den

Everybody thinks the performance against Burnley was pretty pathetic - yes? Some posters think because we are 3rd in the league, severe criticism of Sundays display, or any other poor display is somehow over the top, uncalled for or unfair. Right? Really?

Playing out from the back has to be applauded. The absolute key to it though is not to get caught on the ball. It’s a simple philosophy yet we get caught on the ball time and time again. WHY?

All Burnley had to do was turn up Arbitro. Standard championship fare was more than enough to embarrass us. It embarrassed me, I hope it embarrassed absolutely everyone at the club as well.

I think JDT would have woken up this morning with the realisation that he has a lot to learn about English football. If he didn’t, we’re all in trouble.

I think now is a good time to take stock of where we are. A little bit of honesty needed. We aren’t a good team despite what the table might suggest. We’ve lost 9 league games and it’s only mid November. Good teams don’t do that. Burnley only had to turn up today to win at a canter, - it could have been 5 or 6 - in a Derby game. Thomason was found out to be totally clueless as to how to get a performance in such a game. He was found out to be tactically naive and fielded a team incapable of posing any kind of threat. It also has to be said that while we have a number of talented youngsters at the club, we are pretty close to being a one man team. Stop Brereton and we have almost nothing to offer. Today should mark a big wake up call. We are lacking in a lot of areas. Thomason has a lot to learn.

Could have been 5-0.

Clueless and embarrassing. Couldn’t have got it more wrong.

😀

Looking at that forecast, there won’t be a final.

Terrific performance from England. Absolutely tremendous. At no point was it a thrash. It was controlled and calculated. Aggressive cricket at its best. One more time on Sunday please.

I’ll just reiterate what I said last night. This flip flopping of form is what we should expect between now and the end of the season. Personally I don’t think we can realistically expect to be finishing in the top 6. It’s too early, the squads too young and the squad doesn’t have the strength in depth. There’s promise there for sure but building on what we have won’t be easy. Good players don’t tend to hang around.

We were really poor tonight. These performances will happen. I think that’s what we have to expect with these lads.

Our own worst enemy here.

The one thing that stands out to me about Adam is his balance. He always seems perfectly poised to play the ball to either side. Impressive.

Another good, hard earned win. We can’t continue having to soak up so much possession and pressure in the second half of games though. It’s getting to be every game. This young side has a lot to learn about how to slow games down and get possession in areas where we can’t be hurt if we lose the ball. At the moment we’re trying to football our way out of our own area, when we’re being pinned back. We’re trying to football our way, everywhere, all the time. We can’t keep doing that and getting away with it. Im not sure how the coaches are approaching that side of the game but it’s not right at the moment. Apart from that, excellent.

I’ve never liked winning or losing games to penalties or “ref/linesman” decisions. There was one and a half hours to score goals. We did it twice through good play, Sunderland didn’t manage it at all. Tough. Maybe Sunderland weren’t good enough last night? As for Rovers, I thought we were superb. So many young lads - it’s fantastic to see them coming through and doing a great job. Very happy with our display. It gives us hope.

If you like. I wouldn’t recommend it though. You’d lose.

Keith Andrews? Matty Holmes ? Matt Dickens? Chris Brown? If we had a list of poor signings there would be hundreds of them. you always run posters on this site down Gav. They have as much of an idea of a good player as anyone else. Including managers.

Posters on this site have as much chance of being right or wrong about players as most managers Gav.

If I can put it simply, not many of these lads are proven, week in, week out, championship standard players. Some of them occasionally put in a performance. That’s the bottom line for me.

There are certain people/pundits in all sports that just demand respect for their views. People who have been at the very top and done it all. Real sportsmen. Sportsmen who have given everything in their time to the sport. I could have listened all day to Shane Warne. I could have listened all day to Cloughie. That doesn’t mean to say I agreed with absolutely everything they ever said or did - but for whatever reason they could only be respected for what they’d done. Souey is in that group for me. I could listen to him all day too.

Yes, I can see that and that’s what he’ll continue to do. What if things get worse? Will there come a time when you come on here and say he must carry on doing it?

JDT has to make a judgement. Is this group of players capable of playing in his desired way? If he does, how long can he persist with performances like tonight’s without risking things going from bad to worse? I’m sure he believes that the way he’s trying to mould the team is the right way and will stick with it. I would just say that all footballing sides simply have to learn not to overplay. Added to the fact he isn’t picking his best team. That can come though. All in all, he’s a long way off yet.

Young lad, hardly played, never taken pen for us before. unbelievable decision.