Away vs Crawley Jan11th

He just seems a bit error prone IMO. Its a shame as he’s a physical unit but he’s reckless and chucks himself into some terrible tackles.

AOC has been the best CB this year and IMO Paudie is a decent prospect who has quality and offers a goal threat. I think he’s one we can develop and sell down the line, whereas BRE will be moving on a free in future, he’s just League Two material and nothing more. That said, he’s useful backup.

 

Yes I believe after last seasons mature performances most (including myself) thought it would be Paudie and AN Other, but BRE as you say has a big physical presence and AOC has been very consistent, but yes time for a change.

 

We desperately need Donaldson back. The ball was sticking when it went forward and we've no one to do the same. Im sure Bowyer is counting the days until his return.
Problem will be how to get 3 into 2.

Don't be surprised if we return to the 5-3-2 next week, and who can blame him if today's performance is anything to go by.

 

If Akpan is our best hope then were screwed.

 

It depends on ambition. If our ambition is to just steady the ship then it’s gone well. If our ambition is to back the manager and go for it by whatever means, then there is an argument that we are on track. We are in the mix. We are in L2 because of Rahic. We want it to be a blip. We expect to get back to L1 ASAP. Bowyer has been well backed. We have some good players and with luck he might just scrape it.

Watching his teams this season has not been anything other than hard work. We are not good to watch. Today’s performance was utter garbage. Bowyer may have us in the top 6 but what he provides us with is utter crap null and void of anything anywhere near quality or entertaining football but yes we’re 6th. We have played a lot of poor teams these last 2 months with smaller budgets and hardly won any but we are on the right track cos we don’t lose many? We need a reset.

 

Steady the ship is ok but how long do we leave it before we decide we give it a go to get back? The longer we stay in this league the harder it gets. Less income, less ticket sales, less players interested.

This season the league is really average. It’s a great chance to bounce back at first opportunity

 

when is Richards-Everton going to learn that he can't jump in to every tackle, especially not in the penalty area - he's becoming more of a liability when it comes to defending one vs one in the box. very poor defending for the 2nd goal today.

also, 442 isn't the answer. not with only one fit wide-man.

 

There is no way the objective was to steady the ship, nor should that be an acceptable result come may. @wetherbywhaler already confirmed Rupp expects promotion and we have a top 3 budget for that very reason.

And if Rhodes wants 20k STs next season (lol) we need not only promotion but some entertainment.

 

How on earth does that support sticking with a manager? We'd won twice in something like 20 games and didn't look like winning again for the rest of the season.

I obviously can't prove it but my thought is we would have finished in exactly the same position had we stuck with Todd.

Just to throw the opposite at you though. If we'd have stuck with Kamara, who was doing a decent job all in all, we may not have had the thrill of the PL.

 

I'd prefer 3331 at this point, no way we can have 2 in midfield, because the midfielders we have are shambolic and devoid of any inspiration or creativity. I'd rather see Anderson and Akpan over a Reeves and Palmer duo (Dumb and Dumber) again.

You see midfielders of other sides actually running AT the opposing teams or slotting through balls to wingers/strikers. Our midfielders seem to collect the ball from one CB, look forward, decide the opponent is too scary to have a go at, pass it back to the next CB and tell him to hit it to the wing/fullback, that wing/fullback passes it back to the CM who passes it back to the CB who at this point knows the twats in front of him are too scared to get the ball forward, so he then hoofs it up top which 99% of the time results in nothing.

I've honestly seen AOC and BRE roam forwards and take on an opposing player more times than Reeves/Palmer. Pritchard isn't mentioned in my criticism because he actually attempts to get forward and has scored more than the aforementioned two combined and he barely ever plays. I almost feel like our dip in form has come now that Palmer is back...

 

Woeful performance absolutely Woeful

Midfield no pace and backwards and side wards over and over again

Come on City

 

Agree totally. My only criticism of Bowyer, but it's a big one, is that in all central midfielders we don't have one ball winner. We've then got four who do exactly the same job!!

We should have been trying to get or trying now someone like Tom Clarke, who's coming to the end with Preston
https://www.deepdaledigest.com/analysis/preston-are-facing-a-big-decision-about-tom-clarkes-future/

 

Ironically Todd's sacking, was one of the few I enthusiastically supported!! In fairness he'd had a reasonable chance.

 

Tom Clarke is a centre half.

And really? Your only criticism of Bowyer is the fact he didn't sign a ball winner?

 

Donaldson's been a huge miss. Frankly, when I heard he'd be out for at least two months, I was more depressed about that, than any of the bad results

If Mellor is fit I'm fine with three at the back provided two out of Prichard, Cook, Ismail or Connolly are playing

Or let's do something different. Put Connolly at RWB and get Antony O to help out defending

 

He can play as a CDM at this level. He played that role for us, on loan, last time we were in L2

And yes, given the time he's been in charge, our position and injuries, I've no other complaints about Bowyer

 

What a wonderfully inspiring bloke Gary is, its no wonder we start so sluggishly as the side are probably fast asleep from the pre match team talk

 

reckon he is Colin Todd in disguise. What a dullard. Huge respect to the 500 fans travelling to the south coast with optimism, only to witness one of the worst performances of the season. Nice one Gary, listening to your boring assessment was bad enough, are you going to give us something to really cheer about in the months to come or keep offering up the same old shit.

 

The last couple of largely successful managers who went on horror runs:

Todd - replaced, plummet down the table, relegated, very unsuccessful season to follow
Parkinson - in League One, stuck with, recovered, improved finish the season after (7th)
Stuart - replaced, plummet down the table, relegation the following season

If we had replaced Parkinson when he won just 1 in 20 games, we would have better evidence to suggest whether replacing a manager mid-season is worth it or not - because in Todd and Stuart's case, it was a disaster in not only that season, but the following term as well. As it was, retaining Parkinson during that abysmal run saw no plummet, not relegation, and no devastating outcome in the following season.

Replacing Bowyer with someone vaguely similar MIGHT work - but we don't seem to have a Kamara or a Jewell in-house (unless you think Drury is worth a go?), and replacing him with an opposite (Nathan Jones) would be eye-wateringly stupid.

By all means, if we aren't in League One next season, Bowyer should go - and someone LIKE Jones should be appointed and allowed to change things round. But if anyone thinks Jones can get a tune out of team of defensively-minded, hard workers within a few weeks, I doubt that very much.