Feelings of apathy?

It's actually an improvement on recent seasons but I'm distinctly underwhelmed on several fronts.

The football is awful to watch - there's no dynamism about us and a lack of goalmouth action. We have no real drive or resilience. The squad is a big one and would appear to have been well backed - but of anything we're overstocked with players who are too alike and we're still lacking in quality. That said, I think there's more ability in the side than results suggest.

I'm underwhelmed by our recruitment this month.

And I'm very underwhelmed in Hughes tbh. No real evidence that he effects games from the bench or that he's got to grips with the league. For a manager of his pedigree I expected much, much better.

The only big positive to come from this season for me is Harry Lewis. An excellent prospect who'll likely move on in a year or two. Crichlow has been broadly decent buy isn't ours, Wright was excellent but not ours and Cook has scored well but doesn't seem to fit our wider style. Whatever style that is.

The report card wouldn't get more than a C from me.

 

Yes, we’re in a decent position, and (for the time being) in a play off position and not a million miles from the automatics.
But….we’re still massively under achieving with the players available.
It’s almost like we play games with the shackles on and don’t take any risks to try and win games.
All very trust the process

 

There is still an awful lot to play for and plenty of points up for grabs, and 6 points off third with a game in hand on paper at least, is not a bad position to be in at this stage of the season. I think the reason a lot of us aren't jumping up and down with excitement about that is because we are yet to be convinced by this group of players and the way they are being asked to play that there is enough there to get us over the line come the end of the season. It is rare that I look ahead to any game with a sense of confidence that we will not only win but win convincingly, and more often than not, I feel a sense of foreboding rather than a sense of belief that we will come away with all 3 points.
All of that said, I am still hopeful of a top seven finish at least, with a part of me still dreaming of us getting that magic third spot. I guess I just thought it was going to be easier to achieve that this season than is turning out to be the case.

 

its the general poor football, yes we are in a reasonable position, but i feel with the squad we have , we should be playing to a better standard and won more games

 

The next 4 games will make or break our season in my opinion, because they are all teams in the mix with us, lose a couple and we lose touch with those around us but get points from all of them and we could open a gap

 

To caveat my response I missed the 2 home wins after xmas.

Accordingly haven't seem a win at home since the 17th Sept. Don't consider myself an ultra, have a ST and go to a couple of away games locally. Was at Mansfield, which is last decent performance I've seen.

The OP resonated. I'm seriously doubting going Saturday despite nothing else to do.

Why? Battle scars maybe. The season seems to be following a familiar to pattern to our L2 tenure under especially Bowyer and Adams. Flirting at the top end, opportunities missed, poor cup exits, performances dropping off.

A different style of football to the other 2 managers, easier on the eye but often flattering to deceive. I can't recall many periods of edge of the seat stuff, phase after phase of attacking play, chances created.

So speaking personally, the apathy is there. The games are generally unexciting, and the crushing disappointment (harrogate cup, orient, northampton, carlisle, rochdale) is taking its toll. My expectations are firmly set that history is repeating. A good squad but the team less than the sum of its parts. 6 points off 3rd, but only 5 above 15th. Plenty of teams around us in the mix, who could surge in second half of season like Bristol and Bolton have previously.

An indifferent window so far. We need a transformational signing ( think of the impact of cullen) and we need Hughes to find the right balance between style and efficacy.

 

Automatic promotion is still there for a team that can grasp it from the current play off positions. I just think that momentum is there for Stockport and Salford rather than us. I think Hughes has such a large squad he doesn’t know his best team or formation. The Jan window should be just a tweak here and there but with four in already and Hughes talking last night about others coming in it looks like he’s after another rebuild which again assumes he’s unhappy with his current squad. He clearly didn’t rate Young, I think he’s going to offload Cook but I’m not sure where the goals are going to come from. His new strikers are a complete contrast with a veteran who’s spent the last few years in Cyprus and India and a young 20 year old kid who may be the answer or could be the next Austin Samuels. I just wish he’d have brought in someone like Conner Mcaleny from Salford who I believe is available rather than another scattergun approach to signings.

