WTF has gone wrong..?

drd said:
Surely the time for honest words was after Palace
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Bring on the Bournemouth Evening Echo and a player soliloquy ..... "it's time to stand up and be counted. Leave everything on the pitch .." blah blah blah
 
Ake has been a consummate professional and has only been 'tapped up' recently.

King was approached in January.

Frasers been a c£nt for a season.

Tapping up is not the problem.

We've been shyte for 18 months.
 
TACTICS
Persevering with Lerma & Billing in a 4-4-2 formation just doesn't work. From very early in the game it was obvious that we were overloaded in midfield by Newcastle, and yet nothing was done to remedy this until it was far to late. No creativity from this pairing, Gosling should have started.
Where has the never say die attitude gone.??? In previous reasonable team fought Toothe & Nail right to the very end, hence the many comebacks, Liverpool, Everton at home, Palace away etc.
To many big time Charlies now, who won't stick around for the Championship. Clearly Eddie is hurting, but some of those players look like they couldn't give a toss.
Think we all knew it would come to an end at some point, but not like this.
Surely Max will sell up now and recoup his losses,and who could blame him.??. Eddie has earned the right to have a shot at getting us back up, but he will need to analyse his role in this sorry saga and learn from his mistakes.
Only hope that the club can survive the massive financial hit that lies ahead.
 
Remember when the media and a couple of players talked about Europe? For me that was the pre cursor for a team that worked hard every game to prove themselves as being deserved, to a team who thought it would just happen.

Eddie tried to evolve the team, rightly so, but our soft underbelly for conceding continued. Trying to counter attack against a team who are in the lead and happy to stick everyone behind the ball is never going to happen.

At present I don’t think the players believe in Eddie in the way the team has done in the past. They do what he asks but without the magic ingredients from them.
The fat cat of the premier league has filled all the players bowls with the finest cream.
 
Neil Dawson said:
The decision to move from an attacking team to a counter attacking team killed us. It’s pure and simple to me.

Its why we will get relegated with a team far more talented than the ones that stayed up with ease.
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The thing that worries me is that Eddie doesn't seem to see this... Either that or he's too stubborn to go back on something (but I don't believe that). I genuinely think he sees the formation and style works for us... or at least 'should' work for us...

I still agree that Eddie should take us down and be given a chance to solidify us as a Championship side, and who knows, maybe push for the PL again, however, as was stated above, he will need to to take along hard look at his approach this last 18 months and think seriously about his role in all this... and JT's...

Re the players being tapped up, I guess on the 'glass half full' side of that, at least the inevitable relegation will not bankrupt us immediately... Ake, King and Wilson should at least cover circa £80m (Ake 40, King 20, Wilson 20)... As I've said on a previous thread, if we can clear £100m on player sales and also get the parachute of whatever it is these days, we should be ok for another 12 months to solidify a few things... Hopefully...
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
The thing that worries me is that Eddie doesn't seem to see this... Either that or he's too stubborn to go back on something (but I don't believe that). I genuinely think he sees the formation and style works for us... or at least 'should' work for us...

I still agree that Eddie should take us down and be given a chance to solidify us as a Championship side, and who knows, maybe push for the PL again, however, as was stated above, he will need to to take along hard look at his approach this last 18 months and think seriously about his role in all this... and JT's...

Re the players being tapped up, I guess on the 'glass half full' side of that, at least the inevitable relegation will not bankrupt us immediately... Ake, King and Wilson should at least cover circa £80m (Ake 40, King 20, Wilson 20)... As I've said on a previous thread, if we can clear £100m on player sales and also get the parachute of whatever it is these days, we should be ok for another 12 months to solidify a few things... Hopefully...
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Eddie is of a stubborn mind set, not meant to be a criticism just an observation. He has said that when things get tough it is important to keep giving the players the same messages rather than knee jerk changing. This has its plus points and minus points. A consistent message is something fundamental to Eddie managing style and I honestly think he will not change in that department.
 
crayon_eater said:
King was signed 5 years ago, Wilson 6 - bit of a stretch of we're needing to go back that far to pick out decent signings

Whos pushing them on now? Surridge? Solanke? Ibe? Defoe? Afobe? Mousset?.... Rantie? Tomlin? Lets get Grabban back (again) and try another go.

We have Ake solid in defence, but whos pushing Cook (signed 2012) for a place? Who can play left/right back or replace Smith who spends half a season injured? I don't even know what our first choice back line is at the moment but I expect it'll still feature Francis and/or Daniels when fit.

We've signed several defenders recently that barely play... Kelly, Stacey, Mepham, Rico not to mention others that have come and gone like Mings, B.Smith and the cornerstone of any top flight defence, Marc Wilson.

I don't expect every signing to be an Ake or a Brooks, but I don't expect the chunk of our signings to barely feature and not challenge the starting 11 from the outset either...
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I was going for PL signings but forgot we had signed Wilson in the Championship... My point is/was that you cant just look at the bad eggs, as for every bad one, there is a good one... That's just how it is... If Eddie got 100% of his signings bang on a) we wouldn't be where we are, and b) he probably wouldn't still be with us...

