by Snowball »
08 Feb 2016 11:44
12 Games W4 D4 L4 19-12
looks a hell of a lot better than what it was in the last days of Clark and
however many games Khul was in charge for (with Clarke's squad)
People like to talk about us being second under Clarke (and I thought we were going places too)
and then they go on about how near the playoffs we were when he was sacked.
But that's very false. We had been high because we had a purple patch
of 6 league wins in 7 games, but then we stuttered, scraped 1-1 at Rotherham,
imploded at Fulham after being 2-0 up and then were on a horrible run
of defeats, low morale etc etc.
The ten games before McD was in charge were horrendous
W1 D3 L6 10-18 and the win was against a terrible Bolton side
I am still amazed at what went wrong, and how it went wrong, but we were
a club in turmoil when Brian came in and it would not have been a surprise
if we had lost "his" first games.
I say "his" first four games because it takes a while to get a grip with a squad
and didn't Brian lose 4-1 at Plymouth right at the start of he RFC managerial career?
His three signings look promising, we've got rid of two (alleged) bad apples,
all of our defeats have been narrow and in a few games where we lost we
could easily have won.
What's missing is the discipline, bottle, character to hang on when 1-0 up
or 1-1 going to the last few minutes. That could be for many reasons. McShane
lost his early-season form, then was injured, we've been playing a 20-year old
kid who is going to be excellent, but he is a kid... We have too many loanees and
Ferdinand must expect that this is his last season.
The biggest thing for me is lack of clear shape, players going AWOL in games.
For example when you watch the Ipswich winning goal Gunter RB is not in the picture
and you have a slow CB out trying to stop the cross from the left wing, our LB trying
to cover a 20 year old.
And Williams, for me is half our problem. I don't care that he gets a few goals. 99% of
his runs DO NOTHING (except mess our shape up. We have two midfielders and neither
is a proper, HARD, defensive-minded midfielder. Williams' goals cover the fact that so often our
midfield is wide open because we haven't got two men central covering the defence.
We miss Tish, or anyone who can be a PROPER, disciplined defensive midfielder
If Brian has a fault it is allowing Williams to do whatever he fancies.