Romared Match Thoughts Leyton Orient v Barnsley

[animallittle3]

Thing is Jules, and I totally get where you're coming from, but my question is- do we actually have defenders at this club that are capable of battening down the hatches and seeing a game out? 68 goals conceded so far this season says it all. That's conceding on average 1.5 goals per game in the league. It's shocking to be quite frank. It has been the case for these last 2 seasons now.

To me we look like rabbits in the headlights when opposition teams show real intent and really go at us. Most of the defenders we have in the squad are simply out of their depth at this level. They're unable to stay switched on, they are caught flat footed or on the wrong side far too much, they're not strong enough, they're clusmsy in the tackle, and there's certainly no cohesion.

Who has replaced Mads and Kitching? I give you Lopata, Sheppard, MDG, Earl, Pines. Has any of the others that I mentioned made a significant improvement over 2 years? Can any of them be sold on for decent fees? I think the answer to those questions is a resounding NO. These players were signed by the recruitment team for either free transfers or nominal fees from lower levels barring Josh Earl.

This is why I fear for Conor or any head coach who takes the reigns here. They are been given a crock of shyte to work with and are expected to challenge for promotion. It's gonna get worse too because come this summer, when our better attacking players are sold, they will also be replaced by more substandard shyte. The team then goes from scoring a decent amount of goals to scoring less. Couple that with our defenders and it only points one way.

It's a pretty simple game to analyse Pass isn't it , it's only complicated by idiots with no real cv on a football pitch .

It goes like this , the less goals you concede the less you need to score in order to win games of football .

It doesn't take much to work out where your priorities should be when building a team .

[Shadrack the Red]

It's a pretty simple game to analyse Pass isn't it , it's only complicated by idiots with no real cv on a football pitch .

It goes like this , the less goals you concede the less you need to score in order to win games of football .

It doesn't take much to work out where your priorities should be when building a team .

I think both you and Pass are spot on , we cannot defend for 90 minutes , the concentration levels and the simple basics of defending always go missing, yesterday we scored 3 goals away from home and still lost which is nothing short of criminal , to me and I know I will get cried down on this one but we ought to be scouring the National league and division 2 for the old fashioned muck or nettles row z type defender , we did it when we originally signed Roberts and we did it when we signed Angus McDonald and we tried to sign the lad from Halifax recently Deberough or something like that who is now playing in the league, they are out there , I would much sooner look for a hungry keen player who is being given a chance than some prima donna who has been released from a top club and thinks the world owes him a living , hopefully Shepherd comes back and proves to be just the type I mean and proves successful but these players have to be scouted, I do not want this stupid spread sheet cobblers , I want players who are doing a damn good job at a top non league level and can be judged by rocking up and watched by those who know the game and can spot talent, for me the spread sheet has to be binned, lets get back to the basics of the game , it is not rocket science , I just hope that part of the Conner revolution is for him and his assistant to be heavily involved in recruitment .

[Acido]

Just disgraceful, there's no other way to describe it.
When we are needing at least 3 or 4 goals to win games these days, it shows what an appalling defence we have, and also with the young mistake prone keeper.
Well, its just an absolute disaster every time, but it has been going on for two seasons now!.
Conor hasn't done enough to be given the role yet, but that's almost irrelevant now it seems.
He's got it, and hopefully he will be properly backed, and properly supported.
The early signs though for the next 12-18 months (if he stays that long), aren't looking good. 😦

[EthelRed]

They have put 8 past us this season ffs.
Owners look at your policies and recruit to be competitive not frugal.

Give Conor a chance

[Young_Nudger]

For half an hour we looked brilliant and I thought we were going to dent another playoff chasing team?s hopes.

Then from 30 minutes to 45, the warning signs were there. But we seemingly didn?t learn. The defending was embarrassing yet again. No matter who it is or what system we play, we simply cannot defend.

Whether we are playing 4 at the back or 5 next season (I hope it?s 4), we need a whole new back line, including keeper. I like Roberts but he?s not going to last forever. Earl looks brilliant in some moments and then cumbersome in others. He might be okay in the centre though. The rest that are here at the minute can all go for me. MDG, Pines, McCarthy, Cotter, O?Keeffe can all leave the club if needed. I still have hopes for Gent but we will have to see what he?s like when he comes back from a bad injury.

Totally agree.
Until you start wanting a new back 4 or 5.
We don?t.
What we need is an HC that can mould the defence into a unit.
That is to say - organise.
We scored one offside against Orient.
It?s a start - and better than what Clarke achieved.
But the players - especially the defenders looked like they had never seen each other before.
At times it was schoolboy defending.
The flat back 4 worked against Bolton - it was a disaster against Orient.

The club has appointed a rockie HC with the intentions of moulding him into a HC that plays in a way the club wants to see.
Conor comes with no experience - that in itself comes with an enormous risk.

The signs are that he?ll be gone by Christmas.

IMO it needed an HC that had experience and success of playing in a style that the directors want to see.
I hope I?m wrong.

