| Is it time for people 16:54 - Apr 23 with 4076 views | TresBonne |
To take off their blue tinted glasses and realise that, actually, we’re not that good for this division right now?
And maybe we’re not the ‘best team in the league’ after all? |  | | |  |
| Is it time for people on 17:27 - Apr 23 with 918 views | Chrisd |
The recruitment will be important, but how MA has been able to get players through he door I'm confident he'll deliver whom KM requests. Also, KM needs to get us scoring more than a goal a game. However good we have been defensively over the last couple of months, having only a 1 goal lead the opposition always feel they are in the game and that builds pressure on us. I look at the other sides above us they seem far more capable of dispatching sides by 2,3 or 4 goals. We're certainly not the best team in L1, 11th suggests that, however getting those vital players through the PR door over the summer will be the key to how successful we could be next season. I'm hopeful and remain optimistic, but I feel a sense of realism is now washing over me. |  |
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| Is it time for people on 17:27 - Apr 23 with 916 views | Ryorry |
| Is it time for people on 17:20 - Apr 23 by pointofblue |
And we’ve been completely unable to adapt to Jackson (and Burns) being missing. We have two attacking midfielders proven at a higher level, a striker who banged them in for fun for the first half of the season and another who was a top scorer for a weaker side but we seem to have one way of playing that doesn’t fully work with any of them, yet are unwilling to change anything.
A key for next season will to have alternative plans rather than plan B being do plan A better (which I seem to recall Wigan fans said was a weakness of Cook’s). |
As far as Bonne's concerned, not sure how you can restore the confidence of a striker who's a passionate fan of the club he's playing for & who has completely tied up. Maybe needs a move away. |  |
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| Is it time for people on 17:29 - Apr 23 with 904 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Is it time for people on 17:26 - Apr 23 by soclopath |
We need players experienced in Div 1. Should we replace those the manager shows the door to with more championship players I feel we will do no better next season. |
I think John Wark is past it now. |  |
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| Is it time for people on 17:31 - Apr 23 with 891 views | Ryorry |
| Is it time for people on 17:26 - Apr 23 by soclopath |
We need players experienced in Div 1. Should we replace those the manager shows the door to with more championship players I feel we will do no better next season. |
Think there's a lot in that. Horses for courses, it's an ugly league & we need streetfighters who are prepared to get stuck in. | |
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| Is it time for people on 17:36 - Apr 23 with 863 views | Chrisd |
| Is it time for people on 17:27 - Apr 23 by Ryorry |
As far as Bonne's concerned, not sure how you can restore the confidence of a striker who's a passionate fan of the club he's playing for & who has completely tied up. Maybe needs a move away. |
Bonne is definitely a no for me. Even when he was scoring goals regularly at the beginning of the season, he really did miss some glaring opportunities, which seemed easier to score than miss. I know this won't be popular, but I wouldn't sign Celina permanently either. He might be a fan's favourite, but for all the money he's on he just goes missing at vital times. The top players step up, as and when they are needed, Celina really doesn't do it enough for me. You get the odd bit of magic from him and he reminds you he is a good player, with a glorious pass or goal but these moments are fleeting and certainly doesn't justify such a high wage. A good player on his day, but too much of a luxury for us next season in L1. | |
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| Is it time for people on 17:40 - Apr 23 with 847 views | Ryorry |
| Is it time for people on 17:36 - Apr 23 by Chrisd |
Bonne is definitely a no for me. Even when he was scoring goals regularly at the beginning of the season, he really did miss some glaring opportunities, which seemed easier to score than miss. I know this won't be popular, but I wouldn't sign Celina permanently either. He might be a fan's favourite, but for all the money he's on he just goes missing at vital times. The top players step up, as and when they are needed, Celina really doesn't do it enough for me. You get the odd bit of magic from him and he reminds you he is a good player, with a glorious pass or goal but these moments are fleeting and certainly doesn't justify such a high wage. A good player on his day, but too much of a luxury for us next season in L1. |
Sadly tend to agree re Celina. Maybe great in the Champ'ship, but doesn't really seem the type of player you need to get outa L1 unfortunately. | |
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| Is it time for people on 17:41 - Apr 23 with 813 views | ElephantintheRoom |
| Is it time for people on 17:17 - Apr 23 by Nthsuffolkblue |
What's your prediction for next season? 14th? A relegation battle? Do you think we will be relegated next season? |
Not sure if you’re being serious - I suspect not - but I think the 3rd division will be more competitive next season.
