Damned if he doesn't, damned if he does.

[Redtucks]

28 minutes ago, Spoons said:

Because IMO he's cost us alot more than he has saved us. And in critical games and points in the season.

Not sure how/why you or more importantly LJ can't see this? 

As I said earlier, IMO he has saved us more points than he has lost.

Whilst we could probably do better, I think that could be said about almost everyone that we have.

I certainly don't feel that replacing FF is top priority.

Opinions, I suppose.

That's what makes football what it is.

 

[RobintheRed Red]

3 hours ago, Spoons said:

So consistently FF is picked and under performs ? Surely LJ sees this and drops him? No he picks him time after time and we are all surprised that yet again he costs us the game.

And patterson how many more chances for him some on the bench like Ellison must be wondering if hes ever gonna get a game

[Curr Avon]

31 minutes ago, RedNight said:

Well that's the most anti Johnson way of looking at things. Laughable. 

Exactly. It's the evidence of @Spoons lyin' eyes that's the problem. @Spoons go and buy yourself a pair of rose-tinted spectacles.

[vicky10]

With £18m substitutes put on the pitch by Hull and the team of Chelsea and Liverpool loan's plus a handfull of internationals..it was always going to be difficult.

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 hours ago, JoeAman08 said:

I think the point of the post was to say he did attempt to see the game out. Sure you can criticise things he didn’t do but that is all hindsight imo. Yesterday, the individual errors outweighed the manager’s decisions. 

There are just a couple games left. Perhaps it is already clear Steele won’t be here next season while FF will be. I know we still had an outside chance at playoffs but no one expected it. So what would be the benefit of playing Steele? Lower FF confidence even lower than it already is? Definitely need a new keeper but I’d probably play FF until the new keeper is signed. 

Pisano was as bad as I have seen. Clearly not right after the injury. I would have brought Wright on at 4-2. That doesn’t excuse Pisano for taking himself out of the equation for their 5th. Let it go over your head and contain. Too experienced for that. Next season need a new RB. I like Vyner there so wouldn’t mind playing him there for the majority but an actual RB with experience(in England) would do us wonders. 

We were still a threat at 4-2. We had a few chances after Brownhill got on the pitch. This with Smith and Pack on the pitch. You’d assume the fresh legs of Brownhill with those two could handle a 2 goal lead with 20 min left. Also see criticism of Reid going left. He has the work rate for it and Fam was on a brace looking for more. Again with hindsight maybe you bring Kelly  on and push Bryan forward or take Fam off for Eliasson(which would have come with risks too). 

So yea like I said, think mistakes outweighed LJ’s decisions yesterday. Not saying opinions of LJ and his inability to change games aren’t valid. They definitely are. Just think yesterday he actually made a sensible decision or two and they still blew up in his face. That also comes down to where we are as a club. Hull can bring on a Uruguay and Polish international off the bench as a relegation threatened team to change a game. We can bring on Matty Taylor, Brownhill or Kelly. Reccruitment a whole other argument though. 

Yeah, that's because Hull didn't spend too much in PL. Parachute payments, yoyo club- they can afford Grosicki and Hernandez- at least for the moment (maybe not beyond this summer).

Brownhill for O'Dowda

Kelly for Diedhiou

Maybe even Wright for Pisano.

Fielding

Wright Baker Flint Kelly

Brownhill Smith Pack Bryan

Paterson 

 Reid

4-4-1-1- the formula that worked so well in the Autumn except Kelly for Magnusson.

Or

Fielding

Wright Baker Flint Kelly

Brownhill Smith Pack

Paterson Bryan

Reid

Kelly can double up with Bryan defensively, Wright can tuck in and make the right side narrower, more defensive and Reid can still lead the press with Paterson still behind.

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, Spoons said:

We should be able to compete financially with Brentford. 

Would have thought we could have offered him more money, better training facilities and stadium and the grand plan of premier league football. 

But agree west London is closer to home for him but money talks.

