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Post by numpty40 on Dec 17, 2023 23:06:51 GMT
Thompson left wing back. Wank More a straightforward left back I thought and did well.
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Post by Gary Hackett on Dec 17, 2023 23:09:45 GMT
He's doing alright considering its the worse defence we've had in 25 years thanks to Neil.
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Post by Championship Potter on Dec 17, 2023 23:17:46 GMT
He definitely gets some credit for steadying the ship, but Swansea at home was a very winnable game, and we were hardly playing a vintage West Brom team today, despite their league position. As others have said, I’m not sure shoehorning more defensive players into the team is a long term solution, albeit you can sort of make a case for it given the obvious weaknesses in defence. I’m not sure any manager would be picking up a string of wins with the squad in its current shape though.
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Post by Laughing Gravy on Dec 17, 2023 23:33:31 GMT
No it wasn't. It wasn't great but it wasn't utter shite. Utter shite was 4 days earlier v Sheff Weds. Midweek was absolutely utter shite. A negative set up, a negative performance and a negative result against a really crap team. It was bloody awful. Ok.
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Post by pushon on Dec 17, 2023 23:33:42 GMT
These players are not as bad as they are being made to look with the ultra negative tactics both Neil and now Gally use. Whoever plays up front is completely isolated because none of the midfielders make runs past them or get close enough to support them. All about opinions - It's a very poor squad of players for me. The point we are making though is there any point in appointing somebody like Eustace - who reeks of mediocre and probably not going to pull any trees up - or give a guy a chance who we know has his team motivated and who has a better chance of knowing where we need to improve in January and might, by chance, end up being a good manager(nobody knows at the moment - it's about all we can hope for) - one more bad window and I think we are in genuine trouble, left to a poor manager who has no experience of building a team and also does not know the squad of players very well could be a massive risk - Gally will also be a risk, but on balance less so than Eustace? All well and good, I support your support for Gally, but who will be choosing/approving the player(s) we definitely need to recruit in January?
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Post by bayernoatcake on Dec 17, 2023 23:35:14 GMT
Midweek was absolutely utter shite. A negative set up, a negative performance and a negative result against a really crap team. It was bloody awful. Ok. We started with one attacker 🤣
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Post by Laughing Gravy on Dec 17, 2023 23:38:14 GMT
We started with one attacker 🤣 Ok.
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Post by kidcrewbob on Dec 17, 2023 23:54:09 GMT
Unbeaten run of 2 games…….doing very well by Alex Neil standards….. Draw every match = relegation. This team are going nowhere except downwards until we find a way of creating and scoring goals. Today we fluked a goal to add to our collection of penalty and own goal. Bonham saved us today from another defeat, on another day he is dubbed the villain. We need to appoint a miracle worker to turn around this team; only Santo has demonstrated he is capable. I've a horrible feeling we are going to have yet another appointment like Lambert, Jones, Neil or Rowett and go down. MON might have worked out initially, but he was ground down by his player inheritance, the pandemic, injuries, no money, and eventually had all he could give sucked out of him. Yes indeed - I forgot to add a 😉 - it was pretty dire as it was on Tuesday and I am firmly in the “going-continental” camp and agree wholeheartedly with the no more dinosaurs thing….
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Post by headsgoup on Dec 18, 2023 6:33:28 GMT
He's done ok.
I don't know what game some people were watching.
We played 3421, which means that only Hoever was technically out of position, and that's arguable as he has some experience at CB.
Also this means Thompson isn't playing wing back, but defensive left midfield.
This formation suits Gooch and Thompson down to the ground, which means it also suits Burger/Laurent/Pearson.
I'd probably play Baker rather than Johnson assuming his head is in the right place, but I actually think this approach is quite considered.
I think I might want Gallagher over any of the less experience British names being mentioned.
We were quite unfortunate against Swansea, and yesterday we were playing away to a team in the playoffs.
Sure we aren't creating clear cut chances from open play, but we are getting up the pitch.
If we had a decent corner taker, we could become a solid set piece focused outfit with this shape.
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Post by thisisouryear on Dec 18, 2023 6:56:58 GMT
He definitely gets some credit for steadying the ship, but Swansea at home was a very winnable game, and we were hardly playing a vintage West Brom team today, despite their league position. As others have said, I’m not sure shoehorning more defensive players into the team is a long term solution, albeit you can sort of make a case for it given the obvious weaknesses in defence. I’m not sure any manager would be picking up a string of wins with the squad in its current shape though. The whole situation was dropped on him before the Swansea game, he didn't have that much time to prepare the team and we reduced Swansea to a goalkeeping error. We should have won that game and he should have picked up 4 points from 2 games rather than 2. He hasn't lost a game yet so that's positive. After 4 straight defeats he's done a good job.
