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AJ

It's hard to explain how much is wrong...

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But I''ll have a go to vent some frustration: -

Firstly, the system clearly doesn''t work. It doesn''t play to our strengths of the squad and certainly doesn''t win football matches (so far, anyway). On what planet is playing 3 creative midfielders against a battling Millwall side ever going to end well? We needed to protect the back 4 - we didn''t protect the back 4 so we lost, and badly. Those saying we can''t blame Farke, he picks the squad and could have chosen to assemble a solid midfield but chose not to. Tettey did very well in midweek, where was he when we needed him today? Benched. No changes at half time as well? Absolute joke. Martin should never have reemerged and Husband was no better either.

Secondly, we are not good enough with the ball. It''s all good and well having 70% possession but we created nothing with it. I can''t really remember any clear cut chances or anything else. Build up is too slow, and we do not create enough clear goal scoring chances. Give me 4-4-feckin''-2 with two wingers over this tripe! Seriously worse than when we were under AN, heck a small part of me almost wishes he was still here...

Thirdly, the players we''ve bought in as replacement just aren''t good enough. I appreciate Olsson and especially Brady were special talents. But there''s entire universes between Husband and their ability which is simply not good enough. Martin has been consistently poor yet is played every week and we keep not starting out best players in Wes/Oliveira etc. I appreciate Farke is trying to pick a system and run with it, but surely you have to adapt that system to reality. Players like Tettey are not going to sit around if they aren''t being played enough.

Arsenal (of the past) and Barca are great at keep-ball but they are incredibly productive with it. It is an extremely complex and integrated system full of flowing movement, runs and switching the ball. We do none of those things. We pass into corners, we pass it backwards, and most importantly we make too many mistakes and give it away cheaply. 4-0 away to Millwall, a newly promoted side with no wins to their name to this point? Beyond embarrassing.

#rantover

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It''s confusing to me as I actually agree with quite a bit of the things the club has done this season.

I think the appointment of a Sporting Director type was long overdue. I was really pleased to see us widen our recruitment to outside of the British Isles both for the manager and the players. I thought the clear out of the team was much needed and the only players who left that I would have wanted to keep were Howson and Murphy. Even tactically I liked the idea of a back three as it would allow us to bring the best our of players like Pinto while helping us be more stable at the back.

It just seems to have been executed really poorly. Farke can rightly wonder if the players that have been bought in (particualrly the defenders) are good enough. Webber can question how he was supposed to overhaul the squad on such a tight budget. The board can say we have to live within our means but I find it tough not to question how we have invested so little with all the outgoing sales and big wages leaving since January.

It''s extra depressing to look at Leeds, a team that have a new manager, 13 new players and a new style yet have settled in just fine.

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It''s the problem of appointing a Thomas Tuchel style coach, whose tactics are more suited to the Champions League than the Championship. Either he wises up very quickly, or the restless mob will get the pitchforks out.But ultimately, the rot started after Hughton''s first season. McNally''s got to take some of the blame for not putting in a decent scouting system. Ewan Chester, Barrie Simmonds, Lee Darnborough and Tony Spearing have to take the blame for scouting and recommending crap. That''s three to four iterations of poor recruitment. Redmond sticks out as the only player we improved during that time, some we broke even with - Fer, Brady, Snodgrass. But most of our signings were just a drain on resources: RVW, Naismith, Jarvis, Mulumbu, even Klose. Existing players seemed to regress Bassong, Ruddy, Bennett.We look at the likes of Southampton and wonder why we aren''t there, but I remember the surprise when they sacked Nigel Adkins in the lower regions of the Premiership. They identified a quality manager in Pochettino and gave him the time and the quality players to develop.I think we were always going to go backwards before we can go forwards. I think Webber secretly knew this as well. My hope is that we can add a experienced head or two before the end of the window, and buy Farke some time to string a few results together.

