LJ - Barnsley fan in peace

[AppyDAZE]

Or maybe its more of an agenda against LJ?   That's the one!

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

6 minutes ago, AppyDAZE said:

even more so with someone like Lee who does after all know a hell of a lot about BCFC. Sacking or talk of it is a much bigger risk if you ask me. Top comments fella

And this is what I don't get with some on here and on social media, LJ does love this club. He's expressed these views before but the way some carry on, you'd think he was public enemy number 1...

In the end, if he fails then he fails... but I'm sure he is trying his best to turn around the bad run. He isn't the first and certainly won't be the last at this club to endure this

[AppyDAZE]

 

4 minutes ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

And this is what I don't get with some on here and on social media, LJ does love this club. He's expressed these views before but the way some carry on, you'd think he was public enemy number 1...

In the end, if he fails then he fails... but I'm sure he is trying his best to turn around the bad run. He isn't the first and certainly won't be the last at this club to endure this

I agree. The sort of abuse the guy gets from some people is in my opinion absolutely sickening..  He thinks the world of BCFC and the least he deserves, the LEAST is some time.  Point made. Enjoy your evening, my friend I agree with you 100 percent

[Gert Mare]

35 minutes ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

Tbh you're talking garbage, every fan has their own ideas/opinion on how to support the club... You as an individual can debate their opinion but not call them mugs/happy clappers.. its downright pathetic.

I'm talking garbage and am pathetic. Ok then pal clap on.

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

3 minutes ago, Cheesleysmate said:

I'm talking garbage and am pathetic. Ok then pal clap on.

I will and I'm sure SL will to... he's probably the one who ultimately wants to keep LJ on and he'll make the decision to sack him if deemed necessary

Maybe you should have a word with him or better yet, show the courage of your convictions and boycott the club

[WhistleHappy]

I like to think here in Bristol we tend to 'make love' ....
I've heard in Barnsley its more a case of 'whippet in, whippet out, and wipe it' .

 

(that's my bit a childish banter.. over & out  )

 

[Rascal]

up here in Gods own county we've got BBC radio Sheffield, each evening from 18-00 until 19-00 we have a Football phone in live, praise or grumble football heaven, it consists of 4 presenters who take it in turns to hoast the show, these 4 also interview all the local managers on Thursdays, on the morning they go to interview the head coach of Barnsley they ask us fans on Twitter if we've any questions. During the 8 match losing streak all the BFC fans were saying the same things. Something along the lines of 

1, This possession of the ball in our own half for the sake of it, with absolutely no intent of doing anything with it other than keeping it away from our opponents, is not only pathetic but it's not working ether, it's terrible to watch and a embarrassing way for a team with a top six budget to be playing. Is he at any point going to adopt a different approach? 

2, Why is our build up play so slow and predictable, that even non league Altrincham have managed to cope with it for 95 minutes without looking in any danger what so ever. 

3, what is his obsession with playing 5 in midfield against teams in league one, with the class of player we have at our disposal we shouldn't be frightened of anyone in this league. 

4, Can he explain the reasoning behind chopping and changing the personnel every week, but refusing to address the real problem he is causing by not changing his tactics, System and game plan. 

5, and finally the big one, tell him we want to see attacking football, with two strikers up front in central positions in a 442 formation, we don't care if we lose the next 10 games as long as we attack teams and have a go. 

Every week BBC RS asked the same questions, every week he'd make up silly excuses, until finally he relented, gave the fans what they'd been asking for and addressed the problems that the fans had been pointing out to him for weeks, before we knew it we'd won six on the bounce and he was jumping ship to join you lot. 

If you have something like praise and grumble down your way, maybe you should try the same thing because it seems he did listen in the end. 

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

5 minutes ago, Rascal said:

up here in Gods own county we've got BBC radio Sheffield, each evening from 18-00 until 19-00 we have a Football phone in live, praise or grumble football heaven, it consists of 4 presenters who take it in turns to hoast the show, these 4 also interview all the local managers on Thursdays, on the morning they go to interview the head coach of Barnsley they ask us fans on Twitter if we've any questions. During the 8 match losing streak all the BFC fans were saying the same things. Something along the lines of 

1, This possession of the ball in our own half for the sake of it, with absolutely no intent of doing anything with it other than keeping it away from our opponents, is not only pathetic but it's not working ether, it's terrible to watch and a embarrassing way for a team with a top six budget to be playing. Is he at any point going to adopt a different approach? 

