Has Adkins got to know his players?

[paddy20]

One of the reasons for appointing Adkins when we did was to allow him to get to know the players so as we could start the new season running. Sadly that doesn't seem to have happened. Otherwise why would he persist with Kanu? Why would he think that Blackman should start ahead of Alfie? Why wouldn't a fit Kebe get on the bench? Why wouldn't he try and motivate Pog to play ( he is better than anything we have as a big striker even if he may leave). What would you think if you were put on for 4 mins. Why does he play two big centre halfs who have the turning circle of a supertanker when we have our best defender making the trip to Blackpool but not even on the bench? I think a lot of the players and fans are mystified so far. Its early days but if I was a teacher I might say - must do better!!

[yappy]

Don't understand the Kanu hate, he was one of our better players last season & was very impressive in Adkins' stint at the end of the season.

Anyways football is a game of opinions, and people will always question the manager's decisions. Adkins works with these players day in day out, so is more qualified to make decisions. It's clear he still wants to strengthen, and he is trying to get us playing better football. I'm still totally 100% behind Adkins.

[Judge Drenthe]

HRK has been good in spits and spurts, but never shown any consistancy. He didn't deserve a bumper new deal to stay here IMO. Either accept the initial terms offered (which he rejected) or we should have let him go. Adkins obviously bought into that he can develop, and maybe he can - lets hope so, but he is very average currently and over-hyped because of a couple of decent performances last season!

[kwik-silva]

My only problem is he doesn't think ALF is good enough to start, and to be fair he's always been better as an impact sub. With that in mind, and the fact that he knew Pogrebnyak is likely to leave, why not bring in another striker? He surely cannot think Blackman is good enough to be a first choice ST? Either that or he's waiting to see if Pog leaves before he brings somebody in, but really that will be too late. Praying we keep hold of him now otherwise we'll have to make do until January.

[AirRaidSiren]

It will take many months, he hasn't had nowhere near enough time to 'get to know them', remember, the only way to get to know them is seeing them play competitively. Four games in and some of you question him already?

oxf*rd pathetic. Give him a break, give the players a break. Judge them come May.

[paddy20]

HRK has been good in spits and spurts, but never shown any consistancy. He didn't deserve a bumper new deal to stay here IMO. Either accept the initial terms offered (which he rejected) or we should have let him go. Adkins obviously bought into that he can develop, and maybe he can - lets hope so, but he is very average currently and over-hyped because of a couple of decent performances last season!

I understand that they gave him the deal to tie him down to a contract as they thought they could sell him. Noone came in for him ( probably because the scouts had been keeping tabs on him). Unfortunately apart from occasional good games I don't think he is going to help lift us out of this league

[paddy20]

It will take many months, he hasn't had nowhere near enough time to 'get to know them', remember, the only way to get to know them is seeing them play competitively. Four games in and some of you question him already?

oxf*rd pathetic. Give him a break, give the players a break. Judge them come May.

What about the games last season???

[AkpansBFF]

In my opinion he's thinking about things, he knows he shouldn't play alf on his own up front especially when you're playing teams like bolton, hes judging the opposition and doing his homework to pick the best and most capable team for the game, blackman will get some of the ball alf wont... brian never done this he just picked his best 11 and didnt consider the opposition to the same extend.

[AirRaidSiren]

It will take many months, he hasn't had nowhere near enough time to 'get to know them', remember, the only way to get to know them is seeing them play competitively. Four games in and some of you question him already?

oxf*rd pathetic. Give him a break, give the players a break. Judge them come May.

What about the games last season???

What about them?

We were down and out. He took on a team that wasn't his. He took on a team that only knew one way of playing football.

Are you telling me you can't see any difference in team morale, team play and style of play from when he took over to now?

This team is good enough to be in the top 6, they just have to adjust and iron out the little things to get it going how Adkins wants it.

We didn't have Drenthe, Bridge for starters, two players I could never imagine playing for Reading FC. The team is developing, evolving and evolution takes time. Or are you that impatient not to see that?

[paultheroyal]

HRK has been good in spits and spurts, but never shown any consistancy. He didn't deserve a bumper new deal to stay here IMO. Either accept the initial terms offered (which he rejected) or we should have let him go. Adkins obviously bought into that he can develop, and maybe he can - lets hope so, but he is very average currently and over-hyped because of a couple of decent performances last season!

Agreed

[Millsy]

Excellent post paddy and a very valid question after a seemingly bizarre starting lineup today.

Of course he's still learning and we don't know what's going on every day on the training ground etc etc so we can argue it back and forth but all of this is really just pussy footing around the enormous elephant on the forum... Namely:

WHY THE **** HAVEN'T WE BOUGHT A TOP STRIKER OR TWO YET?