They are a tad smaller than us financially, but take a look at their squad.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jumplist/startseite/verein/1148

Much trimmer than ours.  Efficient would be my word to summarise it.  A bit like Cotts 14/15 squad, Small, but quality.  That’s how I see Brentford.  Obviously still building towards Prem, and they might make playoffs.

London is obviously a great recruiting ground, but let’s not forget their Northern Europe connections, e.g. Matthew Benham owns Midtjylland....who’ve played in Europe, albeit qualifying rounds.

What have we got in the (backwater) south-west....no one....we are the biggest club.  Any club relationships are with Cheltenham and the like, i.e. clubs lower than us.  I do like the attempt at recruiting the Swedish lads, we just haven’t had success (yet?).

 

 

 

[JoeAman08]

1 hour ago, JonDolman said:

I agreed with the change in formation and moving Reid out to the left. What I disagree with is playing Pisano when Kelly has been solid in every game he has played. 

Well one is a right back and one is a left back so can’t really argue that.

[REDOXO]

3 hours ago, Major Isewater said:

At times some of our play was neat, neat , neat .

With a new Rose , Danny , in town next season we could smash it up .

 

Were you a Captain before you became a Major!

[JoeAman08]

1 hour ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Yeah, that's because Hull didn't spend too much in PL. Parachute payments, yoyo club- they can afford Grosicki and Hernandez- at least for the moment (maybe not beyond this summer).

Brownhill for O'Dowda

Kelly for Diedhiou

Maybe even Wright for Pisano.

Fielding

Wright Baker Flint Kelly

Brownhill Smith Pack Bryan

Paterson 

 Reid

4-4-1-1- the formula that worked so well in the Autumn except Kelly for Magnusson.

Or

Fielding

Wright Baker Flint Kelly

Brownhill Smith Pack

Paterson Bryan

Reid

Kelly can double up with Bryan defensively, Wright can tuck in and make the right side narrower, more defensive and Reid can still lead the press with Paterson still behind.

No I get that. Point was there are teams struggling that have “better” game changers than us. More strength in depth and that is something we will address every window. Need to do a bit better in our recruiting(focus more on players that can help the cause now) but just have to keep adding. 

Also my main concern with LJ is his lack of creativity with lineups. We have rarely seen a Bryan and Kelly left side. We have rarely seen a 3 man midfield. He needs to do more to change things when the go pear shaped. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

5 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

No I get that. Point was there are teams struggling that have “better” game changers than us. More strength in depth and that is something we will address every window. Need to do a bit better in our recruiting(focus more on players that can help the cause now) but just have to keep adding. 

Also my main concern with LJ is his lack of creativity with lineups. We have rarely seen a Bryan and Kelly left side. We have rarely seen a 3 man midfield. He needs to do more to change things when the go pear shaped. 

Agree on this post, particularly in a tactical sense. Had concerns about ability to change things when it goes wrong- do wonder about whether Plan A has run its course though...

Game changers, you're not wrong. Unsure how to square that with FFP though.

I think in general, our depth is okay- except the right side of the pitch. Proper poor depth and we would be battling with Ipswich, Leeds, Norwich for 12th. 

One natural right back, how many natural right wingers do we have? We have reasonable depth IMO in terms of squad players and continuity though I reckon.

[Jack Dawe]

2 hours ago, vicky10 said:

With £18m substitutes put on the pitch by Hull and the team of Chelsea and Liverpool loan's plus a handfull of internationals..it was always going to be difficult.

A fair point, backed up by facts such as they have scored freely all season (more goals than Cardiff), thumped Burton 5:0 away and QPR 4:0 at home recently, as well as draws with Wolves and Villa. They have a GD of +2.

But it also needs to be taken into account that they are 18th in the Championship, about where we were in the previous two seasons, losing 18 times. And just 6 wins in the league in 2018.

So, perhaps it was always going to be difficult, for a flaky team like us. But not quite so difficult for a team "specifically targetting promotion" perhaps we can say?

