Coppell out!

[brendywendy]

In my opinion though Coppell has failed to address some significant flaws in our squad over the last two and a bit seasons and he's repeated too many mistakes for my liking.

This is also my criticism of Coppell, he was let down last season by the players he stuck by and at the moment the same thing is happening again. As a fan I find this incredibly frustrating as it appears Coppell is the only person who can't see this.

apart from hunt and armstrong all the players have been dropped this season havent they?

[Rex]

What the hell has the man to do to keep you all happy!!.

Bring youth players in - done.
Replaced Shorey with Armstrong - doing a solid job.
Placing up in the league at a position which some of us never expected.
Rotated and blooded the youth through enforced or unenforced changes.
Bought in N Hunt who is an exciting prospect.
Retaining Doyle.
Retaining S Hunt (pros and cons to this we know)
Having the conviction to play Fedders instead of getting in someone on loan.
Having Harper on the field but clearly willing to sub him.

Things he's clearly committing a 'crime' about are:
Jay Tabb not starting but on the bench.
Not breaking down the 4-5-1 but is that luck or judgement.
Forwards not scoring.
Not playing Bikey.

[Hoop Blah]

He hasn't done loads wrong, but in response to your points

- He's generally not not trusted the youth enough to play when senior pro's have been available, if if those senior pro's have been under performing

- He replace Shorey at least 6 if not 12 months too late. Even this season we had to play Hunt at left back for a number of games whilst he pulled his finger out

- The league placing is better than I expected

- Please to see him blood a few of the youngsters, but, as above, I think he's discarded them a bit too quickly/under used them at times

- Hunt has been a good purchase, but hasn't actually given us a blend or alternative options upfront. We now have 4 forwards who are all relatively similar and that has contributed to our lack of plan B.

- Having touted Federci as good enough for 18 months I would hope he actually trusted him enough to play him otherwise he'll have been leaving us extremely exposed for the last 2 seasons with him being our only backup keeper

[brendywendy]

just regarding youth

i think coppell thinks, and i agree that playing too many youth team players at once is a bad idea
and that giving players runs in the team is great for their experience confidence etc, but extending these runs too long could result in dips in confdence due to mistakes etc

very much a case as getting them in for a while see how they do, take them back out, train/improve/come back in
at least while they are so young
hopefully this will result in them being able to step up when required, and then cement a 1st team place ASAP, already having had decent experience over a couple of seasons

seems pretty sensible to me at least.

and i dont think there was much to be gained at premiere league level in just bunging them in
could devestate a players confidence, and since thats where weve been for two seasons i find it very hard to understand criticism levelled at coppell for that

[Hoop Blah]

Agreed on the treatment of the youth players, to an extent, because youngsters rarely have the consistency of more experienced players so it make a lot of sense.

What I'd rather see is those squad players who have been in, performed well, and then been replaced by senior pro's, have a chance to get back in the side when the senior pro's also suffer from a dip in form.

I don't think we've seen that, mainly in the case of Karacan but also with Henry, who I think has deserved more of a chance to put pressure on Kebe than he's been given over the course of the season.

I appreciate it's difficult for Coppell with the midfield because he has Gunnarsson and Matejovsky who are probably ahead of Karacan in the queue to replace Harper and Cisse, but the fact that the midfield is pretty much a given these days has help contribute to the loss of form (IMO).

The form around the end of September, October and November was excellent. The key for me then was that we had real competition for places. Karacan, Gunnarsson, Cisse and Harper were genuinely competing for the two starting spots. Our form has tailed off as the first XI has become more and more a closed shop, much like last season.

[brendywendy]

ok, youve convinced me


'Geed with the vast majority for that

[The Cap]

I'm not saying I want Coppell out but this comment

Much of that pressure is also self-imposed, it comes from within and we have to respond, I don't know if we can.

surely doesn't do him any favours.

[Rex]

I'm not saying I want Coppell out but this comment

Much of that pressure is also self-imposed, it comes from within and we have to respond, I don't know if we can.

surely doesn't do him any favours.

Lefts hope he's doing the old reverse psychology thingy.

[Woodcote Royal]

Whilst I would agree with the gist of this, don't you consider it slightly alarming that the mistakes Coppell seems to make are ones that he's already done time and time again? It's nothing new, repeated failure to change not performing sides or not use the transfer/loan windows to greater effect.

It's happened when he first got here, it happened dramatically in 04/05, happened dramatically last season and the signs are it's happening again.