 

You must be a mind reader RT. I was just musing about City and wondering if there'd be anything of interest on BT. i was thinking about how bored I was with all things City and then the first thing I see is this thread. I'm not apathetic because I really want us to succeed but I'm becoming resigned to the likely prospect of yet another failure to get out of this league. And yet another season of unexciting, boring, unadventurous football. I think it's a step too far for many people to think that MH might not be the man to take us forward after all but that's a conclusion I'm steadily getting to. Very odd, you could say bizarre, recruitment, a very dull and ineffective playing style, a refusal or inability to see and address shortcomings and problems in the side that the vast majority of supporters can see. It all adds up to a very unattractive product and like others I don't look forward to match days with any great enthusiasm. For what it's worth, if MH fails here then I'd like to see us put our faith in a younger, hungrier manager, like those at Barrow and Bolton for example.
Sorry for the downbeat tone but the last two games have been a real downer for me.

 

Massive feelings of apathy here, that have gone on for at least four years. My top three would be Orient, Stevenage & Stockport. I think we will end up somewhere between 8th & 12th unless Hughes ups his game quickly.

The only way to get out of this league is to attack teams and you cant do that with zero width.

 

At the end of last season, the performances were better than we've seen to date, with supposedly lesser quality players. The preseason hype and expectation is slowly ebbing away, despite our decent league position. What I imagined we'd be watching was a side confident in possession, productive patterns of play, inventive set plays and a team willing to die for each other. Unfortunately, it's been quite the opposite. I used to look forward to the games, but there isn't one player in that squad, who you know will do the business. I was looking forward to seeing Pereira, Chapman, Walker, Oliver and Smallwood, but they've been a big letdown so far. I used to look forward to the team attacking the kop, but we rarely pepper the keeper or attack at pace.
It might take Hughes 3 windows to get to grips with league 2, but the fear of being here again next season is growing with each passing game.

 

Agreed. The desire to have so many "wingers" but not play a wingers formation, and only start with really one up front is worrying. I have Evans with a passion, but with the players we have he would have added a tiger in midfield and gone all out with two up front and played wide balls in to Oliver. Hughes is trying to play PL/ Championship football in League Two and it won't work. The very reason we get constantly bullied.

 

What makes you think the lad McAleny is available he got 2 more goals yesterday for Salford and watching him against us the other week he was up there for Salfords MOTM.

 

For me this sentence sums up our whole season perfectly.
Even yesterday,before our 25th game of a 46 game season(52% of matches played) when the team was announced there was a big discussion regarding the formation.
Is it this is it that?
I think at this stage of the season our preferred style of play should be set in stone.
Do you think Orient,Stevenage and Northampton etc.fans are looking at their team sheet at 2.55 and wondering what their formation is going to be.
I highly doubt it.
As much as I hate Evans,he has a way of playing and he sticks to it.
He signs players that can play his style.
We constantly seem to try and convert players in to a style of playing.

“Square pegs in round holes” seems to be a phrase that us fans have used far too often in recent years.

 

Agree with everything written so far. For me add frustration to the mix.

Frustrated that despite compiling a more than half decent squad MH cannot get a regular tune out of them.

Maybe that is because Pereira and Walker, Chapman, Oliver and Smallwood are just not stepping up to the plate? They all have clear talent yet for 90 mins a week they choose not to use it.

In general the back 5 can hold their heads up and say we are doing our bit but the rest of the team are misfiring virtually every game. We seem to limp to victory and crash to defeat. After Salford at home I thought let's go put down the marker, let's stick out chests out and let Div 2 know we are here. Then we whimper to defeat to the might Rochdale, hardly laying a glove on them. Pathetic really.

Walker should be fined two months wages and made to clean up all the litter on Manningham Lane and so should MH for not seeing what was inevitable and taking Walker off to protect him.

Right now I cannot see how we can arrest this slow decline.

 

Some cracking comments in this thread which I totally agree with, I expected so much more with regards Hughes as our manager and the players we've brought in.

@Inspector encapsulates the situation for me, at the end of last season the team were a delight to watch given what we'd put up with for 30 games or so under Derek (you'll find it hard to get a better manager than me) Adams and expected even better with the signings we've made.

 

Love this

This is pretty much what I would have written, Dennis.

 

The thing is, we were playing a particular formation up until recently and people were moaning that we were too predictable and teams had worked us out.