Nakhi Bless Him

[REDOXO]

16 minutes ago, BTRFTG said:

Wells is a decent in-box poacher, great striker he is not. Sadly for him (and us)  'his game' is the antithesis of that deployed by our coach (sic).

Which beggars the question: why the hell did we sign him?

On a Whim.

We played ok against Derby and then had three of the worst performances I have ever seen. 

I’m not sure what has gone on, however the rumors of in fighting are getting stronger. The team that started yesterday was very much a back to basics side, hence the ‘something we can build on’....The thing that bothers me most is if we had won at Leeds we would have been = 2nd and automatic promotion would have been a realistic aim. Now we are 7th and I keep reading about ‘the playoffs’ Our aims and expectations have taken a massive down grade in the space of three weeks....Not just because we lost three big games but the manner of the defeats!!

WTF is going on!!

[BTRFTG]

32 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

The team that started yesterday was very much a back to basics side

If by that you mean they need to be coached to get back to basics I'd heartily agree. Yesterday, as of late:

Players struggled to pick a simple pass to a teammate;

Players too often attempted intricate, short balls rather than exploiting space and looking for teammate's movement;

Players struggled to control the ball, to do the simple thing and far too often attempted the over-elaborate, feint, jinx or step over, invariably giving away possession;

Players had an utter inability to find a teammate from dead-ball situations - throw-ins in particular always went to the opposition and led to the corner from which we conceded the goal;

Players (presumably upon pain of death from the coach,) signally failed to exploit 'box entry' dead-ball from corners and free kicks - just how many opportunities went short and thereafter went to the opposition or our keeper?

Players had little concept of the 'percentage play', busting a gut to keep ball in play when all them doing so was ever going to achieve was to provide the opposition possession and time to break, or of the adventurous pass which rather then being intercepted short (as happened over and over,) and creating attacking threat danger, worst case should a teammate not reach it in time, would exit play in a far from dangerous position;

Players who appear not to understand which side of their opponent they should exploit.

Basics - that's what's needed and what we're are not good at.

[CotswoldRed]

1 hour ago, Bazooka Joe said:

Nothing new there.

How dare anyone question him?

Indeed. You stop learning when you stop listening. 

[REDOXO]

10 minutes ago, BTRFTG said:

If by that you mean they need to be coached to get back to basics I'd heartily agree. Yesterday, as of late:

Players struggled to pick a simple pass to a teammate;

Players too often attempted intricate, short balls rather than exploiting space and looking for teammate's movement;

Players struggled to control the ball, to do the simple thing and far too often attempted the over-elabirate, feint, jinx or step over, invariably giving away possession;

Players had an utter inability to find a teammate from dead-ball situations - throw-ins in particular always went to the opposition and led to the corner from which we conceded the goal;

Players (presumably upon pain of death from the coach,) signally failed to exploit 'box entry' dead-ball from corners and free kicks - just how many opportunities went short and thereafter went to the opposition or our keeper?

Players had little concept of the 'percentage play', busting a gut to keep ball in play when all them doing so was ever going to achieve was to provide the opposition possession and time to break, or of the adventurous pass which rather then being intercepted short (as happened over and over,) and creating attacking threat danger, worst case should a teammate not reach it in time, would exit play in a far from dangerous position;

Players who appear not to understand which side of their opponent they should exploit.

Basics - that's what's needed and what we're are not good at.

Exactly!

Nine players from last season or earlier started wasn’t it? 

Yes it seems like you (Blackheath is a home game I reckon) I watched it, but as rubbish as it was, it was better than the three previous games, thus LJ comment something to build on...

That’s how low we have sunk recently, that, that was deemed an improvement...! Now for the basics of passing and moving and finding room for his best players...My thought right now is the only card LJ has is the possibility that Afobi may be back soon.

[BTRFTG]

11 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

Exactly!

Nine players from last season or earlier started wasn’t it? 

Yes it seems like you (Blackheath is a home game I reckon) I watched it, but as rubbish as it was, it was better than the three previous games, thus LJ comment something to build on...

That’s how low we have sunk recently, that, that was deemed an improvement...! Now for the basics of passing and moving and finding room for his best players...My thought right now is the only card LJ has is the possibility that Afobi may be back soon.

Saying it was better than of late is akin proudly proclaiming oneself to be the best looking bloke in the burns unit. I'd struggle to think how we might have been worse than at Huddersfield and although we competed against a similarly poor Wall unit (nowhere a patch on how they played at our place,) 2nd half we were barely at the races, hanging-on and making it easy for them with our lack of basic control.

[REDOXO]

2 minutes ago, BTRFTG said:

Saying it was better than of late is akin proudly proclaiming oneself to be the best looking bloke in the burns unit. I'd struggle to think how we might have been worse than at Huddersfield and although we competed against similarly poor Wall unit (nowhere a patch on how they played at our place,) 2nd half we were barely at the races, hanging-on and making it easy for them with our lack of basic control.

