold/flu this week and was not considered well enough to start, why was he considered fit enough to be on the bench, let alone picked ahead of Engvall? Poor Engvall and Eillison must be having the conversation, probably in Swedish, how are these players who are not playing well – and loans too for the most part – getting picked ahead of us, even from the bench?

42 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Your comments re transfers are absolutely spot on. I’ve been screaming something similar for weeks. 

We were 2nd/3rd going into January. Just beaten Man Utd. Our stock couldn’t have been higher, probably in our history, to any player. 

We could’ve made huge signings to get us over the line. Instead we bring in someone for £1m, who can’t even get in the team now, who hasn’t played a game since September. Bring in someone on loan who has played in about 5 games since August. Bring in a striker who HASNT SCORED ALL SEASON. I get that we have injuries coming back...but not soon. And at what cost. 

COD & Djuric probably won’t play for the rest of the season. By the time Pisano & GON are fully fit it will be the end of the season. 

Derby brought in Cameron Jerome - numerous promotions and experiences. Gone straight into their 11. Cardiff brought in Gary Madine - scored a lot of goals this season, fully of confidence. Gone straight into their 11. Fulham brought in a PL striker on loan & the best RB in the league. 

Unfortunately we haven’t learnt from this exact same position last time we were after promotion to the Prem. We couldn’t have kept playing a CB/CM at RM, only have 1 fully fit good enough out and out striker, and expect to keep winning games as we were.

I agree. Whilst I admire the policy of buying young players to improve, like we did with brownhill and cod, it shouldn't stop us buying players we need in the squad right now. Playing a cb up front and central midfielders in defence clearly highlights the problem. At rb, I like Eros, but last time he came back from injury, he went back out injured straight away. And how many game will it take for him to get up to speed? Why not at least get a rb on loan, if you don't want to spend the cash? And why risk bedding in an out of form striker when in the play offs? One who doesn't know the football culture, one who hasn't scored for months?  In pre-season it might be worth the risk, but not now when we are in the best position we have been for years.

[Tully Bascomb]

I tend to agree with some of the OP,s comments but armchair managers are the best. Watch our team once a week and have all the answers. Why not go to Failand, stand on the touch line and shout. I'm sure Lee and the team would be really interested in all your views. Bring on the hate

[Davefevs]

@Bobfish a request....please post more often.

So early in the week we had isosceles and trapezoid - now Rhomboid 

It is so true, @Robert the bruce that we were better when we had no choices.  Ok, they were knackered, but everyone knew how to get through the game, to work for each other.

I don’t like to be critical of LJ, because he has done so well to 1) get us to a great position and 2) less importantly, win me over....but I sense he is going back to some of his old ways. Bit of tinkering, over-complicated tactics, bit of BS in his ‘speak’.  Macca and Deano need to get hold of him.  I am pleased that he took full responsibility for yesterday...not easy to do.

A question though:

Does Johnson have problems integrating new players with the existing squad?

I ask because the rules for forcing your way in, or not as the case may be, seem inconsistent.  Kent pretty much comes straight in, Eliasson doesn’t.  Diony does, Woodrow doesn’t, etc.

In the Cotts 15/16 season I think partly this fault was he was too loyal to the promoted side and found it difficult to bring someone in who’d have to leave ‘one of his boys’ on the sideline.

I’m still confident we can make top 6, but this is the first time I can see signs of implosion.

[Bobfish]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

@Bobfish a request....please post more often.

So early in the week we had isosceles and trapezoid - now Rhomboid 

It is so true, @Robert the bruce that we were better when we had no choices.  Ok, they were knackered, but everyone knew how to get through the game, to work for each other.

I don’t like to be critical of LJ, because he has done so well to 1) get us to a great position and 2) less importantly, win me over....but I sense he is going back to some of his old ways. Bit of tinkering, over-complicated tactics, bit of BS in his ‘speak’.  Macca and Deano need to get hold of him.  I am pleased that he took full responsibility for yesterday...not easy to do.

A question though:

Does Johnson have problems integrating new players with the existing squad?

I ask because the rules for forcing your way in, or not as the case may be, seem inconsistent.  Kent pretty much comes straight in, Eliasson doesn’t.  Diony does, Woodrow doesn’t, etc.

In the Cotts 15/16 season I think partly this fault was he was too loyal to the promoted side and found it difficult to bring someone in who’d have to leave ‘one of his boys’ on the sideline.

I’m still confident we can make top 6, but this is the first time I can see signs of implosion.

