BFT well I don’t know what to call it without resorting to a lot of naughty words

[Ascotexgunner]

............. Allardyce?

Could never afford him. Warnock is a budget Allardyce with a proven record of bringing stability and grit to his teams. Obviously the bloke is a massive helmlord but he gets results.

Not really a long term solution though is it.
And to be honest you could see he didn't have much fight left in him at Cardiff, even though he did an incredible job. Id be keen to see what happens at Wycombe down the road...….Ainsworth for me has ticked the boxes for a couple of seasons now and for some inexplicable reason the dimwits at the top of this club keep making the same bl**dy mistake with managers time and time again.

[Old Man Andrews]

............. Allardyce?

Could never afford him. Warnock is a budget Allardyce with a proven record of bringing stability and grit to his teams. Obviously the bloke is a massive helmlord but he gets results.

Not really a long term solution though is it.
And to be honest you could see he didn't have much fight left in him at Cardiff, even though he did an incredible job. Id be keen to see what happens at Wycombe down the road...….Ainsworth for me has ticked the boxes for a couple of seasons now and for some inexplicable reason the dimwits at the top of this club keep making the same bl**dy mistake with managers time and time again.

Ainsworth would be my top choice but I cannot see him being trusted or wanting to work with our super agent dictator. The job he has done at Wycombe is all him, he has full control and he wouldn't have that here.

[genome]

[Stranded]

Someone in the social media team will be getting a bollocking today then.

[South Coast Royal]

By mid-morning of the day after nearly everything has been said.

Two very simple things picked up by Sandy and Roller:
Throw-ins-for so many years now we just throw the ball away
We don't need all our players back for corners-not only do they get in each others' way but the ball is cleared to nobody.
This is very, very basic stuff that a manager( who boasted in interview that he is not inexperienced and has broadly been joint managing for over 20 years)

I have come to the conclusion that we are a lazy (more lazy in the head than in the body) team epitomised by the lack of movement at those throw-ins and the lack of taking responsibility in defensive situations when so often in recent years after a goal conceded they look at each other aimlessly with "I thought you were going to clear that".

The most annoying thing for me last night (well, one of the many) was the number of times the ball was with Morrison to hoof forward vaguely towards quite a big man who is erratic with his heading and more often to a small man with no chance of winning the ball which comes straight back and we have again given valuable possession away.
Surely this wasn't the game plan nor was passing the ball to Pele too often when he was clearly surrounded by 3 opposition players.

Bowen wouldn't really answer Adie's question "Why not McCleary?"-he and Blackett are surely on their way at the end of the season but why not use Garath while he is still paid by us, even in short periods when a bit of pace is needed?

At least BBCRB stayed on the air beyond it's normal cut-off time and all 3 presenters were in unison about how dreadful it all was.
Bowen this time did a Stam and blamed the players-he might have taken a bit more responsibility himself -but don't worry folks because he says that we have no relegation concerns at all.
Should we worry?
I don't know, the same person said that we were heading towards the top 6 a few weeks ago which is now , with so many games to play, not far off being impossible as all the other sides aren't going to lose all their games.

I don't quite buy in to the worst ever performance stuff ("ever" is a very long time") but I think the reaction was greater because it gradually got colder when there was little on the pitch to warm us up.

Lastly, with the score at 3-0 and being already in added time there should be leeway for the ref to just end a game when a player is badly injured like last night.
Players were stood around for ages doing nothing and we could all have just gone home.

[PieEater]

19 wins and 29 defeats in the last 63 home games, says it all really.

Worst home form in the division
P W D L F A GD Pts
17 6 2 9 21 24 -3 20

[Snowball]

Didn't Swift sprint to the runner and launch a committed tackle? - that he misjudged, admittedly, but at least he was making an effort. It's just that whilst he was failing to connect (with either man or ball) the others were jogging back admiring his commitment but doing nothing else.

Not what I remember, he was totally outpaced as I remember, gave up

[Fox Talbot]

The symbolic act of what’s wrong is picking Araruna last night over Olise, Adam and Rino.

Nothing personal against Araruna, seems a nice chap and all that. He can trap a ball, kick a ball well, has the desire to move it to a better-placed team-mate, can spot a pass … but he is not match ready for the Champ and it’s been obvious already. Wigan picked on him (and Pele) and bullied him into losing possession time and again. For this VITAL game he was a weakness not an asset and for the second time he was hooked at half-time. In the early stages of the 2nd half I thought we improved.

If Olise, Adam and Rino are all injured then yeah fair enough give him a go (or Aluko!). But they weren’t, they were on the bench and the game was gone by the time they came off it. So who does it suit to have Araruna on the pitch at the start?

I don’t get why we bought him when we needed, for instance, a striker like Sam Gallagher from Blackburn (not that we’d have got him) or the Wigan Moore. Araruna’s another Alex, Piazon, Pelle Clement, guys who flit around vaguely in midfield not making a difference. The Academy produces enough of those already.

