By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions. We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Agree with the sentiment of PH 100% and that the OP makes good points of course.
But that’s a tremendous post Padula. I think that sums up perfectly how a lot of people on this board feel . It does me anyway . So much wrong . So many questions to be asked whether we emerge this season from this slump or not.
Don’t start me off again on our pre match warm up / routine.
I urge anybody to go watch that (enjoy it, it’s the part of the afternoon we are not getting beat ) whole charade as it’s a metaphor for so much that’s wrong .
The lazy go through the motions ‘limbering up’ drill down in the corner where most of the players look like they should be wearing pyjamas. No life , no sharpness. To the endless keep ball in a box . Done this for years . When do you see us get out of tight situations with short sharp passes ? In fact when do you see us swing 2 or 3 passes together . A couple of minutes as a warm up - yes. But 10 -15 minutes of this garbage . It’s not realistic. For a start the pitch is 30 times bigger than the 20 x 20 square you are playing in . But the players are set up the same each week around the outside of it so every week they know where each other are so they just spend 10 minutes playing blind passes as they know a team mate will be there for that excercise. It bears very little resemblance to reality and we never ever display any traits of that drill. It’s a nonsense to be done every match . Without fail . The worst bit is next . Defence v attack where our back 4 line up against our midfield and forwards and let them walk through scoring goals . Never seen anything so fake and false and unrealistic in all my years . Again . Every match we do it .
I can’t be bothered to go through the rest as some of it had been covered but all this isn’t a Stéphan thing . We did this under Cifuentes too. Identical …every match . The last 2 home matches I’ve also watched Mr Diarra , a man with many international caps , do a 5 minute drill with Jonathan Varane . Punching the ball into him from close range and JV has to turn sharply and move forward . They repeat it for minutes trying to get JV to open his body out and look forward . They may as well bring some of our retired and ex pros out on to the pitch and do it for the amount of times I’ve seen JV actually do that . And that’s my point on other treads right now . The set up is all wrong . The warm up is a nonsense , but these players are not doing what’s asked of them I don't think . Unsure of their jobs or just not good enough . Probably a bit of both .
I mean , when you take a step back , and listen to the head coach explain that he needs to try alternatives in midfield , alluding to putting Edwards in midfield on Sunday , and then suddenly remembering our long standing midfielder is having a whale of a time out at Norwich , it becomes clear that we are utterly clueless across the board at this club.
I’m not saying Field is some sort of Roy Keane, but his ‘mismanagement’ is rather an indictment of where we are now . Field, Cook, Nardi, Chair, Kolli …all treated pretty poorly in my eyes and maybe that’s part of the players discontentment too. Maybe the squad actually is sticking together in that respect and rebelling against the treatment of some? Maybe not . But something has happened . No question
Look out for the obligatory “more over reaction” posts imminently.
We’ve all seen varying degrees of terrible , lethargic and simply ‘tossing it off ‘ displays over the years , many many years, but that first half is Blackpool away levels of shite. As you say , we could easily have been 4 or 5 down by half time.
The usual little gaggle of pro Nourry , pro the club, jump on any questions, complaints , queries, issues that any fan of 50 years or more DARE ask on this message board …are very very quiet at the moment. And I don’t blame them at all. I feel let down by everybody at the club so god knows how they feel right now .
Got much more from Jimmys interview than I did , JS. To paraphrase, “sometimes lack of clarity can look like lack of effort”. Is really very damning of the head coach and his staff.
If this was being played out in the premier league under the gaze of the premier league media and all that comes with it , the over riding message would be he’s lost the dressing room.
Some of those players need to be accountable too though. “We need to dig each other out more as team mates”.
I think 1 or 2 senior players have let rip at a few . Anybody catch Cook tearing strips off Varane after about 10 minutes.
First line of JS’s post match interview he used the term “embarrassing”.
Agreed but you have to be vaguely near the opponents goal to have the opportunity to shoot .
That first half was as bad as I think I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t just that we couldn’t pass , or defend, or sprint, or get close to an opponent anywhere on the pitch. It was the body language, the attitude , the ability to do the absolute basics and the ability to read the most simple movements by a pretty ordinary opposition. If it was up to me Varane wouldn’t get near the team for a while . I thought his attitude stank tonight . Saito too, simply for the reason he has just lost any semblance of being a footballer . He reminds me of PE at school where the ‘unsporty’ kids were forced to play football and they spent the whole time running around but not actually involved in any way.
But they weren’t the only ones .
