Edge of the Press-ipice

[ktvillan]

Not sure our ex players are exactly excelling at other clubs.  Many of those mentioned are doing ok at lower end PL,  or other Champo clubs or the mickey mouse league up north.  Some of them left us when our ambition was to be better than lower end PL, because they weren't deemed to be good enough to move us up the table.  Just because we replaced them with worse players doesn't suddenly make me nostalgic for them.  Especially Clark who rivalled Elphick for clangers, and Westwood.  I dare say Burnley did ok despite him, not because of him.  When we do eventually go back up we will need better than lot lot to make any reasonable progress.   

[BOB MANSFIELD]

I think it's the pressure of expectation+ surely many of us have experienced it to some degree when in a cup semi final and expected to win, or in a final against a relegation candidate. You want it so bad that you over do everything or under-do everything. Passes go astray and you get more and more edgy, in the end not wanting the ball. It's pressure, in my eyes as none of these new players - as far as I can think - have come from bigger clubs and they can't hack it when things go wrong.
We need a new " leader " on the field IMO.

[robbo1874]

The common theme with managers going back to sherwood is that none of them have had much time in the job, relatively speaking, to find a system that works for them and get the best out of the players they have at their disposal. Plus whilst they're trying to do this, they're under huge pressure to get results.

Add to this the wholesale changes in playing staff that occurs each transfer window and you're effectively looking at half a new team twice a season. It's no wonder that things haven't clicked. We've effectively gone back to square one with the squad we have now after the January window and we're only into the third week in Feb.

The players we've signed on paper should be able to outperform most of the others in the championship, but none of them are likely to be world beaters. So to expect an instant turnaround in such a short space of time seems unrealistic to my mind.

If you are up against a side that are settled, playing an established way with everyone well drilled and with high fitness levels, it doesn't seem much of a surprise that we are struggling whatever the name of the opposition club happens to be. Things will improve, I'm sure of it, but the thing we need most right now is time and that's something that you can't buy, however many billions you have in the bank.

We've got to just write this season off now and work towards getting an established system and team to come out firing next season. If it means more experimenting then fair enough. I realised this after the forest defeat and when I look at it that way, it makes it a lot easier to deal with.