S-Clarke

Redmond was the biggest example of a club signing there ever has been. He was signed when we had no manager.

There are goals in this side, the attacking support is non existent though and has been for about 18 months. There also doesn't seem to be any method to our attacks, we pass it in nice triangles at the back through to midfield, but then we seemingly don't know what to do with it. I saw Long making so many runs last night, I see Gabbiadini doing the same, I saw Austin making runs as well, but for me it's a combination of our attacking support players not taking risks and our midfield not being technically good enough to pass the ball forward with any accuracy. As Derry said in another thread, for me we have to play with a midfield 3 of Romeu, Lemina and Hoj. There are two players in there who aren't frightened to take risks and are happy to move forwards with the ball. I'm sorry, but Davis and JWP do not cut it for me when we need to win football matches. Very passive approach play which is ultimately what leads to our bluntness.

Yep, you've called it for me. A lot of what you describe seems to be the clubs philosophy though. We seem to have become obsessed with thinking possession is what it's all about, if we're good at keeping the ball then we will do well - but like you say, it's all well and good keeping it in safe area's, but you still need the risk takers who will ultimately make the difference, not the passers. Mane was a risk taker, so was Pelle to a certain extent. They were replaced by safe players.

The saving grace we have is that this league is utter dog ****, so many absolutely garbage teams (i include us in that). There won't be a huge difference in points between bottom 3 and 10th.

Decent enough player, but one who sums up our current predicament. Filling the squad with decent/average players and then hoping for the best.

My opinion is that the problems are a lot deeper than the manager, we've had similar problems now over two seasons under two different managers. Neither did themselves any favors and MP in particular is looking totally lost, but there is something deeper that is wrong here and as much as we are all calling for a change I'm not sure how much of a difference a change will make. We're in a worrying predicament to say the least. I'm really not sure where we go from here. If there was ever a chance for a January transfer window to change the course of a season this is it...

Calm down.

https://experimental361.com/2017/12/31/2017-league-table/ That league table is pretty galling. That's across two different managers as well. Squad is clearly lacking.

It's alright when you have a decent team and are competitive, but it is an absolute dog fest if you're stuck in a downward spiral. I do not look back at 07/08 and 08/09 with anything other than horror, stuff of nightmares. I don't think Sunderland or Hull are enjoying it by any means.

He's your typical teacher’s pet kind of player, a reliable, trustworthy member of the side who you know will stick to your instructions and not wander off gallivanting. He shouldn't play in games we need to win though.

Sit back and work out how they're going to pay back their loans I'd have thought.

Issue with the drainage. Worst I've ever seen it, they had to make the best of it. Typical that the away side used the conditions to their advantage though whilst we continued to fanny around with it.

The structure of the club is too secretive at the moment. We've apparently been taken over, but I couldn't tell you in the slightest as to why we were or what they're doing for us. I've never in my life seen a takeover of a club completed and the new owners not having any media exposure or wanting to put forward their ideas. I honestly didn't see KL selling us up the river, I didn't see that as a possibility as it's her father’s legacy, but the longer it goes on with this utterly bizarre takeover offering nothing other than money to bank account, then you do have to question it. She’s a business woman after all. The big alarm bells for me was when these Chinese bods had to get loans to secure the funds to buy the club in the first place. Major red alert right there. I can't help but wondering what the **** we've done.

I think we have a few bits of quality in the team, but a hell of a lot of mediocre rubbish. Needs a lot of work.

I imagine we'd be forced to sell a lot due to finances, some of these lads will be on crazy money. Forster amazingly being one of our highest earners. Not sustainable wages in the Champ. We'd go down the youth route and we'd hear about how the pathway is flourishing, before we end up selling them all to average PL clubs after 18 months or so.

Remember, he will get us to single digits. Maybe he meant points.

Austin would be gone, so would Hoj, JWP and Yoshida I think. We'd probably go with Gallagher, Sims, Bedranek, Stephens, Lewis, Reed, Hesketh etc. So, not good enough. That's the glaring thing for me, so many of the players in our side would be off like a shot and get another top league club. We have ability in this side, we're just a poor team.

When people like Guan are posting stuff like that, you know we're in a prediciment.

The game was teetering on about 55mins, neither side really doing anything. Palace's manager, the OAP, saw that and brought on fresh legs who changed the game. We stood still and brought on Davis. I've always been a fan of Davis, but his legs are gone now. He's no longer a top level player.

There are 1 or 2 drops of quality in an otherwise mediocre squad. Romeu has always been pretty average and I must admit I've never been a huge fan of Cedric. Not a bad player, don't get me wrong, but he always flatters to decieve for me. We've managed to assamble one of our biggest premier league squads with such a glaring lack of genuine ability in key area's.

I think I saw a stat that showed he is a worse performing manager than the Dutch Duo we had in the championship. A worse points per game/win % anyway. Says it all.

Given how the opposite of what he says usually plays out, we can probably expect a sacking soon.

As I said the other day, the lad is perfect in a tactical containing away game, where he sheilds and tracks. But in games where we need to be on the front foot and win, he's just not the right player to have in the side.

Well that's me done, that was once again a dysfunctional and disorganised shambles. We took the lead after a fast start, but after that we didn't do anything. Didn't threaten, didn't attack, and didn’t keep the ball. We had no method to our play, no pattern, no obvious shape to the side. It was rudderless, aimless and leaderless. We invited a tired and weary palace back onto us in the 2nd half and they duly obliged. Once they scored that was it, they had us for toast. Players like Romeu, Stephens, and Bertrand have regressed massively as footballers. They don't even do the basics well anymore, so you have to look at the training ground and the preparation/coaching as to why that is. If you carry on for 12 months at home like we have, then it's no surprise to see us where we are. I think the club are too scared to remove another manager, but he looks totally lost out there if I'm honest. Seems a nice enough bloke, but just seems lost and the team plays like that. I hate clubs that keep chopping and changing managers, so I’m going to be hating us I think, but it's something we're going to have to do as we've seemingly got it wrong for the 2nd time in a row. As Ralf's rousing speech said earlier, everyone at the club needs to take a share of the blame for where we are. They're all over it when we're doing well and shouting from the rooftops about how everyone else wants to copy us, but I don't see them copying anything we're doing right now. It has been a collective cockup for the last 18 months from recruitment of players through to the managerial and coaching setup. From our strongest ever position as a club in 6th and EL group stages, we have seemingly managed to score the biggest own goal we could have. Well done to everyone.

I think it's to do with the hospitality suites. Nothing we'll notice.