Anyone starting to get worried?

[ChicagoLion]

Pat, I think they summed it up. No midfielder able to protect the back 4 and none of them seem to want to play that role. I think the 3 in the middle makes the situation worse as there is no definitive role for any of them.

[ChicagoLion]

That's the thing though, we're trying a system and way of playing and the next manager would be expected to play a similar way...

“Sorry Poch, unless you’re prepared to stick rigidly to the previous manager’s 4-3-3 that’s served us so well, there’s no deal.” 😉

oh yeh, and you are not allowed to make substitutions until the opposition have scored in the second half.

[TelfordVilla]

[quote author=Pat McMahon 

As an aside I like Fletcher as a pundit. I thought he was underrated as a player and he seems intelligent and pretty articulate. I have no idea how the BBC thought that Clinton Morrison could fulfil a similar role for them.
[/quote]    I said the same about Morrison, how can he even apply for a job that requires him to speak, and who the hell appointed him.

[Drummond]

That's the thing though, we're trying a system and way of playing and the next manager would be expected to play a similar way...

“Sorry Poch, unless you’re prepared to stick rigidly to the previous manager’s 4-3-3 that’s served us so well, there’s no deal.” 😉

He wouldn't come to us. Not until the summer at least.

We need a style and approach. We've chopped and changed so many times its ridiculous. You want to tear it up and start all over again? And what happens when we lose 3 under the next manager? Change it again?

Smith may not be the long term answer. Though I dearly hope he is. There have been plenty of examples of us playing well. Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool, Everton, Norwich... And plenty of bad ones too. The question really is about which is the more likely? At the moment, in the midst of a really bad run, it's easy to plump for the latter. When we're doing well, the former.

He's been here a year so far. And has moved us 20 places up the league ladder into the toughest division in the world. Arguably we'd have been better off still down there, growing an identity and system that we could bring up, like Sheff Utd and Wolves did.

It's tough and I don't think we should twist yet.

[hilts_coolerking]

The thing is over the last decade or so - since O'Neill probably - the one thing we haven't done is absolutely push the boat out to get a manager who is somewhere approaching the top of the game.  We may have tried, I don't know, but we haven't succeeded.  If it comes to replacing Smith, that's what I think we should do.  It's the single most influential post at the club.  You look at the list of the no marks who have managed us since O'Neill left us in the lurch (jury still out on Smith) and it makes me cringe.  The problem is not that we've appointed a lot of managers; we've had no choice but to because we've kept appointing shit ones.

[gpbarr]

Last year 35 pts was enough to stay up but looking at this years table, it will be 40 IMO. That’s 25 pts we need from 18 games or more pertinently a return of 60% greater than we were able in the first 18 games.

Honestly I don’t see it - if we don’t beat Norwich and start that climb then we are in a world of trouble.

Yes worried

[Davkaus]

Point of order, if you're correct about 40 points, it's 25 points from 20 games, not 18, or an improvement of about 30%. A big job, to be sure, but not out of reach if we recruit wisely in January and start putting some results together.

I suspect though, that come May, we'll look back at the Southampton game as the point at which a lot of us knew it was going wrong.  I just don't see us turning it around and won't be surprised if we're bottom by NYD.

Boxing Day is absolutely key, IMO. I won't be confident we're staying up if we win,. but I'll be certain we're going down if we don't. Sadly, I expect a comfortable win for Norwich.

[vilan461]

Must confess after that absymal showing against Saints and with 4 League defeats in a row, i am getting a little bit jittery---admittedly there is a good way to go and time for improvement--but confidence seems rock bottom we must start to win games BEGINNING with Boxng Day!!

[Pat McMahon]

[quote author=Pat McMahon 

As an aside I like Fletcher as a pundit. I thought he was underrated as a player and he seems intelligent and pretty articulate. I have no idea how the BBC thought that Clinton Morrison could fulfil a similar role for them.

    I said the same about Morrison, how can he even apply for a job that requires him to speak, and who the hell appointed him.
[/quote]

On Sunday he referred to a manager saying “he is good at speaking and that sort of thing”

[tomd2103]

Pat, I think they summed it up. No midfielder able to protect the back 4 and none of them seem to want to play that role. I think the 3 in the middle makes the situation worse as there is no definitive role for any of them.

We probably need two holding midfielders and have done for sometime.  I like Marvellous but he is getting pulled everywhere and overwhelmed in games.  Hourihane and Lansbury aren't going to cut it in the top flight in that kind of role and Luiz is struggling with the pace of the game.

We desperately need someone with a bit of experience and quality to come in and sit in midfield alongside Nakamba and with McGinn out, move Grealish into a more central role in front of them.

[PaulWinch again]

I think the major problem is the midfield aren’t actually doing anything of use. They neither shield the defence, nor do they create anything or set the pace of the game.

[AlexAlexCropley]

I think the major problem is the midfield aren’t actually doing anything of use. They neither shield the defence, nor do they create anything or set the pace of the game.

This

[Roysmert]

There's just a giant hole where midfield should be.

[ChicagoLion]

Quite right, unless he solves the midfield problem from a defensive perspective, any changes he makes is shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.

[KRS]

After showing early promise, it turns out that most of our business in the summer was shite, and we’ve spent well over £100m on players that simply aren’t good enough...

Wes
Trez
AEG
Targett
Marv
Luiz
Jota

...with question marks over Engels and Konsa.

Whether it’s the players or the management team, it’s like history is repeating itself.