Coppell does strike me of the perfect manager to have when things are going well, if you need a steady calm head to keep players in check as the run in approaches, his teams usually tiumph. It's the other case that he seems to be the less than ideal person, when the team is struggling he rarely has a plan B or can rarely if ever halt the slide. He's been relegated an awful lot of times for such a 'top manager'.

Steve Coppell when things are tough = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIu7aoC205s

+2

Spot on

2 fantastic seasons shouldn't make him beyond criticism for major cock ups/abject failure in 2 others.

Only a fool would want him sacked now but this should be his last season whether we're promoted or not.

Go on, Steve, I dare you, pick Leroy and Marek in your tired, boring and predictable 4-4-2 and give Bikey and Tabb another day off.

[Arnie_Pie]

Oh boo hoo. We are in one of the strongest positions in the league, we will win our two games in hand and go top.

Worst thread ever.

Everybody chill

[Woodcote Royal]

Agreed on the treatment of the youth players, to an extent, because youngsters rarely have the consistency of more experienced players so it make a lot of sense.

What I'd rather see is those squad players who have been in, performed well, and then been replaced by senior pro's, have a chance to get back in the side when the senior pro's also suffer from a dip in form.

I don't think we've seen that, mainly in the case of Karacan but also with Henry, who I think has deserved more of a chance to put pressure on Kebe than he's been given over the course of the season.

I appreciate it's difficult for Coppell with the midfield because he has Gunnarsson and Matejovsky who are probably ahead of Karacan in the queue to replace Harper and Cisse, but the fact that the midfield is pretty much a given these days has help contribute to the loss of form (IMO).

The form around the end of September, October and November was excellent. The key for me then was that we had real competition for places. Karacan, Gunnarsson, Cisse and Harper were genuinely competing for the two starting spots. Our form has tailed off as the first XI has become more and more a closed shop, much like last season.

Agree with most of this except that those youngsters were doing a good job but he couldn't wait to replace them with his favourites the first chance he got.

So Karacan had 2 iffy matches and back came Harper, who's had at least one poor game for every good one this season yet Karacan was even removed from the bench within a few matches.

Meanwhile, Henry is making Kebe fight for his place by being loaned out to Millwall and 10 goal Hunt was dropped in favour of one goal Lita

"I'm Steve Coppell and this is my favorite team minus those who are injured/no longer here but, rest assured, Nicky, Murts, Ivar, Buddy and Glen will all be back soon and I've had a word with Martin about Siddy"

[westongeezer]

Has some one mistaken us for Newcastle, WHAT A LOAD OF BS when SSC leaves us watch us descend.

[Sun Tzu]

[ 10 goal Hunt was dropped in favour of one goal Lita

Tsk, you've had that mistake corrected before....
Harper was on the bench for several games before he got his starting place back, so hardly replaced Karacan ' at the first chance he got'

Enjoy your day off !

[Woodcote Royal]

Just to repeat

10 goal Hunt was dropped for one goal Lita.................fact.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Just to repeat

10 goal Hunt was dropped for one goal Lita.................fact.

You mean he wasnt injured afterall?

[SteveRoyal]

I think this thread will be locked.

HTH

Sure.

[The 17 Bus]

Of course Hunt wasn't injured, because it is well known that Lita is one of Coppells favs, which is why we tried to off load him and loaned him our for long spells this season and last.

This is very similar to 2004/5, and following a clear out in the summer new faces came in, and we were crap all season.

We are barely half a season into building a new team, Karacan and Henry and Pearce should probably be part of that new team, add Armstrong and N Hunt, possibly Fedders, just perhaps the future looks fine, and to be honest, most would take a promotion this season followed by relegation, however as always it is not how football works.

[Sun Tzu]

Just to repeat

10 goal Hunt was dropped for one goal Lita.................fact.

I thought you were old enough to realise that putting '.......fact' after something that is wrong doesn't make it so.

Even our OS lists Leroy has having 8 goals.

You may Snowball look logical in his use of figures !!

[Woodcote Royal]

Leroy Lita has one goal for Reading this season which, surprise, surprise!! is exactly the same "number" he scored for us last season.....................once again, this is a fact.

Had Noel Hunt gone on loan to Charlton who knows how many goals he would have score and guess what? Only Lita's pathetic fan club cares...................

While I'm here, Lita has played the last 3 games and neither he nor the team has scored a goal...................this is another "Snowball" One of those inconvenient truths that some would prefer to ignore.

[Royalee]

I see S Hunt's still undroppable and while it's good to see Matejovsky in the side, pairing Gunnarsson with him is a joke.