2, Why is our build up play so slow and predictable, that even non league Altrincham have managed to cope with it for 95 minutes without looking in any danger what so ever. 

3, what is his obsession with playing 5 in midfield against teams in league one, with the class of player we have at our disposal we shouldn't be frightened of anyone in this league. 

4, Can he explain the reasoning behind chopping and changing the personnel every week, but refusing to address the real problem he is causing by not changing his tactics, System and game plan. 

5, and finally the big one, tell him we want to see attacking football, with two strikers up front in central positions in a 442 formation, we don't care if we lose the next 10 games as long as we attack teams and have a go. 

Every week BBC RS asked the same questions, every week he'd make up silly excuses, until finally he relented, gave the fans what they'd been asking for and addressed the problems that the fans had been pointing out to him for weeks, before we knew it we'd won six on the bounce and he was jumping ship to join you lot. 

If you have something like praise and grumble down your way, maybe you should try the same thing because it seems he did listen in the end. 

So creating 20+ chances week in, week out isn't 'having a go?'

Its our inability to finish these chances off, Tammy has missed so many 1 on 1s its ridiculous plus Reid seems to miss from about 2 yards... he could've doubled his goal tally if he stuck away his chances.

Individual errors aren't helping our cause right now either

[Rascal]

9 minutes ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

So creating 20+ chances week in, week out isn't 'having a go?'

Its our inability to finish these chances off, Tammy has missed so many 1 on 1s its ridiculous plus Reid seems to miss from about 2 yards... he could've doubled his goal tally if he stuck away his chances.

Individual errors aren't helping our cause right now either

I've no idea what your problems are I'm not a city fan, what I'm pointing out is if you have some way of pointing out to him what you believe to be the problem, he may well listen in the end, because he did while he was up here. It saved his job and got him his move to his dream club in the end 

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

3 minutes ago, Rascal said:

I've no idea what your problems are I'm not a city fan, what I'm pointing out is if you have some way of pointing out to him what you believe to be the problem, he may well listen in the end, because he did while he was up here. 

The problem isn't anything you've mentioned during his time at Barnsley, if it was then we probably would 2 or 3 shots all game if your post is anything to by.

He played 4-4-2, it didn't work and IMO we look alot better playing 4-2-3-1. There are problems to be addressed but for me players have to be brought in... your mate saying that we have ready made talent is incorrect, we don't. The club have invested in players for the future while bringing in Tomlin and a couple of others. What we have is decent enough but it does need to be improved, I'm sure this will be remedied in the upcoming window and the Summer window, we are still rebuilding process after the shambles last season. That was Johnsons plan, if we haven't progressed this time next year, he probably will be gone.

If he listened to some of the fans here, we'd be relegated by April

[JoeAman08]

9 minutes ago, Rascal said:

up here in Gods own county we've got BBC radio Sheffield, each evening from 18-00 until 19-00 we have a Football phone in live, praise or grumble football heaven, it consists of 4 presenters who take it in turns to hoast the show, these 4 also interview all the local managers on Thursdays, on the morning they go to interview the head coach of Barnsley they ask us fans on Twitter if we've any questions. During the 8 match losing streak all the BFC fans were saying the same things. Something along the lines of 

1, This possession of the ball in our own half for the sake of it, with absolutely no intent of doing anything with it other than keeping it away from our opponents, is not only pathetic but it's not working ether, it's terrible to watch and a embarrassing way for a team with a top six budget to be playing. Is he at any point going to adopt a different approach? 

2, Why is our build up play so slow and predictable, that even non league Altrincham have managed to cope with it for 95 minutes without looking in any danger what so ever. 

3, what is his obsession with playing 5 in midfield against teams in league one, with the class of player we have at our disposal we shouldn't be frightened of anyone in this league. 

4, Can he explain the reasoning behind chopping and changing the personnel every week, but refusing to address the real problem he is causing by not changing his tactics, System and game plan. 

5, and finally the big one, tell him we want to see attacking football, with two strikers up front in central positions in a 442 formation, we don't care if we lose the next 10 games as long as we attack teams and have a go. 

