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The Bigger Malaise Surrounding Blues
Judging by the comments on here many of the people who read this blog felt as badly as I did after the game. There are some very unhappy people on this side of Birmingham right now – a feeling I can empathise with as I wasn’t best pleased either – yet I fear that there is a bigger malaise that people are only just becoming aware of.
I’m not in the Clark Out camp. We’ve played nine competitive games under Clark, or just over 14 hours of football. In my mind that’s not enough time to decide that someone should get the Spanish Archer – but I will confess my alarm and concern about how Blues have played this season. I don’t subscribe to some of the more bizarre conspiracies out there and I never really go for looking at “body language” of him, the players or the coaches – but I will profess my worry that Blues look so clueless at times, that players who played well last season look so average this year.
However badly we’ve played this season though, the absolute stone cold fact is right now Blues can’t afford to sack Clark and his coaching staff. It’s not as simple as giving them their p45s and directions to the local jobcentre – there has to be negotiated settlements which would be a minimum of three, probably six months pay – and that would run in to the hundreds of thousands of pounds if not millions. If Blues can’t afford to sign anyone to cover injuries, what makes people think that they can afford to sack a coaching setup and bring in a new load? It’s not going to happen. The only way for Blues to break their contracts would be for the staff to resign… and right now I don’t see that happening either.
The fact is right now Blues are in a bad place. We’ve got a team full of injuries – only two fit senior defenders, three if you count Ben Gordon – and I’ve heard talk that Blues need to shift someone else out to bring in cover. The low gates are not helping the situation either as the club is making lower than expected monies on ticket sales, which impacts what they can spend money on… and the club are in a bind there because they cannot drop the match day prices for more than four games because of football league rules.
What Peter Pannu who was sat in the Director’s area for his first game this season made of all this is anyone’s guess. The newly appointed Executive Director, MD, and CEO of BIH will have seen the team taken apart in front of a dwindling crowd – half of which were roaring their disapproval of his boss and good friend Carson Yeung as the goals rained in. It’s my hope that the lack of money through the gate and the performance on the pitch will cause him to pick the phone to Hong Kong to tell Carson that maybe it’s time to cut his losses and to sell for what he can get for the club.
Because as much as it pains me to say this, this malaise surrounding the club won’t be lifted until the current regime have gone. The money has run out, the club is slowly dying as fans drift away and as results go against it and the longer it goes on, the less chance Blues will have of reaching the big time in the near future and it’s value will drop further.
I know people want things fixed quickly but it’s not going to happen. Any sale would require shareholder approval and even if a price was agreed today I don’t think it could be completed until the start of November at the earliest. Right now, we have no choice but to grin and bear it until things can change. It’s going to be painful, it’s going to be unpleasant and until an offer for the club is accepted, it’s not going to change any time soon. I used to think that the future would be Blue – especially after winning the Carling Cup but right now it looks very black to me.
Tags: BIH, Carson Yeung, Lee Clark, Pessimism, Peter Pannu, Takeover
65 Responses to “The Bigger Malaise Surrounding Blues”
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What astonishes me is the people who criticise Clark for jumping up and down and showing his emotions,i kind of like that,although it looks good when your doing well,but looks desperate when your doing badly,the guy wants to do well,but it just has not happened for the guy…..
When he said his wife was crying at 4-0 i think it shows she knows how badly and how much time and effort he is putting in and i think that’s a credit to him.
We have to make the best of a bad job as he won’t be sacked and i doubt he will leave and if he did who is out there except for Redknapp who has never managed north of Watford so probably wouldn’t come anyway.
The crap players need to take most of the blame as they are not even doing the basics, they don’t need coaching on how to close down teams or how to pass and retain a ball.
Retaining the ball seems to be the biggest malaise at the moment, it’s woeful and schoolboy level, haven’t they got any pride in their own perfomances.
**What astonishes me most is the people who critiscise Clark for jumping up and down and showing his emotions,i kind of like that that,although it kind of looks good when your doing well,but looks desperate when your doing badly,the guy wants to do well,but it just has not happened for the guy………KRO
We can only pray for him to resign…….. He lost for answers- yes hes animated but so am i when my tactics fail on championship manager too. It concerning too the amount of injuries the players are picking up – are they getting the right training? The gates reciepts will get lower and lower as his regime go on and as you mentioned a deadly circle..