It’s too early to tell - but rather than spout all the big club mantra and overstocking on backroom staff I’d rather the club realised it’s been going backwards in the third division as unerringly as it was in the second division. I just hope someone amongst that gigantic staff has a look at why Rotherham and Posh seem to find promotion a tad easier than Town.
I’m not convinced Morsy will stay - but in many ways with an excellent goalie, a half decent defence, couple of good midfielders - and one decent forward, in theory the jigsaw is almost complete. Which begs the question - how did McKenna contrive to stop Town scoring.
I may be wrong but I suspect cash will be a bit tight for signings - which hopefully is a good thing. It would be nice to think McKenna is capable of building on what he already has | |
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| Is it time for people on 17:42 - Apr 23 with 844 views | jayessess |
| Is it time for people on 17:31 - Apr 23 by Ryorry |
Think there's a lot in that. Horses for courses, it's an ugly league & we need streetfighters who are prepared to get stuck in. |
Our biggest "streetfighter" was recruited from the Championship... |  |
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| Is it time for people on 17:46 - Apr 23 with 833 views | Ryorry |
| Is it time for people on 17:42 - Apr 23 by jayessess |
Our biggest "streetfighter" was recruited from the Championship... |
If they're fitting the bill & have proved themselves then that's fine obviously, but isn't the norm. | |
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| Is it time for people on 17:50 - Apr 23 with 804 views | jayessess |
| Is it time for people on 17:46 - Apr 23 by Ryorry |
If they're fitting the bill & have proved themselves then that's fine obviously, but isn't the norm. |
It isn't the norm in the Championship for players to be streetwise, competitive or physically combative? | |
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| Is it time for people on 17:51 - Apr 23 with 803 views | ghostofescobar |
Us fans do have to realise the devastating damage that Evans did to the club, from top to bottom, inside, outside, back to front. It will take a long time just to get the club back to where we were some years ago, let alone moving on to where we think we deserve to be. The club has virtually been dismantled: recruitment, coaching, youth set up, psychology, all these things and more have an effect to some degree on first team results. Evans slowly, over many years, allowed the club to rot. It will take time to rebuild every facet of the club. I guess what we do have this time is more hope for the future. I’ll take that. |  |
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| Is it time for people on 17:53 - Apr 23 with 794 views | Ryorry |
| Is it time for people on 17:50 - Apr 23 by jayessess |
It isn't the norm in the Championship for players to be streetwise, competitive or physically combative? |
I'm sure you know what I mean. | |
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| Is it time for people on 18:00 - Apr 23 with 769 views | jayessess |
| Is it time for people on 17:53 - Apr 23 by Ryorry |
I'm sure you know what I mean. |
Not really. I've never understood the line of argument that says you recruit more streetwise players the lower down the EFL. Doesn't fit my experience of the Championship at all. | |
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| Is it time for people on 18:00 - Apr 23 with 768 views | timothyeo |
Concerning that McKenna has shown nothing to suggest his / the squads weaknesses are being addressed. Slight alarm bells for next season, where we're going to be letting a rookie manager put together the next squad.
Saying that Cook was experienced and flucked it up anyway.
Or we blame Ashton. | | | |
| Is it time for people on 18:13 - Apr 23 with 753 views | Garv |
| Is it time for people on 17:15 - Apr 23 by ElephantintheRoom |
I’d say we’re the 11th best team in the league - and regressed since last season.
Mind you McKenna can kid himself it’s not something he can do much about - seeing as he inherited a mishmash of a team and a cabal of demoralised players in exile. The trick is can he improve the team - a task beyond Lambo and Cookie
It’s also interesting just how many injuries there have been - despite the influx of performance gurus and fitness experts
I’m not holding my breath for a Phoenix like improvement- but you never know. 3rd time lucky |
Has there been that many injuries?