Exactly!...So Why? what/who is responsible and how do we turn it around? We all know its dreadful even the usual apologists are taking the day off!

[CotswoldRed]

13 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

Exactly!

Nine players from last season or earlier started wasn’t it? 

Yes it seems like you (Blackheath is a home game I reckon) I watched it, but as rubbish as it was, it was better than the three previous games, thus LJ comment something to build on...

That’s how low we have sunk recently, that, that was deemed an improvement...! Now for the basics of passing and moving and finding room for his best players...My thought right now is the only card LJ has is the possibility that Afobi may be back soon.

If Afobe is back soon, my guess is he'll return just that little bit too early out of desperation and be off the pace, devoid of form. 

Won't be Afobe's fault. 

[REDOXO]

1 minute ago, CotswoldRed said:

If Afobe is back soon, my guess is he'll return just that little bit too early out of desperation and be off the pace, devoid of form. 

Won't be Afobe's fault. 

Highly likely. Its desperation time!

[CotswoldRed]

2 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

Highly likely. Its desperation time!

It's a shame managers don't get injured and have 3-6 months off. 

[mozo]

4 hours ago, bcfc01 said:

You probably missed him having the ball taken off his feet in midfield and him dawdling on the ball. Got a bit of stick from those around me.

He was poor yesterday imo and made no impact.

Shame, because he was one of the few (probably the only one) who came out of the Huddersfield game with any credit.

I've no doubt that happened but GMcG and the Robin's TV commentators seem to agree with me that he was bright in midfield areas. 

[Chairman Mao]

22 hours ago, mozo said:

He did really well when he came on. Got to say, I'm losing patience with Weimann.

Wells was awful. So was Weimann. In fact Fammy was the only player on the pitch in forward positions who offered anything.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, REDOXO said:

Exactly!...So Why? what/who is responsible and how do we turn it around? We all know its dreadful even the usual apologists are taking the day off!

Well, LJ is the professional, with all the badges.....we wouldn’t understand!!!

These recent games, plus many others, even those during the 4 win-run showed huge holes in cohesiveness.  Derby (h) looked like it had a bit of a plan...but it’s been poor.

[mozo]

21 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Well, LJ is the professional, with all the badges.....we wouldn’t understand!!!

These recent games, plus many others, even those during the 4 win-run showed huge holes in cohesiveness.  Derby (h) looked like it had a bit of a plan...but it’s been poor.

Versus Derby we had a plan, but it involved City having to do an awful lot of defending and hanging on at the end. 

Also worth noting that there were at least 5 players different in our line up yesterday compared to each of the wins in that winning run of 4 games. So we had a formula, and changed it. Fair enough, Brownhill was unavoidably replaced, and Bentley arguably still first choice, but theres still plenty of churn.

[Son of Fred]

23 hours ago, REDOXO said:

We sign a very good player, bang in form and managed to turn him into a bit part player that doesn’t see the football in a forward position, from the bench. 
 

Nuts!

It's what Lee does..

He'll be on loan to a bottem of league one side next season...

[bcfc01]

2 hours ago, mozo said:

I've no doubt that happened but GMcG and the Robin's TV commentators seem to agree with me that he was bright in midfield areas. 

Each to his own, I thought he was caught on the ball when free - defenders nicking it off him a couple of times.

In any event, I'd rather see him bright up front where he belongs..

[The Coach]

If LJ stays this summer (god I hope not). It wouldn’t surprise me if Wells and Palmer left the club.

[Phileas Fogg]

3 minutes ago, Redpool said:

If LJ stays this summer (god I hope not). It wouldn’t surprise me if Wells and Palmer left the club.

Palmer yes, not sure there's any evidence that Wells would just yet though.

[BigAl&Toby]

21 hours ago, Portland Bill said:

I can confirm the rumours aren’t rumours.

I was told these things from someone who works at the club yesterday.

i obviously am not going to go into details of who told me, but the new players were hung out to dry in front of all their team mates last week at Huddersfield.

 

And that’s exactly what Kasey P said outside the ground he told us he wasn’t in the squad and when we asked him why.

Now of course “he would say that wouldn’t he?” After all it’s all about saving face and egos.

Question is who’s? My money is on the ******* goons at the top who have spunked it up the wall. Again.

And feel free to add whatever emojis you want. And talk about being close to top 6 and progress.

Under this lot we’re making progress right?

We were shit at Leeds. We were shit against West Brom. We were shit at Huddersfield. And we were shit at Millwall.

Makes me cross when I see what these idiots have done to our club. **** me even the team coach had emblems on it for the Bears and the Flyers. Colours nailed firmly to the mast.