Im just hoping we can stay in the league as the football ive seen this season we look like a team who will be fighting to stay in the league (fighting is not the right word but u get the idea)
Resign? would you? that won’t happen nobody would walk away from a years salary.
We have got to stick with him no matter what we can’t afford to sack and he won’t resign.
Before yesterday I was starting to feel more optimistic…biggest mistake he made was playing mullins right back who was clueless look at first 2 mins when he was out of position and played forward on side for butland to make great save. Alarm bells should have rang Davies and Redmond should have been on after 25 mins for mullins and elloiot who had a shocker.
Now he whole management career is on the line he must deliver
KRO
Lads ive been a Bluenose for 50 years and been in bad,dark places before.Its just pointless and and totally unaffective to turn on the manager.This could well get worse.Just got back from Brum having watched Blues at 3 games,thank the Lord i missed this one but it still hurts like hell!!I thought it looked like the future was Blue too!OP,your so right the mgr is going nowhere,we just can not afford it period!Only good footbal and winning games will bring back the bums on seats and after last nite but we may have to wait a while me thinks.At the very least the Vile got done good.KRO
First off….Belated thanks for your blog a few days ago, re-Peter Pannu and Carson.
I was about to reply when we had a shutdown at work, then I forgot. Sorry, but belated thanks, it was a good piece.
On this blog :-)
Last night is probably a benchmark in my –
” Blues’ Cr@p Performaces – Hall of Infamy”
Probably near the top because it seemed such a concerted and planned enterprise by the players.
I’ve though back over the years and remembered the times I’ve read journos saying the players were playing to get rid of the manager. Allison and Venables spring to mind.
But after only 7 league matches, I can’t really accept that it was a colluded effort by the players, to play so badly, with so little fire or apparent interest in the game.
I’m not a Clark-outer, was never a McCleish-outer, but I was a Bruce-outer (only because I found out what Lady MacBeth did to Trevor Francis with his connivance.). I wasn’t even a Goodwin-outer. I say that in pasing, to explain why I have a loyalty thing to Blues.
This may be a failing, but I really cannot concede last night’s performance as being the sole responsibility of Clark.
I’ve never seen such a half-hearted and amateurish charade as that.
Those who run…well, they ran a lot…those who intercept, well they made some efforts…those who create, well they sent the ball forward. Everyone lost the ball at some point, and all of them suddenly…stopped! They passed the ball to Barnsley extremely well…then stopped.They blocked a shot…then stopped.They passed the ball to barnsley then stopped.They ran after a Barnsley player…then stopped to allow him to pass it.
Looking back at the DVD it was worse than I thought I saw at St Andrews.
A true team effort of, “I’ve done my bit…”
………………
We can’t sack Clark as you say, unless there is a ‘scapegoat’ clause in his contract, and we can’t put him on ‘gardening leave’ because he hasn’t breached protocol.
He may need a louder voice alongside him. Not to pick the team but to give him some gravitas.
Because it seems to me, after last night, that these players –all of them — have some sort of shared philosophy, and it isn’t anything to do with Blues. Fans or mangement.
Instead of players, I’d get a contract out on someone to come in as an advisor. Like Venables did with Robson.
Because the fault, in my opinion, is soley with the players.Who seemed deaf or indifferent against Barnsley.
I woke up here in NZ fully expecting a 4 or 5 nil scoreline. The only thing is I was wrong by 8-10 goals!
This must surely be a one off. As everyone says – they don’t become bad players overnight. They can of course become badly motivated/managed players. I have seen the TV coverage and can’t beleive how badly they played.
This might just be a huge wake up call and I can see us scrapping and getting a point out of Brighton next week. Stranger things happen. KRO
You reap what you sow.
There were people on here saying automatic promotion when we got Clark and the 2nd rate signings he bought in. When people pointed out that actually both he and they would get us precisely nowhere those people had the predictable ‘You’re Vile’ replies.
Our fans (well the paltry few who turned up) were a disgrace yesterday. Moaning 5 minutes in, booing the team off at 0-0. I’ve never had time for block 11 but at least they didn’t join in the mass booing. Yes it was crap but the eagerness to boo was there for everyone to see. We are in sh*t street and have been for some time. Like it or not our fans have deserted us and the ones that come only have passion for booing.
