Back From Th Stream Blackburn

[Silver Fox]

Is "our players are inexperienced" the latest excuse for Adkins' failures?

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Apparently so

[3points]

Still think a big part of the problem is that we're playing 4-2-4 (in reality) with neither full back getting any protection. This is an Adkins tactical issue which can be solved.

Obita was POTS, but he had the massively experienced Mcanuff playing in front of him. Despite his detractors, Jobi worked his socks off every game. McCleary and Kebe are both defensively better than Blackman and Mackie

Do people still think Gorkss was crap? On balance, I think he made Pearce a better player and was underrated in keeping the defence organised.

[leon]

Still think a big part of the problem is that we're playing 4-2-4 (in reality) with neither full back getting any protection. This is an Adkins tactical issue which can be solved.

Obita was POTS, but he had the massively experienced Mcanuff playing in front of him. Despite his detractors, Jobi worked his socks off every game. McCleary and Kebe are both defensively better than Blackman and Mackie

Do people still think Gorkss was crap? On balance, I think he made Pearce a better player and was underrated in keeping the defence organised.

This. This. This.

[P!ssed Off]

Checked four sides starting defences today now. Only two players with less than 40 caps at this level or higher out of 16. They played in different sides. I think that's a large enough sample to leave it as reasonably demonstrated that our defence is not only younger than the others, it's also got more inexperienced players in it. I think ~40 games is a reasonable yardstick.

Here's a sample size of 4 teams for you:

Wigan vs Fulham:
Rob Kiernan, James Tavernier
Nikolai Bodurov*, Kostas Stafylidis, Elsad Zverotic*

Blackpool vs Ipswich:
Charles Dunne, Donervon Daniels, Jeffrey Rentmeister*
Tyrone Mings.

4 teams. 9/16 defenders with less than 40 caps at this level or higher.
* If you try and tell me that the Belgian, Swiss or Bulgarian top flights are on equal footing with the Championship, you're a bigger fool than I thought.

[genome]

At what point do we start looking over our shoulders? Could we be in trouble?

[Berry]

Oh and Drenthe scored today

[Lacoste]

Adkins blaming the ref in his post match interview. Paniking much?

[Kitsondinho]

Just got back home from Ewood. 3 points I feel that came out of it......

1) Nick Blackman's biggest problem is his terrible decision making.
2) Gunter is not a leader and that needs addressing.
3) HRK should never ever play through the middle. I don't care if he thinks that is his position, it clearly isn't.

I was impressed withthe numbers we took there, as in there were more than 10 which is always a bonus for us

[Hoop Blah]

Checked four sides starting defences today now. Only two players with less than 40 caps at this level or higher out of 16. They played in different sides. I think that's a large enough sample to leave it as reasonably demonstrated that our defence is not only younger than the others, it's also got more inexperienced players in it. I think ~40 games is a reasonable yardstick.

Here's a sample size of 4 teams for you:

Wigan vs Fulham:
Rob Kiernan, James Tavernier
Nikolai Bodurov*, Kostas Stafylidis, Elsad Zverotic*

Blackpool vs Ipswich:
Charles Dunne, Donervon Daniels, Jeffrey Rentmeister*
Tyrone Mings.

4 teams. 9/16 defenders with less than 40 caps at this level or higher.
* If you try and tell me that the Belgian, Swiss or Bulgarian top flights are on equal footing with the Championship, you're a bigger fool than I thought.

You do realise that two of those teams also let in 3 goals and another one is quite adrift at the bottom of the league with the worst goal difference in the league and even allowed us to score 3 easy goals last weekend. So your 'sample' includes Blackpool (24th conceeding 24 goals), Fulham (20th & 28 goals - the worst in the division), Wigan (18th & 18 goals) and Ipswhich (8th & 16).

I think the biggest issue is that Adkins is leaving the defence exposed to start with. The inexperience, lack of form, and general shitness of them compounds those tactics as does having only inexperienced midfielders infront of them as our inability to defend doesn't just lie with the defenders but the whole team (in part due to Adkins tactics).