Every week BBC RS asked the same questions, every week he'd make up silly excuses, until finally he relented, gave the fans what they'd been asking for and addressed the problems that the fans had been pointing out to him for weeks, before we knew it we'd won six on the bounce and he was jumping ship to join you lot. 

If you have something like praise and grumble down your way, maybe you should try the same thing because it seems he did listen in the end. 

That was LJ under you, fair enough. I'll go through my opinion of the numbers with him here. 

1) We have a lot of possession and a lot of it is in our half. It can get tedious at times but honestly when we don't have the ball we concede soft goals. Now that's another issue he must address but holding the ball is one way to limit the attack of other sides. In this league, for us, it can be useful. We've prevented ourselves any beating which we received quite a few last year. Also, we create 3-5 great chances per game which we put away early doors. Lately the same chances have presented themselves and we haven't taken them. Nothing to do without LJ. So I enjoy the way we play under LJ. 

2) Again our build up play can be slow and I've said why I don't mind. It can be slow but we've got the quality to be patient and unlock defences. It's worked for us and you can't expect it to yield 3-4 goals a game every game. It seems the modern way and it's better to watch then when we go long to Wilbraham at the end of games. 

3) Can't comment as we've only had him in the championship. We play what looks like a lot of 4-5-1 but its fluid. It's not perfect all the time but we get more than just the striker into goal scoring areas. If anything our formation suffers from the lack of wing options. We haven't been the best starting 4-4-2 either. 

4) He does chop and change a bit but in our situation not many have taken their spot and made it their own. Also I think he picks teams based on the game plan for who he's playing. Now I don't agree with that as I'm a firm believer in play your game. I feel if we had more quality we'd see more stability in the starting XI but we don't at the moment. 

5) I don't think formation mean you have an intent for the game. When I see us go 4-4-2(granted our next best striker is a 37 year old target man) we play a less attacking style than we do with a lone striker. Our 4-5-1/4-3-3 has seen us create many chance. Our problem is lack of options up front. When Tammy is not in form we have no option B. 

Anyway, LJ isn't blameless for our current run but I don't think he's had enough time to judge him. It's rare in football but he needs patience. You can see when we are flowing we are as good as most in the division. It's the defending counter attacks and set pieces he needs to work on. Don't think it has to do with formation though. I think he's a bright young manager and perhaps his spell at Barnsley was like a loan(not a shot but an analogy) where he was working on his tactics and learning his trade on the fly. Everyone has to start somewhere and I believe in his philosophy. I've seen it working. Just still working out some kinks. We're still a good 8-9 points ahead of where we were last season

[ThatCityLife]

If you were so uninterested in him leaving, why are you so interested in him now? 

[Gert Mare]

43 minutes ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

I will and I'm sure SL will to... he's probably the one who ultimately wants to keep LJ on and he'll make the decision to sack him if deemed necessary

Maybe you should have a word with him or better yet, show the courage of your convictions and boycott the club

I won't be boycotting. I'm used to 40+ years of foot shooting but my friend it could always be a lot worse......I could have chosen to support the blue half! One thing I hope is that I am wrong and the happy clappers who are seemingly blind to 2 wins in 13 games are right. If you turn out to be correct I will gladly come back and admit that I was wrong and that I should have had more faith. 

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

11 minutes ago, Cheesleysmate said:

I won't be boycotting. I'm used to 40+ years of foot shooting but my friend it could always be a lot worse......I could have chosen to support the blue half! One thing I hope is that I am wrong and the happy clappers who are seemingly blind to 2 wins in 13 games are right. If you turn out to be correct I will gladly come back and admit that I was wrong and that I should have had more faith. 

You've supported the club for that amount of time and 2 wins in 13 is enough for you to say to get rid? Have City ever been successful in that time of you supporting them? Rarely. Have City been on far worse runs in that time? Definitely.

If you'd been chairman of this club we'd probably have ran through 1000 managers by now

[Davefevs]

7 hours ago, redcherryberry said:

Hourihane OOC in the summer with the likes of Celtic & Rangers looking to pounce on the cheap in a few days. Losing him will be a massive blow. Scowen, Watkins & Winnall all attracting interest as well. Yes Barnsley have done extremely well thus far but as Max pointed out earlier, form can all change quickly!

Good point....but they have Mawson and Stones money, like we have Kodjia and Bolassie.  They can probably offer better deals than back in the summer, but as we know, that has no guarantees.