Didn’t want Clark, didn’t rate his signings but I wil never boo my team however bad it gets. This was drummed into me at an early age and has been passed down to my kids. We’ll be lucky to finish mid-tablewhich some of us said weeks ago but got slaughtered for. I will be there for every game, I will never boo. W
Meant to add we are a Coventry in the making unless our so called loyal fans start coming back.
Wholeheartedly agree Paul – booing will only make it worse and those that boo conspire towards the downwards spiral that afflicted Blackburn in the Premership last season. Clark said that we’re in it together and the players must take their share of the blame. It was dire from the start – too many 30 pluses facing a second game in a week ? Injuries were cruel and disruptive but a midfield pairing of Ambrose and Fahey must never happen again – too lightweight whatever their positive qualities. I’m not a fan of Ibinez and Caldwell together either – both too slow and no rapport. Whatever state his head is in Davies must come back to central defence permanently. And why did Clark bring on Zigic when Ibinez was clearly struggling and had to come off minutes later with all subs used ? It was, however, all over by then.
Good Blog and sums our situation up perfectly when you say the club is dying, it is!.
Our only hope i think is Paladini as the other interested parties it would appear are waiting for us to die before hopefully getting us for a song.
So Almajr is there anything you feel the fans could do to support to his bid and encourage his backers to up the anti and pursue the purchase more vigorously thus bringing pressure to bear on PP and CY to sell as the italians who to me are our only hope of a quick end to the current regime.
I know you dont feel Paladini is the ideal solution but he is all we have and has shown he is prepared to put his money where his mouth is.
Tattum’s blog signposted this weeks ago
http://blogs.birminghammail.net/birminghamcity/2012/09/window-reflections.html
Yeung has to go ASAP simple as
A lot of fans were saying after the game that we made them look like Barcelona. The thing is that their manager wanted them to play like Barcelona. It takes a lot of hard work on the training field to get a team of unknowns to play like that. Remember Swansea?
I’m afraid we currently have a team & manager who follow the typical lazy British football style of hoofing it forward down the channels which inevitably means giving the ball away.
Blues have always struggled against pass & move type teams. We can match teams like Bolton at times because no hard work or football required, just battling.
The lack of money does not help of course, but if you look at the respective squads, on paper, is their’s better than ours?
We can’t afford to get rid of LC & hangers-on, but can we afford to keep them?
Very good comments and I totally agree, lazy British style of football that is only going to take us down.
We need a manager that can start from scratch and train our players to play the Barca way. I have not seen the youngsters play but I hope that they are trying to play that way.
This is why i like the way the Baggies do it. A director of football who although is now leaving, they are going to replace him with someone in the same role.
He links the board (who know nothing about football management) to the Manager (who knows nothing about running a business or finance).
Ashcroft at WBA seems to set the ethos of the football style, which for WBA is to play a passing game just as much as Swansea, but don’t get the plaudits for what they have achieved and they still make a damn profit.
Ashcroft then has a big say in manager (or coach as they call it) appointments and deals with player transfers and the scouting network along with the coach.
Plus when the coach leaves e.g. DiMatteo, Hodgson etc there is still stability at the club because generally the coaching staff stays, which is why Hughton didn’t get the job two seasons ago because he wanted his own men and break that stability the club was building.
When Hughton left us he did just that and took four five others with him and ruined our backroom stability.
Just a thought.
I know people are coming on here & blaming the manager but if I was any one of those players i’d have difficulty in looking at myself in the mirror this morning cos each & everyone were totally rubbish. I don’t want to single out players but what has happened to Chris Burke? Has he been kidnapped & a clone put in his place? he’s not ever a quarter of the player he was last season. All of the players need to stand up & be counted because those sort of performances are TOTALLY UNACEPTABLE. It’s a shame players can’t be docked wages for such performances…..I bet if they were they’d soon turn up then. KRO
I was not a Clark outer either but sorry he has just lost what support he had left from me. Albeit he has been unlucky with the full back position – results picked up when Caddis came in for instance BUT he contributed vastly to our implosion yesterday make no bones about it.
