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Post by riochforthereebok on Feb 21, 2020 10:29:21 GMT
DEFEAT
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Post by whitesince63 on Feb 21, 2020 10:49:05 GMT
Ha ha, straight to the point rftr as always. I’m afraid I can’t see anything but a defeat either, which is just such a sad indictment of where we are, confidence almost completely gone. But they say hope springs eternal so you never know? I’m just hoping that he doesn’t rush Crawford back too early. The only thing to play for now is to finish above Southend and Tranmere and to try to build the core of a team for next year. Whether Politic and Darcy will be part of that I’m not sure but at least if DP goes we will get a fee whereas if Darcy goes without signing up we get little or nothing. I realise not being able to tie these guys down is a symptom of our current situation but you’d hope a little bit of loyalty from Ronan would come into it as he’s been here so long. He may not get quite as much money now but he’ll certainly get first team football, hopefully a promotion medal and enhance his career and earning capacity in the process? Anyway, back to tomorrow, whatever team he puts out unless we cut the defensive errors we won’t get anything so despite the feeling they’ll put up a decent performance I have to go 2-0 to MKD.
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Post by OohMac on Feb 21, 2020 21:24:40 GMT
I still think a few tweaks here and we have a team more than capable.
My team.
Matthews. (Not great but im not even entertaining throwing a young lad in with this defence) Brockbank Edwards Hobbs Emmanuel Bunney/Fleming Lowe Darcy Hamilton Politic Murphy.
I dont like to be too complicated but 5-1-2-1-1.
Back 5 solidify the centre back. Out of possession sweeper mopping up. In possession one step up to help Lowe.
Two wing backs to give real width.
Lowe to destroy.
Darcy, Hamilton to create.
Politic to buzz around. Win knockdowns and take shots. Win free kicks. Throughballs etc and Murphy to be a nuisance and get on to the early balls from wingbacks.
Easy. Away curse gone.
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Post by Alptrotter on Feb 22, 2020 14:15:41 GMT
Just seen the team. If Hamilton and Politic are really meant to be playing wide, they are both being wasted. Also why not Brockbank and Bunney at FB (surely next season's pair). Pity he still finds a place for Luke Murphy. Can't see much pace in this team. I really hope I'm wrong but I'm not confident.
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Post by whitesince63 on Feb 22, 2020 14:48:07 GMT
Like you Alp I just can’t understand why Brockbank and Bunney are not our regular pairing instead of Emmanuel and Fleming, who we know won’t be here next year. I also agree Politc is wasted as a winger but hopefully working with Crawford might allow him to come inside. The rest of the team I can live with but if Zouma is now fit I’d rather see him alongside Hobbs at the back, again learning for next season. That side look better than recently so hopefully despite my earlier scepticism we might just get something today?
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Post by davidm on Feb 22, 2020 18:38:50 GMT
It is just so depressing; it’s hard to comment other than yet another poor insipid result.
We are allowing teams to play very average football and still to beat us.
I am always optimistic before games but have sadly come to the conclusion that we have a very poor set of footballers who are currently being managed very poorly.
On another matter, just how poor is Radio Manchester’s commentary?
I don’t need to be told every 5 minutes that I am listening to “Radio Manchester on 95.1 FM with Jack Dearden and Marc Iles”. I know what channel I am tuned in to! You just don’t get a picture of the play at all with these commentaries.
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Post by andyl on Feb 22, 2020 18:47:19 GMT
That was the dampest of damp squibs the only plus points being the stadium and the fact that I was back home before 6!
The team lacked any kind of tempo , passed the ball around fairly aimlessly and the first half passed with no incodent other than a splendid block by Fleming.
MKD were playing a possession game, not very well it has to be said and we regularly dispossessed them but once in position nothing.
Neither Crawford nor Mellis were remotely fit and Hamilton didn't feature either. Murphy L made some good tackles. His namesake isolated won a few balls, Lowe got forward a couple of times but crossed poorly.
The second half was just the same and turned on two breakaways culminating in crosshots , Murphy's missed their player's didn't.
Politic had the most awful and embarrassing game shooting prematurely, losing possession, clumsy and all but sent ofg but he did keep going and burst through late on for our one meaningful effort.
The game fizzled and we gave up really. We did make an amazing goaline clearance and Matthews made two good one on one stops but all was lost at the point of their goal.
It appeared to me that no-one was playing for or listening to Keith Hill and I suspect combinations of spouted nonsense, and one to one clashes with players have taken their toll. FV need to act because all direction and momentum has been lost. This game was limp and eminently forgettable.
