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Stung By The Hornets – Blues v Watford Match Reflections
Here are my reflections on the game between Blues and Watford at Vicarage Road – albeit from the position of an armchair fan watching on Sky.
1) A dismal performance
I will admit that this is a difficult one for me to write. I try to be optimistic and look for the positives but that first half was the worst I’ve seen for a while. If I was to list everything wrong with the team in that half it would turn into a litany of poor football – second to every ball, no ball retention, no pace, poor positioning, and no passion. Don’t get me wrong, I thought Watford played well but they weren’t Brazil of 1970 or Holland of 1974 – they were just a well-drilled side playing with the verve and panache you’d expect Blues to match. From the second the ref gave the pen (and it was a pen, no doubt – Steven Caldwell was lucky not to be red carded) I had the sinking feeling Blues weren’t going to turn up. It took until the introduction of Morgaro Gomis in the middle of the second half for Blues to get any spell of prolonged possession and by then it was too late.
2) The midfield
I had to check the teamsheet at half time to make sure Darren Ambrose was playing because he was that anonymous. Hayden Mullins misplaced pass after pass and then let Watford players canter past him with the ball. Chris Burke kept wanting to cut inside (and then proceed to lose the ball) and Nathan Redmond is still somewhere deep in Lloyd Doyley’s pocket (much the same as last year). When Gomis came on Blues changed things a bit which gave them the same numbers in midfield but more importantly the compact Senegalese midfielder was able to hold onto the ball and move it around effectively. When Ravel Morrison came on (after 82 minutes), Blues finally seemed to have a handle on things in the centre of the park – but by this time Watford were cruising and Blues were doomed.
3) The defence
Where do I begin? I’ll be light in my criticism of Ben Gordon, because it was his first game in royal blue and he did okay – yes, sometimes he was caught out of position but he did what he could. Likewise, Jonathan Spector was okay – he didn’t give it away as often as his colleagues inside and he tried to support Burkey. Davies and Caldwell though were awful. Caldwell was as I mentioned earlier lucky to still be on the pitch and was continually undone by the pace of the Watford attack; waving his arm impotently in the air for an offside call that was never going to come against the impressive Matej Vydra prior to the young Czech scoring the second goal. Davies hasn’t had a good game this season and that trend continued with another poor performance where he got caught out of position – ducking under the ball in the build up to the penalty incident. We really need to tighten up at the back.
4) Jack Butland
I was hoping today would be the day that Jack got his first clean sheet but it very quickly turned out to not be the case. Whilst Caldwell conceded the penalty with his shove the incident was caused by Jack flapping at a cross which nearly caught him out, sneaking inside the near post and palming the ball straight into the air in the middle of the six yard area. It’s kinda eerie when you recall how Blues conceded the equaliser in the 2-2 draw at Vicarage Road last year, Myhill palming a shot straight up for Martin Taylor to bury. However, that one mistake apart I thought Butland was okay – making a smart save when his defence decided to allow a free header from six yards out in a corner situation.
5) So where do we go from here?
I think Lee Clark has some difficult decisions to make. Blues play League One side Coventry City in the cup next, and if I was boss, I would ring the changes – telling the players who I brought in that they could well keep their spots for the league game against Peterborough if they perform well enough. I’d give Ibanez a run at centre back for Caldwell and I’d even consider giving Deaman or Packwood a game for Davies. I’d start a central midfield duo of Gomis and Morrison, telling them that those places are theirs to lose and I’d think about giving Rooney a game up front. I think some players are too comfortable about not being dropped and that has to change – if they don’t have the hunger then I’d give the place to another player who maybe wants it more.
The Match In Numbers
181 – the number of seconds before Watford scored and I thought “we’re boned”
20 – the number of minutes that Blues looked like holding onto the ball, let alone scoring
45 – the number of minutes before Blues registered a shot on target
10 – the number of times I counted Blues give the ball away under absolutely no pressure
17 – the number of times I yelled “for f*ck’s sake” at the screen in the first half
849 – the number of Bluenoses who travelled to Watford – they sang all game, they made me laugh with their “let’s pretend we’ve scored a goal/we’re winning away” chants and they didn’t give up for 90 minutes, unlike the team.