Adkins DOES know his team and he DOES know we are in urgent need of a frontline but he just doesn't have one yet.

For one reason or other none of our strikers is that certain danger man we can build a team around and my guess is Adkins is making that very clear by choosing Blackman to make a point.

Getting Drenthe/Bridge and re-signing Pearce and not signing a striker is like spending millions on trident but not buying any warheads. A total waste.

[sandman]

Think he needs to take them to the Dinner, maybe see a show and flowers would be nice.

[littlejohnnyoster]

It will take many months, he hasn't had nowhere near enough time to 'get to know them', remember, the only way to get to know them is seeing them play competitively. Four games in and some of you question him already?

oxf*rd pathetic. Give him a break, give the players a break. Judge them come May.

Thread should have ended with this.

[Man Friday]

It will take many months, he hasn't had nowhere near enough time to 'get to know them', remember, the only way to get to know them is seeing them play competitively. Four games in and some of you question him already?

oxf*rd pathetic. Give him a break, give the players a break. Judge them come May.

What about the games last season???

What about them?

We were down and out. He took on a team that wasn't his. He took on a team that only knew one way of playing football.

Are you telling me you can't see any difference in team morale, team play and style of play from when he took over to now?

Points my dear, points are what's needed, not morale, style of play or any other subjective measure.

But whilst we're on those subjects, so-called style of play is not particularly good, certainly not effective, and as for morale, we have no idea what goes on behind the scenes really...

[Ian Royal]

One of the reasons for appointing Adkins when we did was to allow him to get to know the players so as we could start the new season running. Sadly that doesn't seem to have happened. Otherwise why would he persist with Kanu? Why would he think that Blackman should start ahead of Alfie? Why wouldn't a fit Kebe get on the bench? Why wouldn't he try and motivate Pog to play ( he is better than anything we have as a big striker even if he may leave). What would you think if you were put on for 4 mins. Why does he play two big centre halfs who have the turning circle of a supertanker when we have our best defender making the trip to Blackpool but not even on the bench? I think a lot of the players and fans are mystified so far. Its early days but if I was a teacher I might say - must do better!!

Just FYI, not agreeing with some of the manager's selections doesn't mean he hasn't got to know his squad and the players' strengths and weaknesses. Particularly when you appear to have an extremely superficial tactical awareness. A lot of our fans are mystified by their shoelaces. It doesn't mean anything.

We've had one bad result and one bad performance four games in. Win next week and things look fine and dandy again. Lose again and it's not great, but its still early days. You really can't make judgements on results until about 10 games in. The only judgements you can make at this stage are based on performances. All that tells us is that we're light upfront. We know that. We've known that for a while, and we know the club are working on some signings to deal with that.

[winchester_royal]

And apparently it wasn't even that bad a performance, with the consensus being that we controlled most of the game and a point was the least we deserved..

If there's one thing the club have got bang wrong this season it was setting the bar ridiculously high in terms of objectives. It gave the fanbase distorted expectations and hence a severe lack of patience.

I'm sure things will be alright eventually, but the next few weeks could turn a little nasty if results don't go our way.

[Ian Royal]

And apparently it wasn't even that bad a performance, with the consensus being that we controlled most of the game and a point was the least we deserved..

If there's one thing the club have got bang wrong this season it was setting the bar ridiculously high in terms of objectives. It gave the fanbase distorted expectations and hence a severe lack of patience.

I'm sure things will be alright eventually, but the next few weeks could turn a little nasty if results don't go our way.

I'm not so sure about that. I think the expectation was going to be there anyway. Basically no matter what the club says, if things don't go exactly the way some people want (multiple multi-million signings and 2 points a game or better constantly) then they'll complain at the first opportunity. Add in people with an exe to grind about McDermott, or points to score and this is what you get.

May I remind everyone that our results at the start of last season, and in particular the one before, were significantly worse than this. The League isn't won in August, nor is it lost in August.

[AirRaidSiren]

@Man Friday

We were TWO points better off this time 2005, think about it, shut the oxf*rd up and support our club instead of your proverbial bullshit post after post. You don't like Adkins, fine, but please wait until we're in the shit to start your crusade.

[loyalroyal4life]

Think he needs to quickly concentrate on playing diamond formation allowing 2 strikers to start

[E. Andrew]

It will take many months, he hasn't had nowhere near enough time to 'get to know them', remember, the only way to get to know them is seeing them play competitively. Four games in and some of you question him already?

oxf*rd pathetic. Give him a break, give the players a break. Judge them come May.

Thread should have ended with this.

Agreed. Assuming that a manager doesn't 'know' his own players is a bit nonsensical.

Though I really don't understand his or BM's treatment of ALF.