Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: Home v Barrow Sat Sept 18th @ 3.00pm

Alex Gillead offers Zero. Literally zero.

He's another Will Atkinson who despite offering nothing somehow gets rotated around the pitch instead being subbed off and continues to offer nothing in the new position.

He's not alone in poor performances but at least the majority of the others have had the odd good one and contributed in some games.

 

I’m slowly starting to get the same sinking feeling I do every season. Had high hopes for DA, but he’s just the same as the others. Tactics set in stone, no plan B, pointless substitutions, seems to hold a grudge against some players (Sutton, the youth), and baffling after match comments.

Seems the majority of the fans feel the same way.

Sparks now gone missing after his inflated pre season war cry.

At least Rupp can have a nice Sunday afternoon drive after checking the attendance figures and seeing we didn’t lose.

 

Not going to criticise individuals. Suffice to say that, apart from Vernam, the rest are bog standard Fourth Division players.

I get more disappointed in Adams by the week. One plan, and when that doesn't work, bring on sub strikers with five minutes left. He failed when Plymouth got promoted and walked away from Morecambe when the challenge of League One was presented. League Two appears to be his level. His post match interviews are now like a stuck record. Happy, apart from missing chances and bring the players in for training on Sunday. Yep, happy at a home draw with a patched up Barrow side.

No doubt, next week we'll have another photo of Longo, on the pitch, doing some deal with another little local firm. Football has now become something of a sideshow at Valley Parade.

 

Watt and Evans should have been hauled off at half-time, replaced by Songo`o and Sutton. Crankshaw would have least be looking and running in the right direction, replacing Gilliead. Is this job too "big" for Adams with expectancy as it is?

 

Same shit, different season down at VP. Sign players like Gilliead, Lavery and Robinson who have no goalscoring record whatsoever and then wonder why we can't score any goals.

Adams is doing my head in talking about Angol. Good player but made of glass and another one who can't finish his dinner. His presence isn't suddenly going make everyone else start scoring.

And what's happened to the high pressing, high intensity side from the first few weeks? Robinson trying to press the keeper and centre half at the end all on his own summed it up.

Shite on the pitch and shite in the backroom yet again and I'm sick of it.

 

Who'd have thought we'd have been pinning all our hopes for the season on Lee Angol?!

Looking at his record, my fear is that, no sooner will he be back, then his hamstring will go again. It's obvious he's got ability but also obvious how he became available for us to sign.

 

Gilliead offers nothing. Tippy tappy outside of the box with zero end product.
Cook must be sick of being isolated game in game out.
Vernham - everything we do including threat and end product comes through him, and barely a thing from anyone else.
Evans for a forward converted to midfield offers zero goal threat.
Simply not good enough. Lack of urgency from both the players and management.

 

To wait till 7 minutes to go to change a system that clearly wasn't working is one the worst managerial decisions I've seen for a long time at Valley Parade. To then bring on a striker that Cook desperately needed to partner him then take Cook off was the icing on what a cake made of shite. Is Thai really where we are as a side, no better than a team in their second season back in league 2?
Not good enough and quite frankly not acceptable for an apparent 'big club' at this level, no disrespect to Barrow who more than deserved a point today.

 

I thought that was so disappointing. We cried out for more energy and bite in midfield.
We never got a lift from scoring the equaliser. That was the time to make some positive changes.
We went to all that trouble to sign Songo'o and he doesn't get a look in. Surely Sutton and Crankshaw deserve some minutes?
I don't know why Adams persists in playing Cook as a loan striker at home. He is not a target man and our best games were when Angol was in the team.
I feel for Robinson, how is he supposed to build understanding with other players or have any influence in the game when he only gets 5 minutes at the end?
I am baffled by team selection to be honest.

 

What worries me is that even after been in charge for only a few matches Adams is already talking bollocks in his interviews, If he thinks he can convince the fans different from what they see with their own eyes and the weaknesses we see he is wrong, He can try and convince us and himself all is well but the crowd see different,
Time to get results and goals instead of talking about them, We know words are cheap here at City because we have had plenty of them in the past.

 

Bolton bought or loaned in eight players in the January transfer window. Many of them first team players. We got rid of some absolute garbage and also signed eight. Only Cook really made an impact last season. That’s what made the difference. That’s why Bolton went from the arse end of the league to promotion.
Anyone who thinks Bolton went from bottom to automatic promotion so City can is deluded. There’s no way City are getting a third or half of a new team in January unless there are long injuries or there is a new owner.

 

1 goal and 4 assists (3 in the league campaign).

Nowhere near enough for someone who started 43 games.

 

Whereas Angol offers way more in an attacking sense. Yeah his finishing is ropey to say the least but his hold up play and all round movement off the ball dictates we are a more attacking threat with him in.

 

We weren't poor against Walsall. It was only our forwards who were below average.
We created enough chances to have won by 5 and didn't have much to do in defence.

 

We've obviously lured Adams back to League 2 on the basis of convincing him we're ambitious and have a long term plan to get this club back to the Championship. Then we've given him the likes of Theo Robinson. You don't win promotion from this league if your hopes to nick a winner reside on the likes Robinson and Lavery.

No wonder he sounds pissed off whenever he speaks to the media. Although - making attacking subs with 5 mins on the clock is piss poor too.

 

Not sure whether Adams was trying to fool himself or the fans in that post match interview, because if he was as happy with that performance as he said he was, then we are in for a long and frustrating season.

The central midfield were woeful today, Gillead offers zero, Vernam had a good second half, Cook too isolated yet again.

 

My first trip down to Valley Parade this season. What a disappointment. A feeble midfield, no cohesion between them and Cook. A short sighted goalkeeper who fails to communicate with his defenders apart from waving them upfield. A centre forward who flicks on headers to opposing defenders and a manager who sets his team up to start the match as if they are away to a team from a higher decision.
I have not heard the post match interviews but I don't want to hear him mention last season at Morecambe. Those comments are irrelevant.
I am afraid unless his attitude changes it will be another season of mid table mediocrity.

 

Always the danger when using other clubs success as an analogy. When Bolton decided one season in the khazi league was enough they stuck with Evatt who had a pretty average start to his career at Bolton. But as you say, they realised quickly that they needed quality to get out of this division and recruited accordingly. And we know we lack quality in key areas, especially upfront. But whereas Bolton HAD to get out of this division, we have an ownership that isn't backing the manager, merely balancing the books. Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

 

We're missing Angol's all round play, he keeps possession well, lays the ball off well, he's a honest hard working pro.
However, I've seen many comments on social media about how he's a big loss from the scoring point of view.
He is not prolific at all, and can regularly manage to screw the ball from a whole goal to aim at, to a frustrating 6" wide of the post.