Tags: Ben Gordon, Chris Burke, Curtis Davies, Hayden Mullins, Jack Butland, Jonathan Spector, Lee Clark, Morgaro Gomis, Nathan Redmond, Ravel Morrison, Steven Caldwell
76 Responses to “Stung By The Hornets – Blues v Watford Match Reflections”
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Saw the game on Sky too and my son went there and thought it dismal too.
There is something very wrong somewhere. We need to get some webcams set up
at Wast Hills. I suspect they’ll be very illuminating
For me it looks like Davies and Burke are going through the motions of not getting hurt as they are hoping Houghton is going to come in for them Clark got it wrong again today with his tactics he should have went 4-2-3-1 not 4-4-2 we were over run in midfield from
The first minute and he never changed it until 60th minute I don’t know about anybody else but I get worried when we are under pressure and he sits down and folds his arms as for the call for Rooney it’s not a bad one he is more mobile than the other 3 forwards we have but one thing I will point out we started last season slowly and it didn’t turn out to bad but we need to turn it around ASAP
shane talk about being cynical or what? everybody can have a bad game. both davies and Burke have said they are comitted to Blues. Don’t beleive all the speculation you read in the press. not every player is looking for a last pay day! Blues don’t sign those kind of players these days now either. The league isn’t decided in August after a few games, although the performances do look worrying and need to improve significantly. They will probably get better when the window shuts soon! Also when keith Fahey gets back,and we probably need a left winger to balance the team out.
Until Lee Clark can see, that Mullins cannot play football and Ambrose is too slow,we will have problems. That is the main problem, no midfield. The defence is continually under pressure and the forwards are getting no service. The lack of pace in the team and a lack of fitness (we have looked pedestrian in all three league games) has to be sorted soon. Maybe the two coaches that Clark has with him, are not up to date with modern coaching methods. They do not show much enthusiasm on match days, assuming they are there ! It’s still early days,plenty of games to go,but a lot of hard work needs to be put in,from the manager down. KRO
No time to panic. athings can change quickly as we know. Two wins against Cov and Posh and more importantly good peformances and things won’t look quite so bad. Of coarse we could lose and it might be time to panic! KRO
Its been time to panic ever since we went down. We were obviously going to take at least 5 years to get over mcleish and yeung and his cronies. League 1’s probably more fun, maybe League 2. The prem is full of premier league players, are they your heroes?
If you’ve not been panicking for about two years now you’ve cotton wool in your eyes and ears.
As I’ve said before, some Blues fans need a reality check.
to be honest i agree with think of the children, blues are c***, Lee Clark is a c*** manager and everything is c***.
I knew it. Bad start granted but that’s all it took for the gloom merchants to start letting off there rancid stink breathe. No point saying anymore till it turns around which im sure it will, till then we gotta suffer people like BCFC Fan and Think of the children among others. Sadly not much i can say until they are proven wrong but to criticize is one thing. To just be so aimlessly negative and knifing in the back and blame blame is another and is unforgivable. It will turn round then please promise to keep ur views less stinging.
Jim, you can’t debase their opinions with comments like “rancid breath” mate. Most people can feel when things are not right…45 years worth must stand for something? Clarks post match interview told me (and most neutrals) that he’s no motivator… hope I’m proved wrong. Our team is too far below fitness, there is no leadership on or off the pitch; there is no “plan”,no tactical awareness and very little hope at present .It appears to me that Clark is bringing in his unemployed cronies from newcastle just to be paid, nothing else. All his mistakes will be made here and then he’ll move on, all the wiser. BCFC? Who knows
Booflame
Point taken that my choice of expression was perhaps a little strong and they have every right to be concerned i accept that. What i should of said that pure bad mouthing is not desirable. Yes im concerned too but i know how quickly things can turn around and the negative fans had a good run for there money for far too long and i suppose im simply saying i fear a period where they will start the insults again and personal attacks on the board will follow etc etc. But i take your point Blooflame i could of put it better.
Yes, the performance was dismal to put it lightly. However, we are THREE league games into a season. There is no need to panic just yet. Look at where Reading were situated in the League this time last season.
