Good job we fired Mowbray, Mason and Ramsay

[Calgarybaggy]

Those decisions made all the difference today. Think where would be if we had not done that.

[SwedishBaggie]

Those decisions made all the difference today. Think where would be if we had not done that.

Same place probably?

The squad is just this bad, and player recruitments too, for far too long.

[stargazer_1962]

I thought it was a mess this time last week but its now even more of a mess.

[Omegstrat6]

Mowbray seemed a heart over head appointment and failed likely due to a combination of his own health issues and interference from above by Nestor. It was the right thing to dismiss him at the time.

Mason lacked the needed experience and made some strange selections but he did manage to oversee some good performances. Unfortunately, our failure to put games to bed and conceding far too many late goals cost us dearly and we started to slide down the table. He may have had the players onside but results inevitably cost him his job.

Ramsay was taken on to help steer us back up the table, not to drive us further down into a relegation fight. His lack of Championship or equivalent experience didn't help but his insistence upon playing his preferred wing-back system rather to our strengths (such as they are!) cost us dearly and included two shameful performances -though the players too just shoulder accountability for those. With time running out, he had to go.

I like Mozza, he hasn't got the management experience we may need at this point, but he is Albion through and through, wants to succeed and-importantly-knows the players well and their individual capabilities. He is also more likely to give the likes of Bostock his opportunities. Given the injury to Philips, I didn't disagree with his starting line up today nor his formation and certainly not his clear message that we needed to show more attacking intent and create more chances and play with more courage and confidence. In the end it didn't work and we succumbed to our normal three failures-1) stupid defensive errors 2) failure to create enough chances and 3) not being clinical enough in front of goal. Our majority possession counted for nothing. When asked afterwards whether we deserved anything from the game he truthfully responded "not really" and went on to register his disappointment in our continued failings in these three key areas. Reading between the lines, I'm sure he would also have expressed this in no uncertain terms to the players himself (Ollie Bostock, in his post cup game interview, stated that Morrison was hugely helpful and supportive but never one not to be brutally honest about performances).

In truth, two of these key failings -our inability to create enough chances and our lack of goal scoring prowess-have been long standing and go back beyond the tenure of the above mentioned managers into Corberan's time. We may have had good wide players in Mikey, Fellows and now Bostock but we have long lacked a much needed creative midfielder and, despite his early promise, Price is certainly not the answer and injury has meant that we have scarcely seen Bany even if he could prove his worth in this area.

Goal wise, adopting the sort of defensive tactics employed by Corberan for example doesn't help and neither does being played as a lone number 9 with poor service, but we all know that none of strikers, whether Grant, Maja, Heggabo or Dike, could be called natural goal scorers.

The one area of the three where I believe we do still have the quality of players to improve on is defensively. Corberan got them well drilled in this and if we didn't score goals to win games, we generally didn't lose by conceding many either. Gilchrist and Imray may not be as good as Campbell defensively and Taylor has proven too often to be a liability, but I would argue that a back four (if available) out of Campbell, Bielik, Phillips, Mepham and Styles could be made more solid and whilst we certainly need to create more and be more clinical and "courageous" in front of goal, stopping the leaks and defensive errors is the first thing to get right.

Given the players available and the limited number of games left, the moot point is whether any manager coming in now could get enough of a tune out of them to avoid relegation. Lack of confidence and belief is certainly an issue but this will surely only come when we start winning games and do we honestly have the quality in midfield and up front to do so? Do we stick with Mozza or twist in the hope of some kind of miracle?

[baggieal]

Mowbray seemed a heart over head appointment and failed likely due to a combination of his own health issues and interference from above by Nestor. It was the right thing to dismiss him at the time.

Mason lacked the needed experience and made some strange selections but he did manage to oversee some good performances. Unfortunately, our failure to put games to bed and conceding far too many late goals cost us dearly and we started to slide down the table. He may have had the players onside but results inevitably cost him his job.

Ramsay was taken on to help steer us back up the table, not to drive us further down into a relegation fight. His lack of Championship or equivalent experience didn't help but his insistence upon playing his preferred wing-back system rather to our strengths (such as they are!) cost us dearly and included two shameful performances -though the players too just shoulder accountability for those. With time running out, he had to go.

I like Mozza, he hasn't got the management experience we may need at this point, but he is Albion through and through, wants to succeed and-importantly-knows the players well and their individual capabilities. He is also more likely to give the likes of Bostock his opportunities. Given the injury to Philips, I didn't disagree with his starting line up today nor his formation and certainly not his clear message that we needed to show more attacking intent and create more chances and play with more courage and confidence. In the end it didn't work and we succumbed to our normal three failures-1) stupid defensive errors 2) failure to create enough chances and 3) not being clinical enough in front of goal. Our majority possession counted for nothing. When asked afterwards whether we deserved anything from the game he truthfully responded "not really" and went on to register his disappointment in our continued failings in these three key areas. Reading between the lines, I'm sure he would also have expressed this in no uncertain terms to the players himself (Ollie Bostock, in his post cup game interview, stated that Morrison was hugely helpful and supportive but never one not to be brutally honest about performances).

