Legod Third Coming

No, I prefer not to watch but to speculate from the comfort of my sofa what our problems are and who is to blame.

Yep, you'll never win anything with kids Alan...

I believe Ida Carmichael is still there.

Only saw em a couple of times but Llloydy assures me they played 4-3-3 most of the time - which is the formation we also apparently play now. I confess I do not understand formations and subscribe to the Arry view that if the players are good enough they could play anything and win.

Both supposition. I try to stick to historical analysis or explanation, me. But then, in my nostredamus moments I do make the odd prediction. For those interested, here are they: 1. Alpine will make twice as many posts on Saturday if we lose as win - five times probably, fifty even. 2. Um Pahars will post something financial soon that means feck all to me, but I am sure is 100% economically accurate - he should be the bloody Chancellor, maybe he is... 3. Vectis will say Jan needs to go even if we beat Forest 8-0 with six players on the pitch and five in the stands riding unicylces. 4. DD will say that Plymouth could have beaten Forest by 9 under the same conditions, oh and the unicylists would have been blindfold. 5. Lowe will still be Public Enemy Number One long after he has been removed and our results are exactly what they were before... Odds available at: http://www.oddschecker.com Get On Now!!!! anyway off to watch Universally Challenged - learning feck all here!!!!

Er, them (and VFTT) are the facts. I ain't pointed out anything other than WHY JP is here... But again, for explaning the thinking - which by the why is perfectly legitimate thinking whether you agree with it or not - I am lambasted as some Lowe Luvvie. What do I have to do, kill him to prove that I have a brain of my own? JP is here becuase Lowe believes he was the best cheapest option to work with the best cheapest kids. Ah, but this does not fit the profile of Lowe as Bealzebub (spelling)... The guy is just a well-educated aristo who thinks he knows best. If he's wrong, he's wrong. We'll find out...

Clive had access to the best rugy players in England. They played against the best rugby players from other countries. Do you think that if I had given Clive the Esher rugby team they would have won the world cup?? Thought not.

Er? The best managers needn't have been even half decent players. The point I was making is that the best players (skillful or otherwise) are those that have the mental strength as well as (indeed instead of) some technical skills. And that because we have a team of young and inexperienced professionals we can't expect that they won't make mistakes. No disrespect to them, but if you pay peanuts...

LOL - I like your style but even I think that's stretching credibility...

While the finance doesn't directly dictate formation, here is my view on how it works: 1. We have no money now and limited income so we have to learn to live within our means. 2. This means lower salaries which means cheaper players. 3. Lowe's view is that young, mainly home-grown talent is cheaper and represents a better revenue opportunity than buying players in. 4. This means having a coach/manager used to working on limited resources and with younger players. 5. This means JP. 6. This means playing the way JP knows. It also happens to be a system the academy have been using and are familiar with.

Hmm, not sure there old son. He had a 50% win ratio and ain't doing too bad a job with a bunch of plumbers and electricians as you have pointed out before!

Unrelated but I really feel for Incey. Half the board never wanted him. Players didn't want him and now he looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a Robin Reliant!!! He just looked empty on MoTD. I couldn't give a stuff about Blackburn but always bad to see a young English manager fall foul of the system that promotes beyond competence and then destroys careers. Shame.

This is a fair argument but equally the Hadron Collider took ten years to build and hasn't delivered a single learning yet... Can you judge the results after half a season? I dispute the accusation that we play 'tip-tap' football. Even against Palace our best chance came from a 40 yard ball hit directly to Surman from Lallana deep in his own half. It was majestic - Surman was pulled back, we didn't score. All the coach is trying to instil is confidence on the ball and passing to a team-mate in a good position. It is a fact that the opposition cannot score while we retain posession of the ball. That our players do not always make the best of the situations is not system related - in my view - it is down to basic failings that result from having an inexpereinced side of not great quality. Where our play has fallen down most is that the players who could bury the chances we create or could create chances by pulling the opposition defenders apart are out on loan! Our basic football is not dissimilar to Reading or Wolves but they are getting better results because they have better players with more experience who are simply better at football. Never mind handing your plumber a banana, ask him to send around his mate and let the mate have a go on your boiler... if yours is the first it might blow up, bad luck. If yours is the tenth he's done, you'll have hot water at half the price... that's the gamble we're taking!!!!! (This is not my gamble, incidententally - but a view on that gamble).

