Forget Recriminations, how do we sort this mess out?

[Didsbury Dave]

Our form has dipped alarmingly since Christmas. We're conceding goals. Teams have worked out how to play us. We're not winning enough. Our confidence has dipped alarmingly.

Forget about recriminations, what do we do right now to sort it out?

I think it's time for radical action because this season is far from over.

Joe Hart is going to have to be taken out the firing line and be replaced with Shay Given. He's cost us too many goals. He's a great keeper but his confidence is shot to bits. Get him in the reserves and let him get back to where he was.

Never ever pick Jo or Vieira again. It is unbelieveable to me that either of these two are even in our squad. Surely the manager has to admit this mistake and get them out of the firing line.

Look at the formation. The 4-2-3-1 isn't working well enough. We're too narrow and aren't getting enough balls into the box. The problem is we haven't got the wide men to go 4-4-2. However I think we should look hard at it and build our bridges with SWP. Silva's good enough to play wide left drifting in, with Kolorov overlapping.

Work incessantly defending setpieces. Bring back Lescott to partner Kompany.

Work at attacking setpieces. Lescott also adds to this.

DO what it takes off the field to bring some unity and confidence back to the camp. Have a "let's have it out" session. Do some bonding work. Get them fired up again. MAybe going all out to thump Sunderland will do some good.

Also, I think the Sheikh needs to be having a few strictly off the record discussions behind the scenes with a few people who are otherwise engaged. Purely as a precaution of course.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Our form has dipped alarmingly since Christmas. We're conceding goals. Teams have worked out how to play us. We're not winning enough. Our confidence has dipped alarmingly.

Forget about recriminations, what do we do right now to sort it out?

I think it's time for radical action because this season is far from over.

Joe Hart is going to have to be taken out the firing line and be replaced with Shay Given. He's cost us too many goals. He's a great keeper but his confidence is shot to bits. Get him in the reserves and let him get back to where he was.

Never ever pick Jo or Vieira again. It is unbelieveable to me that either of these two are even in our squad. Surely the manager has to admit this mistake and get them out of the firing line.

Look at the formation. The 4-2-3-1 isn't working well enough. We're too narrow and aren't getting enough balls into the box. The problem is we haven't got the wide men to go 4-4-2. However I think we should look hard at it and build our bridges with SWP. Silva's good enough to play wide left drifting in, with Kolorov overlapping.

Work incessantly defending setpieces. Bring back Lescott to partner Kompany.

Work at attacking setpieces. Lescott also adds to this.

DO what it takes off the field to bring some unity and confidence back to the camp. Have a "let's have it out" session. Do some bonding work. Get them fired up again. MAybe going all out to thump Sunderland will do some good.

Also, I think the Sheikh needs to be having a few strictly off the record discussions behind the scenes with a few people who are otherwise engaged. Purely as a precaution of course.

Agree with Hart
Agree with Vieira and Jo
Agree with SWP
Disagree with Lescott who is awful
Sunderland?

I would add playing Zabaleta in every game where he is fit.

 

[blueinsa]

The problem we have Dave is that the options needed to make a change are no longer available to us or should i say to Bobby.

He has completely underestimated the need for a different option and style at times, he has failed to realise that other managers will quickly realise what we are about and set their teams up to nullify us.

The pace and width we require has been either loaned out, frozen out or in AJ's case injured but lets all be honest here, AJ was clearly never a starter for Bobby and herein lies the problem. Bobby doesnt think we need width and pace and he is very very wrong and his admittance last night after the game that we have stopped playing and its his fault is the first time i think that he has realised he has made a huge mistake with certain players and the time has yet again passed were we can address the issue.

Bobby is under huge pressure and he knows it. Top 4 or the sack and i will go as far as to say, even with that, he is not going to be around much longer.