Nothing like in previous years. |  |
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| Is it time for people on 18:20 - Apr 23 with 738 views | Churchman |
| Is it time for people on 17:51 - Apr 23 by ghostofescobar |
Us fans do have to realise the devastating damage that Evans did to the club, from top to bottom, inside, outside, back to front. It will take a long time just to get the club back to where we were some years ago, let alone moving on to where we think we deserve to be. The club has virtually been dismantled: recruitment, coaching, youth set up, psychology, all these things and more have an effect to some degree on first team results. Evans slowly, over many years, allowed the club to rot. It will take time to rebuild every facet of the club. I guess what we do have this time is more hope for the future. I’ll take that. |
Absolutely spot on. It’s how it is. I’d have loved us to tear this garbage division up, but it wasn’t to be this year. Disappointing, but to recover the club really does require patience and for the people in the club a lot of hard work. |  | | |
| Is it time for people on 18:28 - Apr 23 with 723 views | ibbleobble |
| Is it time for people on 17:06 - Apr 23 by Nthsuffolkblue |
To be fair, even then, we were only among the top 6. There has been no sustained period this season where we have been the best side. The only time we have been was early on under Lambert.
That said, McKenna has clearly got us moving in the right direction. He needs to be given time. |
He’s picked up 8 pts in 8 games - that’s regressive not progressive given it equals our worst form of the season along with Cook’s terrible start. | | | |
| Is it time for people on 18:28 - Apr 23 with 723 views | Radlett_blue |
| Is it time for people on 17:15 - Apr 23 by ElephantintheRoom |
I’d say we’re the 11th best team in the league - and regressed since last season.
Mind you McKenna can kid himself it’s not something he can do much about - seeing as he inherited a mishmash of a team and a cabal of demoralised players in exile. The trick is can he improve the team - a task beyond Lambo and Cookie
It’s also interesting just how many injuries there have been - despite the influx of performance gurus and fitness experts
I’m not holding my breath for a Phoenix like improvement- but you never know. 3rd time lucky |
It's amazing that Town - after a huge investment in players - have actually been worse than last season 9or no better in terms of points).
McKenna can't carry the can for all of that, but he has some big decisions to make. Understandably, he's keeping his cards close to his chest, but we now have the basis of a very sound defence & only need a decent LWB (assuming he wants to go with a back 3). That shouldn't be Thompson, even if we can afford him.
The problem areas are in the midfield/attack. Amazing, after Cook brought in so many attacking players.
Today was very silly, not playing any of the young players in a dead rubber & it looks far worse when we again fumbled our way to a 1-1 draw. |  |
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| Is it time for people on 18:48 - Apr 23 with 680 views | ibbleobble |
| Is it time for people on 18:28 - Apr 23 by Radlett_blue |
It's amazing that Town - after a huge investment in players - have actually been worse than last season 9or no better in terms of points).
McKenna can't carry the can for all of that, but he has some big decisions to make. Understandably, he's keeping his cards close to his chest, but we now have the basis of a very sound defence & only need a decent LWB (assuming he wants to go with a back 3). That shouldn't be Thompson, even if we can afford him.
The problem areas are in the midfield/attack. Amazing, after Cook brought in so many attacking players.
Today was very silly, not playing any of the young players in a dead rubber & it looks far worse when we again fumbled our way to a 1-1 draw. |
I don’t agree the midfield and attack is the issue. We scored in 17 consecutive league games under Cook at an average of 1.9 goals a game. Granted some of those were slightly fortuitous but we missed golden opportunities constantly too. Since McKenna has come in we’ve been impotent in the final third with the same personnel - this is a management, tactical issue, not a personnel one.
If we criticised Cook for his abysmal defensive set-up and derided him for not having a defensive coach, McKenna should get the same treatment and needs to bring in an attacking coach. 1 goal a game or under is not going to get us promoted next season. | | | |
| Is it time for people on 18:57 - Apr 23 with 660 views | Ryorry |
| Is it time for people on 17:51 - Apr 23 by ghostofescobar |
Us fans do have to realise the devastating damage that Evans did to the club, from top to bottom, inside, outside, back to front. It will take a long time just to get the club back to where we were some years ago, let alone moving on to where we think we deserve to be. The club has virtually been dismantled: recruitment, coaching, youth set up, psychology, all these things and more have an effect to some degree on first team results. Evans slowly, over many years, allowed the club to rot. It will take time to rebuild every facet of the club. I guess what we do have this time is more hope for the future. I’ll take that. |
It seems Ernie disagrees -
Maybe daveU's been subbed?! | |
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| Is it time for people on 18:58 - Apr 23 with 657 views | AlanG296 |
| Is it time for people on 18:48 - Apr 23 by ibbleobble |
I don’t agree the midfield and attack is the issue. We scored in 17 consecutive league games under Cook at an average of 1.9 goals a game. Granted some of those were slightly fortuitous but we missed golden opportunities constantly too. Since McKenna has come in we’ve been impotent in the final third with the same personnel - this is a management, tactical issue, not a personnel one.