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Post by biddulphchav on Dec 18, 2023 7:26:49 GMT
The players are certainly putting in a shift for him workload wise. But I am confident we will have a new manager announced for the Millwall game. So is this proof the team weren’t playing for the manager. I honestly doubted that until these last 2 games. If that’s the case all the players need fucking off and their wages returned. If only that was possible. Disgraceful. It’s not maybe quite that simple. It may be that AN had the players confused as to exactly what he wanted - and so that can translate to a perceived lack of effort. It may also be the case that the players didn’t believe in what he was trying to do - similar outcome. I’m not sure it was a cut and dried as they simply downed tools because they thought he was a dick (which he is as far as I’m concerned).
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Post by scfcwebby on Dec 18, 2023 7:52:24 GMT
We started with one attacker 🤣 Ok. He's right, and deep down you know he is... You just don't want to agree with him
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Post by scfcno1fan on Dec 18, 2023 7:54:05 GMT
Better than I thought he would.
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Post by thepottypotter on Dec 18, 2023 7:57:30 GMT
He's doing ok.
Better than I expected and noticeably better than the shite Neil was serving up!!
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Post by wuzza on Dec 18, 2023 8:08:11 GMT
It depends if you subscribe to the much quoted belief that these players are better than their league position suggests. If you do then the last two results / performances have been barely adequate if you don’t then he’s done pretty well to get anything out of a group where confidence must be at absolute rock bottom.
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Post by Gods on Dec 18, 2023 8:38:27 GMT
It depends if you subscribe to the much quoted belief that these players are better than their league position suggests. If you do then the last two results / performances have been barely adequate if you don’t then he’s done pretty well to get anything out of a group where confidence must be at absolute rock bottom. Indeed it does. I know I'm in a minority but I subscribe to the belief that we made a complete horlicks of the summer transfer business. And that is the biggest problem we have, whoever picks the team.
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Post by Laughing Gravy on Dec 18, 2023 8:54:33 GMT
He's right, and deep down you know he is... You just don't want to agree with him Thanks Sigmund.
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Post by emretezzy on Dec 18, 2023 9:16:04 GMT
Thompson left wing back. Wank More a straightforward left back I thought and did well. It's more the fact we continue putting square pegs in round holes. Just play players in their actual positions.
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Post by baconburger on Dec 18, 2023 9:16:22 GMT
I’d love to know how long fans would tolerate the approach for until they became vocally critical or simply voted with their feet and just leave those who actually think that it’s what the game is about and see at what level the crowds settle. Great experiment that I’d prefer was carried out at another club.
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Post by emretezzy on Dec 18, 2023 9:17:19 GMT
He's done ok. I don't know what game some people were watching. We played 3421, which means that only Hoever was technically out of position, and that's arguable as he has some experience at CB. Also this means Thompson isn't playing wing back, but defensive left midfield. This formation suits Gooch and Thompson down to the ground, which means it also suits Burger/Laurent/Pearson. I'd probably play Baker rather than Johnson assuming his head is in the right place, but I actually think this approach is quite considered. I think I might want Gallagher over any of the less experience British names being mentioned. We were quite unfortunate against Swansea, and yesterday we were playing away to a team in the playoffs. Sure we aren't creating clear cut chances from open play, but we are getting up the pitch. If we had a decent corner taker, we could become a solid set piece focused outfit with this shape. Defensive left mid??? That's not even a thing. It was left wing back. Watch that back and tell me Thompson doesn't spend all game playing left wing back.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2023 9:34:45 GMT
He's done ok. I don't know what game some people were watching. We played 3421, which means that only Hoever was technically out of position, and that's arguable as he has some experience at CB. Also this means Thompson isn't playing wing back, but defensive left midfield. This formation suits Gooch and Thompson down to the ground, which means it also suits Burger/Laurent/Pearson. I'd probably play Baker rather than Johnson assuming his head is in the right place, but I actually think this approach is quite considered. I think I might want Gallagher over any of the less experience British names being mentioned. We were quite unfortunate against Swansea, and yesterday we were playing away to a team in the playoffs. Sure we aren't creating clear cut chances from open play, but we are getting up the pitch. If we had a decent corner taker, we could become a solid set piece focused outfit with this shape. Jesus wept
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Post by dirtygary69 on Dec 18, 2023 9:39:42 GMT
It depends if you subscribe to the much quoted belief that these players are better than their league position suggests. If you do then the last two results / performances have been barely adequate if you don’t then he’s done pretty well to get anything out of a group where confidence must be at absolute rock bottom. Can't it be both? He's not going to come in and make us play like Barcelona overnight, and I think it's fairly evident there's a crisis of confidence going on. I think Neil has completely confused them with what he wanted and how he approached games and now we are just trying to muddle through until we get a manager in. They need a new manager to come in and do that, not one of Neil's men. I believe the squad we have is at least capable of a top half finish, especially when get a decent goalkeeper (Travers back in Jan + permanent keeper?) and another CB in, although Wilmot is back soon which should help. The rest I think can be made into a decent team at this level but, right now, we are all over the place and just trying to find a way to stay in games.