I think we went chasing the game far too early with his substitutions and this just compounded the situation and made it far worse. I am not seeing why Mullins and Ambrose deserve a place in the team. I dont see why you would rather play a midfielder at full back ahead of a youngster who plays that position. Also, I am not sure why talented youngsters such as Redmond and Morrison are sitting on a bench.
Playing a high line is suicide when you have Caldwell in the team. Can he not see he has no pace and has the turning circle of a bus?
I dont think there is any way back for Clark now. A 5 nil drubbing at home to mighty Barnsley says it all. The fans wont be coming back through the turnstiles any time soon either with him in charge. I thought the whole idea of a rolling contract was so he could be sacked inexpensively? I would maybe say a defeat in the next game and he’s out
Zigic got my goat
Twizzling up and down the touchline doing that crissy crossy thing he does with his legs.
Comes on, doesn’t challenge for the first 2 headers to come his way then a half hearted jump for the third heading it straight out for a throw in.
I love what he’s done in the past but this man is seriously taking the pi*s now. Kings another one swiftly going down the Jerome route, and you’re right Burke is too.
We are scraping the barrel for sure. We have to move one player out to get one player in. What options do we have to sign? A 33 year old who crocked our captain DJ and a trouble maker from the lower divisions? Clark can really turn it around cant he?
But he could make it eaier for himself by following a few simple rules. Dont play players out of position. Dont keep playing your cronies come what may. Dont play the offside trap when you have no pace. Dont play players recovering from injury straight away. Dont play hoof ball – Blues fans will love you if you play expansive passing football. Play the promising youngsters as you cant do any worse than yesterday. Dont tinker straight away when it is not going for you but try to grind it out.
Still …it’s all academic really – we have no money, falling gates amd we are at an impasse with takeovers. Time to sell up as it wont get any better.
There have been one or two comments along the lines that we can’t afford to sack Clark – I don’t think it is that simple. If things continue in the current vein (and I sincerely hope they don’t) then Pannu faces a dilemma as the cost of not making a change (reduced gate income,reduced sale value of the club) may be greater than the cost of sacking Clark et al. Cash wise the funds could be generated by a sale in the January transfer window if necessary.
So that was PP’s first match in the directors’ box? I wonder if the players knew that and were sending out a subliminal message. Actually it wasn’t subliminal, it was completely obvious.
Looking on the bright side, if there is one, is that a 2 or 3 – 0 defeat would not have made everyone take the situation so seriously. A good 5 – 0 thrashing puts everything in proper focus.
The only positive I can think of about yesterday is that it could speed up the sale of the club…Carson must seen sense…we are on our arse…as for Clark hes the new Gary pendrey.
Perhaps ultimately – Clark’s most meaningful contribution will be to hasten the demise of this current regime. We dont have a pot to pee in. Falling gates. Wake up and smell the coffee – sell up now CY. You’re having a giraffe if you think you will get half your money back now.
Maybe he should start by playing players in their right position.Spector covered for Carr as RB last season but has been left in midfield whilst Davis and Muggins have played there.Play Morrison.If the stories are true about the reason he isn’t playing,then that’s disgraceful.It’s not a football issue.He was our best player against Charlton but hasn’t been seen since.Give Redmond a decent run in the side.This squad isn’t a bad squad.we’re not performing as we should and that is down to one man.
What are the stories regarding Morrison ?
As far as I know, they’re not.
I would also ask that people not post anything potentially libellious about him.
comment edited
1) Putting “allegedly” doesn’t make a comment not libellious
2) I know for a fact that story isn’t true
fair enough
Yes, LC carries the can, but i am not endeared to his coaching team.
McDermott has never progressed to management (one game as stand-in) why?
Fazackerley went to Leicester under Erickson and they wasted millions on rubbish and played awful football.
These guys have loads of experience, so is Clark ignoring their advice or listening to them too much?
I don’t think it is just Clark, but what happens on the training field during the week, only they and the players know.
The biggest problem when the crowds dwindle is the mindless nutcases stand out. The pathetic chanting, arguing amongst fans and general sheepish behaviour of these idiots becomes more apparent.
Even though I have a season ticket it will be these morons that stop me going and not the crap football, weak board and sub standard manager. As a Blues fan I have suffered all the afore mentioned before, I’m just getting too old to suffer these idiots.