Stephen once again hanging himself by his own petard. Once again loses the midfield before we even start. Picks the wrong players in the wrong positions and is too slow to change it . Half time was 25 minutes too late .
Mbengue played like he wanted a couple of games off and must be furious he didn’t get booked as that’s where all his effort went . Kone , an absolute passenger . Crumbs of positivity ..and its crumbs seen only under a microscope. Poku didn’t die after 20 minutes of football and did more in that time than Saito has in about 3 months. Kolli nothing special but at least provided a semblance of keeping the football ..holding it up and bringing others into play . That’s seen as a positive believe it or not . That’s how bad we are.
But we are sh*t aren’t we . From top to bottom , from back to front , the whole club is utter sh*t. Completely drained by it now .
Still looks like the same formation . If so, putting Edwards into midfield is neither here nor there . We’ll probably be outnumbered again and thus struggle again .
Said it earlier in the week but I feel more like a rubber necker at a terrible accident than a fan watching my team tonight.
The club has to be careful . They have a very loyal fan base that generally sticks with them through thick and thin . But, I’ve spoken to 3 separate QPR fans this week whose kids ALL refused to go on Sunday . And are already making excuses for the next home game . 2 out of the 3 anyway)
They keep ignoring the hear and now for some sort of better tomorrow . I understand it . But it’s playing with fire a little at present .
To get the best out of Poku we’d have to change how we set up . Poku is an out and out wide man . Pointless playing him inside like Saito and Vale did Sunday upon his return . Of which I can see neither a return or any sort of change in tactics happening any time soon.
Let’s hope I’m wrong on both accounts this evening .
Is it beyond the realms of possibility for 6 teams to make up 11 points or less, in 10 games (11 for Norwich)? I don’t see us picking up points anytime soon. And it sounds like that’s not even the aim now .
I hate to say but amongst the carnage of our football club right now that is a brilliant piece of writing . It’s a shame it’s about such mismanagement, such incompetence and frankly such conmen who only have conned everybody involved. So much to agree with in that piece. So much to make me angry ….that list of staff!!!! My god.
And the dormant, passive fanbase still happy to bumble along accepting this is us. This is how it is . Still reading on this message board this evening that it’s all a bit of an over reaction etc . It’s bonkers . It’s not just about Sunday’s humiliation. It’s not just about our physical condition currently . It’s not just about the absolute facade a PR team has sold to a fan base that Johnathan Varane is our next big ‘sell’. Remember we signed Varane because according to the ‘data’, he was the closest player match in Europe to ….wait for it …Isaac Hayden . They are now stinking the place out together in the same midfield ! That Sam Field though . He’s garbage isn’t he !?!? The PR machine in full affect .
It’s about the last 30 years . It’s about the army of crooks, liars and incompetent conmen employed to run our football club over generations. It’s about being lied to as fans , constantly , about injuries, contracts, ticket sales, player availability, players going awol, data , statistics and on and on and on . It’s about our beloved football club, all of us , barely caring about results and seeming to concentrate on giving youngsters games . It’s important of course but that paragraph in Clive’s piece following JS post match statement is so damning.
They have lost site that ultimately , we want to win football matches . We don’t expect to, but we want to win. According to Stephan we are sacking it all off . 4-0 up against Leicester not a sign of a youngster coming on . Gettting torn asunder by Boro…yeah we’ll give Tylon Smith a league debut. Out of position. Another player crushed in 5 minutes of game time he shouldn’t have been introduced too Stinks of Plymouth away . Stinks of Briatore calling down to the bench . It all Stinks . Years and years of it .
We can’t be blamed for losing some patience . Can we?
Yeah fair play Kensal , I just looked into this and you are correct and I’m not to stubborn to admit I was talking rubbish . Lesson learned not to just go off on one when we are in poor form, but I probably will do again. Probably in about 48 hours. As I’ve said before I talk a lot through experience but that ‘experience’ is 30 years ago and football has moved on . Pasta does indeed sound like standard food for pre match 3 to 4 hours before kick off. It was an absolute no no when I played and completely unacceptable . It’s does also say that on a couple of sites that it depends on the individual. But I stand corrected. Hands up .
However , no mention of some of the other things I know they are made to eat as part of their diet and pre match prep, even though some players have requested they don’t have them as they are ‘not healthy’.
Second game in a row that Hayden has gone straight down the tunnel with no acknowledgement to the poor sods still there whatsoever . Didn’t even look up .
In the grand scale of things it’s irrelevant, but things like that irk me
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