Of your 4 defensive players you mention, Kelly has been injured pretty much all season... Looks a good player and can't really hold Eddie to account for that... Stacey has played, looks good but still shows inexperience (Spurs away, Wolves away) so I totally back playing Smith currently ahead of him. Mepham is a great player and has played his part... injury saw him dislodged and tbf I don't think Cook or Ake did anything wrong (pre lockdown) to justify being dropped for Mepham. Rico is the only one that is a mystery... Seemed to be playing really well this season, but for whatever reason, Eddie doesn't trust him...

Mings was just destined never to play for us. He was injured for 'large' parts of his time and was always behind Cook and Ake, and for the most, rightly so IMO. Not a bad signing tho, just unfortunate, and we got serious money from him... As we did with Mousset... Brad Smith... Awful, you can have that one ;)

So we have good and bad signings... and yes Eddie is to blame for not shoring up certain positions, and playing players in wrong positions, but I don't buy that it's all down to poor signings...
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
The thing that worries me is that Eddie doesn't seem to see this... Either that or he's too stubborn to go back on something (but I don't believe that). I genuinely think he sees the formation and style works for us... or at least 'should' work for us...

I still agree that Eddie should take us down and be given a chance to solidify us as a Championship side, and who knows, maybe push for the PL again, however, as was stated above, he will need to to take along hard look at his approach this last 18 months and think seriously about his role in all this... and JT's...

Re the players being tapped up, I guess on the 'glass half full' side of that, at least the inevitable relegation will not bankrupt us immediately... Ake, King and Wilson should at least cover circa £80m (Ake 40, King 20, Wilson 20)... As I've said on a previous thread, if we can clear £100m on player sales and also get the parachute of whatever it is these days, we should be ok for another 12 months to solidify a few things... Hopefully...
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I do wonder what JT’s thoughts are on it all
 
Neil Dawson said:
The decision to move from an attacking team to a counter attacking team killed us. It’s pure and simple to me.

Its why we will get relegated with a team far more talented than the ones that stayed up with ease.
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100% agree Neil. I think the change of tactics was to try to stem the number of goals we conceded. The only problem is that it didn't - all it did was strangle our ability to score at the other end. Playing a counter-attacking style works if you don't concede early and draw the opposition forwards to open up space behind them. All we do is usually concede early, taking away the need for opponents to attack, but without any Plan B to change our style of play.

Put simply we are not good enough to be a dangerous counter-attacking team, and any half-decent team can handle us with ease. The individuals within the team are certainly talented; unfortunately football's a team game and most of their talents are being wasted within the system Eddie has decided they should play.

What I don't get is why Eddie persisted with the tactics when it has been seemingly obvious to everyone else - supporters and players - that they just weren't working. I would love to hear his answer to that one. And no, I'm not in the Eddie Out camp - he's a talented guy who will still go far - but the last 18 months has not been his finest.
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
So we have good and bad signings... and yes Eddie is to blame for not shoring up certain positions, and playing players in wrong positions, but I don't buy that it's all down to poor signings...
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I agree with you to an extent, I try and give players a chance and remember that King took a very long time to fit in and had a long thread dedicated to such on here.

Not every signing will work, but still far too many rarely feature and barely given a chance which highlights they were never intended to challenge or replace the first 11, just be backup.

There have also been signings i'd class as stop gaps that make sense, like Glenn Murray who I rated as an alternative option for us.

Some of these 'backup players' will be great for us if we go down - but were never what we needed to evolve in the prem and there has been far too many over the years.
 
Where to start with What the F has gone wrong?
Injuries the obvious start.. Frasergate was pretty big !... New Signings not working quick enough for whatever reason....lack of Leadership on field, from Kick- Offs through to Whistle Up !....then Fear and then Anarchy!
Then add in ..A manager who is entitled to One Bad Season ...but just having it at the wrong time. Its all in there ...others will be able to find other reasons.
Things go wrong at Football Clubs...Manu were once relegated only 3 or 4 years after winning the Euro Cup. MC dropped down 2 Divs !
E.Howe its been already said - Carried the Club for 10 year or so....others at the Helm have not matched him...he can't do everything.....the transfers in and out have been problematic....that needed help and
expertise from more experienced bods!

The PL dazzled some eyes and mesmirised emotions...its only a bliddy football league !
There is nothing ' premier ' about it...is there really ? Boscombe have proved that !
 
redskins said:
Remember when the media and a couple of players talked about Europe? For me that was the pre cursor for a team that worked hard every game to prove themselves as being deserved, to a team who thought it would just happen.

Eddie tried to evolve the team, rightly so, but our soft underbelly for conceding continued. Trying to counter attack against a team who are in the lead and happy to stick everyone behind the ball is never going to happen.

At present I don’t think the players believe in Eddie in the way the team has done in the past. They do what he asks but without the magic ingredients from them.
The fat cat of the premier league has filled all the players bowls with the finest cream.
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Should that be bowels?
 
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