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Well, Alex and his staff are all gone. The man from mulbarton is gone. Its not them. Of course it could be their replacements so we could go through getting rid of them all again. Or get rid of Russ. Or turn on the board. Unfortunately we will still have too many players who havent got the stomach for a fight. We can''t just turn up and play. We have to earn the right to play.

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[quote user="nutty nigel"]Well, Alex and his staff are all gone. The man from mulbarton is gone. Its not them. Of course it could be their replacements so we could go through getting rid of them all again. Or get rid of Russ. Or turn on the board. Unfortunately we will still have too many players who havent got the stomach for a fight. We can''t just turn up and play. We have to earn the right to play.[/quote]Farke''s team was too lightweight though. Away from home it''s hard to accomodate four luxury players in Hoolahan, Maddison, Vrancic and Murphy.

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Well I would say the following has gone wrong:

ruddy regressed and while not perfect, is better than Gunn who had never played professionally before he joined us

husband is worse than the 2 youth players we already have and dijks for £3m should have been a no brainer.

Martin is finished as a top level player. admire his time with us but never been convinced by him at centre back and he''s too slow to effectively operate at right back anymore.

Franke for whatever he cost looks completely clueless how to operate at this level, more funds down the drain.

Zimmermann, fair play to him, blown hot and cold so far but bought for cheap and was only supposed to be back up to start with. been our best centre back by a mile so far and that''s not a good thing.

Klose, is he injured or just desperate to leave the sinking ship? seems to be on the verge of returning constantly.

reed, good player but not one that can sit behind a lightweight attacking midfield especially away from home all on his own.

tettey, good on his day but past his prime and needs some capable backup/ support.

vrancic, clearly got quality but a luxury too far at this level with such a fragile side

wes, pritchard, maddison... attacking mid the only area I have faith in but they are good enough players that we don''t need all of them on the pitch at once. 2 should suffice with a direct winger at most.

Jerome, not clinical enough and past his peak

oliveira, quality striker but I don''t think his heart is really in it. don''t blame him tbh.

so a massive catalogue there to pick from... anyone disagree?

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That''s what''s wrong. His heart''s not in it but you don''t blame him. The very least we should expect of all our players is that their hearts are in it. They''re obviously not because the same things are carrying on from last season. All these players are good when we''re winning and scoring goals. But how many of them have their hearts in it once we''re behind.

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Agreed but why are there hearts not in it?

I don''t accept that people just turn up to work and can''t be ar$ed for no reason. If they can''t, i.e. Howson if what we''ve been told is accurate, then they have to go. If not then management is about getting drive and belief into people, in whatever job they do. Using whatever means works for that individual.

This to me is about uncertainty after so much change and the players badly needing to see the new style work to instil some belief when we go behind. No doubt we have some fragile little flowers who wilt when things go wrong and we have some who try their hardest but aren''t good enough.

IMO Frake needs to swallow some pride and change style, even temporarily and maybe only moderately, in order to begin to get belief in him and his way of playing. Then he can gradually introduce more fully what he wants when the time is right.

He can start by playing fewer "touch" players at the same time and reinforcing the midfield in front of our very suspect back four (as we are lumbered with them now apparently). How Tetty didn''t start alongside Reed today I don''t know.

We are where we are and clearly it''s going to be a tough season but we need to stay behind the new regime for a bit longer than this and give him time to sort it out.

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[quote user="Icecream Snow"][quote user="nutty nigel"]Well, Alex and his staff are all gone. The man from mulbarton is gone. Its not them. Of course it could be their replacements so we could go through getting rid of them all again. Or get rid of Russ. Or turn on the board. Unfortunately we will still have too many players who havent got the stomach for a fight. We can''t just turn up and play. We have to earn the right to play.[/quote]Farke''s team was too lightweight though. Away from home it''s hard to accomodate four luxury players in Hoolahan, Maddison, Vrancic and Murphy.

[/quote]
This was the fear when the team was announced. I did comment that I''d seen steel shown by the U23s last night and we would need to replicate that. But as it turned out as soon as we went behind the team didn''t have the stomach for it. That''s been an ongoing concern for a couple of seasons. Too many are not prepared to dig in and earn the right to play.

