AzzurroMark wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 11:44 am
Bluemike wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:24 am
AzzurroMark wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 12:39 am
Totally agree with this. If it was down to some modern day fans we'd never have given Bobby Robson the time to put this club on the map like he did. I believe his first 2 years at this club were not exactly great for him.
Yes, I was depressed with today's result, yes I feel that automatic promotion is looking tougher by the day, but I feel even more depressed reading some of our "fans" opinions, some of it borne out of years of frustration I know! KM, like Bobby Robson was, is young, he will make mistakes, and in the long run will learn from them. We are very lucky to have him. This though seems endemic in football, and while questioning things is not wrong, I personally think some of these fans deserve the dull football of a Mick McCarthy type manager.
Mark, some fans comments are indeed ridiculous, I'm certainly not calling for his head, however the fact remains he isn't the Messiah we hoped and most thought he was, he's making mistakes which is fine to a point but not really learning from them which isn't fine at all. Someone made the point that he still doesn't really know his best Eleven and that is valid, just look at Ladapo, not rotated nearly as much recently and is turning in decent performances and banging in goals, its hardly rocket science, every time Eswards comes on he looks bright, creative and sharp, no doubt he'll be benched for Sheff Wed, I just think at times KM is making it very hard for himself.
As for yesterday, why weren't the players fired up for it ? It's down to the manager to instill that fire in their bellies, he did it at HT, too little to late I'm afraid.
It's a miracle to me that despite this poor run a win weekend will see us a mere Three points off top Two, for me that makes it even worse, we've chucked so many points away It's bordering on suicide, we are mentally weak when it comes to the nitty gritty. Hallam is correct, McKenna will probably excel in the Championship with his brand of Football, sadly we aren't there and not likely to be while he continues to mess it up.
Certainly cannot argue with any of that Mike, always well balanced comments. I always had that niggling doubt, as with last season, that putting a "spanner in our works" would be like winning a cup final for Cambridge. Do you think our players have that dangerous arrogance about them where they believe the hype of how good they and the team are? Where they feel all they have to do is turn up and the other team will roll over? If so, yes some of that should come back to the manager's door. The thing I find hard is that all the teams around us are doing so well and rarely seem to be offering us a chink of light by dropping points. If the Wednesdays, the Derbys were not on such fantastic runs, maybe our situation wouldn't seem so desperate?
I have had a night to get over how I felt at 5pm yesterday. I guess i found reading Rossi's (in particular) comments a bit too OTT, in my opinion. They're his opinions and he's totally entitled to them, as indeed are those on TWTD. However I found them to be totally ridiculous and, like a bad apple in a cart (just an analogy and not calling anyone that) the rot soon spreads. We have got a fantastic thing (frustrating at times too) going at this club, we're miles ahead of anywhere we've been in the last 15 or so years. Let's try to all keep pushing in the right direction, as it wouldn't take long for, what starts as a minority, a toxic element to find its way onto the stands and then what?
I am not sure we think we just have to turn up to win, thankfully I don't believe that to be the case, I do think the rotation stuff is poor and has been all season although yesterday the poor result was not down to that. For me McKenna is stubborn in his beliefs, too stubborn in fact and plays to the same way come what may, in part yesterday was, in my opinion a case of too many players all off colour at the same time, coupled with the fact we are very often poor defensively, Edmundson trying to be like a bloody Brazilian of the 70's as he tried to control the ball on the byline, gives away a Throw in from which their guy is allowed to surge forward as no fewer than Three of our goons back off and allow him to split them, it really was a poor goal to concede. I have to say that yesterday Davis was utter garbage, numerous times we played it out to him in absolute acres of space and yet he was reluctant to run forward into attacking areas as he normally does, it happened time and time again and everyone around me was aware of it, I just get the feeling McKenna f*cked it up by playing an unfit player which if correct is poor management when Greig Leigh is more than able to come in.
I also think Lee Evans has been a shadow of what he was earlier in the season and yet we have Humphreys who has been reliable when being used and scored his goal recently, again I don't think we played the right option, rotation is one thing but we seem to do it with the wrong players, injuries or fitness concerns have to be addressed, I get that completely and yet we kept them in, I think Morsy's recent performances have dipped but I am off the opinion it's because Evans has been AWOL for a while now.
Yesterday was woeful, we saw no surging runs through the middle from Morsy, no pitch splitting passes from Evans, no forward runs down the left from Davis, no tenacity and enthusiasm from Chaplin, no beating his man and delivery from Burns, no assured defending from Edmundson and absolutely zilch from a bitterly disappointing Broadhead, why the hell that is I really don't know. I said last night we got the substitutions right, well we did with Evans and Davis but why he took Harry Clarke off god only knows, for me that was a poor decision.
All in all we still have plenty of time to correct it and go on a run but we are saying this week after week as the games tick by, I still cannot help but think we needed a big powerhouse of a CB come in during the window as for me we don't really have One single good defender who is consistent every week and that includes Davis, he has always been better going forward than defensively and yesterday showed him up to be bang average at best when the attacking side of his game isn't there. All the CB'S at the club are very poor in my opinion and that has been the real issue all season, not the missing of chances.