7 hours ago, Redarmy1 said:

The only reason you gave beef with my comments is simply because you can unfortunately Associate with them.  At no point have I gone into a slanging match regarding bristolians in general. I am giving you an honest assessment of LJ. Whether Warranted or requested .  The reality is this , I have more than likely been watching football for a lot longer than a lot of the folk who have replied.  Out of everything that I have posted I fail to see where the pomposity is - the exact opposite if the person who stated this cared to read them properly.

 

i just don't like LJ and in my opinion (for what little it's now worth in your eyes) is a poor manager who talks a good game

 

for me the term 'good young manager' is now angled at EVERY manager who is young when in reality they have achieved very little.  LJ is NOT a good manager - all his talks of dynamics used to drive me insane.  The best football managers are not always tactically savvy but good man managers.  All my opinion of course!

 

in the day and age of freedom of speech I don't understand the mentality of a few on here.  All I have done is draw a big comparison with what we experienced

 

as for house prices zoopla isn't really a good yardstick . Let me educate the poster- if someone buys a repossession a lot cheaper than market value then zoopla will only calculate house price increases in the area on top of this knockdown figure - unless someone can actually be bothered to edit the value via zoopla.  

 

Ive never been to Bristol so can't comment, all I can say is that I'm sure it's like everywhere else in the UK . It's got it's expensive parts and other parts where you wouldn't want to put the ex wife (maybe I wouldn't go that far as the worse the better).  Some areas of Barnsley command £250-300000 for a 2 bed terrace. Others £30000.  

Can you respond to my post last night, especially re you 'allegedly' comments and which players aren't putting a shift in?

[Rob k]

5 hours ago, Rascal said:

Have you ever been to Barnsley? 

Yeah - shithole

[Rascal]

4 minutes ago, Rob k said:

Yeah - shithole

Why ? 

[Engvall's Splinter]

Cracks me up that a chap comes on airs his opinion, a few who don't like it and then suddenly we've half the posts on here relating to who lives in a better area... who gives a flying duck?!? 

I think its great others pop on to give their thoughts outside of our bubble. 

Moral is that a lot mentioned in his post rings true. Like it or not. 

If you don't like it, resulting to childish digs about who's got the most expensive garden shed, is pathetic. 

Hopefully Johnson has some fresh ideas and faces lined up early Jan, so I can stop moaning about how sh*te we are. 

Pants times on the pitch at the moment. LJ and MA to improve the FIRST 11 this window please. 

[redsfan]

2 hours ago, JoeAman08 said:

That was LJ under you, fair enough. I'll go through my opinion of the numbers with him here. 

1) We have a lot of possession and a lot of it is in our half. It can get tedious at times but honestly when we don't have the ball we concede soft goals. Now that's another issue he must address but holding the ball is one way to limit the attack of other sides. In this league, for us, it can be useful. We've prevented ourselves any beating which we received quite a few last year. Also, we create 3-5 great chances per game which we put away early doors. Lately the same chances have presented themselves and we haven't taken them. Nothing to do without LJ. So I enjoy the way we play under LJ. 

2) Again our build up play can be slow and I've said why I don't mind. It can be slow but we've got the quality to be patient and unlock defences. It's worked for us and you can't expect it to yield 3-4 goals a game every game. It seems the modern way and it's better to watch then when we go long to Wilbraham at the end of games. 

3) Can't comment as we've only had him in the championship. We play what looks like a lot of 4-5-1 but its fluid. It's not perfect all the time but we get more than just the striker into goal scoring areas. If anything our formation suffers from the lack of wing options. We haven't been the best starting 4-4-2 either. 

4) He does chop and change a bit but in our situation not many have taken their spot and made it their own. Also I think he picks teams based on the game plan for who he's playing. Now I don't agree with that as I'm a firm believer in play your game. I feel if we had more quality we'd see more stability in the starting XI but we don't at the moment. 

5) I don't think formation mean you have an intent for the game. When I see us go 4-4-2(granted our next best striker is a 37 year old target man) we play a less attacking style than we do with a lone striker. Our 4-5-1/4-3-3 has seen us create many chance. Our problem is lack of options up front. When Tammy is not in form we have no option B. 