Spot on, do these dummies really think someone will improve by booing and slating their own team during the game.
barring a few players it,s in the main the same team as last year.the players are not fit enough.fact.yesterday they were lucky to be 0.0 at h/t.clark cannot be blamed for a player not finding a 5yard pass but he can for there lack of fitness and organisation.morrison deserves a chance but i feel we,d need to play 4.3.3 for him to play centre mid.last season barnsley out played us in a draw at stans.they play a high energy game.we don,t..i,m not going to become a booer or a clark out type just yet but changes need making.the fitness levels should be number one priority
Not one leader at all on the pitch yesterday. They didn’t even have a go at each other when a goal went in. You have to have creativity in the side not just a good work ethic and there wasn’t. Once you step over the White line there is only so much a manager can do. We have to work so much harder on keeping the ball cos long balls in to spaces ain’t working. We have to keep the ball on the ground and pass, pass, pass. Lee Clark in his pomp was a good passer of the ball so you would have thought that that would have been the first thing he would be impressing on the players. I can’t see any of that. KRO
How a week changes everything. Last week we were on a mini run and things were looking up with 3 points in the bank pushing for the play offs again…..THEN back to what we were like at the beginning of the season only far far worse this time. Well Brighton who are top and then Cardiff next. Probably a good job for Clark we are not at home and playing bigger teams. Probably do better against them teams ironically.
I just dont have the confidence the guy can have a major rethink and change his footballing tactics and personnel tho. I think most Blues fans would rather us have a go and go down fighting than this abjext fall over and die stuff being served up at the min.
His only defence is the full backs injuries have severely undermined us. Playing midfielders there tho is not the solution.
I have the pleasure if sitting near Mr Pannu, after goal number 2 he slumped in his chair, after number 4 he looked angry and after goal number 5 he stormed out.
Some of his colleagues sat laughing as anti-Clark songs rang around the ground
Definitely not a happy camp…
maybe he left early to check the contracts!!
I think the longer we all try to give LC the benefit of the doubt and not want to see him fail as a championship manager, the more chance there is of that exact scenario happening. Time is something we do not have and the more games that give lame results (draws and losses) ..we will just end up hating everything.
I only hope PP was sat there last night with the smile wiped from his face. HE chose LC, which was the cheap option, and HE had choices and options at that time. Only now is it becoming clear that either way the club need to understand they are going to face a financial dilemma very soon …someone is going to find the money to get a new manager and pay off LC and his staff, or find the money to buy players to give to LC. In other words ..can we justify not spending a large sum of cash for the club to simply stay up in the championship?
Now, I bet Paladini was opening the champagne last night and I think the other potential ‘interested’ parties may be checking the fans feedback and using it all to their advantage! If so, then CY needs to sell up sharpish, and that will take PP to understand this.
I also would like to add, that a trip down to the Birmingham City Ladies at Stratford is a better day out and the odd times I’ve been, I have seen way better skill and commitment than I have seen at St Andrews so far this season.
We are actually now the laughing stock of the this league and we, the fans, are only going to spend so much money right now. The gate sales should be spelling ‘panic’ in neon letters, and if the team can’t tell their manager how things are, then they are not to tell PP are they? But accountability needs to happen, right through the club, and it needs to happen fast.
What a complete farce that was yesterday. Never mind about sacking LC, if the bloke had any self respect he would walk now. That was his team using his tactics on the back of a week on his training pitch.
I now get to fly home to Australia, armed with a copy of the match day program and the memory of being there for our worst home performance in over 25 years.
Does it get much worse?
I don’t get the incredulous response to us being as shit as we were yesterday. Welcome to the traditional world of being a Blues fan. The recent highs (cup wins, europe) have fuddled peoples memories as before those this kind of stuff was our regular fare. Season in, season out we were shite but still we went and supported our team. Some of the behaviour I saw from our fans yesterday was completely crass, trying to outdo each other with superlatives as to how bad we were, shouted threats of never coming down again (please), abjuring their allegiance to the club.
The players showed complete Insouciance to the anger from the fans but that is the norm with football players. Come to terms with the fact that we’re back where we always were.
I wasn’t there fortunately – but sounds like the worst performance ever. Have a feeling that with Caddis and Murphy at full back it wouldn’t have been as bad, but still no excuse for capitualtion.
