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Post by Dick on Feb 17, 2019 11:16:12 GMT
Can’t be easy going week in week out, you can’t blame people for losing interest. There was that brief spell in December when things lifted a bit, but that evaporated in an instant and we are back to looking like a shell of a side that just looks lost with no real fight for the battle. We sound so one dimensional in terms of tactics too with other sides just nullifying our few threats like Payne, and then that’s it. It started with Hopkin changing a winning setup at Barnsley - after spending some 25 games trying to find something that worked we finally did then he ripped it apart and took us back 4 months. Now we're in the run in the pressure has been cranked up. Honestly what the fuck was he thinking - with such a fragile mentality at any time that goes to absolute shit when we go behind, why would he risk it to fit in an unneeded loanee from Leeds who ended up being hooked at half time? We all know Pawdie is going to go down as one of those 'what was the point' signings - I doubt we'll see him start again. That and our shambles of a January window have undid that point we got to. Out of his depth. 2 promotions in Scotland mean nothing when you're desperately fighting relegation in League 1 in England.
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Post by Nice boy on Feb 17, 2019 12:05:00 GMT
Was Payne playing out wide yesterday as Parker suggested pre kick off?
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Post by jdc on Feb 17, 2019 14:11:46 GMT
Was Payne playing out wide yesterday as Parker suggested pre kick off? Looked to me like a 4-2-3-1 and Billy Clarke was over to the left. Payne was playing more centrally behind Doyle, Ball on the right.
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Post by bantam147 on Feb 17, 2019 14:22:33 GMT
Was Payne playing out wide yesterday as Parker suggested pre kick off? Looked to me like a 4-2-3-1 and Billy Clarke was over to the left. Payne was playing more centrally behind Doyle, Ball on the right. This is what we did. And who'd have thought that Billy Clarke isn't a left winger....? Stunning, is that.
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Post by hobbes on Feb 17, 2019 21:39:21 GMT
Clarke was completely and utterly meh. Contributed zero. Pointless signing, though not as pointless as Pumpy O’Clinker tho obvs.
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Post by fish on Feb 17, 2019 22:09:47 GMT
Some of our fans make me sick. The only reason they don't want rid of Hopkin is because "we need stability". Forget his tactical ability (or lack of it) lets just keep hold of a footballing dinosaur because he's a familiar face in the building.
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Post by Nice boy on Feb 18, 2019 6:18:48 GMT
We have too many square pegs in round holes. Why would you bring in Billy Clarke and play him out wide? Wood isn't a world beater but is far better equipped to play there.
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Post by bantam147 on Feb 18, 2019 7:45:33 GMT
We have too many square pegs in round holes. Why would you bring in Billy Clarke and play him out wide? Wood isn't a world beater but is far better equipped to play there. Anderson is a striker now too, apparently.
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Post by Hobhead on Feb 18, 2019 7:50:30 GMT
We have too many square pegs in round holes. Why would you bring in Billy Clarke and play him out wide? Wood isn't a world beater but is far better equipped to play there. Clarke could only ever have been back up to Payne which makes it an odd signing when you’re looking for someone or something to fire you out of the relegation places but I’d suggest Ball could deputise for Payne’s position if needs be and he’s do it a damn sight better than Clarke would too. Complete waste of a wage and a shirt. There were far too many wasted signings in the window with only Butterfield being a first team strengthener. Stupid transfers will be the death of us.
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Post by Neshead on Feb 18, 2019 8:06:05 GMT
We have too many square pegs in round holes. Why would you bring in Billy Clarke and play him out wide? Wood isn't a world beater but is far better equipped to play there. Clarke could only ever have been back up to Payne which makes it an odd signing when you’re looking for someone or something to fire you out of the relegation places but I’d suggest Ball could deputise for Payne’s position if needs be and he’s do it a damn sight better than Clarke would too. Complete waste of a wage and a shirt. There were far too many wasted signings in the window with only Butterfield being a first team strengthener. Stupid transfers will be the death of us. It literally was whoever was available for fuck all. Remember us all thinking if we could just get through to January in touch with 20th place. Worst January window i can remember, we’ve signed worse players in other windows but at least they were in positions we needed strengthening. This time we haven’t strengthened one area bar left back and he’s dead after one game. No point in banging on about Rahic anymore, the chance was there in January and we decided not to take it.
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Post by Nice boy on Feb 18, 2019 10:20:04 GMT
There are plenty of things Hopkin could have done which would have left us better off than we are at the moment.
1) Kept Jim'Brien. He's better than Anderson and gets in ahead of Akpan when fit. We essentially traded a first teamer for a reserve and money wasn't even the issue, it was length of contract as O'Brien himself has stated. The worst case scenario is that we gave him the 18 months he wanted,we get relegated and have a decent midfielder on our books for next season. The fact that we then bring in another CM on trial in the search for a half competent midfielder makes the whole situation even more of a farce. We already had one, and Hopkin activity chose not to sign him up.
2) Prefering Billy Clarke to Alex Jones. None of us really know how good Jones is or if he's even cut out for this level. What we do know is that he scores more goals than Clarke, is better equipped to play in the box and has even relished playing out wide- a position where we are woefully short. Again, money wasn't the issue here, Hopkin just decided that a 3rd attacking midfielder to cover for Payne and Ball was integral for our fight against relegation.
3) Not signing a winger. Simply signing any winger who has decent experience in the pro game would have improved us given that we've been playing defenders, midfielders and strikers out there all season.