Blues just aint good enough, its as simple as that, already 11 points behind Blackpool. Maybe the cup game at Coventry could be a springboard to kickstart the season, lets hope so because its a poor showing so far.
Almajir .
I could be one of those supporters needing a reality check but in my defence I predicted a 2-0 defeat on your blog and I still maintain that LC is out of his depth at this level.
I watched his body language yesterday and at times he looked like a little boy lost.Frankly he and his ageing coaching team would do little to inspire me to perform to my maximum ability.
Hope I’m wrong as I’m a great believer in stability but I think LC will be gone before Xmas.
This is only my view and I appreciate yours.
Art
I didn’t want to be part of any ‘knee jerk’ bandwagon , certainly this early on in the season , but I agree with you Art about L C’s body language and general current persona ( if you like ) He seems well out of his depth. As football fans we watch dozens and dozens of managers going about their business , the tv coverage caters for it , so subliminally we have all gradually become used to seeing them and their physical /tactical /facial reactions. Lee Clark is in trouble already I’m afraid
Don’t forget our form at the tail end of last season wasn’t stupendous — five draws, one win and one defeat in the last seven.
I think LC will by accident stumble upon his best formation and then go on a decent streak.
In optimistic mode, don’t forget that other new managers are doing that great either — Lambert at the Vile has last two of two (ha ha) and Houghton hasn’t exactly had a great start either.
But if we are still as bad at Christmas, thank God that PP has only given LC a one-year rolling conract. Genius.
er…NOT doing that great either.
Its OK laughing at the start CH has made at Norwich but I watched them on Match of the Day and they looked like they were playing decent football then went to Vicarage Road and watched a Blues team totally devoid of any ideas on the pitch. Lee Clarks post match interview sounded like an 8 year old boy who had just watched his first football match.
I get the feeling that the fact that CH done such a good job last year disguised how deep rooted our problems really are
If blues are going to keepgiving penalties away then they need to have doyle in goal. I had my doubts about LC everyone was calling forholloway,and so far i’ve not been impressed he seems to keep tinkering and messing about with formations. We need to tighten up at the back. butl;and needs to have extra sessions with the goalie coach or be dropped. terry mac needs to sort out the defence! blues are not passing the ball fluidly at all!
This is our worst start in the second tier since 1988 when we were relegated under Garry Pendrey. A few other observations. Butland does not inspire confidence yet – standing watching him yesterday you would wonder what the hype is about, he looked very hesitant on crosses – we have to hope he settles down ,like Joe Hart did, after a few more games – if not bring back Doyle. On the few occasions we did have the ball in the first hour yesterday there was too much hoofing it to Zigic, in contrast to Watford who played the ball around on the ground a lot looking for openings. For me it is the midfield where most of our problems lie – a midfield centre of Mullins and Ambrose does not look like it will work in this division. We need Fahey back and to play Morrison more.
When LC came in he said he wasn’t gona change much. Yesterday it seemed like a whole different set of players, that didnt ever look like carrying out the task asked of them. Why did Burke try cutting in so much, when its been proven he does more damage going round players. 0 positives from this game. Nada.
Starting a midfield 4 that includes Redmond and Ambrose away from home was a big mistake, In the championship the midfield battle needs to be won first before you can play. Mullins and Gomis would be a much more sensible option. What has happened to our 2 centre backs? Caldell now seems past it and Davies still wants to play for Chris Hughton. The old guard from last season are either out of form or want out. The new guard are still settling. I think this season will be a season of transition. New owners in the new year and probably a mid table position. KRO..
I could have written this report, Blues were dreadful. Ambrose was not interested in working last night. No passion.
LC talks the talk, but looking at the tactics and formations, his team are not walking the walk. He looked so depressed in the post match interview, how would that motivate the players? His team selections have been poor, where is this tempo and pressing the ball he talked about before the season began, Ambrose and Mullins look like their just going through the motions, the gap between midfield and the front men is huge, how can we expect NZ to sweat blood when he knows the club want him gone, Butland and Redmond need pulling out of the team before we destroy them. It’s only three games some of you say, but three games where we’ve been useless, the odd glimpse of play, no consistency, we’ve not even played one of the so called big guns yet. The clock is ticking for LC already, for whatever reason the players don’t appear to be responding to him, maybe we should call a halt to it soon, where is the passion of the Manager, his body language says it all for me.
