Why the calls for LJ to be sacked?

[Mr Popodopolous]

12 hours ago, Swede said:

and outplayed by a Sheff Weds team who have a player in Bannen who's on wages way beyond your average championship player and is it any wonder there are question marks over there FFP sustainability.

 

15-20 points for them I hope...that'll be one less top 6 contender to worry about. 

Arrogance or what appears to be arrogance and cognitive dissonance of some- I stress some- of their fans is quite startling tbh.

[Davefevs]

47 minutes ago, petehinton said:

It’s the constant calling out of players when he doesn’t get his way that’s starting to really wear me down. 
 

Publicly call out Moore for the last goal, when playing him out of position? Get a grip. Play your players in their best position. Look at the build up to the goal too. Poor all over. 
 

Take care and nurture your players, especially the young ones. Don’t play them out of position then publicly slander them. That’ll be Moore out the team for a while....

Never known any manager sub as many defenders on and off, and change their formation, and change the positions they play.

Most managers try to keep the back 4 or 5 the same as much as possible.  The exception to that was Poch with his full-backs, when he had Trippier and Walker and Rose and Davies sharing the minutes due to the intense running they were expected to do.  However it was the same role and the CBs were the same!

[bcfcredandwhite]

Because we’ve lost a few games on the bounce and aren’t in a European place in the Prem yet. Still languishing in the Championship (which we would have given our right arms for a few years ago mind.....)

[Natchfever]

5 minutes ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

Because we’ve lost a few games on the bounce and aren’t in a European place in the Prem yet. Still languishing in the Championship (which we would have given our right arms for a few years ago mind.....)

I daresay Sheffield United would have been happy languishing in the Championship a few years ago too.

Things change. 

[bcfcredandwhite]

11 minutes ago, Natchfever said:

I daresay Sheffield United would have been happy languishing in the Championship a few years ago too.

Things change. 

I’m not sure if your statement is agreeing with me or arguing against me - it could be read rather way!!

There is a line which, if crossed, makes the manager’s job untenable, but for me Lee has not crossed it yet - far from it. The season consists of more than 4 games and whilst I’m as angry and disappointed as the next fan with our current poor run, the bigger picture is that we are still fighting at the right end of the table with some key players starting to come back from injury. To panic and change now would be highly dangerous in my book - double or nothing if you like. 

This next few weeks will sort the Flappers from the Clappers....!!!!!

[exAtyeoMax]

4 hours ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

I’m not sure if your statement is agreeing with me or arguing against me - it could be read rather way!!

There is a line which, if crossed, makes the manager’s job untenable, but for me Lee has not crossed it yet - far from it. The season consists of more than 4 games and whilst I’m as angry and disappointed as the next fan with our current poor run, the bigger picture is that we are still fighting at the right end of the table with some key players starting to come back from injury. To panic and change now would be highly dangerous in my book - double or nothing if you like. 

This next few weeks will sort the Flappers from the Clappers....!!!!!

Would Sheff rather be in the Prem or languishing in the Championship?

[BS4 on Tour...]

6 hours ago, Natchfever said:

I daresay Sheffield United would have been happy languishing in the Championship a few years ago too.

Things change. 

.....and Burnley and Brighton and Watford and Norwich ....

[BS4 on Tour...]

On 26/12/2019 at 19:45, reddogkev said:

Mediocrity?  Have a word with yourself, we were 4th in the table about 3 weeks ago!  We've reached semi finals of cups....

.... just the one, leave the exaggerations to the gas - seriously though, I believe a lot of people are fed up of our pretty constant trend of being there or thereabouts in December before plummeting - 2nd to 11th a couple of seasons ago was hard to take ... we did it again last season and at the moment it looks like we will do it again this season, it’s pretty draining and our home form over LJ’s entire reign has been woeful - it’s difficult to see why we shouldn’t make a change where our head coach is concerned ...

[Drew Peacock]

Calling Moore out publicly like that is shocking management.

If he drops him for the next game because of that he should be sacked on the spot.