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No but weve brought in 12 players and changed the coaches yet that same issue is being brought up Nutty. The only other reason i can think of is a lack of pressure from the top to deliver success making it too comfortable.

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[quote user="hogesar"]No but weve brought in 12 players and changed the coaches yet that same issue is being brought up Nutty. The only other reason i can think of is a lack of pressure from the top to deliver success making it too comfortable.[/quote]
The top has been changed and is now Webber. He''s had just five games too. Don''t get sucked in by people blaming the owners. They were the same people who said the success under Bowkett, McNally and Lambert had nothing to do with the owners. If they were to be believed then it means the buck stops at Webber. Did I mention he''s had five games? He''s not going to be replaced at this stage. Not even if it was Leeds. And if there is a replacement anytime during this season it will be Farke. That''s the way the structure is set up. 

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[quote user="nutty nigel"][quote user="hogesar"]No but weve brought in 12 players and changed the coaches yet that same issue is being brought up Nutty. The only other reason i can think of is a lack of pressure from the top to deliver success making it too comfortable.[/quote]
The top has been changed and is now Webber. He''s had just five games too. Don''t get sucked in by people blaming the owners. They were the same people who said the success under Bowkett, McNally and Lambert had nothing to do with the owners. If they were to be believed then it means the buck stops at Webber. Did I mention he''s had five games? He''s not going to be replaced at this stage. Not even if it was Leeds. And if there is a replacement anytime during this season it will be Farke. That''s the way the structure is set up.
[/quote]Yeah don''t get sucked in guy''s.......

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[quote user="Keith Scott"][quote user="nutty nigel"][quote user="hogesar"]No but weve brought in 12 players and changed the coaches yet that same issue is being brought up Nutty. The only other reason i can think of is a lack of pressure from the top to deliver success making it too comfortable.[/quote]
The top has been changed and is now Webber. He''s had just five games too. Don''t get sucked in by people blaming the owners. They were the same people who said the success under Bowkett, McNally and Lambert had nothing to do with the owners. If they were to be believed then it means the buck stops at Webber. Did I mention he''s had five games? He''s not going to be replaced at this stage. Not even if it was Leeds. And if there is a replacement anytime during this season it will be Farke. That''s the way the structure is set up.
[/quote]Yeah don''t get sucked in guy''s.......[/quote]
LOL Blame them then. I''m sure that will sort the problem out. But what if this set up comes good like Bowkett, McNally and Lambert?

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There is no spine as hasnt been for a good few seasons. We have no commanding cb, not a single cm that can boss a midfield and no strong no.9. I would also add that we dont have a gk who commands his defence either. We all know what a rough leafue this can be and sometimes you need to lose a bit of "quality" and have your bradley johnson type fighters. We have seen us collapse once going behind ever since PL left and this is as we dont have those leaders on the pitch. It may not be the Norwich way but we need a feq ugly players who put their foot in, especially away from home.

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[quote user="Baldyboy"]Didn''t Webber oversee the end of last season? He was appointed in April wasn''t he?[/quote]

The end of last season was a crock of...

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Nothing is wrong, it''s a transition that takes time......

The Board, Mr Webber, including the others that really count, are doing their damned best for us to be the Football ''Phoenix, that rises from the ashes''.......

Patience, patience and more patience is the true order of the moment - it''s only 5 games in and although we''ve shipped in quite a few goals, it''s just a minor blip......Don''t forget you unwavering and loyal supporters'' that those at the top of the club are also true and dedicated supporters''.......and they are so, so hurting too......Bless ''em.......

Keep the faith you all, we''ve been there before......

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So it seems that a number of our posters can put a team together better than the head coach.

What is really worrying though is that on the evidence of yesterday''s team selection is that they probably can.

Fair points though about the midfield being too lightweight and having too many luxury players. I was concerned as soon as I saw the team sheet.

Lets hope DF is a fast learner. Yes patience is needed but we need to be given glimmers of hope.

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