A win from somewhere and it gives everyone a lift. Dont forget we have started off with 2 away games out of the 3. No mention of Zigic being subbed after 56 mins? I agree underperforming players need dropping for the cup game and players should only be in the team on form. Too many not performing at the mo. Not sure if this is the players attitude or the coaching. What is obvious Clark doesnt know his players yet. Got to give him more time, he has only been in the job 5 minutes
After yesterday’s game, I have decided to seek refuge in the in the calm and serenity of Zen.
There, I shall bathe in peace and tranquillity and remain unperturbed composed……
HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!
Clark is clueless…. forget about all this start of the season crap… I see nothing promising
look at his signings
Lucas – Flaps
Mullins – Can not pass
Lovenkrands – 2 seasons too late
Ambrose – Who?? Fades out before he has faded in
Gordon – Cover
Morrison – play 4-4-1-1 and see him link in with King otherwise a needless luxury.
Backroom staff = waste of skin.
Write this season off just another McCliesh… lets start singing tatics again and help him
Mate it’s a good job your employer doesnt assess your performance in August
But the performance of the owners and operators of BCFC has lasted a lot longer than three weeks friend.
Yeah – and in their era we’ve won a trophy and been in Europe.
Clearly an unmitigated disaster
Yes, yesterdays performance was poor but many of you are being too critical of some of our players.
Berkshire blue makes some good points, all of the problems stem from the lack of central midfield.
For the second goal, it is a combination of a good run along the back line and the timing of the pass. Athough it looks as though there was a lack of communiction from Ben Gordon this would not have prevented the goal. You cant give a player that much time in that position to pick out a pass and this lack of pressure on the ball was indicative of our first half performance.
Hayden Mullins offered us absolutey nothing yesterday. When Watford had the ball he would sit 10-15 yards from his man (which is ok, but rather it was 5) but if his man recieved the ball, he did not close the gap down quick enough, allowing the opponent to control the ball and look for his next pass before getting there.
If the blues did then get the ball back, Mullins was quite happy to sit in the middle of the park with a man on his back. He did not make an effort to find space and was not good enough to receive the ball with with a man on his back.
Yes i agree with Aljamir in that Darren Ambrose went missing for 45 mins but we never had the ball and he is not a ball winner.
The problem for the wingers was that when Gomis came on and we dominated possesion but we also took Zigic off. So now that we have good possesion in the opposition half and opportunities to get crosses in, we have took off our only goal threat (from crosses). So yes they did cut-in a lot but this is so that they can play to the strengths of our strikers.
i must conceed that Redmond’s play in the 2nd half was naive, often choosing the wrong option. Hopefully we can put this down to us “chasing the game” and a lack of structure to our play.
Gomis was made to look like a world beater by Mullins and is a must for the next game. He did everything right, with and without the ball.
Questions to Lee Clark
Do you know the strengths and weaknesses of our players?
i am glad i have got that off my chest
Stu
It’s in the dossier he presented to PP at his interviews. It said I need to replace Mutch and Fahey with Mullins and Ambrose. PO glossed over that.
Mutch was sold prior to his interview Julian…
But his dossier was written before
If Clark is another McLeish then im looking forward to promotion and another Trophy!
Everyone calm down it’s not like we’re in may is it…. We get behind tge team we support them and we do everything we did last season inspite of what’s happening in the back…. Or do we get our bed sheet out like them over the road…. No thanks get behind the Boys it 7 days in to the season some people need to get a grip
We are lucky to have one point…
Defensively shambolic..
But most worryingly I don’t recognise any of the big players from last season.
They have just not turned up.
There is absolutely no desire
& the only thing that.s changed is the manager
One of the worst performances that i have seen from Blues in years .
No desire , no heart and no skill. Passes going astray, weaknesses again through the spine of the team.
losing is slightly easier to take if you know the team have given their all, yesterdays individuals certainly didn’t
Ziggi might as well been on the beach in Spain . Redmond (still not seen him play well over 90 mins) was thinking of England trip
Interesting to see LC body language during the match and the comments made after the match..
