How bad does

[lukcour]

Osman have to get before he is dropped. Single handedly he is leading us to relegation. Gifted Orient both gaols.

The first was from round the halfway line. Osman done his usual posing and simply let the opponent go straight past him. Did not attempt to pull him back or down. Did not chase after him. He simply let him go. Because we were on the attack the resulting goal was a formality.

The second goal was Osman at his competent best. Yet once again he committed a stupid foul in a dangerous area. We never cleared the ball and oh dear we were beaten. Recently I have lost count of the stupid fouls he has committed which led to goals and loss of points. I honestly believe he is one of the worst players we have ever had.

I am also aware that a fair few supporters are great admirers of his headless chicken style of play, and his macho posing, charging up to the player and then stopping a yard away. Sorry but that does absolutely nothing. He is a midfielder, has anyone ever s

[Chief_Whip]

[quote="lukcour"]Osman have to get before he is dropped. Single handedly he is leading us to relegation. Gifted Orient both gaols.

The first was from round the halfway line. Osman done his usual posing and simply let the opponent go straight past him. Did not attempt to pull him back or down. Did not chase after him. He simply let him go. Because we were on the attack the resulting goal was a formality.

The second goal was Osman at his competent best. Yet once again he committed a stupid foul in a dangerous area. We never cleared the ball and oh dear we were beaten. Recently I have lost count of the stupid fouls he has committed which led to goals and loss of points. I honestly believe he is one of the worst players we have ever had.

I am also aware that a fair few supporters are great admirers of his headless chicken style of play, and his macho posing, charging up to the player and then stopping a yard away. Sorry but that does absolutely no

[AlexLeicester]

Based on the losses to Rotherham and then Orient, I don't really understand picking on Osman as one individual responsible for the defeats. It is a much wider scenario.

Against both sides we deserved at least a point. Osman was at fault, along with others, for the first goal, but for me the real culprit was the referee. I don't think Mellor had the best of games either; Harry D's dead balls were, frankly, pathetic; Orient had clearly seen the Rotherham game video and marked Inman out from the off; Ben is a good young goalkeeper, but he needs more experience and a much bigger voice; Ellis needs to head the ball to an Alex player ... the list goes on.
But I am picking holes and, overall, we are playing so much better than a couple of months ago. The problem is we are now facing better, very confident sides, and in these scenarios two things happen: 1. the team in the ascendancy gets the rub of the green; and 2. the struggling side (us) find that luck goes against us.

I still believe we

[Stealex]

Sorry but blaming Osman for yesterdays loss is just looking for a scapegoat. The back four made mistakes for both goals and we were up against 12 men, fact.

We're just not getting the rub of the green this season. They had 2 or 3 good chances yesterday and buried 2 of them - a sign of a good side, although I expected more given their league position.

There are surely 4 worse sides in league 1 than us, we'll get out of it.

[alexthe great]

Have to agree with luckor, Osman in my opinion is a very limited player. Poses no threats on goal,very limited passing ability,and gives far to many free kicks away and apart from his phsyical size does nothing for the team.With the midfield set up as it is it is difficult for me to asses the rest of the team .

[sacrewebleu]

I too think Luckor makes a fair comment. However I feel sorry for Osman, the biggest mistake was making him captain and giving him such responsibility also at a time of clear dressing room unrest. He doesnt strike me as that sort of personality and maybe focussing on his own game solely is the answer. SD has made several rods for his own back. The only one guaranteed a start was for me always going to be Toots and who now would argue with him driving us on both on the field and around the club as Captain ? Osman as captain , and I know he has done it already, is very difficult to drop.
grant for me is a proper player, who should be backed for the rest of the season. it should be him plus one other. I feel Evans red card was a bi product of being benched the week before and whilst I think hes over rated hes a better bet than OSman. We have other centre mids but its a big ask for an 18 yr old, that said when ive watched 21s, Grant and nolan have looked the best pairing, but GRant and EVa

[DGFG]

Agree with a lot of the above, Toots as captain is a decent shout, leads by example interacts with the crowd and his enthusiasm is infectious.

I don't really have any feelings about Osman, agree it was a silly free kick to give away for their second goal, I suspect Evans will start on Tuesday, Bakes' comments to McGarry about the team before the game hinted at that.

I agree about the centre backs too, none of them have proved consistently up to the standard yet we keep on bringing in goalkeepers, midfielders and strikers. Ball in the air for far too long before both their goals yesterday, we've let in six in two games again and I don't think the 'keeper has been responsible for any of them - yet SD keeps talking about loaning a goalkeeper which potentially undermines Ben's confidence.

On a positive note, Ikpeazu did enough in a short time to suggest he may indeed be 'better than what we've got' and surely must start on Tuesday.If he's shown what he showed yesterday in training I rea

[bonehead]

Think your forgetting how good Osman was last year - one of the reasons last year was that he got the ball and , we had Murphy who knew how to take the ball off him and move it quickly up field

now osman looks for players who move sideways more often than not and we loose it

[sacrewebleu]

Give Osman a break from starting,
Hand the captaincy to Tootle,
trust Grant and back him for the rest of the season as hes a proper player,
pair GRant with someone else, probably evans (although ithought he was still poor but different to grant which works better)
Ask the "chuckle brothers" at centre half to attack and head the ball and track runners etc etc

These are the workings of a football genius and Steve should be wholeheartedly congratulated for reading my post (NO 6 on this thread for anyone interested) and putting into action what I said ;)

on a serious point, it does take bottle to make those changes and credit to him for doing so, also interesting that with two loanees and not 5 it felt like a team I recognised and I thought Osman did well when he came on and maybe thats his role for the next 4 or 5 games untill he recovers confidence, but keep the captaincy away from him, he doesnt need it.


Now that ive solved team selection, I shall turn my attention to world hun