Clutton Caveman

Sounding more like LJ each day

For me when the plan is not working and no useful solution is coming from the coach the players clearly lose their faith. Its a bit like LM has come to the end of the latest training manual and found that it doesn't contain the answers to a team that cannot create and a determined defence. Doesn't help that we have nothing on our books resembling a striker.

Ate you suggesting that Chris Martin could still do it at Championship level? As we see with Mehmeti, there is a huge gap between L1 and the Championship

Yes but it too a long time with several clubs unable to unlock the talent. Sometimes it just clicks

For me our failure to sign a decent striker in the last 5 or more years is our main problem. There are not too many other ways to play if you are unable to compete in the air or hold the ball up bringing others into play. We don't even show much pace since Tommy did his hamstring, so we have to try and create unmissable tap ins or rely of flukes.

When we get a free kick on the edge of the box it should create some excitement but at the moment we seem to get better results from corners. With such a "modern" coaching team I am surprised that we approach these kicks like a pub team. 3 or 4 players have a little chat, one wins the argument and the others move away and 15 seconds later its into the wall or over the bar. Surely we have at least 1 player who can hit a ball well enough to at least test the keeper. Our corners and wide free kicks seem to centre on finding Dickie who is most of the time engaged in a grabbing competition worthy of Twickenham. I can't remember anything that looks vaguely like "something from the training ground." We are not a tall team so surely we need to be clever in these situations.

I think since the season ticket has been moved to our phone far fewer people give their seat to someone when they can't make it. Its too complicated for many (inc me) to arrange the E transfer I think this creates less income for the club from food and drinks

Hope it gets rid of the "professional foul" How may goals does this behaviour rob us of

If we could only get a bit of excitement from time to time on the field it would help.. a lot

How on earth did we buy Cornick?

Parachute Payments are ruining the Championship. As an alternative I would like to see a rule change that all Prem player and staff contracts contain a relegation clause there their package reduces significantly when relegation occurs. Most contracts are not more than 3 years in duration so over a 3 year period the parachute payments could be phased out. This would protect relegated teams and get rid of the 2 paced league.

No plan B is a long running problem

Cornick, really??

Great. that will really be adopted and sung from 3 sides of the ground What about he's one of our own ........

I am finding it hard to get worked up on this topic. For me it is clear that we are set up to not go down. Anything better than that is a bonus. With a good striker we could probably be 6 points better off but they cost a lot and we don't do that, so to me our position in table reflects the ambition of the owners and we have to accept it or be habitually angry.

Attacking mainly consists or robbing the ball close to the penalty area from teams who are obsessed with playing out from the back. Defending means not giving the ball away in those areas. Football is becoming so predictable. How many times per game do we see goalkeepers kicking the ball to a player wide on the halfway line and it sails over his head. Then you get 10 passes close to your own box until some player gets closed down and hits it long anyway. It would be interesting to learn how many goals are scored each year when teams over play close to their goal, why are we so obsessed with this? It works only for teams with players who can receive the ball under pressure and not panic and lose it, and where the whole team wants the ball and is constantly moving into space.. Frankly at our level there are not too many of those. I consider Luton at the moment. They have fast wingers and big forwards and get the ball in the box as often as they can. It seems they frighten defences more used to a slower build up and at least they entertain. I sort of understand LM's thoughts on possession but when our forwards need so many chances to score 1 and our possession takes place mainly well away from the opposition goal something doesn't add up. The most worrying thing is when LM ball is not working, there does not seem to be a plan B like for instance the radical idea of playing to together up front.

I think a big lose is no reflection on ambition. Much more a reflection of previous poor management. As I said they want to stay in the Championship to retain income level and maximise the chance of selling. £22.2 and 28.5 turned out to be the cost of staying in the championship.

When you are that small you either have to be extremely fast or very tricky. Unfortunately Bell is neither

I think the thing that would make the difference is "Genuine Ambition". Genuine is important because no matter what JL says they know this is not a top 6 squad and the fact that he says it is shows he is either insincere or stupid or both. Ambition means that the club is determined to reach the prem and shows that in all it does. I think with Genuine Ambition the players would at least give it 1 more year. The reality that they see is that we are a club with owners that want out. They want to stay in the Championship with as close to a breakeven as possible. Where, in the Championship does really matter. The management have learned that whilst we are in the Championship season tickets sales and gate receipts are pretty much the same whether we are 8th or 15th. No matter what dross they serve up the loyal 20,000 or so keep showing up.

Before his injury he would have left the defender in his wake when he was put through one on one but now whether can't or wont run flat out, he certainly has lost a lot of pace. Also is not suitable to play as the lone striker. Simply not his game.

It seems we have a 1 trick pony as a manager. When teams figure us out and adjust at half time we change the personnel but not the tactics. Yesterday the opposition played 2 up front so supposedly we had a man spare somewhere. When things were not happening we took off Conway and replaced him with Wells rather than switching to 2 up front for a change. When Sykes went off I thought this was the perfect stage for Yeboah as at least he can cause a bit of chaos against huge defenders but instead we put the headless chicken on with typical results. We are very predictable and really a plan b & c when a is not working.

Great read thanks for posting

Remember LM has a different feeling on loans compared to NP

Looking forward would seem to be a good idea at the moment so lets think ahead to the January transfer window Where should we strengthen Who could we realistically afford How much if anything will LM get. Should we move anyone on Just to kick it off, I think we need strikers. As per normal we will almost certainly be shopping in League 1 or 2 where I don't have a enough knowledge to identify potential signings, I think LM will get approx 1.5 million, I think if we got a decent offer for either Wiemann or Mehmeti we should take it. Based on his injury record Naismith should also leave.

For me I am more concerned about the queues. Last season you could leave your seat on the half time whistle, get in the long but fast moving queue for the coffee shop in the back of the Dolman concourse and be back in your seat ready for the kick off. They used to have 5 or 6 servers and the queue moved super fast. Now it is more fancy with just 2 servers and you would need to leave your seat on 40mins mark to get served and be back in your seat for the second half,