If we criticised Cook for his abysmal defensive set-up and derided him for not having a defensive coach, McKenna should get the same treatment and needs to bring in an attacking coach. 1 goal a game or under is not going to get us promoted next season. |
McKenna and his coach only have 22 games experience at this level. McKenna's spent most of his coaching career working with players at Premier league clubs and this is his first manager post. Remains to be seen whether he is able to coach and manage inferior players than he is used to into a successful team. at this level. We've tried experienced managers and they failed, so why not try an inexperienced manager. This is #ourtime. | | | |
| Is it time for people on 19:25 - Apr 23 with 628 views | ghostofescobar |
| Is it time for people on 17:51 - Apr 23 by ghostofescobar |
Us fans do have to realise the devastating damage that Evans did to the club, from top to bottom, inside, outside, back to front. It will take a long time just to get the club back to where we were some years ago, let alone moving on to where we think we deserve to be. The club has virtually been dismantled: recruitment, coaching, youth set up, psychology, all these things and more have an effect to some degree on first team results. Evans slowly, over many years, allowed the club to rot. It will take time to rebuild every facet of the club. I guess what we do have this time is more hope for the future. I’ll take that. |
And KM has pretty much just said the same thing: “ Mindset is part of it, it’s not the only part of it. It’s mindset, it’s coaching, it’s recruitment, it’s everything.
“There’s different work we have to do on the pitch, there’s a lot of work to be done off the pitch and it’s clear for this group at the moment that’s a big step that needs to be made.” | |
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| Is it time for people on 19:33 - Apr 23 with 619 views | Swansea_Blue |
| Is it time for people on 17:02 - Apr 23 by Strimmer |
Personally don’t think it’s that helpful or necessarily relevant to talk in binary terms. We know we’ve got the ability to be as good as anybody in the league, seen it with our eyes. We know we’ve got serious deficiencies too as the results demonstrate. Lots of work to do, but we’ve not suddenly learned that today |
Yeah, I think the OP was throwing out a humungous strawman there. We can match anyone when we’re on our game and don’t need to fear anyone, but I don’t think anyone has said we’re the best team in the division. That’d be daft (as Ryorry neatly points out above). |  |
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| Is it time for people on 20:56 - Apr 23 with 569 views | jeera |
| Is it time for people on 18:48 - Apr 23 by ibbleobble |
I don’t agree the midfield and attack is the issue. We scored in 17 consecutive league games under Cook at an average of 1.9 goals a game. Granted some of those were slightly fortuitous but we missed golden opportunities constantly too. Since McKenna has come in we’ve been impotent in the final third with the same personnel - this is a management, tactical issue, not a personnel one.
If we criticised Cook for his abysmal defensive set-up and derided him for not having a defensive coach, McKenna should get the same treatment and needs to bring in an attacking coach. 1 goal a game or under is not going to get us promoted next season. |
McKenna is in his first management job.
Cook was supposed to bring experience and success off the back of that.
The two cannot be compared, not for quite some time. |  |
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| Is it time for people on 23:06 - Apr 23 with 518 views | ibbleobble |
| Is it time for people on 20:56 - Apr 23 by jeera |
McKenna is in his first management job.
Cook was supposed to bring experience and success off the back of that.
The two cannot be compared, not for quite some time. |
Are we giving McKenna a free pass and the benefit of the doubt for our blunt attacks because he’s a rookie manager? There’s no free passes at this level surely? It’s a strange logic to me to create one rule for one and another rule for another.
Our season has been book ended by the exact same form from two very different managers. 8 pts in 8 at the start of the season due to defensive frailties and 8 pts in 8 due to offensive limitations. Neither are good enough which is why we’re languishing where we are. Seems a bit unfair to give McKenna the benefit of the doubt, McGreal a pass and lay the blame entirely with Cook. Everyone has failed this season, including Ashton.
My main concern is that with the wealth of attacking talent in that squad, there are serious flaws that need addressing before August and just bringing in strikers isn’t going to cut it given how limited the service is at times. | | | |
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