[Snowball]

As I said, I thought Araruna played OK

Looking at whoscored, just one player
rated higher than him, 8 lower

6.5 Rafael
6.4 Araruna
6.4 Yiadom
6.4 Ejaria (????)
6.3 Olise
6.3 Morrison
6.1 Swift
6.1 Richards
6.0 Moore
6.0 Adam
5.9 Pele
5.9 Meite

[Fox Talbot]

As I said, I thought Araruna played OK

Looking at whoscored, just one player
rated higher than him, 8 lower

6.5 Rafael
6.4 Araruna
6.4 Yiadom
6.4 Ejaria (????)
6.3 Olise
6.3 Morrison
6.1 Swift
6.1 Richards
6.0 Moore
6.0 Adam
5.9 Pele
5.9 Meite

Decimal points probably based on a single subjective source. My point is about who would have probably made a better contribution to the team.

[Schards#2]

As I said, I thought Araruna played OK

Looking at whoscored, just one player
rated higher than him, 8 lower

6.5 Rafael
6.4 Araruna
6.4 Yiadom
6.4 Ejaria (????)
6.3 Olise
6.3 Morrison
6.1 Swift
6.1 Richards
6.0 Moore
6.0 Adam
5.9 Pele
5.9 Meite

Presumably these marks are out of 100

I've been a regular for 40+ years and I would put that in the top five worst performances ever, i'm not convinced a manager can come back from a night like that

[OLLIE KEARNS]

First time I've been really disappointed with Mark Bowen last night. Not so much with team selection (players ultimately make that right or wrong) but with his inability to tactically adjust during the game. Two things were obvious from the first 10 minutes. Firstly, that Wigan had a plan to let Morrison have the ball and mark up everyone else. Credit to Paul Cook for that as it meant we just kept giving the ball back to them. Secondly, Wigan were playing through our midfield time and time again.
There were a number of things he could have done ranging from a tweak (drop one of the forwards into midfield for 10 minutes to flood that area and get some possession) to the radical (make a substitution) but he left everything as it was and the inevitable goal soon followed.
Aside from that I understand him not playing the likes of McCleary and Blackett with an eye on next season but he now quite simply has to pick teams to get the points that keep us in the league. Then and only then can you look to next season.
Saturday will tell us a lot about the manager and some of our players.....

[Platypuss]

And i hope the Puscas bashing stops now as Baldock had just put in quite possibly the most abject display from a striker this season.

He wasn't even our worst striker last night!

[RoyalBlue]

Didn't Swift sprint to the runner and launch a committed tackle? - that he misjudged, admittedly, but at least he was making an effort. It's just that whilst he was failing to connect (with either man or ball) the others were jogging back admiring his commitment but doing nothing else.

Not what I remember, he was totally outpaced as I remember, gave up

I question your memory on that one then. He very definitely did as AR said. Whilst he had a very poor game by his own standards he seemed one of the very few prepared to put the effort and commitment in.

[Platypuss]

Lastly, with the score at 3-0 and being already in added time there should be leeway for the ref to just end a game when a player is badly injured like last night.
Players were stood around for ages doing nothing and we could all have just gone home.

Their third came after the injury.

[RoyalBlue]

Our owners have some cash, so provided we can shift big-earners (I'm sure there will be takers for Moore and Swift) and we cut cloth accordingly we might be okay.

Why can’t we just build a decent committed team that knows what it’s doing?

Personally I’d be sounding out, well in advance, new managers. So if we do need to fire Bowen we don’t end up like we always seem to drifting for a few games with a caretaker.

I know this is controversial but I’d like someone with a decent amount of managerial experience next time. We’re in a state and need experience.

So none of the likes of Clement, Clarke, Stam or Bowen.

Problem is, will we really appeal to good, experienced managers? The reason we have Bowen is because nobody of the required calibre was interested in October.

Really? How long did Bowen spend seriously looking before the owners and he decided that he was the man for the job? Didn't Holloway claim he'd thrown his hat in the ring?

[NewCorkSeth]

Didn't Swift sprint to the runner and launch a committed tackle? - that he misjudged, admittedly, but at least he was making an effort. It's just that whilst he was failing to connect (with either man or ball) the others were jogging back admiring his commitment but doing nothing else.

Not what I remember, he was totally outpaced as I remember, gave up

Your memory has failed you.

[Snowball]

Didn't Swift sprint to the runner and launch a committed tackle? - that he misjudged, admittedly, but at least he was making an effort. It's just that whilst he was failing to connect (with either man or ball) the others were jogging back admiring his commitment but doing nothing else.

Not what I remember, he was totally outpaced as I remember, gave up

Your memory has failed you.

What were we talking about?

[Elm Park Kid]

So are we really just going to become one of those clubs who fires the manager every season to get a 5-6 game bump which allows us to avoid relegation? That's bad enough in the Premier League but just moronic in the Championship. Apart from the one Stam season, chopping and changing hasn't helped us much in the last 7-8 years, and then that was only short-term success.

Maybe Bowen is learning some valuable lessons about the squad during this period, which he'll be able to use when building the team ready for next season.

[Snowball]

Not what I remember, he was totally outpaced as I remember, gave up

Your memory has failed you.

What were we talking about?

I was right about being outpaced. He had 1-2 yards on the winger,
was done for pace/stamina and lunged in, probably because he
knew he was "done'.

He got up and just jogged, watching. The other three RFC players did nothing either