[bcfcredandwhite]

1 hour ago, exAtyeoMax said:

Would Sheff rather be in the Prem or languishing in the Championship?

The Prem obviously - but you could ask the same of Huddersfield,  Blackpool, Stoke etc etc.  

[BS4 on Tour...]

34 minutes ago, Drew Peacock said:

Calling Moore out publicly like that is shocking management.

If he drops him for the next game because of that he should be sacked on the spot.

I agree, that is like LJ’s reaction when we lost 5-0 at PNE - he talked about having players he ‘can’t trust’ - for an apparently lauded ‘young, progressive, go-ahead coach’ - he still doesn’t seem to have grasped the basics after all this time - ie man management - he should perhaps forget measuring the length of the grass at away games and talking as though he’s swallowed a ‘bullshit bingo football coaching manual’ and instead support his players publicly - especially the younger ones .... not impressed 

[redsquirrel]

its anything goes to avoid saying 'I got it  wrong'    again

[Guest]

9 hours ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

I agree, that is like LJ’s reaction when we lost 5-0 at PNE - he talked about having players he ‘can’t trust’ - for an apparently lauded ‘young, progressive, go-ahead coach’ - he still doesn’t seem to have grasped the basics after all this time - ie man management - he should perhaps forget measuring the length of the grass at away games and talking as though he’s swallowed a ‘bullshit bingo football coaching manual’ and instead support his players publicly - especially the younger ones .... not impressed 

 

9 hours ago, redsquirrel said:

its anything goes to avoid saying 'I got it  wrong'    again

 

9 hours ago, Drew Peacock said:

Calling Moore out publicly like that is shocking management.

If he drops him for the next game because of that he should be sacked on the spot.

 Reasons he should be gone already; cannot manage players, wont carry the can.

While we are constantly selling our assets and Season Tickets why should SL change things. Chances of him trusting LJ with any decent money to bring in who we need this window to challenge the top two....NIL. More likely to have an early sell off and cash in not out.

[Fatknacker]

On 26/12/2019 at 19:23, Lez said:

1.....inept tactics stifling our players.

2....taken us to a level but not tactically aware enough for the top levels of football.

Exactly what Charlton fans were saying about Curbishley when they were a comfortable mid table premiership club. 

[REDOXO]

Its not just the last four defeats its the manner of the defeats coupled with the poor opposition. Charlton were injury ravaged and in poor form yet we contrive to bollox it from 2-1 up.

The two home games we were awful...

We have no clue who we are and our identity. Messrs LJ and MA just spout bollox for supporters while assembling a huge squad using SLs money that LJ now tells everyone is the problem per his last interview.

Desperate stuff. If we don’t get a win on Saturday even Ole is predicting LJ is in trouble if I’m reading him correctly....And rightly so!!

 

[stortfordred]

21 hours ago, Fordy62 said:

I don’t think it’s risky when you’re going nowhere fast. 

It was certainly risky for Ipswich and there are certain parallels. What I also find intriguing is the way views of players on here have totally shifted in two-three weeks. 
Recently it was:

Bentley: fantastic signing

Rowe: so much better than expected

Williams: give him a two year contract

Nagy: world beater

Massengo: worth at least 20 million

etc

All we needed was a 20 goal striker and we’re going up!!!

So although Lee is disappointing me with the negative football, some perspective on the reality of our club is necessary. 
I’m not saying that change is not necessary but that the response needs to be more than just a knee jerk reaction. 

[Fordy62]

18 minutes ago, stortfordred said:

It was certainly risky for Ipswich and there are certain parallels. What I also find intriguing is the way views of players on here have totally shifted in two-three weeks. 
Recently it was:

Bentley: fantastic signing

Rowe: so much better than expected

Williams: give him a two year contract

Nagy: world beater

Massengo: worth at least 20 million

etc

All we needed was a 20 goal striker and we’re going up!!!

So although Lee is disappointing me with the negative football, some perspective on the reality of our club is necessary. 
I’m not saying that change is not necessary but that the response needs to be more than just a knee jerk reaction. 

Yes. Agreed on the player front. 
 