Matthews 5 Hobbs 5 Nsiala 5 Fleming 5 Lowe 5 Politic 3 Murphy 4 Crawford 4 Mellis 3 Murphy 5 Hamilton 3 Emmanell 3 Dodoo 1 Graham 2
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Post by whitesince63 on Feb 22, 2020 19:18:47 GMT
I genuinely have completely lost the will now, I can’t even be bothered to be disappointed in either the result or performance, my expectations have just got that low these days. When Parky departed and FV finally completed the takeover, I really believed the bad days were behind us and it was all forward from there, despite the embargo’s and points deductions but boy was I wrong. At the moment, if nothing changes, I see only further decline next year as well but without even those young braves who gave us so much pride despite results earlier in the season. Hills dismissal of most of them and criticism of others seems to have alienated them rather than consolidated them. Most of the journeymen he’s brought in are older but no better than they are and at least they can use youth and inexperience as an excuse, Hills wasters certainly can’t. I know I sound like a broken record but I still maintain this year should have been a building process around our youth supplemented by some experience not replaced by it and that should have been done by David Lee and the the other coaches already here. Some say DL lacks experience but for me he’s worked here under some of the best managers we’ve ever had, isn’t too young and has that positive, can do attitude that’s sadly lacking. Can anyone really tell me he would have done worse than KH? I don’t know what FV are thinking but surely they must now be wondering if they didn’t get this appointment badly wrong. Maybe they see something we don’t but if results don’t change soon I see big problems looming for them.
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Post by kenglowhite on Feb 22, 2020 20:46:23 GMT
I have said it before but really this cannot go on. Unless there is a change in management soon by FV and a sign of better results they will have little hope of selling the usual season tickets for next season. It is almost impossible to manage a team to such a run of negative results, ,whatever points deduction embargo, and other handicaps there might be. Hill and his mate must surely be the most uninspiring management team in the whole EFL. Not good enough for Rochdale. kicked out quickly at Barnsley....so why are they still here?
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Post by OohMac on Feb 22, 2020 21:50:29 GMT
Going back to a previous thread, the carrot and stick approach to man management from Hill.
Politic on decent form, has a 5/10 performance where no one did well. Gets singled out in the media. How does he respond? Poorest game in a Bolton shirt so far? Misjudged once again.
I know its a bloody tough job. I know Pochettino probably may get better offers but is there any evidence that this guy -who last got sacked from Rochdale, has no L1 success and is as small fry as they get in management, is he really the man? Based on what?
Genuinely believe when FV took him on they based it on him being Boltonian, a club pulling together, rising up. This guy is alienating fans, youth team and sinking like a stone in the process.
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Post by whitesince63 on Feb 22, 2020 22:27:10 GMT
I’m finding it hard to disagree with any of that OM and even harder to keep my support of KH and Flicker, assuming Flickers still here since we see and hear nothing of him. I’m afraid Keith is now sounding like a drowning man whilst everything sinks around him. I think you’re right about recruiting him as a Boltonian, thinking he could mend bridges and to be fair at the start I thought he was going to. Though not my choice I was more than willing to give him a chance but my patience is now quickly waning. Performances are getting worse and I’m wondering whether the players really are as bad as they look, have given up or they just don’t want to play for Keith any more. Brockbank, arguably the most first team ready of the youths cant get in the side, despite the pitiful displays of Emmanuel, Hall farmed out to Chorley without even a chance, Zouma back to France for whatever reason, Darcy won’t sign a contract and Politic seemingly regressing after a bright start. Surely FV must be considering acting because if this continues who will want to be left next year anyway?
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Post by OohMac on Feb 22, 2020 22:53:26 GMT
More to that why is "Flicker"(hate that) here as a number 2.
When Hill was sacked at Barnsley it was Flicker, his no2, who took the reigns and replaced Hill. Then went on to be a manager in his own right.
Now they're back as it was at Barnsley when Flitcroft took the job from Hill.
In fact in terms of honours theres little in it, think Flicker(really do hate it) has a better win ratio than Chief Hill.
Does it not seem odd that DF has gone number 2 when really he would have been a real candidate on his own. And does the Barnsley link not murky the waters even more?
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Post by whitesince63 on Feb 23, 2020 9:06:25 GMT
If Fletchers (I hate the Flicker bit too OM) of the same mindset as KH, would we want him to take over if KH goes? Personally I’d go for David Lee who not only has a positive attitude but proved his potential with the Development Squad. I assume Fletcher didn’t get the job because he didn’t apply, just KH who did and called on him as they were both out of work. I always thought the appointment was rather rushed, despite the tight timescales and was amazed when they made such a quick decision. I don’t know how much due diligence they could have done on him because Rochdale is not exactly BWFC? I presume they thought experience and being Boltonian was necessary but for me, an enthusiastic David Lee plus our other existing coaches would have maintained continuity within the club and been embraced by the fans. Sadly Keith I think has proved he’s not the one to rally the fans with his incomprehensible rants and I feel is doing more to switch fans off than bring them together, so heaven knows how he is with the players. Like I said, I was expecting a bright new start under FV but it all seems to have gone terribly wrong and is even worsening if that’s possible?