I believe LJ has favourites, rightly or wrongly, that he simply prefers, even if he plays them out of position. I guess that is his prerogative. Whilst I believe that transfers are fully integrated between MA and LJ, at times it almost looks like we are working with a director of football who the coach doesn’t get on with. I don’t believe this is the case, but with Engvall, Eillison, Hegelar, Mags, Moore, Lucic, and for a while Duric, its almost like MA bought them against LJ’s advice, LJ plays them just enough to say "I told you they are crap" and then never plays them again, whilst favouring his own choices of Taylor, Tomlin, patterson, wright, and now Diony etc who can do no wrong. Now I don’t believe this is the case, and I have nothing against any of our players, but at times the team selection can appear odd. Why Mags hasn’t been picked during our lack of rb and cb situation is beyond me. Like others and you have said, and LJ himself said, I think LJ overcomplicates things. He keeps trying to move forward without remembering what got us here in the first place. I think right now he is thinking about being more creative, more attacking, trying to live up to the “creative football of a premier league team in waiting” and “an exciting up and coming English manager” the media have built up due to our cup run, but like a boxer who throws too many aimless jabs, its exposed the weak underbelly we spent so long soldering up last season. By this I mean our weakness defending on the wings due to not having a right back and poor defensive cover from the wide midfielders, sacrificed due to an emphasis on attack both in defence and in midfield- he said this himself when he picked korey at rb against bolton for a more attacking emphasis, and no doubt why brownhill played there yesterday. It’s naive and he says he will learn, but unfortunately since Christmas I feel he has temporarily forgotten more than he has learnt. Our rivals have not taken full advantage of our poor form and this has probably protected his outlook somewhat. Hopefully the capitulation of yesterday will bring back P.T.S.D. Vietnam-esc flashbacks of last season and he will wipe the board clean and go back to basics soon and we can get back on track.    

[Snufflelufagus]

4 hours ago, Robert the bruce said:

Our best form strangely coincided with a period when Lee had few options to chop & change.. he's started making the same mistake as last season-overthinking...cryptic for "tinker".

This is the problem when you bring in new faces. It hard to keep everyone happy when they aren' playing. I can't imagine Ellison or Walsh are particularly happy. It was obvious djoni (spelling) would cone on and not engvall as he must have been promised games when he came on loan.

[old_eastender]

5 hours ago, BoneyardTIM said:

I tend to agree with some of the OP,s comments but armchair managers are the best. Watch our team once a week and have all the answers. Why not go to Failand, stand on the touch line and shout. I'm sure Lee and the team would be really interested in all your views. Bring on the hate

Bring on the hate?   All I read from OP is well thought out constructive criticism of what has been going wrong since Xmas in the league, best post written on here for ages.

[cityred exile]

11 hours ago, Baldyman said:

Totally agree with this post . I have an additional concern that his decision making may also be shattering the confidence of our bench , thus rendering changes ineffective . Mags seeing 2 midfielders in defence instead of him. ( Brownhill and Smith seemingly not sure which of them was supposed to be at RB yesterday)! Ellison seeing Patterson struggling yet getting no chance at all . Engvall seeing an unfit and slightly desperate looking Diolny playing ahead of him . Where must there heads be at ? 

totally agree on a third count ! pal

[Beckster]

What people fail to understand is that we don't see these players in training or know their characters/mental state. LJ does. This is fundamental in his decision making. 

[redsquirrel]

2 hours ago, Beckster said:

What people fail to understand is that we don't see these players in training or know their characters/mental state. LJ does. This is fundamental in his decision making. 

i accept your point but he also has seen  how the players best react in match pressure situations. play the squad that works, not the one that might be good

[freezer]

What a great opening post. I think it sums up how a lot of us feel but didn't have the skills to put in words.

Some very good points highlighted, and I also think that because we are so much better this season that most of us are generally happy to accept whatever team selections are made.

Let's hope Mr Johnson can still learn and accept his mistakes and make changes. It's all gravy when we're winning but consistency is the key and unfortunately we are (league wise) showing inconsistent form of an alarming nature lately.

 

[RobintheRed Red]

On 11/02/2018 at 09:02, Baldyman said:

Totally agree with this post . I have an additional concern that his decision making may also be shattering the confidence of our bench , thus rendering changes ineffective . Mags seeing 2 midfielders in defence instead of him. ( Brownhill and Smith seemingly not sure which of them was supposed to be at RB yesterday)! Ellison seeing Patterson struggling yet getting no chance at all . Engvall seeing an unfit and slightly desperate looking Diolny playing ahead of him . Where must there heads be at ? 

very true