Bentley is quite clearly POTS so far - I think this comes with its own warning signs - how bad would we have been without him?
 

Still very happy with Williams, I think he consistently looks our most assured defender. 
 

Rowe has done well for someone playing completely OOP. 
 

Nagy & Massengo are the interesting ones. The Nagy world beater thing was off the back of half a game at Birmingham prior to his injury wasn’t it? And Massengo? Yeh he looks like he has potential but I’d always have Smith ahead. 
 

Our squad is the best it’s ever been yet LJ is not getting anything out of it. The warning signs were there early doors, we fumbled our way to a number of wins we didn’t necessarily deserve and now we’re getting our comeuppance. I’d be genuinely excited to see what another coach could do with the squad, but how long should we allow this slide to continue?

[Portland Bill]

On 26/12/2019 at 19:32, reddogkev said:

I disagree, I think you expect too much for a Bristol City manager; he isn't stifling the players, Elliason has been on fire this season and must be knocking on the door for a £15million + move to the Premier League in the near future, Webster has moved on, Lloyd Kelly onto higher things, same with Joe and Bobby - this can hardly be under the guise of a guy who is stifling the players.

2 - How do you know if he isn't tactically aware?  You could argue he has coached City into playing massively above our level in the last 3 years, without him, of course this is theoretical, we could be a League One team.

I personally don't see Eliasson worth anything like that much, but respect the fact that you do.

But I am totally confused as to why you on one hand think LJ is such a good coach, then leaves a player that you think is Premier League class on the bench for the last two games. Surely your contradicting your own argument! 

My own view on LJ. It’s been four years of going around in circles. He just hasn’t got a clue how he wants his team to play, he signs players NOT to fit into any kind of system ( because we don’t have one) but purely in hope. I’ve given up counting the amount of players he has signed and then disregarded, surely as a ‘coach’ you don’t need to continually buy players, you coach and improve the players you have already bought in yourself!

The amount of money he has been given, and the amount of signings he’s been allowed to make, must make him. the most fortunate manager in the Championship. I have seen no evidence that we as a team have a plan, there seems no plan.

He is like his Dad in respect of the way he gambles on team selection and players, one week it will come off, the next it won’t. When it doesn’t, he then tries to be clever and change things, all the while not really sure of what the game plan and tactics are to be. He bemoans his lack of leaders, whilst being unable to accept the fact it’s him who has failed to actually sign very few!.

I will come clean and tell you that I don’t go to games anymore, he single handily has taken away the joy of watching my team play, a team I have followed for 40+ years, with his dire pot luck football. 

 

 

 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Portland Bill said:

I personally don't see Eliasson worth anything like that much, but respect the fact that you do.

But I am totally confused as to why you on one hand think LJ is such a good coach, then leaves a player that you think is Premier League class on the bench for the last two games. Surely your contradicting your own argument! 

My own view on LJ. It’s been four years of going around in circles. He just hasn’t got a clue how he wants his team to play, he signs players NOT to fit into any kind of system ( because we don’t have one) but purely in hope. I’ve given up counting the amount of players he has signed and then disregarded, surely as a ‘coach’ you don’t need to continually buy players, you coach and improve the players you have already bought in yourself!

The amount of money he has been given, and the amount of signings he’s been allowed to make, must make him. the most fortunate manager in the Championship. I have seen no evidence that we as a team have a plan, there seems no plan.

He is like his Dad in respect of the way he gambles on team selection and players, one week it will come off, the next it won’t. When it doesn’t, he then tries to be clever and change things, all the while not really sure of what the game plan and tactics are to be. He bemoans his lack of leaders, whilst being unable to accept the fact it’s him who has failed to actually sign very few!.

I will come clean and tell you that I don’t go to games anymore, he single handily has taken away the joy of watching my team play, a team I have followed for 40+ years, with his dire pot luck football. 

 

 

 

Mmm. Rings a bell.

13 months on, we are still making the same mistakes.

[Fordy62]

18 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Mmm. Rings a bell.

13 months on, we are still making the same mistakes.

