Are we really | Vital Football

Are we really

M

Martinez1986

Vital Squad Member
that bad or are some folk going over the top with criticism of the club/manager and his selection of certain players .

After all we arnt doing that badly surely when you take into account what happened last time we was in this league I mean after 14 games we had a grand total of ten points and had not got a win away from home not much difference there chaps our home form a couple of years ago wasn't much better after 14 games we had 2 wins and 2 draws plus three defeats with in many posters views at the time and indeed some are saying the same now not championship players .

All in all we are doing fine people must remember that away form in this league ain't like league one you just can't go gung ho all the time have patience we have the right man this time for the job in hand and hopefully when injuries clear up a more than adequate team to finish comfortably mid table/ top half judging on teams played so far
 
just so ive got this rite.
when we win we all come heer and back slap and high five and cry with joy at are pleyers and maneger for being the best in the champeonship.
when we lose we all come heer and back slap and high five and cry with joy at are pleyers and maneger for being the best in the champeonship.

just want to be cleer on this for the future. thats all.
 
BrickLatic said:
just so ive got this rite.
when we win we all come heer and back slap and high five and cry with joy at are pleyers and maneger for being the best in the champeonship.
when we lose we all come heer and back slap and high five and cry with joy at are pleyers and maneger for being the best in the champeonship.

just want to be cleer on this for the future. thats all.
Click to expand...

No, but the point is that there is a middle way most of the time, so no need for the world beater tags nor the total loser tags. Just realise that we are new to this league and we will have highs and lows. Granted some of the lows will be very low (Preston) but don't get carried away with either low or high points. So long as we are on target to stay in the league then all is well this season. If we slip down into relegation battle then its a different story maybe depending on what stage of the season we are at and how long we are there for. But overall try not to get to excited one way or the other, simple
 
Not bad at all. Infact, very good for a team that hasn't been at this level (literally or figuratively), for a number of years. My only criticism is that I know how good we can be and I would like to see us play to what I perceive as our strengths. I also have nasty memories of what a defensive approach can lead to in this league and defeats can stack up very quickly. But, victories can do the same and I'm at a stage of my football watching life to say "what will be will be" and I'll be there, largely helpless, to see whatever transpires. Anyway, we're closer to the top than the bottom and we've seen some good stuff along the way. It's all part of the entertaimmemt
 
Sorry to burst your bubble Kendal but we currently sit in 12th place out of 24, so equally placed. We are however nearer the top if you are looking at the points tally. We are six points behind leeds and eleven points from rock bottom but play Sheffield this weekend. Another loss would shift the balance and start to draw us into a relegation battle.
 
Away from home yes we really are that bad. I’ve been to every away game so far this season and as I said in another thread the last three games (Norwich, PNE, Millwall) have been as bad as I’ve seen from us in many years. Awful dark age hoof ball with no creativity or pace whatsoever. Lucky to see more than one shot on target a game. Even under Malky (Reading, Blackpool) and Yootha (Huddersfield, Birmingham) we still managed to fluke a couple of scabby undeserved wins.

I have very little faith that this lot can do that based on what I’ve seen. I genuinely have no idea where the next goal is coming from let alone the next win, unless the opposition do a Millwall and knock one in for us or if Nick Powell takes the ball and singlehandedly beats the entire opposition defence and sticking it in.

Thankfully our home form is great and many supporters only attend home games so will have not seen some of the utter dross away fans have which is fine, although I suspect PNE woke a fair few fans up in terms of our realistic expectations and how good we really are.
 
C_Latic said:
Away from home yes we really are that bad. I’ve been to every away game so far this season and as I said in another thread the last three games (Norwich, PNE, Millwall) have been as bad as I’ve seen from us in many years. Awful dark age hoof ball with no creativity or pace whatsoever. Lucky to see more than one shot on target a game. Even under Malky (Reading, Blackpool) and Yootha (Huddersfield, Birmingham) we still managed to fluke a couple of scabby undeserved wins.