Any sport will do for Mr L.....

[MarcusX]

On 29/02/2020 at 18:20, Red Army 75 said:

Paterson was sent out on loan. Now he’s nearly starting every game. Speaks volumes 

He’s been one of our better players since returning? Showing signs of what he used to be

[BTRFTG]

'Wells is awful' is akin saying ' A fork's useless when eating soup.'

Like Diony we'll never know how good he might be as we'll never give him a chance by playing to his strengths.

[Phileas Fogg]

22 minutes ago, BTRFTG said:

'Wells is awful' is akin saying ' A fork's useless when eating soup.'

Like Diony we'll never know how good he might be as we'll never give him a chance by playing to his strengths.

Exactly. 

Slightly different type of players, but how did we get it so right with Afobe for those few games but have changed our style for Wells? Both thrive off clever passing basically. We aren't even trying it at the moment.

[Loosey Boy]

3 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Exactly. 

Slightly different type of players, but how did we get it so right with Afobe for those few games but have changed our style for Wells? Both thrive off clever passing basically. We aren't even trying it at the moment.

Afobe thrived off of his relationship with KP.........the same "recipe for success" for Wells.....I for one, think so!

[Davefevs]

50 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Exactly. 

Slightly different type of players, but how did we get it so right with Afobe for those few games but have changed our style for Wells? Both thrive off clever passing basically. We aren't even trying it at the moment.

 

45 minutes ago, Loosey Boy said:

Afobe thrived off of his relationship with KP.........the same "recipe for success" for Wells.....I for one, think so!

....and linked well with Weimann too.

[ScottishRed]

11 hours ago, CotswoldRed said:

The gap between his own talent and his perception of his talent is one huge gap. What talent he does have is utterly one-dimensional, easy to counter and so drives his reactive approach. All the while he thinks HE is the clever one. 

Therein lies the problem. When things don't work, it the player's fault. 

His insight into the game has evaporated. It's all waffle now. 

 Nail on the head!

He thinks he is a Pep ‘in waiting ‘ when in reality he is his fathers son.

[Davefevs]

3 minutes ago, ScottishRed said:

 All on the head!

He thinks he is a Pep ‘in waiting ‘ when in reality he is his fathers son.

That really made me chuckle.

[reddoh]

19 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Of course it’s not....he’s under pressure to deliver....having been given pretty much all he’s asked for.

Today’s team selection made a mockery of previous team selections imho.  To me it feels like there is no real plan, just picking players game by game.  Players playing today who’ve hardly been involved, and in fairness (to their professionalism) putting in a shift, in another formation change, following a new one that was abandoned after 45 minutes on Tuesday.  Team selection is no longer sitting easy with me.

The only players who started today, who wasn’t here last season were Pereira and Nagy.  Of the signings made this season, Bentley and Afobe were injured, and Gilmartin is more of a coach.

Rowe, Henriksen (just signed) and Palmer not in 18.

Szmodics on loan at Peterborough.

Williams and Massengo on bench, with Wells and Benkovic (both just signed).

I feel quite annoyed that this is seen as progress.

Totally happy for OTIBers to tell me we are 7th, 2 points off the play-offs, and that I should get some perspective.  But today feels like a massive let down.

Sorry Dave we are you should  in fairness you pay more attention than me. but we have a keeper defenders a midfield and attackers same as every other team does and I guess no manager asks for his team to lose(might be wrong) but sometimes your plan fails you have been out planned people who ask for a 'plan B' you have 3 subs to change the game (why didn't they start?) how do you cater for every eventuality?

ps you are entitled to feel let down 

[Superjack]

10 hours ago, Mad Cyril said:

I am disgusted that Johnson has the cheek to call out players for not delivering, and appearing pissed off by performances and results.

That should be restricted to 99% of posters on here only. How dare he agree with us. Whatever next.

He doesn't agree with me. I'm calling him out, not the players.

[bpexile]

What I think adds substance to rumours for me is getting back to the Palmer "rumours", if there has been no fallout why on earth would you not try a Palmer/Wells combo when the Palmer/Afobe pairing worked well. Personally I think we may have seen the last of Palmer, I think he will go in the summer, sadly, unless of course LJ goes before.

[Guest]

When he scored his header, he seemed to pause as if choosing the spot to place it (rather than f it up with a rushed header).

I suspect that he's going to do just fine.

[CotswoldRed]

8 hours ago, bpexile said:

What I think adds substance to rumours for me is getting back to the Palmer "rumours", if there has been no fallout why on earth would you not try a Palmer/Wells combo when the Palmer/Afobe pairing worked well. Personally I think we may have seen the last of Palmer, I think he will go in the summer, sadly, unless of course LJ goes before.

So what does LJ do if Afobe comes back and the goals don't start? 

Swallow his massive pride?