Todays papers suggest Spurs want Butland for £6m .I would snap their hand off.
If he and Ziggi go lets invest the savings and part of the money improving the very weak spine.
Long way to go yet, lets get over this mauling and move on. It cannot get any worse than that performance
For gawds sake lets not give the money to LC
I was so close to going down to watford for this match, but some gut feeling told me I would be more gutted at paying good money to watch a shambles of a match, and after the performances up to now, I think it was one of those matches that travellling fans will never forgive LC and the lads for.
Watching it on the box was painfull and embarrasing, and I do think something big is going on behind the scenes, as I am not getting the feeling that blues are the band of brothers that they were last year …that feeling of ‘we’re all in the sh*t together’ has gone.
Now, I admit we don’t have any automatic right to win games or be promoted, but the team should be showing the class that it has, and at the very least coming out fighting from the start.
The fans know the crap we are in when it comes to our owners, and how we are finacially constrained by PP, but that hasn’t changed, so what the hell has changed???
Give us something to sing for ..and we’ll sing it.
To be fair – whilst we were very poor in the first half (and much of the second) – you can’t take anything away from Watford – they would have beaten anyone in the division yesterday and murdered some – the slick interchangeable midfield was a joy to watch
I have lots of views which may well be similar to the dilemma that LC faces.
1. He does not know what formation to play. If we play 442 then we are predictable, but with this formation Burke is his most effective ( but only if he has a full back overlapping). If we play 442, like yesterday we are overrun in midfield.
2. What does he do with Darren Ambrose, Nathan Redmond, Ravel Morrison, Zigic etc?
3. You cannot plan for Curtis Davies missing the flight on every cross and the first throw-in, which was the cause of the first goal.
4. There is a complete lack of confidence between Butland, Davies and Cauldwell.
I could go on but really what I really want is this squad to reach its potential. Last season Reading only had one point after 6 games, the rest is history.
Actually Reading had 4pts from their first 6 games last season….
after that first half i think we need jesus
Clarks’ post match interview was a mirror on the “team” performance. I really thought he was going to cry. We are only 3 games in and I NOW definitely feel he isn’t the man…the pressure ain’t even close yet!! I was incredulous at his mumblings, he displayed a total lack of confidence, awful.
For the last 2 seasons I have intimated Caldwell is a liability, He was culpable in both Goals, Butland?He either takes his turn on the bench gradually fed in or he should go. Too many mistakes. Redmond has a long, long way to go to be consistent. Gomis a breath of air, Spector played well which is unusual. I felt 6 games to give Clark a chance but as someone who understands Motivation and Psychology I’d drop him now.
Clarks’ post match interview was a mirror on the “team” performance. I really thought he was going to cry. We are only 3 games in and I NOW definitely feel he isn’t the man…the pressure ain’t even close yet!! I was incredulous at his mumblings, he displayed a total lack of confidence, awful.
For the last 2 seasons I have intimated Caldwell is a liability, He was culpable in both Goals, Butland?He either takes his turn on the bench gradually fed in or he should go. Too many mistakes. Redmond has a long, long way to go to be consistent. Gomis a breath of air, Spector played well which is unusual. I felt 6 games to give Clark a chance but as someone who understands Motivation and Psychology I’d drop him now.
Oh! And what exactly does our wheezing part time center Forward actually do?? There is at least 4 replacements required right there. Someone must make a Command decision!
It seems the teams we have lost convincingly to have younger squad players with an abundance of pace, skill and enthusiasm. We have a considerable older squad, especially in the midfield area. We really need an injection of pace everywhere.
We really need to address the balance of age. Not sure what you guys think??
849 Blues fans sang for 90 mins ……. Did they I didn’t hear any of them !!!!
Jesus…Navas?
Just need time boys, chill out. As long as we are top half by march we still have a chance at making the play offs. Although like at the start of last season I’d say mid-table wouldn’t be horrific this year. Blues have spent at least 3/4 of my life in the second tier, and I’d say it’s going to be a tough old road this season – stronger division (wolves Bolton Blackburn were quite established prem teams, Blackpool Cardiff will be knocking, who knows what to expect from Leicester Middlesbrough n Leeds?).