4) Not signing a CB better than A O'Connor and NKP. When the budget only allows you to bring in either a decent Left Back or a decent Centre Back when both positions desperately need strengthening then opt for the CB. When your shit CB fucks up, the chances of the ball consequently ending up in the back of the net are pretty fucking high. When your shit LB backs way from the ball and allows in crosses at will atleast a good, solid CB can bail him out. A new CB should have been a priority and we bring in Paudie O'Connor- a completely pointless signing, when you consider Mellor can play there if needed and is just as good.
All in all, this January was one of the most RonnieBrown transfer windows I can remember, possibly only behind the one where we paid 0.5M to buy Reeves, Poleon and Mcarten and thought Chicksen was the ideal replacement for Meredith. No consideration was gone into the positions that needed strengthening and the type of players required and to top it all off, we couldn't even make a proper judgement on the players already in the building.
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Post by bantam147 on Feb 18, 2019 10:23:53 GMT
Number 1 is an important point. Letting JoB go was a massive fuck up.
I actually quite like Billy Clarke. And to be honest, the 12K we're paying Payne would've been better spent on replacing him with Clarke, adding a proper striker and a proper left winger. For 12K per week you can get 3, maybe even 4 quality league one players.
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Post by Hobhead on Feb 18, 2019 10:43:22 GMT
Number three is also interesting because we’re now left with one winger on our books in Scannell. We’re paying the cunt a fortune and to get him in we’ll either have to use our usual square peg round hole tactic or invent some weird single winger formation just to get him out there in his preferred position.
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Post by Fat Ade on Feb 18, 2019 12:44:17 GMT
Some of our fans make me sick. The only reason they don't want rid of Hopkin is because "we need stability". Forget his tactical ability (or lack of it) lets just keep hold of a footballing dinosaur because he's a familiar face in the building. Jason Thornton and McKeown were banging on about this before the game on Saturday.
Apparently anybody that wanted to see HopkinS go needed to "give their head wobble" because "the players are only playing because of HopkinS". I mean just imagine for one moment that the players weren't playing for HopkinS and what the results would be then.
We needed to win on Saturday and we didn't. They were better in the second half and did create enough chances to actually win it in the end, we didn't.
I've heard comments about us still being in touch and I agree but then there seems to be no recognition that all those around us have games in hand (some two games). I will accept that the games need to be won, which all won't but I imagine some will. However add this to a tough looking March and we are very very close to running out of time now.
We are not in a position of doing enough to win games and not winning, it doesn't matter. It's like a player nearly having a good game, so what? It doesn't matter.
HopkinS has been here long enough to establish at the very least a style that the available players can play with and barring five games, he has managed to play a style that doesn't seem to suit anybody. He needs to go whether he manages to keep us up or not...I can see next season being another shit show irrespective of what division we are in.
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yungnath
Sparks is a cunt Bantam
Posts: 197
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Post by yungnath on Feb 28, 2019 0:03:46 GMT
Number three is also interesting because we’re now left with one winger on our books in Scannell. We’re paying the cunt a fortune and to get him in we’ll either have to use our usual square peg round hole tactic or invent some weird single winger formation just to get him out there in his preferred position. In fairness that isnt unreasonable, parky and mccall to an extent played with one out and out winger and one wide midfielder tucking in i.e gary thompson. We could try similar with Scannell and Mellor respectively. Thats provided Scannell doesn't shatter into a million tiny pieces within 5 minutes of his return.
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Post by Hobhead on Feb 28, 2019 11:51:45 GMT
Number three is also interesting because we’re now left with one winger on our books in Scannell. We’re paying the cunt a fortune and to get him in we’ll either have to use our usual square peg round hole tactic or invent some weird single winger formation just to get him out there in his preferred position. In fairness that isnt unreasonable, parky and mccall to an extent played with one out and out winger and one wide midfielder tucking in i.e gary thompson. We could try similar with Scannell and Mellor respectively. Thats provided Scannell doesn't shatter into a million tiny pieces within 5 minutes of his return. I can’t even bring myself to recall the days of McMahon on the right wing, the memories are just too painful.
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Post by Hoochy on Feb 28, 2019 13:09:34 GMT
In fairness that isnt unreasonable, parky and mccall to an extent played with one out and out winger and one wide midfielder tucking in i.e gary thompson. We could try similar with Scannell and Mellor respectively. Thats provided Scannell doesn't shatter into a million tiny pieces within 5 minutes of his return. I can’t even bring myself to recall the days of McMahon on the right wing, the memories are just too painful. NO BETTER CROSSER OF A BALL IN LEAGUE 1 M8. ASSISTS HANGING OUT OF HIS ARSEHOLE, THIS LAD.
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yungnath
Sparks is a cunt Bantam
Posts: 197
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Post by yungnath on Feb 28, 2019 13:39:12 GMT
In fairness that isnt unreasonable, parky and mccall to an extent played with one out and out winger and one wide midfielder tucking in i.e gary thompson. We could try similar with Scannell and Mellor respectively. Thats provided Scannell doesn't shatter into a million tiny pieces within 5 minutes of his return. I can’t even bring myself to recall the days of McMahon on the right wing, the memories are just too painful. Its all relative, I would gladly put Mcmahon at centre forward and keep threading him through balls to run on to than deal with the shit show we have now. On refection that would probably be more effective than what we have been doing
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Post by Bacon on Feb 28, 2019 14:05:34 GMT
Say what you like about McMahon but his delivery from set pieces is/was infinitely better than Paynes.
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