Anyway, LJ isn't blameless for our current run but I don't think he's had enough time to judge him. It's rare in football but he needs patience. You can see when we are flowing we are as good as most in the division. It's the defending counter attacks and set pieces he needs to work on. Don't think it has to do with formation though. I think he's a bright young manager and perhaps his spell at Barnsley was like a loan(not a shot but an analogy) where he was working on his tactics and learning his trade on the fly. Everyone has to start somewhere and I believe in his philosophy. I've seen it working. Just still working out some kinks. We're still a good 8-9 points ahead of where we were last season

Good post that mate. Its good to discuss and debate stuff properly. I have said previously I don't rate LJ from his time at Barnsley, but I can see exactly where you are going with your thoughts and I sincerely hope it works for him and BCFC.

[redsfan]

35 minutes ago, Port Pete said:

Cracks me up that a chap comes on airs his opinion, a few who don't like it and then suddenly we've half the posts on here relating to who lives in a better area... who gives a flying duck?!? 

I think its great others pop on to give their thoughts outside of our bubble. 

Moral is that a lot mentioned in his post rings true. Like it or not. 

If you don't like it, resulting to childish digs about who's got the most expensive garden shed, is pathetic. 

Hopefully Johnson has some fresh ideas and faces lined up early Jan, so I can stop moaning about how sh*te we are. 

Pants times on the pitch at the moment. LJ and MA to improve the FIRST 11 this window please. 

Amen to that.

There are clearly some good, rational and intelligent people on your board.

But there are clearly some dicks of low intelligence as well. Fair enough, it mirrors life I suppose, and with a heavily populated board like this one I suppose its only to be expected.

I can understand why someone would question why supporters of other clubs such as me would want to bother with posting on your board if they would never bother doing that themselves. As a bloke approaching 50 who is, I reckon, quite intelligent and reasonably grown up, I just can't be doing with the responses that revert to slack abuse. I did that with my Leeds supporting mates in the playground 35 years ago, grown out of it now.

Off on hols now, but will pop back from time to time. Hope things pick up for you guys soon. Just don't be looking our way for any of our players! You've no chance with Hourihane anyway - why would he want to sign for a bloke who publicly questioned his ability to be effective in a central 2. He's only really flourished since LJ left. 

[Olé]

Oddly I think @Rascal's version of what was discussed on phone ins in Barnsley is a lot closer to what I've seen overall from City the last couple of months than what @JoeAman08 has seen, although I very much want to side with you Joe and I will always share your call for patience.

One quick observation, not sure what games you've seen but notwithstanding the last two results before Christmas, I think home performances can be a little distorting. Away from home we are much closer to the team Rascal describes. Is that fair? I actually thought for all our play in the last two home games there was very little fluid attacking passing. I'm also not sure I agree with 4-5-1 we have been getting other players into goalscoring positions (certainly not in the last three months - Flint's goal on boxing day was the first by a non-striker inside the box since September). And I don't agree we're still creating lots of chances, yes we've missed a few recently but so have the other side, we are not all over teams. As I said, I wonder if your response to Rascal, which I'd love to share, is a view of home games only?

I'm also surprised by the point that 2 up front hasn't worked and 4-5-1 is justified - we've only used two up front twice this season and were unbeaten, in addition to turning several other results around when switching to two up top. I've got no idea where the idea we are poor with 2 up top has come from - certainly not the pitch?!

[Gert Mare]

2 hours ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

You've supported the club for that amount of time and 2 wins in 13 is enough for you to say to get rid? Have City ever been successful in that time of you supporting them? Rarely. Have City been on far worse runs in that time? Definitely.

If you'd been chairman of this club we'd probably have ran through 1000 managers by now

I haven't said get rid. I have said that he needs to turn it around instead of explaining what went wrong and failing to get it sorted the following week. 

[Gert Mare]

3 hours ago, JoeAman08 said:

That was LJ under you, fair enough. I'll go through my opinion of the numbers with him here. 

1) We have a lot of possession and a lot of it is in our half. It can get tedious at times but honestly when we don't have the ball we concede soft goals. Now that's another issue he must address but holding the ball is one way to limit the attack of other sides. In this league, for us, it can be useful. We've prevented ourselves any beating which we received quite a few last year. Also, we create 3-5 great chances per game which we put away early doors. Lately the same chances have presented themselves and we haven't taken them. Nothing to do without LJ. So I enjoy the way we play under LJ. 