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Post by baconburger on Dec 18, 2023 9:48:34 GMT
It depends if you subscribe to the much quoted belief that these players are better than their league position suggests. If you do then the last two results / performances have been barely adequate if you don’t then he’s done pretty well to get anything out of a group where confidence must be at absolute rock bottom. Can't it be both? He's not going to come in and make us play like Barcelona overnight, and I think it's fairly evident there's a crisis of confidence going on. I think Neil has completely confused them with what he wanted and how he approached games and now we are just trying to muddle through until we get a manager in. They need a new manager to come in and do that, not one of Neil's men. I believe the squad we have is at least capable of a top half finish, especially when get a decent goalkeeper (Travers back in Jan + permanent keeper?) and another CB in, although Wilmot is back soon which should help. The rest I think can be made into a decent team at this level but, right now, we are all over the place and just trying to find a way to stay in games. We weren’t scoring anywhere near enough goals when we had most of what you reckoning will make us shoot up the table. The absence of goals can’t be mitigated.
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Post by philb on Dec 18, 2023 9:53:49 GMT
He’s done ok. Well it’s 2 more points than an Alex Neil led Stoke team would probably have got!
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Post by CBUFAWKIPWH on Dec 18, 2023 9:55:27 GMT
I agree with this. There is absolutely nothing to make you think Eustace has abetter chance of making a success if it than Gally. Neither have any real managerial pedigree. Both might make it work and both might not. It is all we have to hope for while the current lot are in charge - that one of the mediocre British no-hopers come good. I just think he is at least getting a tune out of them and should know where we need strengthening in the window - whereas Eustace will take time and may not bring in the right players, which could be a disaster. It's bleeding obvious we need a keeper and one if not two CBs and any manager coming in will pick that up straghtaway either through watching them on the training field or because people currently at the club will tell them. Eustace or any incoming manager for that matter isn't going to take 6 weeks to work out the problems.
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Post by stokefanone on Dec 18, 2023 9:56:30 GMT
HE DROPPED JUNIOR AND PLAYED HOEVER INSTEAD? ENOUGH SAID! No he didn't he dropped Junior and played Jun-Ho instead. Why let facts get in the way of an agenda heh? Gouranga. You are splitting straws! Hoever does not have the focus to be a defender.
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Post by CBUFAWKIPWH on Dec 18, 2023 10:14:08 GMT
He only has 15 months at Birmingham City at football league level doesn't he? I think he briefly did non-league at Kidderminster before that perhaps. Stoke fans obsessed with sentiment. He has very little experience and when you look at the statistics of his very little experience, they’re abysmal. Take the sentiment out of it, on statistics and playing style alone, had he not played for us, the idea of getting him in as manager would be unanimously rejected. He’s so far from what we need right now as a football club, especially with this group of players. It would be a terrible appointment. His playing style at Kidderminster was widely praised and his style at Birmingham last season was dire and pragmatic - which isn't a surprise given they were a poor side widely tipped to be relegated. I really don't get how many people ignore the fact that only last season he kept a team in danger of relegation in this league and that is a massive tick given where we are, It's almost like people are in denial that we are in a relegation battle and expect the new manager just to come in wave a magic wand and get us playing scintillating football at the top of the league this season. Get real - we are in a relegation battle and survival is the name of the game. Anyone who wants pretty needs to look away now. As to his appointment being unanimously rejected - no it won't. There are plenty on here who recognise our situation for what it is and appreciate what a good job Eustace did with a very poor side. I don't think anyone would have him down as first choice but in the circumstances a lot of people, me included, recognise we could do a lot worse. Gallagher is doing a decent job in the circumstances but has no managerial experience. If Eustace were to come in I can't see why he wouldn't keep Gallagher on board and build on his good work. With some of the other managers being touted that would be far less likely and result in yet more disruption.