I have very little faith that this lot can do that based on what I’ve seen. I genuinely have no idea where the next goal is coming from let alone the next win, unless the opposition do a Millwall and knock one in for us or if Nick Powell takes the ball and singlehandedly beats the entire opposition defence and sticking it in.

Thankfully our home form is great and many supporters only attend home games so will have not seen some of the utter dross away fans have which is fine, although I suspect PNE woke a fair few fans up in terms of our realistic expectations and how good we really are.
Click to expand...

Fortunately with work rotas I am unable to attend many away games. From what I have seen in the lowlights programmes and the odd televised game, I am in no hurry to try to change my weekend work rotas.
 
Think the difference this year is that we can all see the difference in tactics home vs. away, that the away tactics are consistently failing and we are inderperforming as a result (we will go out to win every game - P.Cook - hmmm) when we had Malky and Yootha we were shit every game home or away ?
Its the expectation built of positive home performances and results which is the problem.
 
At home I've been pleased with the way we generally play - we arent perfect but we have a genuine go at teams. Away from as home C Latic is right - yes we are absolutely that bad at the moment - it's hit it long to no one and pray - identical to the Joyce approach. But unlike Joyce who was just out of his depth and incapable of doing better we know Cook is a far better than that but is very obviously changing to a more negative tactical approach and it's massively counter productive.

No matter how much i like Cook there is no way anyone can tell me the way we've been playing away is an acceptable standard of late. It's not always the results if we have the same results but went for it and were beaten by the better side in a hard fought loss you say fair enough but we are selling ourselves well short with how little faith we show in ourselves away from home.
 
Last edited:
Just to make it clear I’m not crucifiying Paul Cook. I accept that injuries have severely restricted his options and our ability to play the way I’m sure we want to away from home. It’s just galling to watch after the exhilaration of Aston Villa and the exciting dismantling of Stoke and his promise that we would go full throttle attack no matter who or where we played. From saying we’d always go for the win to basically setting up and playing for a draw. He’s changed his mentality I suspect due to the panic of losing a few games on the bounce and that’s so disappointing. Worst of all, it’s done us no good, the “football” is ten times worse and we’re still losing!

I feel sorry for the away fans and it’s clearly having on affect on the relationship between fans and players. At Villa, everyone to a man/women stayed to applaud the players off despite defeat. At Millwall by the time the players turned to make their way to the away end at full time, about 99% of the fans had gone. At PNE the pictures online say it all. Only a few hundred of 4000 fans still there even before the final few minutes. Less than 1000 tickets sold for Sheff Utd, one of the better away trips and a short journey where we took around 1800 in League One last time round. You can’t blame anyone either after we’ve all paid good money to see what’s being churned out away.

That’s my last rant on it, I hope things will be different come Saturday evening.
 
Last edited:
Yes the last few away performances have been bad and deserve criticism. There's no need to panic though, it would be different if our home form was poor too but we havent become a bad team over night.

For me the tactics away aren't that much different from last season or earlier this season. It's just the personnel and opposition that are different and confidence is low on the road.

I don't believe for one second cook is just telling them to hoof it. That usually comes when players are low on confidence and don't want the ball and just look for the easy way out.

Under Cook away from home we've always defended a little deeper and tried to soak up more pressure rather than going all guns blazing like at home. The difference is that last season and early this we would hit teams with pace on the break and get up the pitch quickly with Byrne, Massey, Jacobs etc driving forward. This season we started off okay but just as Jacobs started to lose form and Massey got injured we struggled to get up the pitch quick enough. Byrne obviously hasn't been playing so we lose his pace and drive Jacobs has been a shadow of himself and various players have played out of position covering for Massey and none have worked. It's been easy for the opposition to defend against us with no pace and drive and we've not been able to turn teams around when under the cosh.

It's just about getting the balance right which I think we'll do eventually once we get a couple back from injury and can tinker a bit.
 
Yes, it is that bad - the sky is falling in and relegation is but a certainty.

It’s all that Martinez’s fault, didn’t you know? ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.