Silvio Dante

I think that’s giving Liam a bit of a free pass. I do agree with something he said early on about players not being able to necessarily hear him so having to make their own decisions on the pitch, but those decisions can only be micro as opposed to macro. A change in response to the opposition is more macro and has to come from the manager - or there is no point in him being there. It’s fair to say that whether people like LMs style or not, the biggest weakness since he took over has been poor in game management as you acknowledge above. But that is 80% manager, 20% players - I’m damn sure if someone was not executing what they’d been told on a macro basis LM or any manager would have them off. Bottom line is other managers have countered us mid game. Our manager/head coach needs to have the ability to do the same.

Apparently, there are some great young players coming through

Can I assume you mean 0.079 as the above would indicate we were creating phenomenal chances?

I think that’s in a lot of ways down to him. Derby he had an impossible task and was well thought of by the fans so I wouldn’t chalk that up as a failure. DC I don’t know enough about. At Brum, he was replacing a popular manager who was progressing the side so was up against it a bit from the start - maybe tried to change too much too soon? Either way, his name will put him in the frame for jobs if he wants them at the lower echelons of this level or at the level below. The broader question is whether as a multimillionaire he can be bothered to have to visit places like the Memorial Ground at the level below.

I think the subs yesterday were “safe”. We didn’t change what we were doing (trust the process) but just changed player A for player B. All very formulaic and smacked of just hoping for the best rather than an intent (which is a word I keep using at the moment) to positively impact the game.

Yep, no guarantee he’d have had them cooking.

They must have been out of their tiny minds.

The other thing to add in the mix here is that stats can be misleading. If you take the Hull game we had 21 shots. However I’d argue that there was no real quality in the shots - the second goal (Anis) keeper should save and the third is a massive deflection. Outside of that, I recall one further Anis shot but no other major test of the keeper, so that’s probably two decent efforts - one of which was a pen. (This isn’t to say we didn’t play well and deserve the win - we did - but we had territorial pressure as opposed to chance pressure). I’m less concerned about the number of attempts on goal and more by the quality of said attempts - whether by working enough space or a straight good effort. And again there I go back to speed of play/thought being our best way to open up teams and to me, in a lot of games we’ve been too passive and without intent in the last 11. It allows teams to bank against us and we end up needing that slice of luck or that worldie.

As you know Dave, I have expressed concern over Liams in game management and today was another example. I thought we set up quite badly - if I look at the Brum game Anis went infield a lot which opened an avenue for Pring. We did the same today with Andi playing very much inside and therefore creating an avenue for Tanner - which isn’t his strength. Anis was wider and we ended up with a compressed centre - very much what a stronger and physical side like Millwall would want. The obvious change was in this case to ensure Andi went wider to stretch that side but it didn’t happen. The other tweak that should have happened was probably Cornick for Conway as TC was getting bullied. The subs when they came just seemed subs for the sake of subs and didn’t lead to any stylistic change. It was poorly set up but then not remedied. Not a great mixture.

I think if you’re right tactically you don’t need to rely on that one moment of individual brilliance. We had that against Boro and it was going to take something of that nature again today because we were that poor. What troubled me today was reversion to type. I’ve been consistent in my view both that we’re better without the ball and that we need to play quickly. Neither of those happened today and it was a very similar performance to QPR for large parts, both in its turgid nature and very nearly it’s outcome. So, my feeling at the moment is that we looked to be onto something with the (in particular) Hull and Watford games, which were dare I say it front foot football. We today reverted back to what was Liams preferred style first six games - we did to a degree against Brum but I think they were just hyper defensive. And that has to be a concern as it simply doesn’t work. Nothing to do with highs and lows, everything to do with playing the wrong way.

Hammy injury precluded that this year (when trying to go too quickly to get a run in pre Cardiff away in March) but probably did me good for the month off. Have relaxed into things a bit more having done 300k a month in 21/22 and am now settling around the 210-220 mark - not every day but legs feel a bit better for it. Runs in Bristol, Yate, Cyprus, Iceland, London, Manchester, Birmingham amongst others. Can highly recommend Rejkyavik at 6am in Feb in the snow! Great achievement Reg, well done!

True. But I’m also willing to bet that you’re not one of the most senior people in a multi million pound organisation where communication with stakeholders (fans) is key. Petulance can’t be in his job description. It wouldn’t be for other organisations of a similar size.

Whenever I come to use those pencils in Argos they’ve been sharpened so much to be practically useless…

Jesus. Is he a 50 something bloke or a 13 year old child?

I think the issue is Dave the following things: - The sub forum was started with no consultation. It was requested by one or two and was something that took threads off the main forum and more difficult to find - Your point about top threads is because of how you view the forum (latest activity across forums). I’d wager 90% of people look at football chat, and don’t want to see (for example) the General Chat - It does have less engagement. And people don’t look there first. People wanting to engage on ex players threads miss out and it makes the forum worse - Tyreeq Bakinson thread is actually on the transfer forum which people do engage with! At the time of writing, there are over 100 votes and only 20% express a desire to keep the sub forum. That’s not even 52:48 and I’d suggest it’s pretty conclusive.

In some kind of bizarre public lynching?!?

God, I’m so pissed off with Australians always getting there first for New Year. Every year it’s them and New Zealand beating us to the punch. I would have hoped that following Brexit we’d use some of our new found freedoms to take our rightful place as the dominant and first country to ring in each year. But no, Sunak doesn’t want to seem to reap the benefits of Brexit and I don’t trust Starmer either. Betrayed our country the lot of them.

This post hurts my grammar.

This is one where the club don’t help themselves. Including a picture or two of Nige who was manager for 10/12 of the year in a “year review” post would cost nothing, be sensible and had they done so, nobody would have commented. It wouldn’t have started a “we want NP back” movement which they maybe feared - but by omission, they’ve now drawn attention to their pettiness. Clearly nobody at AG has heard of the Streisand effect.

But…..Rovers….they can’t be bullshitting surely?!?

I’ve put a poll up so there can be a more formal gauge of opinion - clearly non binding but better the mods can base their decision on a proper sample as opposed to who shouts loudest

As per title really - the ex players forum was set up for a trial period on a suck it and see basis. There aren’t any measurements of success/failure so now it’s been running for a while would seem good to gauge the forums opinion on whether it’s required or not, as there appears to be a groundswell towards binning it as can be seen on the LJ threads. NB - this poll is not intended as a knock on the mods who put the forum in following a couple of requests. However, if it is re-merged into the main forum it should hopefully reduce their workload which is carried out well and on a voluntary basis.

Been posted already and moved to the ex players section. Leading me to repeat my plea - can we remerge that section with the main forum, it’s had a trial period now and we keep getting stuff posted here first and moved so I think it’s clear what the preference is. Either that or run a poll confirming if people want it to stay.