And if ever you needed a reason to get rid, it’s this lack of improvement. 
 

I gave you a unicorn that day. Here, have another one. 

[Davefevs]

14 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

And if ever you needed a reason to get rid, it’s this lack of improvement. 
 

I gave you a unicorn that day. Here, have another one. 

Is that a good thing?

[Whale Eye Beef Hooked]

I think he has done a good job.  Having to sell his best players and replace them with cheaper options and try to turn them into better players   Doing this makes our club one of the healthiest in the football league whilst still progressing each year ( position wise ) that is what I see as success and that is why I back him.   That is the blueprint of our club so I do laugh when I hear names such as warnock or big Sam who would come in spend a fortune on 30 year olds on big money and give the club no footings for the future.   
I am sure if Afobe stayed fit we would have been 12 points better off but that’s football    It’s hard enough to get one striker like that but almost impossible to have a ready made replacement so we have had to huff and puff with what we have got and to be fair we have punched above our weight for most of the season 

it’s all about the big picture for me 

[sticks 1969]

4 minutes ago, Whale Eye Beef Hooked said:

I think he has done a good job.  Having to sell his best players and replace them with cheaper options and try to turn them into better players   Doing this makes our club one of the healthiest in the football league whilst still progressing each year ( position wise ) that is what I see as success and that is why I back him.   That is the blueprint of our club so I do laugh when I hear names such as warnock or big Sam who would come in spend a fortune on 30 year olds on big money and give the club no footings for the future.   
I am sure if Afobe stayed fit we would have been 12 points better off but that’s football    It’s hard enough to get one striker like that but almost impossible to have a ready made replacement so we have had to huff and puff with what we have got and to be fair we have punched above our weight for most of the season 

it’s all about the big picture for me 

Top post and at last someone who can see the bigger picture 

we are in a good position in the league and still plenty to play for 

[Natchfever]

15 hours ago, redsquirrel said:

its anything goes to avoid saying 'I got it  wrong'    again

I know where he got that from. 

[Spud55]

16 hours ago, Drew Peacock said:

Calling Moore out publicly like that is shocking management.

If he drops him for the next game because of that he should be sacked on the spot.

If he's made an absolute howler and passed the ball into his own net then I still don't like it but I can understand it, however yes Morre didn't cover himself in glory for the third, however Dasilva was bypassed by a simple diagonal ball and is at least as much at fault as Moore for that goal. 

Same happened in the Blackburn game, Brownhill plays the worst 5 yard pass that the game has seen in many years, then Massengo gets dispossessed as somehow he's been made second favourite for the ball by Brownhills incompetence and he had the gall to have a pop at Han when it was all Brownhills fault. 

The man has the man management skills of a pice of toast. 

[Alex_BCFC]

34 minutes ago, Whale Eye Beef Hooked said:

I think he has done a good job.  Having to sell his best players and replace them with cheaper options and try to turn them into better players   Doing this makes our club one of the healthiest in the football league whilst still progressing each year ( position wise ) that is what I see as success and that is why I back him.   That is the blueprint of our club so I do laugh when I hear names such as warnock or big Sam who would come in spend a fortune on 30 year olds on big money and give the club no footings for the future.   
I am sure if Afobe stayed fit we would have been 12 points better off but that’s football    It’s hard enough to get one striker like that but almost impossible to have a ready made replacement so we have had to huff and puff with what we have got and to be fair we have punched above our weight for most of the season 

it’s all about the big picture for me 

And I'm in the he has done an OK job. Not good or bad this season. Over his tenure improvement has been made so I guess you could say good but at the current time I think he should getting more of out this squad and the balance should be better - so i guess overall OK. I wouldn't be overly bothered if he was changed at the end of season.

I agree with the general strategy of the club and wouldn't want that to change. I don't want us to tumble down the leagues by gambling and not making it.

[CotswoldRed]

On 27/12/2019 at 00:12, Lew-T said:

I don’t think LJ will be off anywhere soon. I also believe once again he will be backed financially in January by SL to try and push on. It’s quite obvious the owner and board believe in the system by sticking by him under worse circumstances than this. It will most likely cost more money to sack Johnson after all the work has gone into in his tenure up to now.