We'll have to agree to disagree. While I think you are right - we did not build on Derby or Reading - to my mind we have a team that has had a mountain of learning to climb. Following the Derby victory we went into Blackpool at home as favourites and were undone - maybe because we couldn't handle being favourites? We went into Reading without a hope and slaughtered them - 2-1 was the most flattering scoreline ever! Maybe because we had nothing to lose? People say that it is the coach's job to prepare players mentally - but that is a con. Nothing can prepare a player for the mental reality of situations other than playing - what you can practice and train for is the technical, skills element and hope that this is applied correctly every time. Belief and confidence come from applying the technical skills and getting the right result, over and over and over. And because we have kids and players who are not the best in the world, they will make frequent mistakes - that's a facet of having no money. And therefore their confidence is constantly under pressure. I have seen McGoldrick miss a hatful of one-on-ones that Stern John or Rasiak would have buried. Is that the coach/manager's fault? Cos that's what we're dealing with here - a team of young professionals learning their trade supported by three/four fit experienced pros. Is it fair to blame the coach when they make basic errors like James did against Palace? (And that is no criticism of James, that's just what happens when you are young and learning the game). Can JP legislate for players simply not doing the job they have been directed to do? That happens when you have players who are not yet experienced and disciplined enough to carry out their role.

I would say on the back of two poor results that this is interresting. Asked after Reading and Plymouth...

Fair play, but it was Cork who said it not me - not in those exact words of course but that's what he meant!

Not sure I agree with JP here. Two goals away from home should be enough to win any game. Conceding three in ten minutes - THAT was the problem... That said, we're going to see these inconsistent results given the experience of the team. But now, with half a season behind them, they must kick on and start to play high-tempo for 94 minutes in every game. Cork admits they knew Burnley would be at it from the off, but they were still caught napping. That's not management, that's experience and concentration - just a shame our two most experienced players helped Burnley score two goals!!! But hey, maybe we can take the fightback into the next game and start at 100 miles an hour... three goals in ten minutes in the right net would suit me fine!

The problem is that seven points above relegation is way below some people's expectation. Personally I was worried we could be cut adrift by now with a coach with no experience in the UK and players with no first-team history to speak off. I wouldn't have admitted it necessarily but I really feared this whole experiment might be over already. Two wins and the whole table looks a lot rosier. But we do have to get them!!

tips??

Three! One is not a football fan.

Not me pal. My older brother maybe?? He was forced off this site in the end.

Messenger not author.

Oh dear... OK for you and anyone else who doesn't get it. Oh and before we go any further I'm just providing the thinking - I didn't come up with it... Lowe believes that we can build a long-term future for the club based predominantly on players we have either grown or purchased at a young age, playing in a 'house' style. By so doing we minimise wage costs and therefore help to bring stabiliity to the club finanancially. In the long term this provides us with 'sustainability'. Eventually, he hopes it will provide the platform for a challenge in this league and promotion to the Premiership. This requires a coaching set-up similar to that at clubs like Ajax in Holland and he has therefore appointed someone with experience of working with young talent in this configuration - JP. JP is also cheap, thus helping to maintain the financial stability... Keeping up? Good. Then you understand that this change to the modus operandi cannot be achieved overnight. Hence this year the idea is simply to ensure financial and league survival and then to push on as soon as is practicably possible. Comprendez??

LOL - you detected the irony then

Been drinking? The idea is that we stay up this season and improve in the future. The strategy was not based on current results - current results are the result of the strategy.