We all know and understand the deep-rooted problems, but now is not the time to try and solve them, it’s looking at what we can possibly do between now and Brighton on Saturday to stop the rot. Agree fully there is no point putting square pegs in round halls – and senior players should be dropped in favour of the youngsters.
Team for Brighton:
Butland, Spector, Davies, Packwood, Gordon, Gomis, Morrison, Elliott, Redmond, King, Lita
Burke should be dropped, take him out of the firing line for a couple of games (as Hughton did successfully with Mutch last season). Bring Redmond in right wing, Gordon left back, and Gomis in the centre for some bite alongside Morrison for creativity. Packwood is a very promising yongster with pace – allows you to play the high line defence – but so far has only been played out of position at right back. Give him a chance to learn alongsde a seasoned pro like Davies. That leave’s the only square peg on the left hand side of the midfield – we know we haven’t got a proper solution there so best of a bad bunch I’d choose Elliott.
Right now the focus should be on re-storing pride and self-belief. I’m not expecting us to get anything at Brighton, so just an improved performance with some bite would be a huge positive for Blues right now. Let’s face it – I can’t see this team doing any worse than the one that turned up at St Andrews on Saturday.
The stats show Barnsley had 23 shots and Blues 5.This compares with Peterborough who haven’t got a point yet who managed 18 shots to 27 playing against Wolves yesterday. This tells you firstly that Blues defensively are now completely hopeless and are unlikely to be able to keep a clean sheet but also based on yesterday’s perforrmance they are unable without full backs who can get forward ever going to create chances. Unless they can sort out the full back positions quickly given Caddis and now Murphy are injured then we are going to get beaten every week home or away. To get through the next month or so while these players are injured Blues need to sort out some kind of defensive plan that can get us a few nil nil bores until we can get these players back and then play with a bit of freedom. If LC can’t see that and get working on it on the training ground then he is as cluless as some people on here are making out.Needs must in dire situations
When Clarke arrived. We lost Mitch and he was replaced with. Ambrose , now a lot of us bluenoses. Me included thought he would be a decent signing. However since he’s been here he hasn’t set the place a lite . His other signings. E.g Mullins. A work horse who is the wrong side of 30. Who rarely. Finds one of his own players when passing. , loverkrands who we have tried to sign 3 times previously again age against him. Who don’t really seem to bring anything extra to the team. In my opinion. Gordon who on playing at Coventry and Watford was woeful I thought he was a left winger not a left back ( maybe that’s the way Chelsea play ) . Lita. Seems to take the pressure off king but he seems to be the type of player once he as earned a contract he becomes non existent. Leaving me with his final 2 signings. Ravel. Who he don’t seem to like. And caddis who to be fair did look ok. I fear. That the manager Is going down the Steve Bruce era when we were relegated by having a team of. Old players with experience who don’t really want it anymore
We will not recover with LC in charge and we cant afford to get rid. Only chink of light is that those working under him like McDermott will feel totally humiliated by events and they will walk first. Then there may be a chance that LC will do the honourable thing.
PP was rightly proud of being the man who brought CH to the club ,
Now he must equally man up to the mistake of bringing LC & Co to BCFC .
I have no doubt LC is decent guy with his heart in the right place, however he is quite obviously now completely out of his depth , & boxing well above his weight.
He needs time within the lower leagues , to serve his apprenticeship , & attend a few FA coaching courses . Sadly he could achieve much of the above with BCFC if he remains very much longer.
Keith Hill out thought him tactically , & produced a totally organised , pass & move Barnsley performance that was well worth the 3 points.
Also could somebody please explain what Terry McDerrmot does ?
We are now well entrenched within Coventry & Portsmouth territory .
Watching a loved one suffer like this is heartbreaking , all we have left is to plead with PP to
oversee an urgent sale to owners who will inject some much needed investment , & TLC back into our proud club.
Terry McDermott tells good jokes …apparently!
Well lets bring Jasper Carrott in as Assistant Manager then……he would show a darn sight more passion , & tell better jokes..
I think Butland, Redmond and hopefully Zigic will have to go at Christmas to pay for a) the low crowds, b) any team building in January whoever the manager is.