Especially now after that 4 year contract extension back in the summer. If he does go, then more work goes in his replacements plans, again meaning more money.

I think SL and MA will stick to their guns and believe in the ‘project’. Meaning that Lee isn’t going anywhere, unfortunately.

We've probably wasted more money on each of Johnson's crap signings than it would cost to get rid of him. 

Managers are reletively cheap compared to even a nobody player. 

[Whale Eye Beef Hooked]

8 minutes ago, CotswoldRed said:

We've probably wasted more money on each of Johnson's crap signings than it would cost to get rid of him. 

Managers are reletively cheap compared to even a nobody player. 

His job is to buy cheap, coach into better players  sell for big money  to enable us to compete at the top half of the championship   He has done that very well

[ashton_fan]

On 26/12/2019 at 19:49, Davefevs said:

There’s another side to that argument....he wouldn’t need to generate £millions each season, if his wage bill wasn’t so big.  £30m per season on wages!!!

I don't know if that figure's correct but I don't think it's that much for a Championship club, probably about average. I think most of the people on this thread preferred the times when we were tearing teams apart in L1, if they got their wish and we end up in the Prem most of them would be having nervous breakdowns as we'd hardly ever be winning

[Guest]

48 minutes ago, Whale Eye Beef Hooked said:

I think he has done a good job.  Having to sell his best players and replace them with cheaper options and try to turn them into better players   Doing this makes our club one of the healthiest in the football league whilst still progressing each year ( position wise ) that is what I see as success and that is why I back him.   That is the blueprint of our club so I do laugh when I hear names such as warnock or big Sam who would come in spend a fortune on 30 year olds on big money and give the club no footings for the future.   
I am sure if Afobe stayed fit we would have been 12 points better off but that’s football    It’s hard enough to get one striker like that but almost impossible to have a ready made replacement so we have had to huff and puff with what we have got and to be fair we have punched above our weight for most of the season 

it’s all about the big picture for me 

 

43 minutes ago, sticks 1969 said:

Top post and at last someone who can see the bigger picture 

we are in a good position in the league and still plenty to play for 

I do not think anyone will really disagree that the "club" itself is in a lot better state than what it has ever been, with the Stadium itself, training ground, new basketball arena with flats/hotels, selling players with huge profits, academy bringing through some great talent and signing a few (maybe too many, but that is what it is) "ones for the future". Can LJ take credit for some of that - a resounding yes in my opinion.

My issue is that none of us seem to know what the plan/identity/philosophy (or whatever you want to call it) is on the pitch - even though Johnson keeps banging on about it. We had a superb half season a couple of seasons ago that not many expected, with high pressing, fast slick passing football when it came crashing down due to probable fatigue within a small squad. I will not forget some of those league games along with the Man u, and Man city games - exceptional. Now surely that is your philosophy, so from there you plan and you get a few more players in and use the whole squad to learn to play that way?? Or you hold back the high press in every game, and change slightly against other teams?? 

Two years on, we probably have a better overall squad yet have no identity whatsoever. We play superb against Huddersfield and Fulham and I really thought we were nearly there, and the manager now has his team/system in the main. Next game tweaks it and awful, same again next game awful, so what comes next - 3 changes(?) and a totally negative, boring setup and no attacking threat. He cannot even get Eliasson in the starting line up, and then comes out after the game and quite happily throw a few people under the bus.

Johnson still seems to look too much into the opposition and in turn stifles any chance of entertaining football from his own team. Home performances over the last couple of seasons proves that.

I don't think I have ever been a full on "LJ out" fan as I have always looked at the bigger picture both on and off the pitch, but at the moment I just don't see what the bigger picture is on the pitch unless it is boring football to get enough points to sit half way in the Championship. I would rather try and play like we did against Fulham/Huddersfield and take the defeats along the way, at least it is something everyone can consistently work on and improve - then we may have an "identity", and see some entertainment down the gate.