For once I am actually optimistic about our production of young talented players, give them a year or two to settle around the more experienced heads, n hopefully next season the bigger clubs will have been promoted, those that haven’t will be cherry picked for their better players and Southampton Norwich and (just for derby day’s sake) the vile will be in this division giving us a much better shot in the league.
I’m not writing this season off, it’s just the loss of CH and the lack of European matches must have put a dent in the feel good factor from last year, which was clearly a great catalyst for one of my most memorable 12 months as a bluenose. Kro to the end of the road.
we were por against the belgiums in pre season with tactics going out the window.Against barnet we looked at sea in the first half and should have been 2-0 down but scraped through.Charlton over ran us and should have won.I thought the 1st half at sheffield was the worst midfield performance i’d seen from a blues team in a long time then we go to watford and surrender.I know some of our players are just not good enough but even an average player can give 100 %,if we lose then at least you can accept it.I think its make or break this week which is daunting when you think it’s so early in the season but if we don’t beat cov and posh then i expect the call for clarke to go will get very loud and i ask myself will that be a bad thing because i think hes clueless with tactics.
Clark played 3 in central midfield at Sheffield & was criticised; he played 2 at Watford and was criticised. Last season Caldwell was tremendous for us and we missed him for the play-offs. The season before that he was at Wigan, so I don’t know how well or badly he played (is blooflame a Wigan fan to know that?) We are told that Joe Hart made mistakes at first, but you could count them on the fingers of one hand & still have 2 or 3 to spare. Butland is the last line of defence and at this time in his career is clearly not good enough. This must have an effect on the rest of the defence, and I agree that we need a lot more from the midfielders in front of them. I sympathise with Clark about dropping Butland, what with all the hype; but he has to bite the bullet or take £6 million.
I agree that some changes need to be made, but lads what is up with Butland?
Is it a case of play him or lose him? For team GB he was not asked much of, but still made an error or two, all blues fans can see he has repeated these errors for us. Prior to the season kicking off I had presumed Doyle would be the primary choice and Butland being introduced here and there. If he is to challenge Hart in the future, fine. But for now he quite simply is not good enough. Doyle has proven before that he is well able for championship level. Anyone at the game yesterday that looked at the bench after the final whistle could see that he (Doyle) was the first to be off to the changing rooms and looked back at the pitch with disgust. He must be raging at not getting game time.
Sorry if people think I’m being too hard on Jack, but we have a good keeper for this level and Butland looks like he has a lot more to learn. Too much too quick, for now anyway. I’m sure he can progress but at the minute he is one of the weak links. Sorry.
Any taughts please? Am I alone on this?
No, your not alone in thinking that Doyle should be number 1 …he has bags of experience and can take charge of defense a hell of lot more than some people are doing right now.
Ray, tally agree with you.Butland is one for the future, he has talent no doubt but as you say, too much too soon. Doyle is a decent championship keeper and will give us more confidence at the back. Im not knocking Butland but keepers improve with experience and knowledge,I think an “every know and then ” policy should be adopted with him.
Not only will it damage our team if he is played continually whilst making errors….but it will also impact on his confidence. He needs to be managed and properly. Throwing him in and leaving him in come what may would be bad for all parties.
KRO
yes i agree that unless butland improves significantly in the next ffews games then Doyle should be given the jersey. From what i have seen it will take a lot of work with the new goalie coach to get butland up to speed,and whats more Doyle can save penalties too!
One of the reasons Doyle is not picked is because of his poor kicking, did anyone notice Butlands kicking yesterday?
The lad needs time on the Bench as our number 2 .Doyle although prone to making mistakes is in my view a better keeper.
If JB or his agent does not like this , lets take the money and run.
I watched the game on sky and to say I was unimpressed would be the understatement of the decade!!. We looked poor from goalkeeper to forward line. I’m not pressing the panic button yet but honestly alarm bells are going off in my head,What a truely poor start we have had!. What the hell has happened to the attack attack policy we had been promised????.
What has really worried me is the opposistion that we have faced arent the “creme de la creme” of this league, no disrespect to Charlton,Wednesday or Watford,i would very be suprised if these teams are amongst the chasing pack come May .