2) Again our build up play can be slow and I've said why I don't mind. It can be slow but we've got the quality to be patient and unlock defences. It's worked for us and you can't expect it to yield 3-4 goals a game every game. It seems the modern way and it's better to watch then when we go long to Wilbraham at the end of games. 

3) Can't comment as we've only had him in the championship. We play what looks like a lot of 4-5-1 but its fluid. It's not perfect all the time but we get more than just the striker into goal scoring areas. If anything our formation suffers from the lack of wing options. We haven't been the best starting 4-4-2 either. 

4) He does chop and change a bit but in our situation not many have taken their spot and made it their own. Also I think he picks teams based on the game plan for who he's playing. Now I don't agree with that as I'm a firm believer in play your game. I feel if we had more quality we'd see more stability in the starting XI but we don't at the moment. 

5) I don't think formation mean you have an intent for the game. When I see us go 4-4-2(granted our next best striker is a 37 year old target man) we play a less attacking style than we do with a lone striker. Our 4-5-1/4-3-3 has seen us create many chance. Our problem is lack of options up front. When Tammy is not in form we have no option B. 

Anyway, LJ isn't blameless for our current run but I don't think he's had enough time to judge him. It's rare in football but he needs patience. You can see when we are flowing we are as good as most in the division. It's the defending counter attacks and set pieces he needs to work on. Don't think it has to do with formation though. I think he's a bright young manager and perhaps his spell at Barnsley was like a loan(not a shot but an analogy) where he was working on his tactics and learning his trade on the fly. Everyone has to start somewhere and I believe in his philosophy. I've seen it working. Just still working out some kinks. We're still a good 8-9 points ahead of where we were last season

A really top post mate. Different viewpoint but well put across.

If you are right then we will have ourselves a truly excellent manager who might help us achieve the dream, unless as always happens in football one of the bigger clubs comes along and steals him before Christmas when we are top and then we end up failing in the playoffs.

 

[JoeAman08]

4 minutes ago, Cheesleysmate said:

A really top post mate. Different viewpoint but well put across.

If you are right then we will have ourselves a truly excellent manager who might help us achieve the dream, unless as always happens in football one of the bigger clubs comes along and steals him before Christmas when we are top and then we end up failing in the playoffs.

 

It's just my opinion anyway. I think the current set up deserves time. It could very well end up that LJ fails and we wasted a few mil. I just would like to see those that spent the money to utilise it. 

[JoeAman08]

30 minutes ago, Olé said:

Oddly I think @Rascal's version of what was discussed on phone ins in Barnsley is a lot closer to what I've seen overall from City the last couple of months than what @JoeAman08 has seen, although I very much want to side with you Joe and I will always share your call for patience.

One quick observation, not sure what games you've seen but notwithstanding the last two results before Christmas, I think home performances can be a little distorting. Away from home we are much closer to the team Rascal describes. Is that fair? I actually thought for all our play in the last two home games there was very little fluid attacking passing. I'm also not sure I agree with 4-5-1 we have been getting other players into goalscoring positions (certainly not in the last three months - Flint's goal on boxing day was the first by a non-striker inside the box since September). And I don't agree we're still creating lots of chances, yes we've missed a few recently but so have the other side, we are not all over teams. As I said, I wonder if your response to Rascal, which I'd love to share, is a view of home games only?

I'm also surprised by the point that 2 up front hasn't worked and 4-5-1 is justified - we've only used two up front twice this season and were unbeaten, in addition to turning several other results around when switching to two up top. I've got no idea where the idea we are poor with 2 up top has come from - certainly not the pitch?!

I don't know. We have never put together a full 90 minutes of it but neither has Pep at Man City. Different clubs I know but I think both need time to be a top level. As far as the football, we always seem to have a good spell in games where we look quite good. I'd argue the only times we haven't is when we've gone "attacking" with Wilbraham starting next to Tammy. It opens up space for Tammy but we generally create less chances. 

I haven't been to many away this year(think just wolves and Cardiff) but Wolves we created a few chances and scored 2. Brentford we had chances. Preston we had about as good a first 20 minutes you'll see. These games came down to taking chances which we didn't. 

The two up top works at the end of the game when the defence has tired out IMO. Then Wilbs comes on to occupy defenders. At that stage teams are usually up and sat back and credit to the lads they usually find a way but from the start it really stagnates us into the long ball. It's dross. 