[pass_and_move]

Shads, personally I'd keep the spreadsheet, but use it as a guideline to possibly identify talent and then send out scouts/people in the know to regularly watch these players that the spreadsheet has identified before making the final decision. I'd prefer that rather than just using the statistics to determine whether a player is good enough. Combining both would surely help us in getting it right. Professional opinions really matter. Combine that with the stats and we're surely onto a better thing.

Neeravs last interview, when he was coming out with Max Watters XG for instance, is where I believe the owners are getting it badly wrong. Using statistics to mask over reality is not how things should be determined, and the fundamentals in a player and what he can bring to the team overlooked.

The owners have obviously convinced themselves that statistics point towards success. We know that football doesn't work like that. There has to be so many other things that need to be taken into consideration and certain nuances of both life itself, and the game of football that need to be understood in building a successful team.

The stats theory probably explains why our team is so disjointed and so inconsistent this season. We have to think about marrying a team together. That is the key and it's where football people that are in the know can do their job and thrive.

To me, our team consists of too many square pegs in round holes. Too many individuals that don't complement each other to form a combined team to put it in simple terms. This is something that a statistics database can't tell the person who is behind the screen crunching the numbers. Surely a combination of both the spreadsheet and then thorough scouting would make a hell of a lot more sense.

The statistics take away the feel that an old fashioned manager has for combining a team, making the pieces of the jigsaw fit and deciding how they play as a unit. That is just common sense in my eyes.

[Shadrack the Red]

I look at last january at our recruitment and I think the word shambles comes to mind, we signed a goalkeeper , a left wing back , a winger and an alleged striker who wouldn"t get a strike out of a box of swan vestas !! , this window brought a whole new meaning to the word scattergun . The keeper was no better than our own, the wing back is a crock, the winger has had about 30 minutes game time in 3 months and the striker would struggle to get in Worsboro Bridge"s squad , we were 5th in the league and needed a boost to help push us on to the play offs , what it actually achieved was to cost us any chance we had and it cost the HC his job, it was a disgrace and what worries me is that nothing has changed , the spreadsheet , the recruitment team etc were responsible for this shambles and this will stay the same for the summer window unless Conner is hopefully brought in to the recruitment group , a new strategy has to be brought in to play and this existing approach has to go , the recent quality of recruitment has nose dived and unless we introduce a change then Conner will stand no chance and we will head for the trap door .

[animallittle3]

I look at last january at our recruitment and I think the word shambles comes to mind, we signed a goalkeeper , a left wing back , a winger and an alleged striker who wouldn"t get a strike out of a box of swan vestas !! , this window brought a whole new meaning to the word scattergun . The keeper was no better than our own, the wing back is a crock, the winger has had about 30 minutes game time in 3 months and the striker would struggle to get in Worsboro Bridge"s squad , we were 5th in the league and needed a boost to help push us on to the play offs , what it actually achieved was to cost us any chance we had and it cost the HC his job, it was a disgrace and what worries me is that nothing has changed , the spreadsheet , the recruitment team etc were responsible for this shambles and this will stay the same for the summer window unless Conner is hopefully brought in to the recruitment group , a new strategy has to be brought in to play and this existing approach has to go , the recent quality of recruitment has nose dived and unless we introduce a change then Conner will stand no chance and we will head for the trap door .

It's only an opinion of course Shad but my gut feeling is that Connor is a different beast from our last two HC's .

As I mentioned previously Connor is probably financially secure for life , he wants to be an HC rather than he needs to be to put food on the table , that's a huge differential .

The tables have turned on the club with Connor , they need him more than he needs the job , there isn't anyone with a credible record such as Warne coming here given the way the club is run and how they are expected to operate , if that wasn't enough they still get the sack even if they've had you in the top 6 all season with one game to go .

They also get the sack when the January window actually makes the squad worse as you have alluded to .

Connor Hourihane is nobody's fool , unproven as a HC but nobody's fool either , desperate Collins or Clarke he's not .

[EthelRed]

The retained list and summer transfer activity should make interesting reading. Especially after the HCs post match comments.

The question being who can we move forward without and who is indispensable? One of those lists will be very short and the other lengthy.

Over to Mr Parekh.

[animallittle3]

The retained list and summer transfer activity should make interesting reading. Especially after the HCs post match comments.

The question being who can we move forward without and who is indispensable? One of those lists will be very short and the other lengthy.

Over to Mr Parekh.

I think everyone who is out of contract will be released which may include Humphreys despite having an extension in the clubs favour , I'd trigger that personally but I don't think they will .

Connell , Philips and Keillor Dunn will be sold to create a transfer budget for Hourihane .

I believe the Orient game sealed many of the players fates for Hourihane .

We are in a new broom sweeps clean territory in my opinion .

The main thing is that we become more solid defensively and that's the starting point in my opinion and work from there .

We need to knock 30 goals off the conceded column whilst scoring as many as we've enjoyed .

That's the key to having any kind of success next season .