We have winnable games in September . I’d settle for two wins and two next month BARE MINIMUM….as a sign that we are slowly getting on the right path. Failiure to beat Peterborough and Barnsley tho?…………..then it would be time to push the panic button.
The whole balnce of the team is wrong.last year we played with two wingers this year we are playing with one and it is easy to defend whats more LC keeps tinkering with the line up. I’m not sure how much longer LC can persist with Butland as he just keeps making mistake after mistake. the whole team seem to be annoyed by LC selections. Lovenkrands can play wide left if LC doesn’t want to bring a left winger in on loan that would balnce the team out and in pre season mitch hancox played left wing. the current formations are not working and LC looks suicidal!
Welcome to going “nowheresville” blues fans…things won’t change until there is regime change at the top…otherwise we are just going too plod on through the wilderness for a long while yet,stuck with a manager who ain’t the best and we only got him because he was “free”…
I don’t understand how Blues fans can revel in the disappointment with such a smug “told-you-so” attitude.
You can’t? Our attitude should be “get real”, not “hey don’t panic guys, maybe we’ll be ok” when there’s no way we’ll be ok, there’s been no way we’ll be ok ever since it became apparent Carson Yeung et al were just another money churning investment group after either a quick buck or a quick laundering of bucks.
Can’t you see it happening to every club outside the top 4? Things won’t get better until:
A) You amputate your soul and support whoever has the most money
or
B) You wait until corporate football destroys enough portsmouths and blues’ that the fans actually start getting mad and take their game back.
I understand you not wanting to people to be smug, but this mickey guy isn’t even being smug, that “told you so” feeling you have is YOU telling yourself that you did know you just didn’t want to admit it to yourself.
I dunno, maybe. Who are your footballing heroes these days? Larsson was my last one. Crying after his last game coz he knew it was simply not up to him where he plays football. It all needs to change. Sooner the better, its just it won’t be soon, it’ll get dragged out until enough clubs go under for the majority to go “hang on, didn’t this used to be good in some way?”
Say what?
There is a faction of Blues fans that (of which Mickey belongs) seem to want Blues to do poorly to back their beliefs re the board. That to me is unforgiveable – the idea is to support the team. Hence the word “supporters”.
I’m board-neutral – they’ve done some good things, they’ve done some bad – like every other board we’ve had and probably will ever have, it’s the way things go.
You talk about “taking the game back”. My question to you is how you’re intending to do that – seriously, what steps have YOU taken to help “take the game back”?
I await your response with interest.
It’s not about “I told you so” what so ever…..my gripe is we got a manager who was totally free and out of work when really I would have liked to go up a few rungs of the ladder and payed a few quid for someone like “holloway” and then gave him a few bob too spend….but we can’t because you why!!!Theres one reason why Lee Clarke is here and that’s because he’s “cheap”…. We ain’t going anywhere until regime change…wake up and smell the coffee mayor or just keep on happy clapping…………all I’m doing is thinking of the bigger picture and yes I want a bit more I suppose,not too much to ask is it?
So you’re writing off Lee Clark after four games?
That my friend, isn’t a supporter.
The thing that makes me laugh most though is how you go on about giving managers a few quid when I assume from your postings on SHA that you don’t go to the games – if you don’t put money into the club, why should you insist anyone else does? Pannu has the club running self-sufficiently now which is something ALL clubs should be – it’s hurting us in the short term but in the long term it will benefit the club.
That’s not being a “happy clapper”, that’s just realising economic realities – something I’m not sure you grasp.
Mayor I’m always down there,like last weekend my friend……not writing Clarke off what so ever just don’t think he’s as good as someone like holloway..very simple really …and as for the economics its really really simple,if you don’t spend then you stand still for a while then later you fall way behind….we ain’t got a pot too pee in and we are getting bypassed by championship clubs which hurts me and all I want is much better for the club……
The main difference this season is the man management ability of LC compared to CH.
CH is a natual leader of people with Premiership experience who normally got the tactics right.
LC has so far failed to demonstrate his ability to get the best out of his players and has not managed at a high level and as for tactics he appears to be a complete novice.
This may be ok in division 1/2 but in the championship It’s a recipe for failure.
Hope I’m wrong.
