I don't agree with many of the knee jerk reactions. In large spells of all matches this season we have looked far better than last season. So whatever Struber is doing is starting to work. Playing out from the back. Anderson now looks fairly confident doing so and has defo improved from last season. Helik looks confident doing so. Neither were on the pitch against Chelsea. We just need to balance better when to quickly move the ball up out of defence rather than the constant same routine of passing sideways across defence and back to the keeper. Must say how impressed I have been with Collins in that respect though, his distribution has been excellent this season. I don't think there is something massively wrong, we don't look like a bad team. What has been evident to me is that all important final ball and finish just hasn't been there. Fix that and we start winning matches, taking the pressure off the defence. It's quite simple really.. Another forward player is a must before the window closes and this player NEEDS to be different to what we have at the moment. I have noticed a distinct lack of pace up front. All too often, the oppositions defenders get to the ball before our lads up top. Thought chaplin was supposed to be quick, but he doesn't look it. Woodrow isn't the speediest either. Very evident against the multi million pound players of chelski our lack of pace up front. We need to do a bit of DNA cloning. Thinking a mixture of Ashley Ward with a sprinkling of Clint Marcelle.. Welcome to Jurassic park footy style.. That's a thought actually. scrap the academy and invest in player cloning. Replace the scouting network with covert agents, obtaining the DNA of the best players in the world for all positions. Chuck em in a petri dish and put a whole new meaning of home grown talent. What could possibly go wrong and sounds perfectly legal n legit haha..
Last night just reminded me of our time in the promised land. At times we naively took on teams at football and got hammered cos they were better and more clinical than us.
I dont think it's the fact we lost 6 - 0 thats the bug bare ....it's the nature of how we lost 6 - 0 that is worrying ....the way we were so easily opened up...the gaps between defenders.... poor decision making both on and off the field might I add ...no end product ...nobody following in for the loose ball the list of problems weve all witnessed...personally the problems from the lack of experience once again was painfully on show big time last night The statement from our board re learning lessons from last year is suddenly fast becoming a sound bite that was concocted to appease the masses because from where I'm standing they've learnt nothing .. We are still making the same silly mistakes that we made last season and last night they were seized upon big style ..... unfortunately....they were there for all to see and any manager worth his salt will capitalize on our weaknesses week in week out That loss and the nature of the way we lost is going to be one hell of a mountain to climb come Saturday for the players ......
I can't comment on the way we played yesterday as I did not stump up the tenner needed, although I would have gone to see the game live had it been possible and was fortunate enough to get a ticket. Neither did I see the loss against Luton despite me being a "reserved plus" member. I did try to get ifollow for the whole of the 1st half. I hope the same doesn't happen on Saturday! Perhaps we are now suffering from a "difficult second season" issue. It would appear that our great escape last season has raised our expectations. The Championship is a very tough league and there are no pushovers. Chelsea apart and the second half against Reading (having seen the highlights, I agree with Struber that the red cards were justified), our defence has been sound. It is our lack of goals that is the worry. Again we may be defending well because our focus is on defence and we are not ccommitting enough in attack to score the goals we need. My comment is that it is early days and that it is not unusual for us to start badly in the second tier. Let's see where we are at the end of October.
We did stay up on merit , Wigan cheated by signing players they couldn"t pay for, that was not our fault
Does that mean that we cheated under Cryne’s ownership? Or when we were promoted under Stendel whilst making a 3m loss? Would it be cheating if the club make the investment that Struber is asking for in players?
What you on about ? Wigan went into administration & broke the rules meaning a 12 point deduction & the reason they went into admin was because they signed players they could not afford, paid wages ( up to a point ) & incurred a debt they could not service , there is no comparison , we did not break any rules & we paid our players & creditors
Wigan went into administration and were rightly docked 12 points for doing so, because it was an avoidable insolvency event. But, they signed and paid for players using money invested by the owners. They didn't miss any payments to any players or creditors. They went into administration simply because the owners decided to call the admins in. My point is, our owners could call the admins in if they wanted. We made a loss in 2018/19, and likely made a loss in 2019/20, and on the way to a loss in 20/21. Are we 'cheating'? Given your views on Wigan, I assume that you wouldn't want to see us bring in any new players at the moment?