2nd year parachute payment of £16 million is keeping this squad together, next season with £8 million less we will have to sell players next summer, Davies, King, Burke and Fahey.
heartbreaking is the only way i can describe this, strangely enough though i dont blame Clark, although his persistence with playing the absolutely useless mullins does wind me up! Ive heard fans talk about the manager not being able to motivate players, well if any of them players need a manager to motivate them to perform, i do not want them at my club! this is their career and pride should be the only motivation they need.
Here is where i see the problems, in the midfield we were completely over run, the little lad dawson in the center for them yesterday was excellent. In the center we had spector and fahey, we all know fahey is a good player but hes not one to win a ball, more of a creative player. so that was spectors job, unfortunately he soon had to play left back meaning we put ambrose in the midfield, who has been completely anonymous and uncompetitive all season and prove to be again last night.
If you are being over run in midfield you expect at least one out of the two of your forwards to drop back and add an extra man there for a while but this did not happen. Once again king was as lazy as usual and every time lita touched the ball he lost it.
People may moan that burke isnt having the impact of last season but unfortunately he is hardly getting the chance to. If he can be released more on the wing and given support you know he can change games.
There needs to be changes next week, and although massively unpopular with supporters id like to see a 4-5-1 formation away to brighton with 3 attacking midfielders and i would also like to see mullins and king replaced because as far as im concerned they havent been good enough, this would be my team.
Butland
Spector Davies caldwell Gordon
Gomis Fahey
Burke Morrison Redmond
Lovenkrands/zigic
Agree with this Jay but why would you persist with Caudwell? He’s been poor this season to, and is becoming a liability. Give Packwood a chance to shine, which I think he will…
It seems it is not only LC who has difficulty picking a team. Zigic is a big lummox bleeding this club dry. If he had any footballing aspirations he would take a pay cut and leave and do us all a favour. No other player has lived off a goal in a cup final so long. A talentless piece of garbage.
LC wont walk. His career will be over if he walks. PP wont sack as we cant even sign players without offloading another. CY thinks he can limit his losses. Hello….but get a reality check. Gates are dwindling and parachute payments are running out and why are you still in charge when you cant put funds into a club…
We are dead beat folks until this regime is outed
Ok, I would like to add at this point that (in my opinion) Marlon King is simply doing his job and doing what he is told to do ..be up front and await the pass to finish, or put the ball in the 6 yard box himself. Last night was a case of Barnsley having pure possesion and out-classing us. I doubt this can mean King was lazy. All the players were playing in positions they were told and to stay there ..LC’s choice. Our defense is once again shot to bits and with Murphy, Ibanez, Caddis and Carr all injured, we are battered before we start. Currently I would say that Caldwell and Davies are the ones being lazy, and this is reflecting up the pitch into the likes of Mullins and Elliot.
It’s utterley shameful how a highly rated ‘keeper such as Butland is unable to have a back four to communicate to and rely on.
If we dont get our defense sorted, and this includes the midfield to partner the LB or RB respectively, we will be hammered time after time. Chris Hughton had this problem and it was tough, especially towards the end of the season, so LC should have picked this up. I can see the upcoming teams to St Andrews entirely soaking up the midfield and breaking the back four on the right ..almost every time.
This match was on sky for ALL to see, and if that isn’t a cause for alarm bells, then LC is wearing rose tinted glasses.
I watched the LC interview on sky with great Interest.
At times he looked completely overwhelmed by the questions put to him and at one stage was on the verge of crying.Full marks for his honesty and as said previously his heart is in the right place.
He is however out of his depth and he struggled to answer the questions…little boy lost comes to mind.This is not good for him or the club and PP must work to replace him ASAP.
I ‘m sure LC doesn’t wish to get beaten up as he did yesterday live on Sky and neither does PP.
Time to cut our losses and say goodbye to LC -his appointment was a big mistake but frankly he has lost the dressing room and the majority of supporters have lost confidence in his ability to manage at this level.
As i have said before Pannu was wrong when he wouldn’t pay compo.
He paid fees for ambrose and loan fees yet more important than all of them is the manager.
He should have used that money to get the right man in who can build a team and ethos to play football and not have his main criterea set in stone that he has to be cheap or free.
