Doom?

[AucklandRover]

If you only read the comments on the LT site, you would make the assumption that we are certain to be relegated. The thing is, football doesn't work like that - especially in the Championship, where about 17 or 18 of the teams are very evenly matched.
At one point last season, Rotherham looked dead and gone. They survived.
On the face of it, relegation looks to concern any three from five, but even that isn't a certainty.
The situation:
1) Coyle was a strange choice in the first place, given his local history.
2) He is not the ideal person for a battle to reach mid-table, because he tends to go for all-out attack, rather than a grinding approach. (Mind you, Lambert WAS the ideal man for that, and he didn't do particularly well!)
3) Coyle is NOT responsible for inadequate funding, and virtually anyone would struggle under those circumstances.
4) Our biggest problem has been persistent for about five or six years: the last fif**** minutes of a game. I would love to know how many extra points we'd have gained, if all our games in that period had finished at the 75-minute mark! This is a player-issue, largely, rather than a managerial one, given that it has plagued more than half a dozen different managers.
5) Where Coyle's approach is to be most strongly questioned is in his persisting with "experience" for its own sake, even where it doesn't appear to represent our best chance. Surely, Nyambe has proved that the odd youngster can be drafted in without disaster. I still wonder, too, why he thinks youngsters from other clubs are automatically better than our own.
6) We also have to ask about the signing of Joao. I simply can't see the point in it, when our midfield is the obvious weakness. The same with the attempt to sign another centre-back. Why??

To sum up, I don't think we're doomed, because I've been following football for decades, and I know how often people make predictions, but only draw later attention to them on the occasions they're correct!!
Lots of posters on the LT site will go very quiet if we stay up, but they'll be indulging in orgasms of self-righteousness if we're relegated. You actually get the sense that some of them would prefer us to go down in order to prove themselves correct.
(I see one of them believes that the best way to get rid of Venky's is to ban Indian supporters from Ewood. I can't think of a suitable response to that!)

Should Coyle go? I almost think it's too late. December 27th, straight after the Barnsley defeat, would have been the best moment. It's a big call for a new man now. All the same, we might get enough of a bounce to get us out of the bottom three.
What do you think?

[DanRrr]

Hello Aucks,

I think we have what we have and we have back then until the end of the season.

On the Joao front, he made a nusance of himself when he came on, but he missed a sitter which would have put us 2-1 up. He'd only been for about 10 minutes though and it was a bit wet, put his foot was underneath the ball hen he needed to hit it higher. One of those split second things that once again didn't go our way.

As for religation, we don't look dead certs playing, but the results say otherwise. We keep waiting for this mini-run that I fear will never materialise.

[AucklandRover]

Hello Aucks,

I think we have what we have and we have back then until the end of the season.

On the Joao front, he made a nusance of himself when he came on, but he missed a sitter which would have put us 2-1 up. He'd only been for about 10 minutes though and it was a bit wet, put his foot was underneath the ball hen he needed to hit it higher. One of those split second things that once again didn't go our way.

As for religation, we don't look dead certs playing, but the results say otherwise. We keep waiting for this mini-run that I fear will never materialise.

Dan - five of our next seven league games are against teams in the lower half of the table. The phrase "now or never" comes to mind! Knowing us, though, we'll probably beat Wednesday and Derby, but lose to Burton, Rotherham and Wigan!
I do feel reasonably confident about the QPR game, however, as they seem to be an attacking team, with a porous defence - just like us. Perhaps we'll finally WIN one 3-2!
Shame about the Joao miss. A new player scoring immediately is exactly the sort of confidence-boost we are desperate for!

[robinrover]

I thought he was a good signing even though he was ultimately not needed
can we stay up?yes we can but it will go all the way to the Brentford game
my concern is we are stopping the inevitable
we will have an even weaker team in the summer and with no investment there is only so long you can go with freebies and loan players
as for Coyle he is inept and clearly not the "stand out candidate"however aucks you are right very few would be able to cope with shirt buttons to play with and an ever increasing carcass of a squad.