Saint86

He's a very average penalty taker, i think this is not news to the fans - But it is mad that he is still our penalty taker after all this time. If there is no one better than him in the squad then we're going to be in serious trouble if we ever wind up in a penalty shoot out 😰

Sigh. If only this wasn't so utterly predictable.

Need a proper manager or we aren't going up... Or he needs to learn very fast.

They've completely outplayed us. There is no "to be fair" about it. And without their best player and top scorer.

This is tonda ball, 5 at the back vs a relegation side with their top scorer out injured - and no other in their team having more than 7 goals in the champ 🤣😂. But hey, we've won a few games, so regardless of the actual performances and the very valid concerns with our Southgate esq tactics, the clappers absolutely love it 🙄🙄

Great double save by bazunu.

Behave 🤦🤦‍♂️🤦🤦‍♂️

Eckert's defensive setup is a fucking disgrace. Same shit every week, no sign of learning at all. We push out at Zimmer frame speed, we don't stop crosses, we let the full backs get overloaded, and we try to hold possession with a flat back 5 and invite pressure. It's a joke.

This is shocking.

Careful willo, chat like that will get the clappers on you.

1.) Its great that he's come in and got 6 wins out 7. I don't think we really deserve all 6 wins, but he's got them - so great. And attacking wise, fair play, superb stuff - i really couldn't ask for any more there - he's putting our best players on the pitch, and got them playing some sensational flowing football at times. But game management/defence wise, there are some concerning signs that some of us would like to see improve - its unfortunate that this is seen as a bad thing by some. But, if we can do that, then I personally feel we have another level we can go to. I'm also not interested in talk of "missing out" with this squad, or excuses to that effect. Regardless of the bad start, we are easily in the best three matchday 11's and overall 25man squads in the league. There are 78points to play for and we're only 9 off 2nd despite a very below par start and with every team above us to still play at least once. So to be honest, if Eckert doesn't get us promoted he was the wrong hire, and it really is as simple as that for me - and the same would go for any manager appointment we could have made come the end of the season. In fairness to Eckert, he's basically said the same thing with regards to promotion. 2 & 3.) You're talking about results, but score lines hide performances - and again, i don't think we really deserve all of those 18 points based on the actual full 90min performances 🤷‍♂️. Ultimately this season won't be defined by a one of sample size of 7 games, it will be defined by the 31-34 he'll have as manager - we've played some fantastic attacking football, he's had a good start overall, but we've certainly had a bit of luck in that. I think we can get better and both dominate teams in an attacking sense whilst also looking comfortable and defensively solid (the part we aren't at the present), but to do it he does need to improve on game management and sort his defensive setup/tactics. Get that right and we've got the potential to comfortably be the best side in the league imo. He's a young manager and therefore can be expected to learn and develop. As it is though, we seem to have 2 distinct gears under Eckert, a frankly superb attacking setup that is capable of blowing teams away, and then this jekly/hyde transition into a pretty passive and weak defensive setup - one which I really don't like, and that sees us essentially cede 2/3 the pitch to the opposition and invites them back into games. It has already nearly cost us points vs: WBA - we did everything we could to scrape a draw from a 3 goal lead 🙃, Brum - who had every right to get a draw after twice being 2goals down, QPR - who frankly completely outplayed us for much of the game, And then ofc, we did drop points vs Millwall - where we lost despite leading twice, and which was entirely due to standing off them and dropping deeper and deeper, inviting them on to us, and allowing them to pepper our box with crosses and long shots. Needlessly. If we stay as we are, I still think we'll get play offs like as not, but its going to be pretty tense watching us invite teams to pepper our box with crosses and shots with these awful defensive setups - I can't say i relish the prospect of that in say a play off 2nd leg (or even at Wembley). I don't have an issue resting players - i have an issue with standing off the opposition and inviting them onto us. We are changing the players like for like, but completely changing the system into one that invites pressure. 4.) I don't agree that its patronising - Still's coaching setup left with him, Lallana is now with the u21, and Paul Trollope has also left. There seems to be a bit of a void there to fill with respect to senior coaching support. He's the youngest / least experienced manager ever at this level. The club would look to bring in experienced coaches and assistants to support any other manager, it can't just be deemed patronising because Eckert is 32 😄. And just look at managers like Jose, SAF, or Pep etc., who've had many prominent assistants over the years, not least the likes of Arteta and Maresca recently.

Tempted to agree, but also pretty sure the reason we're suffering for this is because we are sitting back 2nd half and allowing sides to push up on us, overload the wb/fbs, and ping crosses in at leisure. I feel more attacking options (to improve on fraser / aribo as a minimum) would allow us to maintain a threat going forward, and therefore alleviate a lot of the pressure on the defence - at least more than having a defender who can wind balls in the air and allowing teams to pressure us ever deeper (also, Quarshie should fit this bill regardless).

The interesting thing about capable strikers, is that they score goals...

I considered fellows at RWB, but actually we have Roerslev and Jelert who can play there when fit.

We need another left winger / attacking mid style player. Currently the cover for Azaz and Scienza just isn't good enough. Its bad enough at the moment when we take off Scienza and go into "camp our box" mode once the game is almost already won (only to almost throw it away - or indeed do as per Millwall)... but if we have to start games without some of our best attacking players we will struggle.