In truth, two of these key failings -our inability to create enough chances and our lack of goal scoring prowess-have been long standing and go back beyond the tenure of the above mentioned managers into Corberan's time. We may have had good wide players in Mikey, Fellows and now Bostock but we have long lacked a much needed creative midfielder and, despite his early promise, Price is certainly not the answer and injury has meant that we have scarcely seen Bany even if he could prove his worth in this area.

Goal wise, adopting the sort of defensive tactics employed by Corberan for example doesn't help and neither does being played as a lone number 9 with poor service, but we all know that none of strikers, whether Grant, Maja, Heggabo or Dike, could be called natural goal scorers.

The one area of the three where I believe we do still have the quality of players to improve on is defensively. Corberan got them well drilled in this and if we didn't score goals to win games, we generally didn't lose by conceding many either. Gilchrist and Imray may not be as good as Campbell defensively and Taylor has proven too often to be a liability, but I would argue that a back four (if available) out of Campbell, Bielik, Phillips, Mepham and Styles could be made more solid and whilst we certainly need to create more and be more clinical and "courageous" in front of goal, stopping the leaks and defensive errors is the first thing to get right.

Given the players available and the limited number of games left, the moot point is whether any manager coming in now could get enough of a tune out of them to avoid relegation. Lack of confidence and belief is certainly an issue but this will surely only come when we start winning games and do we honestly have the quality in midfield and up front to do so? Do we stick with Mozza or twist in the hope of some kind of miracle?

Twist for me! Morrison, Abella and Myhill have all been part of the team of the last three sacked managers. They have given input as Abella is seen consistently in the ears of each manager. So they have been part of the problem.

I do not think Morrison has the experience and would he make a call to start Bostock over Wallace for example? I doubt it! Wallace was absolutely awful today as was Maja and Molumby and Mowatt don?t work well together! Fellows was a class above Wallace and for me Bostock is too - he can run FFS!

For me if I was Patel I would pay huge bucks to get an experienced manager in and twist! You can?t say the players upped their efforts for Morrison today either - we were shocking and how many clear cut chances did we have?

The players were booed off with chants of your not fit to wear the shirt! So much for raising their game for Morrison! Oxford are poor side and had not even scored at home for months!

[Omegstrat6]

Twist for me! Morrison, Abella and Myhill have all been part of the team of the last three sacked managers. They have given input as Abella is seen consistently in the ears of each manager. So they have been part of the problem.

I do not think Morrison has the experience and would he make a call to start Bostock over Wallace for example? I doubt it! Wallace was absolutely awful today as was Maja and Molumby and Mowatt don?t work well together! Fellows was a class above Wallace and for me Bostock is too - he can run FFS!

For me if I was Patel I would pay huge bucks to get an experienced manager in and twist! You can?t say the players upped their efforts for Morrison today either - we were shocking and how many clear cut chances did we have?

The players were booed off with chants of your not fit to wear the shirt! So much for raising their game for Morrison! Oxford are poor side and had not even scored at home for months!

Not upping their game for Morrison was perhaps one of the most disappointing things to see today. To be fair, they started brightly but those two stupid defensive errors cost us and I think the general lack of confidence and "courage" in front of goal crept in from then on and whilst they seemed to at least battle to get back into the game in the first half, far too much of the second was a very flat and poor performance. As per another thread, Campbell, Styles, Mikey and Bostock tried but too many of the others were ineffectual.

In terms of a new manager, at this stage, I would probably twist too in as much as a totally new face -with the necessary experience of course- will be more likely to kick start any potential revival than a very familiar one. That said, I don't think that Morrison is the problem and I personally can't find fault in much of what he says. As such, I would still retain him as part of the coaching team and his knowledge of the players and club would surely be useful to anyone coming in.

Whether Patel can afford the big bucks for someone with proven experience is one thing, whether we can attract anyone with that experience is another.

[baggiematt]

It is starting to appear that Mason and Mowbray werent the problem after all.

[baggieal]

It is starting to appear that Mason and Mowbray werent the problem after all.

I don?t think Mowbray was the problem as that side nearly made the play offs and I had heard he had huge interference so wanted to go!

[Omegstrat6]

I don?t think Mowbray was the problem as that side nearly made the play offs and I had heard he had huge interference so wanted to go!

Had heard the same Matt and reading between the lines of Mowbray's interviews it did seem that there was interference from above. TM initially spoke of wanting them to play with more freedom with the belief that this would ultimately encourage more creativity and attacking intent but perhaps this was too much for Nestor and his belief in the game model? If true, it might explain some of the confusion on the pitch we witnessed.

[baggiematt]

Had heard the same Matt and reading between the lines of Mowbray's interviews it did seem that there was interference from above. TM initially spoke of wanting them to play with more freedom with the belief that this would ultimately encourage more creativity and attacking intent but perhaps this was too much for Nestor and his belief in the game model? If true, it might explain some of the confusion on the pitch we witnessed.

The only thing I would say about interference, is that he provided no further context. I would imagine that the interference was him not playing Fellows and the club thinking that his sale was absolute priority for the summer, so having him out of the team was a disaster.

In that sense, I totally get the interference. I cant think of what else the interference could be that makes sense.