 

[samharris]

Like you im baffled as to why jo and paddy are played ( last night with micah and nige going off paddy was inevitable)The confidence for whatever reason seems to have gone and we look like a team hoping for a win rather than expecting it and lets face it,we should be expecting a win 8 times out of 10 with the players we have.
Sort the confidence Bob and you'll sort the problems.. well thats my view.

 

[Damocles]

FAir enough, let's draw a line in the sand and start talking about footy again.

Our form has dipped alarmingly since Christmas. We're conceding goals. Teams have worked out how to play us. We're not winning enough. Our confidence has dipped alarmingly.

Forget about recriminations, what do we do right now to sort it out?

I think it's time for radical action because this season is far from over.

Joe Hart is going to have to be taken out the firing line and be replaced with Shay Given. He's cost us too many goals. He's a great keeper but his confidence is shot to bits. Get him in the reserves and let him get back to where he was.

Mentioned this before about how touchy of a decision it is to drop a young keeper who is out of form; especially when we have no guarantee that Given will perform any better. You could argue either side, but I see Joe getting 'rested' soon.

Never ever pick Jo or Vieira again. It is unbelieveable to me that either of these two are even in our squad. Surely the manager has to admit this mistake and get them out of the firing line.

Jo plays because we don't have anyone else to fill his spot. Vieira can often be a steadying influence as we've seen a couple of times this season. We have a full 25, it would stupid not to use them all. I would much rather have Vieira or Jo than a kid like McDermott or Ibrahim at this point of the season.

Look at the formation. The 4-2-3-1 isn't working well enough. We're too narrow and aren't getting enough balls into the box. The problem is we haven't got the wide men to go 4-4-2. However I think we should look hard at it and build our bridges with SWP. Silva's good enough to play wide left drifting in, with Kolorov overlapping.

SWP can't cross, this has always been his major weakness, so I don't know why he would have suddenly found talent in this area. We are working balls into the box rather than twatting them in, which is fine against certain teams, but those who sit back against us a just double mark Tevez and now Dzeko cause us real problems. I believe that Dzeko was bought for this sole purpose, leaving Tevez and Silva to be the creative forces on the wings. We haven't really seen this system click yet, but I'm willing to give it a little more time.

Work incessantly defending setpieces. Bring back Lescott to partner Kompany.

Work at attacking setpieces. Lescott also adds to this.

DO what it takes off the field to bring some unity and confidence back to the camp. Have a "let's have it out" session. Do some bonding work. Get them fired up again. MAybe going all out to thump Sunderland will do some good.

Also, I think the Sheikh needs to be having a few strictly off the record discussions behind the scenes with a few people who are otherwise engaged. Purely as a precaution of course.

You don't know enough bout our unity to comment on it, and the squad is all united if players are to be believed (both in public and in private). Don't agree on the set pieces either, we've scored loads from attacking set pieces and conceded rarely on defensive ones in comparison to other teams.

Lastly, we're not in a mess. We're not battering teams, but we our results are still pretty good and we're still in with a shout of all of our main goals. I don't understand how you can feel that we are in a mess, we've had a bad month, it isn't like we've had a bad six months, what were you expecting from a hastily assembled team like ours? Title challenge? That's naive at best

 

[fbloke]

I dont agree that we have loaned/frozen out pace or width.

If you refer to SWP he has been log of the highest order for months, perhaps ever since he an dhis dad eyed the main chance for a new contract?

Bellers can barely get one match a week in so cannot be relied on in terms of fitness and even then his form has been patchy in the Championship. So he isnt good enough for where we are now.

And I assume you dont mean RSC or Bridge? ;-)

 

[OrigamiNinja]

The problem we have Dave is that the options needed to make a change are no longer available to us or should i say to Bobby.

He has completely underestimated the need for a different option and style at times, he has failed to realise that other managers will quickly realise what we are about and set their teams up to nullify us.