As I said on the other dicsussion about the inexperience, we are a relatively inexperienced squad once you take out the injured players and the problem Adkins has is that if a youngster isn't performing when he's thrown in, which is to be expected now and again, his replacement isn't a McAnuff, Griffin or Legiertwood type reliable pro it's a Taylor, Kuhl or Cooper.

[Mr.Swainey]

Chris Gunter is oxf*rd.

That is all.

[Faithful Son]

At what point do we start looking over our shoulders? Could we be in trouble?

I started looking "over our shoulder" about four weeks ago

[marlowuk]

Just got back home from Ewood. 3 points I feel that came out of it......

Sadly no points came out of it!!

[loyalroyal4life]

Well, beaten by a well coached, well organised unit playing for their manager and fans.

We had spells however Blackburn never really looked panicked. Poor coaching leading to very poor defending all game had us beaten here. Adkins has had a long time to get us looking more solid and he has failed. Yes we have had injuries but you don't always need to change the players to sure up the defence, you can change things tactically. Poor signings made as well.

Wrong team started the game and I think time is seriously running out for Adkins.

Two big games coming up.

Going to the pub!!

Head and nail in that first sentence, our players DO NOT want to play for Adkins!!!

[AirRaidSiren]

Well, beaten by a well coached, well organised unit playing for their manager and fans.

We had spells however Blackburn never really looked panicked. Poor coaching leading to very poor defending all game had us beaten here. Adkins has had a long time to get us looking more solid and he has failed. Yes we have had injuries but you don't always need to change the players to sure up the defence, you can change things tactically. Poor signings made as well.

Wrong team started the game and I think time is seriously running out for Adkins.

Two big games coming up.

Going to the pub!!

Head and nail in that first sentence, our players DO NOT want to play for Adkins!!!

What a crock of shit.

I remember well HNA'ers/fans alike saying the same when we went through a bad patch with McDermott.

No need to panic. Far too much high expectations this season.

What a bunch of oxf*rd drama queens on this board

[JIM]

This board lay out is absolute CRAP. uses too much space and is a nigh mare on the eyes,

[Royal Rother]

Well, beaten by a well coached, well organised unit playing for their manager and fans.

We had spells however Blackburn never really looked panicked. Poor coaching leading to very poor defending all game had us beaten here. Adkins has had a long time to get us looking more solid and he has failed. Yes we have had injuries but you don't always need to change the players to sure up the defence, you can change things tactically. Poor signings made as well.

Wrong team started the game and I think time is seriously running out for Adkins.

Two big games coming up.

Going to the pub!!

Head and nail in that first sentence, our players DO NOT want to play for Adkins!!!

What a crock of shit.

I remember well HNA'ers/fans alike saying the same when we went through a bad patch with McDermott.

No need to panic. Far too much high expectations this season.

What a bunch of oxf*rd drama queens on this board

Indeed, it is truly stupendous at times. We were not going to get promoted this season anyway (and we won't get relegated either no matter what the doom-mongers might like to imagine), so (as I keep saying) disappointing though results have been the gains to be had from playing as many youngsters as we have will be seen in the next year or 2.

[peterroyal76]

Not long got home.

Physically we were out done today. Baffling starting line up again, I really can't get my head on why he constantly changes it.
Clearly not the reason we lost but the ref was poor IMO.
We lacked imagination in the second half and the half was summed up for me by the Nick Blackman's terrible attempt at a long throw.

On the plus side it was good to see Danny Williams get a decent run out.

[Lower West]

The fault is not with the defence but the team. The team does not defend as a unit. Starting today with the front 2. Until we get players back from injury Adkins is limited in his team selection.

[genome]

As the prediction thread suggested, the general feeling was we would be beaten today by a team with a good home record and one of the best strike forces in the division. So it's a little unfair to ber8 the team having actually predicted a loss.

I think it was unfortunate to come up against them after finally getting back to winning ways last week, we could've done with an easier fixture tbh.