The problems get worse

[test]

The manager knows the injury situations better than us so I will trust his judgement.

[AucklandRover]

2 months in football Aucks is like a 3rd of the season. Are you joking? That's alot of football between then and now. I get your mentioning 4 clean sheets, but come in, this was a long time ago now. How many clean sheets since then? And we've played more than 4 games in between. It's ok playing well for 20 mins here & there but football is 90 mins. Your forgetting about the other 70 mins where Bennett gives a penalty away, or the keeper throws one. Or we just play really poorly. Your not mentioning those. They happened aswell.

But I DID refer to the poor performances. My whole point was to contradict the suggestion that "poor performances" were ALL we had seen.
You can't ignore the fact that a significant part of our decline in the last two months has been a high injury-rate in the ranks of our defenders. Every one of them, except Bennett, has been out at various times - often for a prolonged spell. That is bound to have had an impact.

[champs95]

And yet he keeps playing Bennett, not a FB, and continually he looks poor. And most weeks, like today, he got a pasting. This time it was 2nd half. And next match, he will play. That's not injury related, that's making him captain. The defence has been severely affected by injury, that's not the managers fault. I agree. But that's not all of the problem. The midfield & attack aren't effective. Especially going forward. Today was just one of those days you get in football. We scored 3, all 3 I thought where scruffy goals, not through opening them up through playing well. We created very little. And that was the case vrs Sheff Wed. But it's 2 wins!! And we played really well at Preston and got nothing. Again that's football.
I thought Travis looked lost today, without another cental midfielder in with him. Someone like Evans. It was crying out for him to come on 2nd half as we where getting overrun. But I did think Rothwell was our mom. I hadn't realised this at the time, but we went off with a little injury, as I wouldn't have taken him off. And Holtby just isn't going to be effective in central midfield. I didn't get why Armstrong& Dack where playing agaisnt two 6ft 3 centre halves. Or why our 6ft 3 centre forward was playing out right? And he was actually playing ok. And he was taken off?
A part of the reason we had a really poor run was injuries. Another is we just aren't looking like a team. We have no identifiable way of playing, that gets results on a consistent basis. Because we do, have a decent squad of players. And we really miss Danny Graham from last season.
I've not felt as deflated coming away from winning a game in a long time as I did today. But you never know? We could play well vrs Brentford and get a result. Then things start to look better. I just don't think we are a decent side that can go on a run. And if so looks looks very unconvincing. And I'm not sure you can put all that down to just injuries.

[seventwo]

TM said he thought buying Walton and Tosin would fix the defence but hasn't, his words.

[robinrover]

Wow sven I haven't seen such a turnaround in faith in a while.
Let's wait and see things are not great but in this league,things can change overnight.

[champs95]

Wow sven I haven't seen such a turnaround in faith in a while.
Let's wait and see things are not great but in this league,things can change overnight.

Yesterday's performance was back to the Coyle days. Seriously. It was the worst performance I've watched in years. It was embarrasing. It's not enjoyable in any way watching us. It's been like this for 12 months now.

[seventwo]

Wow sven I haven't seen such a turnaround in faith in a while.
Let's wait and see things are not great but in this league,things can change overnight.

I did say I'd give him until the end of November.
I genuinely believed he would sort the team out but he hasn't and simply doesn't look like he will. He also talks like a man who is defeated or has given up. He's done a great job but it's time to go.
I don't care who replaces him and need to trust whoever has the job of finding the right man.
It's a decent squad and deserves better.

[AucklandRover]

And yet he keeps playing Bennett, not a FB, and continually he looks poor. And most weeks, like today, he got a pasting. This time it was 2nd half. And next match, he will play. That's not injury related, that's making him captain. The defence has been severely affected by injury, that's not the managers fault. I agree. But that's not all of the problem. The midfield & attack aren't effective. Especially going forward. Today was just one of those days you get in football. We scored 3, all 3 I thought where scruffy goals, not through opening them up through playing well. We created very little. And that was the case vrs Sheff Wed. But it's 2 wins!! And we played really well at Preston and got nothing. Again that's football.
I thought Travis looked lost today, without another cental midfielder in with him. Someone like Evans. It was crying out for him to come on 2nd half as we where getting overrun. But I did think Rothwell was our mom. I hadn't realised this at the time, but we went off with a little injury, as I wouldn't have taken him off. And Holtby just isn't going to be effective in central midfield. I didn't get why Armstrong& Dack where playing agaisnt two 6ft 3 centre halves. Or why our 6ft 3 centre forward was playing out right? And he was actually playing ok. And he was taken off?
A part of the reason we had a really poor run was injuries. Another is we just aren't looking like a team. We have no identifiable way of playing, that gets results on a consistent basis. Because we do, have a decent squad of players. And we really miss Danny Graham from last season.
I've not felt as deflated coming away from winning a game in a long time as I did today. But you never know? We could play well vrs Brentford and get a result. Then things start to look better. I just don't think we are a decent side that can go on a run. And if so looks looks very unconvincing. And I'm not sure you can put all that down to just injuries.

If you look at Transfermarkt, Champs, you will see that Holtby has actually played the majority of his games as a central midfielder. His secondary positions are given as "attacking midfielder" and "left midfield".
I wouldn't disagree for a moment that we have often lacked creativity, and I really don't know why TM is so insistent on this pattern of having three players ahead of the midfield. All the same, it really does not make sense to argue that so many of our players have been inconsistent or poor because of their starting positions. As I argued on the other thread, when a player has the ball, he has the ball, and then it becomes a matter of what he does with it! I actually think one of our worst features has been the movement off the ball - and that has even applied quite often to Dack - for whom that was such a strength previously.