The pace and width we require has been either loaned out, frozen out or in AJ's case injured but lets all be honest here, AJ was clearly never a starter for Bobby and herein lies the problem. Bobby doesnt think we need width and pace and he is very very wrong and his admittance last night after the game that we have stopped playing and its his fault is the first time i think that he has realised he has made a huge mistake with certain players and the time has yet again passed were we can address the issue.

Bobby is under huge pressure and he knows it. Top 4 or the sack and i will go as far as to say, even with that, he is not going to be around much longer.

He is wrong with the players we have. There is nothing wrong with the formation if he has Fabregas and Nasri or Xavi and Iniesta. Unfortunately for us we have Barry and Milner.

 

[kiam06]

I think we just need to go back to basics and keep a solid formation as we were earlier in the season, we should ignore the media calling us 'negative' as they only do that because they know it works for us and they didn't like it. If we van get back to keeping goals out we will see the results start to come as the likes of tevez, yaya and silva will get us enough goals. I don't think we have to panic too much though we just need to remember how we got into the top 3 and not try and chase games.

 

[Lekos]

Forget about recriminations, what do we do right now to sort it out?

Buy Blackpool and swap the squads. Done.

 

[dancity19]

FAir enough, let's draw a line in the sand and start talking about footy again.

Our form has dipped alarmingly since Christmas. We're conceding goals. Teams have worked out how to play us. We're not winning enough. Our confidence has dipped alarmingly.

Forget about recriminations, what do we do right now to sort it out?

I think it's time for radical action because this season is far from over.

Joe Hart is going to have to be taken out the firing line and be replaced with Shay Given. He's cost us too many goals. He's a great keeper but his confidence is shot to bits. Get him in the reserves and let him get back to where he was.

Mentioned this before about how touchy of a decision it is to drop a young keeper who is out of form; especially when we have no guarantee that Given will perform any better. You could argue either side, but I see Joe getting 'rested' soon.

Never ever pick Jo or Vieira again. It is unbelieveable to me that either of these two are even in our squad. Surely the manager has to admit this mistake and get them out of the firing line.

Jo plays because we don't have anyone else to fill his spot. Vieira can often be a steadying influence as we've seen a couple of times this season. We have a full 25, it would stupid not to use them all. I would much rather have Vieira or Jo than a kid like McDermott or Ibrahim at this point of the season.

Look at the formation. The 4-2-3-1 isn't working well enough. We're too narrow and aren't getting enough balls into the box. The problem is we haven't got the wide men to go 4-4-2. However I think we should look hard at it and build our bridges with SWP. Silva's good enough to play wide left drifting in, with Kolorov overlapping.

SWP can't cross, this has always been his major weakness, so I don't know why he would have suddenly found talent in this area. We are working balls into the box rather than twatting them in, which is fine against certain teams, but those who sit back against us a just double mark Tevez and now Dzeko cause us real problems. I believe that Dzeko was bought for this sole purpose, leaving Tevez and Silva to be the creative forces on the wings. We haven't really seen this system click yet, but I'm willing to give it a little more time.

Work incessantly defending setpieces. Bring back Lescott to partner Kompany.

Work at attacking setpieces. Lescott also adds to this.

DO what it takes off the field to bring some unity and confidence back to the camp. Have a "let's have it out" session. Do some bonding work. Get them fired up again. MAybe going all out to thump Sunderland will do some good.

Also, I think the Sheikh needs to be having a few strictly off the record discussions behind the scenes with a few people who are otherwise engaged. Purely as a precaution of course.

You don't know enough bout our unity to comment on it, and the squad is all united if players are to be believed (both in public and in private). Don't agree on the set pieces either, we've scored loads from attacking set pieces and conceded rarely on defensive ones in comparison to other teams.

Over the entire course of the season we haven't conceded too many from set pieces. I don't think this is what the OP is referring to, he is referring to the rapid increase recently. Leicester-set pieces. Notts county- Set pieces. Wolves- Set Pieces. Birmingham- Set Pieces.