Cheerio Kewellio - Sheep Shearers Special

I can't remember who, but someone made the valid point on here last night that Oldham looked like they had a couple of extra players on the pitch. When they had the ball, they had time to take a touch, look for a teammate in space and pick a pass. The movement of their players often gave them more than one option. Contrast that with us - whenever we had the ball an Oldham player was snapping at our heels, forcing us to go backwards or hoof it aimlessly forwards. There are two reasons for that, either our formation and shape was wrong, or the players didn't work hard enough. I think both apply. Our unmotivated bunch of misfits was comprehensively outplayed at home by a bottom half team. I thought it was silly to talk of ditching Kewell this early, but there is no doubt that performances like that will see us surrender our Football League status with barely a whimper.

If we lose to Cheltenham I think they'll be mass chanting of the type we saw with Fullerton. I wouldn't blame anyone if that happens because loyal, faithful fans are at the end of their tether with idiot Kewell.

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Originally Posted by Simon the Pieman

If we lose to Cheltenham I think they'll be mass chanting of the type we saw with Fullerton. I wouldn't blame anyone if that happens because loyal, faithful fans are at the end of their tether with idiot Kewell.

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DDWWWLLLDD is mid table form, those "loyal, faithful" fans need to give their head a wobble and adjust their expectations, this is not a promotion campaign and winning a few games and losing a few games with some draws thrown in is about the best we can hope for. If a 0-0 when both of your best strikers are injured at the end of that run of form means it's crisis time then I might just give up on this club.

This is a team that drew on opening day and then lost 6 in a row conceding a minimum of 3 goals a game (21 goals against in our first 7 games), I'm not really sure what people expected of Kewell, did people think we'd be in playoff contention by now or something?

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Originally Posted by DelroyFacey22

DDWWWLLLDD is mid table form, those "loyal, faithful" fans need to give their head a wobble and adjust their expectations, this is not a promotion campaign and winning a few games and losing a few games with some draws thrown in is about the best we can hope for. If a 0-0 when both of your best strikers are injured at the end of that run of form means it's crisis time then I might just give up on this club.

This is a team that drew on opening day and then lost 6 in a row conceding a minimum of 3 goals a game (21 goals against in our first 7 games), I'm not really sure what people expected of Kewell, did people think we'd be in playoff contention by now or something?

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Good post. Had we won at MKD (which i think we may well have done if not for the terrible decision) we would have 16 points from 10 games which over a season would be 70+

Kewell has unquestionably made some strange decisions but to be talking about him being sacked this soon is frankly ridiculous in my book. The damage this season was done before he came.

As for his interview last night, it wasn't long since he publicly criticised his players and was rounded on because a 'good manager doesn't do that', he keeps it for the dressing room. Now he has quite possibly done that, he's in the wrong again!

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Originally Posted by DelroyFacey22

DDWWWLLLDD is mid table form, those "loyal, faithful" fans need to give their head a wobble and adjust their expectations, this is not a promotion campaign and winning a few games and losing a few games with some draws thrown in is about the best we can hope for. If a 0-0 when both of your best strikers are injured at the end of that run of form means it's crisis time then I might just give up on this club.

This is a team that drew on opening day and then lost 6 in a row conceding a minimum of 3 goals a game (21 goals against in our first 7 games), I'm not really sure what people expected of Kewell, did people think we'd be in playoff contention by now or something?

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Same last season from December onwards, think we won 9 games out of a possible 26 (I looked up at lunch, was that bored) 28 games if you count the play offs. People keep going on about last season but we had a good start, lot of luck in games and no injuries and then we were just found out on our one solitary tactic. The trouble this season is we haven't improved the squad, we were all excited by the 3 marquee signings but only one is living up to the billing. Everyone's slating Kewell for not putting those players on the bench, the same players everyone's been slating, what on earth can he do??

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Originally Posted by DelroyFacey22

His first words were "it was a bad day at the office", what makes you think he was pleased? We should all be pleased coming out of that game with a point considering we probably should have lost by a hatful.

Why does their recent form mean we should just walk over them because we're the mighty Notts County? We'd lost 3 in our last 4 games too...

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I was quoting the Red Rag if you read my post correctly Del.

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Originally Posted by DelroyFacey22

DDWWWLLLDD is mid table form, those "loyal, faithful" fans need to give their head a wobble and adjust their expectations, this is not a promotion campaign and winning a few games and losing a few games with some draws thrown in is about the best we can hope for. If a 0-0 when both of your best strikers are injured at the end of that run of form means it's crisis time then I might just give up on this club.

This is a team that drew on opening day and then lost 6 in a row conceding a minimum of 3 goals a game (21 goals against in our first 7 games), I'm not really sure what people expected of Kewell, did people think we'd be in playoff contention by now or something?

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Great post Delroy.

The 'doomies' are having a field day mainly because they didn't want Nolan sacked and when he had to go they were calling for an experienced a manager. Some of the names mentioned at the time just made me cringe: as if managers of the calibre of Mick Macarthy, Ian Holloway - or the biggest mercenary of the lot Cotterill - were ever going to come to a club like Notts. Perhaps we should've crawled back to Sheridan - he's an experienced manager - oh wait yes now I remember how that worked out last time!

Kewell doesn't do hoofball and right now he's in a difficult place because his 2 best forwards are injured and the midfield he inherited from Sir-Drinks-a-Lot, (allegedly), is weak at best and often not fit for purpose, in the physical 4th division we play in.

He achieved a minor miracle at Crawley on a budget much smaller than ours, so I for one am not chucking the toys out of the pram just yet!

When I saw that Stead and Hemmings were out injured last night, I was sure we would lose, so even though it was a zero enetertainment game, a 0-0 result was more than I expected and it's one more point towards the magic 50...

COYP !!!

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Originally Posted by DelroyFacey22

DDWWWLLLDD is mid table form, those "loyal, faithful" fans need to give their head a wobble and adjust their expectations, this is not a promotion campaign and winning a few games and losing a few games with some draws thrown in is about the best we can hope for. If a 0-0 when both of your best strikers are injured at the end of that run of form means it's crisis time then I might just give up on this club.

This is a team that drew on opening day and then lost 6 in a row conceding a minimum of 3 goals a game (21 goals against in our first 7 games), I'm not really sure what people expected of Kewell, did people think we'd be in playoff contention by now or something?

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You actually make some good points there. The problem that some of us see is that Kewell isn't helping himself much at times. He seems to have completely cast aside some, alienated others and is still tinkering with formations and style. His approach, formations & use of players in unfamiliar roles is bordering on the Sheridanesque (or Kiwomyaesque).

Yes, Nolan signed some utter tripe and he has inherited a load of inadequate players - but at least try to have a go at home after an hour, not bring a centre half on to shore up the defence! He can argue that it worked (which is the worrying part) - we did actually look slightly more assured with Brisley out of the back 4 and Duffy on - that simply tells us that he has no confidence in the players to get stuck into Oldham & go on and win that game. Not using the young lad who came off the bench away on Sat in a goal less home game seems absurd.

We aren't the cannon fodder we were under Nolan, you are right about that - but we don't look like beating anybody any good without a penalty either now. All this, "current form" stuff is interesting but of no real consequence. Last night we were cr@p, if we carry on like that we'll go out of the league! He certainly needs the energy/mobility of Hemmings fit and firing plus some fresh blood in Jan. Hemmings may be wasteful at times but we miss that movement and the options he provides in the final third.

Kewell has a big job on here, at this stage I wouldn't be confident enough to say that he is going to manage it tbh. There are a lot of variable to consider. I just hope there will be at least 2 teams worse off than us come May.