Yes I agree its early days but honestly last nights performance in my opinion opened up all the cracks that have appeared to have been papered over.... I dont think anyone expected anything but a chelsea win last night but it was the nature of how we gifted them the game......in fact..it was that easy for them...that the kit man gave the folk in the chelsea laundry room the rest of the week off as their kit wont need washing for their next game ....
I do think we're a bad side! It's deja vu all over again! We struggled last year, have done little about it and are likely to struggle again. We've played and lost to two of the worst sides in the Division and haven't even scored a goal. I am a fan of Woodrow and Mowett but even I can see how their performances have dipped. For the sake of their own careers they need to get out to a Club that show even a modicum of ambition and competence. We are not that Club. As for last night. Frankly, when you wipe away the froth, it was spineless. You have to earn the right to play football by winning your personal and collective battles. We never looked like that. Losing to Chelsea is fine; being humiliated because we didn't sufficiently compete is not. IMO we'll continue this cycle of despair until we get new ownership. Unlike some of my BBS colleagues I do not think the owners are they are bleeding the Club dry, they are just incompetent - and they show that trait time and time again. These are the same old points we've made on this site for a long time now and the only change is the division that has grown among the fan base. Trump would be a more unifying Chairman. If you keep doing the things that have failed, you'll keep failing. The only plus in recent times has been the refusal (so far) of Barnsley MBC to sell their share of the Ground to the 80%. I know Steve Houghton is a fan and if he is reading this I would urge him in the strongest possible terms to never sell that 50% to these owners - though I'd make the same point whoever the owners were.
Your view, thats ok, entitled to think that way. I do disagree with 100% of that lol.. We also have beaten boro. Luton and Reading IMHO are not the worst two teams in the division and I think we will see that come the end of the season. I also think we have massively improved on where we were at the start of last season.. You completely over react to the Chelsea result. Even that wasn't a bad performance, we were just punished by either some clinical play from a top 6 premier league club or a couple of individual errors. 9 shots on target, and another day we may have got 2 or 3 goals, even the commentators on Chelsea ifollow said as much, how we had come to attack them etc. Very positive towards us. I don't buy into the notion that we were rubbish. It just turned out a gulf in class in the finishing stakes at the end of the day, but that's what you get with a 76 million quid striker up front..
Well that's what debate and discussion isn't it and that's fine; we'll just have to agree to disagree. I don't mind coming back at the end of the season and eating humble pie if I'm proved wrong but previous evidence suggests (I think) that I won't be. I didn't say Luton and Reading were the two worst sides in the Division (I think we're up there fighting for that accolade) I said they were among the worst- but again seasons end will tell us. I don't think you gave sufficient consideration to my fundamental point re the direction 80% of the Board are taking us and prospects for the future under them, but then again there have been a lot of comments on other posts on that subject - and there will be hundreds more in the future - so maybe we should just pick it up there.
you are not getting it, its not about profit or loss , its about managing your money , there is nothing wrong with owing money as long as you can meet your repayments , the other year it was Bolton who cheated , they got away with it for one year at our expense, but it caught up with them & they paid the price , both Wigan & Bolton signed players & ran up debt they could not repay & then expect some poor creditors to foot the bill by accepting 10p in the £ or even less in some cases , its blatant cheating , as for Barnsley , of course I want them to strengthen but the reality of the situation is that with the current pandemic & no match day revenue then the budget will be tight , well I do not want them to put the club in peril by getting in debt & risking the club , hopefully we will be able to bring a couple of loan players in or wheel & deal to freshen up the squad but we do not want to be the next Wigan or Bolton