The stats show Barnsley had 23 shots and Blues 5.This compares with Peterborough who haven’t got a point yet who managed 18 shots to 27 playing against Wolves yesterday. This tells you firstly that Blues defensively are now completely hopeless and are unlikely to be able to keep a clean sheet but also based on yesterday’s perforrmance they are unable without full backs who can get forward ever going to create chances. Unless they can sort out the full back positions quickly given Caddis and now Murphy are injured then we are going to get beaten every week home or away. To get through the next month or so while these players are injured Blues need to sort out some kind of defensive plan that can get us a few nil nil bores until we can get these players back and then play with a bit of freedom. If LC can’t see that and get working on it on the training ground then he is as cluless as some people on here are making out.Needs must in dire situations
Think we need to go 4-2-3-1 now , with two ball winning central midfielders playing in front of the back four to offer them additional protection …Gomis & Spector ?
hopefully he’ll have them in today, stuff their day off and stuff finishing at 1pm during the week, i’d keep them in till 5pm and struggle home in the rush hour, so they are stuck in traffic and people in other cars can take the mick out of them.
I’d also play the video of the match to them every day this week, make them ashamed and cringe at their inept performance.
We cant call Ziggy in on Monday, we cant afford the 10 grand overtime payment!
i would show the players videos of last season and remind them how to play football the ch way. i dont know what it would have taken to keep ch at the club but whatever it was it would have been worth it.as stevie carr is injured why doesnt lc use him to help motivate the players as they should respect him as their captain and teamate and lc should not be afraid to ask him for his opion. I stayed to the final whistle and didnt boo as it achieves nothing and would ask my fellow bluenoses to behave the same.k.r.o.
A big proud club like blues will recover, no doubt about it, but PP knocked £20 million off its value when appointing LC. Why not call Dean Hoyle Hudders chairman for an overview of the guy and his mananagement team before appointing him ? I travel every weekend from Brum to watch HTFC and it was a long drive home fuming mad cos weve thrown another 2 goal lead away and had a shambolic defensive performance. He couldnt get us out of Div 1 with nearly 50 signings over 3 years and but for Jordans goals we would never have made play offs. He talks a good game, says all the right things and watching him now its all been seen before. I actually beleive he thinks hes a prem manager before hes done a bloody thing. Ask any of our fans- would we have won the play off final with him in charge ? no chance. No tactical nous, players used out of position, sulks with the media, just guessed half the time.He got found out at HTFC,bigging himself up to Leeds and Leicester, but neither of them fell for his verbal rubbish, so DH had had enough. Grayson comes in, and in no time gets us up and now a real force in the championship. It was easy for a decent manager with the kind of backing he got, but at Blues hes been found out earlier, as he cant buy ten players at a time and hope 5 are good. A bluffer if ever there was one
Certain players at certain times are quick enough to come out and say,”we have turned the corner” or similar comments,usually from the captain after winning a couple of games but i think they are answerable to the supporters after the Barnsley debacle too such as, “we have turned into a load of shit” Thats exactly what we have got, not just on saturday,it happened at Coventry too. The captain needs to address the supporters and tell us what their problem is? There clearly is one.
Is it too mad to think that PP will sit down with LC and his backroom staff and see what, if any, help LC needs. OK sacking him might be not an option, tempting though it sounds, but surely in any job if your team’s performance is truly shocking, then giving someone a hand or some support seems a reasonable thing to do? Or maybe football operates according to different rules to the rest of the world.
Its a morale problem. Is Lee Clark another Gus Poyet? No. Is he as good a man-manager as Chris Hughton? Almost certainly not. With continued turmoil at the club and the date of Carson’s trial fast approaching, the club will be surrounded by growing uncertainty. Add to that Clark’s reputation at Huddersfield of ‘it doesn’t work one way, try another’ and we have a toxic cocktail of doubt, impending doom, and little confidence that the manager knows what he’s doing. The absence of a positive, confident influence such as CH had as manager, and Stephen Carr brought to the pitch, and it’s hardly surprising the players have given up. Now that this contagion has spread to the terraces and is further deflating players’ spirits, it’s little wonder we go down 5-0 at home.
Sell as soon as you can, Carson. Until you do your assets are only going to dwindle.
[…] also been argued elsewhere that Blues cannot afford to sack Clark. To this I would respond with a couple of […]