Again, like I said it's not perfect and we haven't done it for 90 minutes yet but the samples are there. LJ still has things to improve for sure. He's just like Lucic or Brownhill. He's just starting out and learning his trade. You can see in spurts what he's trying to accomplish but it'll take more time and more of the players he envisions. 

[Gert Mare]

15 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

It's just my opinion anyway. I think the current set up deserves time. It could very well end up that LJ fails and we wasted a few mil. I just would like to see those that spent the money to utilise it. 

Well if it does fail then I certainly won't be one of the ones saying "I told you so". I will be more interested in who we are going to appoint to get us going again!

[tinman85]

Gary Monk. We should have appointed him last February. If he had spent the money Johnson was given in the summer we would be top 6. 

[Rascal]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Good point....but they have Mawson and Stones money, like we have Kodjia and Bolassie.  They can probably offer better deals than back in the summer, but as we know, that has no guarantees.

But we won't, the whole dynamic of the club is to run on the money we generate, our approach is to have a strict budget and wage bill, bringing in young hungry players who want to play for our club knowing they will be improved as players and be able to play for a better club than ours who will pay them more money than we can, once they leave. due to the fact, Scowen, Watkins, Winnall, and Hourihane all cost less than a million pound combined we've already had our money's worth out of them. Plus the Stones and Mawson money means we can let them leave for free in the summer, in the summer just gone we had bids turned down for a few players, 21 years old Chesterfield winger Gboly Ariyibi, Lutons 21 year old central midfielder Cameron McGeegan, were also rumoured to be in for 20 year old St Miran midfielder Lewis Morgan as well as Wycombe defender Aaron Pierre who is just 22. Apparently Burnley a lining up a bid for our centre half Marc Roberts I can't see us letting him go cheaply, looking at the way the club is going about their business they types of players they are buying and trying to buy, and the style of the football we're playing I'm more than happy at the moment. 

[Davefevs]

11 minutes ago, tinman85 said:

Gary Monk. We should have appointed him last February. If he had spent the money Johnson was given in the summer we would be top 6. 

That's too easy a statement to make....some managers and players suit certain clubs.  Personally I thought he was a good option for us in Feb too, but I think the Swansea model was helpful to him initially, but I wouldn't expect him to guarantee top 6 for us.

Imagine we'd gone for McLaren?  Doing alright at Derby again, despised by Newcastle.

Every time I think we are playing one of the lesser sides in this division (with the odd exception), I then look art their line-up/squad, and get a bit edgy.  We are still in the building phase.  I don't necessarily agree with the four candles / three windows approach, but neither did I expect every signing to work out.  What I do think is that not enough of them have made enough of a positive impact.  From what we've seen of the ones given a chance, only Tammy has set the world on fire, the rest have been around the 'middle', or had good games, but also poor games.

That must be frustrating....but this is not an easy league to go out and buy the following types of player:

- the proven goalscorer at this level, 1) everyone is after them 2) they come at a high cost and 3) they provide no guarantees!

- the box to box midfielder, who leads, scores 6,8,10 goals ec

- etc

[Davefevs]

6 minutes ago, Rascal said:

But we won't, the whole dynamic of the club is to run on the money we generate, our approach is to have a strict budget and wage bill, bringing in young hungry players who want to play for our club knowing they will be improved as players and be able to play for a better club than ours who will pay them more money than we can, once they leave. due to the fact, Scowen, Watkins, Winnall, and Hourihane all cost less than a million pound combined we've already had our money's worth out of them. Plus the Stones and Mawson money means we can let them leave for free in the summer, in the summer just gone we had bids turned down for a few players, 21 years old Chesterfield winger Gboly Ariyibi, Lutons 21 year old central midfielder Cameron McGeegan, were also rumoured to be in for 20 year old St Miran midfielder Lewis Morgan as well as Wycombe defender Aaron Pierre who is just 22. Apparently Burnley a lining up a bid for our centre half Marc Roberts I can't see us letting him go cheaply, looking at the way the club is going about their business they types of players they are buying and trying to buy, and the style of the football we're playing I'm more than happy at the moment. 

...and that's fine for those that leave for a fee, to re-invest wherever in the club you need it....but Hourihane on a free....or is he an exception to your model?  Asking because I don't have the insight, not being facetious.