[Mr Popodopolous]

26 minutes ago, Jack Dawe said:

A fair point, backed up by facts such as they have scored freely all season (more goals than Cardiff), thumped Burton 5:0 away and QPR 4:0 at home recently, as well as draws with Wolves and Villa. They have a GD of +2.

But it also needs to be taken into account that they are 18th in the Championship, about where we were in the previous two seasons, losing 18 times. And just 6 wins in the league in 2018.

So, perhaps it was always going to be difficult, for a flaky team like us. But not quite so difficult for a team "specifically targetting promotion" perhaps we can say?

Wolves aren't flaky,Villa surely aiming for promotion- neither could beat them.

Hull also drew with Derby, drew with Fulham under Adkins end of 2017- maybe they're just one of those awkward lower mid table sides- all Leagues have a few.

[BTRFTG]

7 hours ago, havanatopia said:

Every time I see highlights of City what nearly always strikes me is how open we defend; why is that?

I'm not entirely sure I agree with your analysis but there is one oddity that I've raised previously which stuck out like a sore thumb again yesterday and for which all the qualified ( as opposed to couch) coaches I've spoken with struggle to explain.

Falling back in defence we defend very, very narrow. The back 4 fit into the 18 yard box with 2 or 3 yards to spare either side. You'd normally only see this where the two centre halfs are poor at stopping the direct run but in our case and as demonstrated again yesterday, Flint and Baker are more than competent at handling strikers running at them. What this leaves us with is the full backs, Bryan in particular, marking space and not much else. I've criticised Bryan as being a liability at Left Back (which he is) but it's not entirely his fault as WeeLee is insistent on playing this way and thus exacerbates his failings. Again yesterday we were caught for their second with a ball over the top of Bryan's head, as we were for two more where the flag saved us, just. 

The tactic neither counters the ball inside, their 4th where neither Bryan (how did he end up wide right) or Brownhill could work out whether their backsides are bored or punched simply sees the ball coming through the gap. We should be good enough to play a wider back 4 but for some unknown reason WeeLee doesn't coach it.

One thing's for sure, it's cost us dear thus year.

[nickolas]

8 hours ago, RedNight said:

I don't want this turning into a spat about LJ.

But he is criticised when he doesn't shut up shop and portect a lead.

And today fans are going for his throat for doing exactly that.

People saying Johnson doesn't learn from his mistakes. Well he obviously learnt from the Sunderland game. Because today at 4-2 he looked to protect a lead, which he didn't against Sunderland (which fans were outraged by).

Can everyone just take step back from there Johnson agenda (wether you love him or hate him), and realise that we lost that game because of individual errors. 

I find it absolutely mental that once again the players are going some what under the radar after some dreadful mistakes today. 

Just a side note, when we changed formation, I thought we played some scintillating football and some of the best I've seen this year. But we were ridiculously poor at the back today. 

Anyway, this isn't a for or against Johnson thread. So please don't make it one 

Fair enough. 

Only thing i’d say is there was no need for 451 as at 4-2 we were comfortable and looked like scoring more. 

Its changes seemingly just for the sake of it!

[BCFC1959]

3 minutes ago, nickolas said:

Fair enough. 

Only thing i’d say is there was no need for 451 as at 4-2 we were comfortable and looked like scoring more. 

Its changes seemingly just for the sake of it!

Agreed. Why take O'Dowda off - at least he was cover for Bryan's inept defending

 

 

 

[joeyb]

13 hours ago, Redtucks said:

As I said earlier, IMO he has saved us more points than he has lost.

Whilst we could probably do better, I think that could be said about almost everyone that we have.

I certainly don't feel that replacing FF is top priority.

Opinions, I suppose.

That's what makes football what it is.

 

As you say, only opinions but I genuinely believe it should be top priority before accounting for anyone leaving which i know may be a little unrealistic.

I just feel his distribution and lack of confidence leading to mistakes spreads through the team like wildfire - see Hull's 3rd yesterday.