Almajir, I think you are wasting your breath (or typing finger) trying to argue logically with someone like mickey07. He seems to want failure, thinks we ought to spend money we don’t have (“invest” is what such people call it) and conveniently forgets that Clark had a very long unbeaten run at Huddersfield. He was the best manager available to us in our position. If he really thinks Holloway would have been available to us, then he needs to get a reality check. In his job at Blackpool he has a team who might well have won the play-off final AND he has money to spend. It beggars belief that we have “supporters” like mickey07 who live in cloud cuckoo-land
Your missing the point yet again…..read what I said….what I’m saying is IF we had money then maybe we could attract people like holloway…Im not asking to spend what we have not got…….I’m just saying we ain’t going nowhere fast until regime change…..get used to it….
Found the collection of posts and opinions on here interesting and hope you think the same about mine!. Clark absolutely cannot be faulted for his passion and genuine will to do well. Of course Clark needs time at the Blues, however, he was given way too much time at our Club for the reasons I am going to share and we have already seen the massive strides forward the Club has taken since he left. Firstly, we are in the Championship which was Clark`s remit from our Chairman, something he did not achieve despite in the best part of three seasons having for league 1, a massive amount of financial backing. Unbelievable in fact for league 1 where (and the Chairman has accepted errors on his part here) he was foolishly allowed to bring in a total of 44 Players in his tenure including loan Players (yes forty four). All you hear is he signed Rhodes and Pilkington (now Norwich), well, even a stopped-clock is right twice a day. He signed Players and did not play them, some being on a reported £10k a week (for league 1) and all we could achieve was play-offs (he did not win in 90 minutes any of the 5 play-off games he managed) and way too many draws. The unbeaten run was in large part draws and as we all know 2 wins and 4 defeats is not good, but gets you 6 points, the same as 6 draws , however Clark considered draws acceptable and boy could we draw (despite squad and Player wise having an unfair advantage over most of the Teams in the division). I am not surprised at your results and particularly the comments around Midfield. We NEVER had a midfield under Clark despite him signing boatloads of Players for those positions. We had no bite, no creativity and in fact struggled to pass to Players in the same team from Midfield, regularly being over ran by the opposition in this area. He could not pick the same team twice (largely due to the sheer amount of Players he had brought in) and tactically was inept. He also had no plan B if things were not going right. I worry for him at a club like Birmingham where he does not have an unfair advantage Player and budget wise llike he did with us in League 1. Grayson for us in no tiime at all has delivered us a Midfield that I simply cannot believe or recognise from the dross I have been watching these last few years, we have bite, aggression and boatloads of creativity and quality. We were going nowhere under Clark and I think he should have taken the Gillingham job and learned his trade a bit more before taking a job the size of Birmingham City. Give him a chance though as it is way too early to judge, however, I recommend that if it is not working, your Club acts quickly as our Chairman backed him for way too long at great personal expense to himself. All the best for the season.
Cheers bud we had the same problem in Trevor Francis, he could not take us to the next level until sacked and steve Bruce turned up……and from reading your post it seems he ain’t very good at spending money either…still he needs time!!but one thing for sure is that he won’t get the time he had at huddy down here….let’s see aye…
I can only hope LC has learned from his Huddersfield experience and to avoid making the same mistakes again. But three games in…he ought to be given a bit more time even if it is painful.
Cheers for writing this ‘Hudd fan’, it’s not often a non-bcfc fan gives a fair point and a nice little read ..and quite insightful as well. Let’s see what happens! Because a fighting spirit is what I could do with seeing again.
The Hudd fan confirms my concerns about LC .
The next few games will be the best indicator of his ability to lead and to perform at this level.
I wish him the very best of luck but feel he’s out of his depth.
spot on Almajir! The boys were truly awful and unless some combinations are found soon it will be a long season.. get rid of JB, he’s a liability in between the posts, were in the game of wining football games not developing GKs. He needs to come off his line and command the area. Get a quality GK and the rest will follow in defense cos he’ll run the show. As for Ziggy – shake him up or get rid of him – one or the other.
biggest worry for me mullins & ambrose looked legless both in their thirties with two year contracts.
Except Darren Ambrose is 28…