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Post by baconburger on Dec 18, 2023 10:16:53 GMT
Stoke fans obsessed with sentiment. He has very little experience and when you look at the statistics of his very little experience, they’re abysmal. Take the sentiment out of it, on statistics and playing style alone, had he not played for us, the idea of getting him in as manager would be unanimously rejected. He’s so far from what we need right now as a football club, especially with this group of players. It would be a terrible appointment. His playing style at Kidderminster was widely praised and his style at Birmingham last season was dire and pragmatic - which isn't a surprise given they were a poor side widely tipped to be relegated. I really don't get how many people ignore the fact that only last season he kept a team in danger of relegation in this league and that is a massive tick given where we are, It's almost like people are in denial that we are in a relegation battle and expect the new manager just to come in wave a magic wand and get us playing scintillating football at the top of the league this season. Get real - we are in a relegation battle and survival is the name of the game. Anyone who wants pretty needs to look away now. As to his appointment being unanimously rejected - no it won't. There are plenty on here who recognise our situation for what it is and appreciate what a good job Eustace did with a very poor side. I don't think anyone would have him down as first choice but in the circumstances a lot of people, me included, recognise we could do a lot worse. Gallagher is doing a decent job in the circumstances but has no managerial experience. If Eustace were to come in I can't see why he wouldn't keep Gallagher on board and build on his good work. With some of the other managers being touted that would be far less likely and result in yet more disruption. You’re going to fucking hate Schumacher🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
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Post by Block 22 on Dec 18, 2023 10:45:20 GMT
Stoke fans obsessed with sentiment. He has very little experience and when you look at the statistics of his very little experience, they’re abysmal. Take the sentiment out of it, on statistics and playing style alone, had he not played for us, the idea of getting him in as manager would be unanimously rejected. He’s so far from what we need right now as a football club, especially with this group of players. It would be a terrible appointment. His playing style at Kidderminster was widely praised and his style at Birmingham last season was dire and pragmatic - which isn't a surprise given they were a poor side widely tipped to be relegated. I really don't get how many people ignore the fact that only last season he kept a team in danger of relegation in this league and that is a massive tick given where we are, It's almost like people are in denial that we are in a relegation battle and expect the new manager just to come in wave a magic wand and get us playing scintillating football at the top of the league this season. Get real - we are in a relegation battle and survival is the name of the game. Anyone who wants pretty needs to look away now. As to his appointment being unanimously rejected - no it won't. There are plenty on here who recognise our situation for what it is and appreciate what a good job Eustace did with a very poor side. I don't think anyone would have him down as first choice but in the circumstances a lot of people, me included, recognise we could do a lot worse. Gallagher is doing a decent job in the circumstances but has no managerial experience. If Eustace were to come in I can't see why he wouldn't keep Gallagher on board and build on his good work. With some of the other managers being touted that would be far less likely and result in yet more disruption. Any manager that comes in with this squad should be looking up the table not down. The league is absolutely shite, West Brom are in the play off places and they look bang average. I’ve watched other sides at the top of the league also, barring Leicester, who have a Premier League side, our squad of players is more than capable for a top half finish. All we need is a manager who wants to attack and win football matches and not a manager who’s going to come in and shit his pants playing to nick every game 1-0. Birminghams basket case situation last season vs us now are polar opposites. We shouldn’t be shitting ourselves and employing a steady, uninspiring, dull and defensive manager. We’ve a squad capable of top half easy. No one expects us to turn into Barcelona over night. At this point, just trying to win a game of football or even god forbid, try to score more than 1 goal a game without parking the bus would be a great start.
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Post by peterthornesboots on Dec 18, 2023 10:45:24 GMT
He is doing fine.
As a caretaker manager he was never going to walk in and try to become the next Guardiola.
He has taken a very pragmatic approach (to put it mildly), but that is not necessarily surprising bearing in mind that this is his first managerial gig and he has only had a handful of days to prepare for two games. It does nobody any good if he goes all guns blazing and we get a couple of spankings.
He has steadied the ship and that will do.
However, he is not going to be our long term solution and we need to appoint the new man as soon as possible.
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