Hopkin or Lawrence ?

You said other relegation candidates have improved their squad. Which ones? Scunthorpe aside?

 

I wouldn't sack him now, probably wouldn't make a difference as it's too late in the day.

But I'd get rid in the summer, especially if we go down.

 

If he is sacked there has to be a succession plan already lined up. We cannot continue to sack managers and then scrabble about looking for what we have. We have to know who we want and go get them.

I wouldn’t sack him personally. And I don’t think the owners will. We willl have even less money next season. It needs a big clear out. He will already know what he needs.

 

I refuse to write off Hopkin just yet, there has been too much instability this season because of the antics of Edin Rahic.

Edin sentenced us to a relegation battle this season, not Hopkin. Hopkin is trying his best to bring us out of the s***.

I'm not happy with todays result as it was a crucial game and it was at home.

But now I fully expect us to bounce back, otherwise we'll be doomed to relegation. I just don't think replacing another manager will help us at this point now. We really need to just get behind the team and HOPE we can pull it off and survive the drop.

This season is a write off because of Edin Rahic, not David Hopkin.

Though I wouldn't mind seeing PP back at the helm.

 

You mean like he did this January? He was adamant he needed a winger and striker yet we got neither. He signed good players, but players wholly unsuitable to what he needs to play his dire style of football. I personally wouldn't trust him with next years budget.

 

There has been loads check here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/46728559 but here are a few from the last few days of the window
Leonardo da Silva [Wigan - Gillingham] Loan
Tahvon Campbell [Forest Green - Gillingham] Loan
Tyrese Campbell [Stoke - Shrewsbury] Loan
Zach Clough [Nottingham Forest - Rochdale] Loan
Michael Folivi [Watford - AFC Wimbledon] Loan
Matty Virtue [Liverpool - Blackpool] Undisclosed
Shane McLoughlin [Ipswich - AFC Wimbledon] Free
Joe Bunney [Northampton - Rochdale] Loan
Jimmy Keohane [Cork - Rochdale] Free
Jonte Smith [Lewes - Oxford] Undisclosed
Rekeil Pyke [Huddersfield - Rochdale] Loan
Ahmed Kashi [Troyes - Oxford] Loan

 

It is a difficult judgment and in general do not like changing managers, But the decision is do we stick with a manager who it seems cannot attract players to come to the club and has a dire style of long ball football with players totally unsuited to it and seems unable to change the team when it is not working and based on his record WILL take us down,
OR, Do we reach for the lifeboat and look elsewhere to a manager who may save us but taking in to account we can only appoint a manager who is out of work without spending a lot of money, In truth we have waited to long wasting time on the hope Hopkin and his plan could save us and are probably doomed either way,

 

But Gillingham lost today, Shrewsbury only managed a draw against struggling Bristol, Wimbledon lost and so did Rochdale.
They've done nothing for those teams. Where's the evidence?

 

You’ve quoted a loads of players but some of those teams are in worse form than us. So where’s the improvement?

We signed a few players too

 

We’ve got no money.

He just signed players he could get in my opinion.

 

I don't see the problem in Hopkin stating that he wanted a winger and a striker. It's just a statement of aspiration. Presumably not any old winger and striker. Anyone can sign a cheap no one else wants me player. Just because that winger and certain type of striker never materialised could be simply down to the fact of a lack of available money and players not wanting to come here. It's simply not as easy as getting a couple of target players and demanding that they sign, especially in a very limited transfer window.

 

He probably did, fair enough, he couldn't sign players to suit his style. But arguably now has one of the strongest group of technical players in the division (Payne, Ball, LOB, Butterfield, Clarke) yet still choses to play hoofball, when December showed the results we get when we play to our strengths. What's the excuse?

 

Correct. It’s actually a phenomenon which happens less than you think which is the new manager boost. Statistically changing manager has little effect. However that’s normally because the team is shit. You cant polish a turd. Is our team shit Though ? I’d argue. No

 

One of the criticisms of Mourinho was he asked talented players to keep it simple and not do risky things. You buy technically good players because they can do the risky things. I argue that Hopkin just needs to say go out and play. Get Butterfield demanding the ball off the defence

 

Bit different when you have a squad that cost hundreds of millions compared to bottom end league one players

 

No it’s not. The principle is exactly the same. We have talented players who are good on the ball but we don’t play to their strengths and utilise them properly

 

Hopkin is not beyond question, but you can't overstate the damage Rahic did to this club.

It's not fair to compare Hopkin to any other Bradford City manager who did not walk directly into a crime scene with twelve months of abysmal results and try to turn things round.

Hopkin can't be compared to mediocre managers walking into a moderately bad situation who therefore had a better win ratio.

Rahic was the equivalent of Charlie taking over the club for a year.

 

We might have some talented individuals, but when the alarm bells were ringing before a ball was kicked this season because we weren't signing anything like a coherent 'team', it's a bit rich for fans to forget just how appalling our recruitment has been for the last year.

Hopkin might be sack-worthy, but Jesus Christ, this squad would struggle in the Conference North even if some of the players are League One-quality.

There literally is nothing to our team or squad. Hopkin has manufactured one single way of playing, and it's done okay in certain games; that alone is a borderline miracle.

 

PP's the perfect comparison. Both inherited a relegation bound squad and a club in dissarray who had suffered 12 months of abysmal results. In the end, PP kept us up with relative ease and there are considerably better players in this current squad.

To use another comparison, try and convince me last seasons squad is not only better than the current one but 12 places up the league better? The one which had Vincelot, McMahon, Gilliead and Poleon starting games, still had dross like Chicksen and NKP in it and the squad which was so bad, Tyrell Robinson was our star player.

I'm not saying the current squad is brilliant but Hopkin has more than enough to finish above the drop zone and as it stands, he's failing.

 

The excuses for what happened yesterday are wearing thin now. We lost an easily winnable game because our manager was outthought by his opposite number and refused to change tactics when clearly the strategy being used wasn't working. It doesn't matter what happened in January with transfers, that long gone. What does matter is how we get the best out of the current squad at our disposal, if we keep persisting with what we saw yesterday then we are doomed.