It’s easy to blame the embargo, the small pool of players available, injuries, fitness problems and inexperience for our current situation and to try to deflect blame away from yourself and in saying that I don’t minimise the difficulties we’ve had, but I think if a FV still have confidence in Hill and Fletcher, they are in a minority. It’s easy to just say sack the manager, we only see it from a distance but they are closer to it and if they still consider he’s the man to take us forward, I have to bow to their judgement, they have much more to lose than we do. So it’s off to Blackpool on Tuesday and I can only hope for everyone’s sake that the players aren’t too “fatigued” to put on a better display than recent efforts suggest.
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Post by Alptrotter on Feb 23, 2020 9:35:32 GMT
As Andyl says, this was another poor game between two very mediocre teams. Watching the live stream as I do, I still have the sense that the team has no sensible structure. Apart from the full backs, we have no real presence wide, so rarely, if ever succeed in turning the opposition defence and really looking like we might score. In this game Lowe in the first half and our FB was our greatest wide threat (and it wasn’t a big one)
Today we had Politic and , for much of the first half, Mellis or Hamilton as the widest midfield players. I ask you. What is exactly the point of that? Given their skills, all three kept drifting infield leaving us far too narrow and the FBs horribly exposed on the break. Politic in particular is struggling, it seems that the burden of being our most (only) creative player is weighing on him. Sometimes it looks like he thinks he has to out Sterling Sterling and out De Bruyne De Bruyne. I’d prefer it if he manned up a bit and didn’t allow himself to be so easily ushered off the ball. The same goes for most of our current squad eg Fleming is full of boyish enthusiasm and energy, but has pitifully little bodily strength for this league. Finally, how many hoofed clearances actually were directed towards Politic? ... utterly idiotic.
As Andyl says, Crawford was nowhere near match ready and should not have started, but even had he been 100% he had no options for forward passes and soon sank into obscurity.
We are a very poor team, poorly set up and poorly coached and managed. I’m sorry, but for me, Hill is simply not good enough. He has developed an appallingly unbalanced squad, full of players who want to play centrally, devoid of insight and trickery and above all pace on the flanks. Counterattacking is therefore just not an option. His utter inability to change the flow of a game by astute tactical changes stands out a mile. I don’t like to say this, but we should get shut of him now. I’m tempted to say that a citizens committee of fans from this site would do a better job - seriously I think its that bad.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, surely we now have to use the remaining games to give the players who will be here next season the chance to bond and gain experience. Ditch the increasingly uncommitted loanees. I don’t want to hear about it being too hard for them and counterproductive in this league. Let’s face it, it is an extremely low standard of football. With good coachng and sold tactical drilling, we’d do better than this aimless, rudderless drift that is KH’s tenure.
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Post by OohMac on Feb 23, 2020 9:58:23 GMT
Very strange position. I hear arguments for keeping Keith, not had a full proper window, no one else, had all these injuries. Lost best player in Jan. No stability if we keep sacking managers and think yeah lets give him a crack at L2.
Then i think whats this guy got in his locker to convince me he knows what hes doing. Peaked at Rochdale, Sacked at rochdale, failed at Barnsley and lost the crowd.
Basic mistakes being allowed to happen week in and out and no real plan.
The U23 remark is enough for me for FV to call him in and ask him to explain. Very disrespectful of the work. Especially as this set up have brought through Clough, Holding and Connell so about £5.5M to us. If David Lee came out and slammed the first team set up hed be in danger of losing his job. Its just not done. Keep it in house.
So yeah suppose me position as stands would be on all counts Hill, last warning! Give him March to keep his job. Thats not you need 4 wins or out. But need to see some improvement in the set up. Need to see some identity. And whatever it was Tobias Phoenix, (not sure if he sounds more like a Bond villian or a WWE Wrestler?) has been brought in to do he needs to get it done. Maybe recruit a new manager.
1. Warnock 2. Grayson 3. Nathan Jones
Ainsworth already nearly left Wycombe for Sunderland before PP so maybe he would love a chance at a club like this. Sam Ricketts, Nolan too.
As said with Lee, great if going well but if he makes a bad start he doesnt have that trust from the fans where they will say he can turn it around. So think he could be like a Sammy Lee. 8 games and thanks but didnt work.
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