The Players

Thank you for your game report. Sometimes we get lost in the emotions when we thought we would win this needed to win this game, but then lost to ten men.

 

I was worried about Hopkin abandoning ship but after reading the T&A this morning I'm not concerned anymore now its been officially confirmed that Drury KNOWS football.

 

A team is down to 10 men with their leading forward being sent off!

Of course it's going to look like we were trying but we still lost to desire.

Losing that game is unacceptable.

As for the squad being disjointed that's mainly down to him and getting load of midfielders in.

 

Drury is pep guardiola.

3-0 Pompey at weekend?

 

The squad is mainly disjointed due to Rahic because of his recruitment over his tenure and the financial mess he left the club. It left Rhodes and Hopkin in a straight jacket since he went especially for the January's transfer window.

 

Agree to an extent. We clearly created enough chances in the second half to win the game, defensively we were nothing short of a disgrace and Butterfield was the most productive, but consider the first half. That moment we scored was when the game was there for the taking, and there are no excuses as to why that didn’t happen.

The movement off the ball ahead of Butterfield was virtually none existent. Like Fleetwood, Walsall had the discipline to condense the front four and we had zero idea of how to combat that. In my opinion, absolutely unacceptable given the enormity of the game.

Our movement off the ball is poor. It happens every throw in and dead ball situation. We rarely gain anything from them and often end on the back foot.

 

A lot of what you mention is down to coaching. Hopkin and Drury out of their depth, and McElhone is a fitness coach. Now Hopkin has gone, the sooner we get rid of Drury, the better. As for McElhone, let the new manager decide whether to keep him on as fitness coach, but surely not assistant?

 

Its been evident all season apart from the odd time Scannell tried to beat the full back. Walsall was a classic example of this. Butterfield reminded me of a scrum half in rugby, looking to dictate but having no runners off the ball. Even the poorest of teams can defend against that, they can just hold their ground knowing no one is running in behind them or dragging them out of position. Its one of the reason we are nailed on to go down.

 

I was at Walsall and this in my opinion is an excellent assessment.
There was a huge amount of effort from the whole team - and especially from the loanees (who others (wrongly) appear to be blaming for lack of effort or character). Not so - they all worked their socks off - though Butterfield has an unfortunate "saunter" to his approach I am convinced he too was really putting in a shift. Although he didn't feature on Saturday the other loanee Miller is a real trier too.
Its the shape that is the problem. Witness Caddis having to push on to give us width. It leaves a huge hole for Walsall to have an easy out ball that ultimately leads to conceding two horrendously soft goals.

I was at Walsall and I felt the players gave it their all. They absolutely dominated the home team, it was frankly like a training exercise we were so on top (red card helped, granted). Butterfield ran the game, as you'd expect. Everything good came through him. But we didn't get the goals our dominance suggested we should have.

However, we were defensively appalling, especially from set-plays. Did they switch off? It looked that way. The third goal is horrendous. It should never have even got to being a corner for them. Chicksen could have cleared a long ball, but he tried bringing it down and failed to do so, they won the corner. And then chuff knows what ROD is doing in goal. It's a great delivery, but that's his ball to punch.

There's quality in this side, in midfield especially, and we've some decent enough second strikers. What we don't have are proper wingers who will take a man on, or get back to help their full-backs.
We don't have a proper target man who will hold the ball up to allow our quality midfielders to push on and feed off seconds.
But worst of all, I don't rate any of the defenders, except Mellor who's not been available.

Still enough decent options in the right system and playing the appropriate style to finish fifth bottom. Let's hope Drury gets a tune out of them on Saturday before the new man arrives.

9 times out of 10 we win that game on Saturday. Not having it that they don't try/care. They just failed. It wasn't a lack of effort, in my opinion.

Let's pull together as one and assess the bullshine in the summer, once we've stayed up.[/QUOTE]

 

No matter who comes in as Manager ............ I doubt things will change much ........... The games are tough, and time is running out.
Unless the new bloke has a cabinet full of BCAFC DVD's, he too will need time to assess and judge ....... time is running out.
By the time the team start to play as a team - It could be too late. I'm not being pessimistic if I suggest City could be 10 points from safety, come the end of March .............. time is running out.

THIS is where the 'appointed one' is crucial. I go with the suggestion of many, in that we appoint someone with a view of Lge 2 football next season. To appoint a Manager to 'save us' could actually be a long term downfall. The guy needs to just do his best, and demonstrate some form of improvement to give us all hope for next year. Because like it or not - Many of these under performing players will still be with us next season.

 

At this stage it’s more about getting in and just giving the players confidence and maybe a tweak in system given what we have got. It’s a fresh start for all and sometimes that can improve performances. They know they need to play well

The real work would come in the summer but if we get the right appointment they will have had a few months to see what we need

 

Which is essentially what I said ?

 

I think the biggest problem we may have for survival is that most of these players won't be here
next season so why would it matter if we go down? If we're relying on their sense of doing the right
thing,we may be disappointed, as they haven't been doing that most of the season!

 

The loan players are hardly the problem though. It's our own contracted players who seem to be largely letting the side down. Notably a rather inconsistent defence.

 

Yes I’m agreeing with you

 

Comfidence/ kick up the arse. Not gonna work I don’t think as you’ve stated but what else can a new man do at this stage?

 

Most definitely more than just confidence ........ 3 out of 4 half decent Lge 1 players don't (all at once) suddenly become shit ones.
When recruiting, the good scouts see decent players who will be a shoein for expectations. It is folly to sign a player 'hoping' he can change his game to suit your system. Not particularly defending our squad - but they have been treated like foster kids ............ Having numerous 'parents' in a short space of time, with the amount of coaches City have had. One of Citys biggest mistakes was to allow Grayson so long to make up his mind. He should have said, one way or the other long before the final ball was kicked, last season. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

Surely the rudiments of defending is not rocket science? Make sure you cover their key players, don’t let them run into the box, and stop crosses coming in. Get organised for corners.