Asanovic70

2 hours ago, DCFClks said:

How can Rooney be a disappointment if you don't think anyone else could get better out the team? That doesn't make sense. Wouldn't that just make you content with Rooney? I just have to disagree, I think another manager would get more out of them. How many clubs in our position in the past, sack a manager and need someone to come in and save them from relegation, hire a complete unqualified novice? it's unheard of. Other clubs in this situation would hire an experienced manager to hopefully see them through. I believe if we went for someone like Mick McCarthy (who's previously got the best out of Lawrence and Waghorn at Ipswich) he'd would do enough to keep us up.

Rooney play's worse football than anyone else in the league and for me has shown no tactical nous what so ever. Even teams with mostly league 1 players like Rotherham play better. Would it not even be worth a Mac all or nothing gamble? he's had instant results before.

I think Rooney did make an immediate impact, we went on a run of 6W in 8 which got most of us thinking that our season had turned around, conceding 5 goals in 13 games after conceding 20 in the first 13 & getting 1 clean-sheet under Cocu.

What has been alarming is how quickly it all began to unravel again, a run of 1W in 11 & 6 goals scored in 10 games (7L). We are soft touch on the road, losing 6 out of the last 7. Others have flagged up some interesting criticism that Rooney began to change things too much after naming a settled line-up.

I mentioned Paul Cook in my first post because he hasn't had the desired impact Ipswich hoped - and he is an experienced manager. He hasn't been able to bring him any of his own players to play in his preferred style. Rooney had a transfer window but matters off-field meant he had to bring in loans, two of whom are PL reserves. Lee Bowyer has done better but he had Jutkiewicz and Hogan as experienced strikers.

I advocated  Mick McCarthy when things were desperate. He had just been appointed for a job in Cyprus so we will never know. As for yesterday, the commentator & pundit (Kevin Gallacher) I listened to mentioned one move involving Lawrence where he chose the wrong option. They both thought that is why he has remained in the Championship despite being a good player. 

A lack of attacking quality

There have been a lot of fine margins, but goals are what win games and 31 is a dreadful return. It's a squad game. Look at the BBC stats page for the Championship, browsing top assists, Huddersfield have a player on 7, Birmingham, Coventry & Wycombe have one each on 6 and even Sheff W have Windass on 5. There isn't a single Rams player listed. If correct, our joint top assists are Byrne & Waghorn on 3 with Buchanan on two. Harding of Rotherham is on 4.

Worst perfoming team in terms of chances created in open play

As pointed out, on whoscored, we are amongst the lowest ranked sides in terms of chances created from Open Play (14), Huddersfield have scored 30 by comparison. McCarthy tends to play direct effective football so set-pieces would have been important but do we really have players, even our attackers, capable of putting in good delivery?

Yes, some of them are probably underperforming for whatever reason, Jozwiak facing the challenge of coming to terms with a new league and the physical demands of it, but if we go down, it will be for a number of factors (injuries, inconsistency as mentioned by @RoyMac5) as well as the simple fact this squad lacked depth and cover and was not good enough especially in terms of goals created and scored. 

I really think few managers would turn this situation around &  I think your comments about McClaren are wishing thinking, but who knows? I think fatigue has also taken its toll on a thin squad, the likes of Knight has gone from being a manager's dream to losing both his place and the captaincy.

2 hours ago, DCFClks said:

Considering Rotherham seem to be our main rivals this season, how many of there players would you actually put in our team? 1 or 2 if that? There squads so bad they were even happy to take Jozefzoon of us.

Does this not suggest that we should at least be above Rotherham's level? does this not suggest that either the players aren't playing to there ability? or (more likely in my opinion) the coaches aren't getting the best out of them?

I don't know, there's more to a team than it being the sum of its parts. We have the more gifted individuals, but do they/can they play as a team? You may argue, and quite rightly, that they appeared to do so when Bielik was in the side. We have got some of our better results against the better sides. Rotherham haven't beaten a side ranked 10th or higher. Yet they have beaten the sides in/around them when it mattered including a double over us.

Your comment skirts dangerously close to complacency. There are plenty of sides who remain in divisions as opposed to sides with better players/bigger budgets, precisely because they function as a team. It was a miracle that Wycombe got promoted in the first instance as they already possessed one of the lowest budgets in L1.

There's a view that we are one of the biggest underachievers in the division alongside Forest and the likes of Blackburn. I actually think our squad and players are not as good as we think they are or some of them think themselves to be. Some are carrying injuries (Wisdom), others are talented & young but inconsistent, we have scored 31 goals, the lowest in the division. That is a combination of a lack of creativity (the amount of chances created) and clinical finishing. We have failed to score in 20/42 games (48%). Bielik perhaps was the only midfielder able to offer a different outlet, switching the play.

Apart from the top six, most sides in this division are evenly matched. The fact is that we haven't performed against sides in/around us at times and the points dropped against the likes of Coventry may come to haunt us. We haven't been always professional when it was required or ensured we at least left with a point. 

Rooney has been a big disappointment in how he has managed this side over the past couple of months, but I don't think anybody else would have extracted a whole lot more out of this squad - and I include Paul Cook who I wanted as manager. He's struggled to turn Ipswich around, 2W in 11 and failing to score in 5 of the last 6. They are one of the lowest scorers in L1 & Cook tends to have a reputation as a manager who likes to play attacking football.

I think others described Rooney's impact well @Rammy03. Rooney got us to be more solid and nick wins. But once this gave way, and CKR became less effective (injury), the old problem of lack of goals came back to haunt us. Six in 10 games tells it own story.

2 minutes ago, StrawHillRam said:

Who

Clearly, the chap who left such a lingering impression nobody can remember who he was.

I think this season has been long in the making though I did hope we'd challenge but the EFL cup tie against Barrow was an early indicator. 

This week could possibly have been the most significant for us  in terms of how the relegation battle has turned against us - though if we go down, it has to do with a multitude of things, not one week. But it's the week where things are finally no longer in our hands unless we start winning ourselves: Coventry winning away, Rotherham winning their other midweek game &  Huddersfield possibly doing the same whilst we lost again.

It's been a body blow. I'm sure the other sides are aware of our form and know getting a good result of some sort will heap even more pressure on an out of form side.

At the moment, I'd take their rubbish instead of our rubbish which is of even more threadbare quality!

I have been underwhelmed with our form over the last 10+ games (7L, 5 out of six away). He inherited a poor situation, his press conferences were refreshing with his transparent honesty, but his managerial tenure is beginning to resemble his impact here as a player. Better than we hoped for before a dramatic tail-off into our worst fears.

Huddersfield have taken the lead as I write. Yesterday was the first time when I didn't believe him, i.e.  his comments about telling us not to panic. I listened to BBC Lancashire's coverage and after the late penalty appeal, Rooney & the coaching team raced to the referee to ask him about it.

The BBC Lancs commentator summed it up: "What's the point? It's gone."

It sounded like the act of a desperate manager. A natural response but a desperate one.

I think our situation is alarming precisely because we can't score goals,, failing to score in 6 of the last 9. Defensively, we've held up quite well - bar the loss at Cardiff - but it's the final third where we've struggled all season, whatever the combination.

I think it also boils down to attitude and our side did not go into this season thinking it'd be in a relegation battle. The likes of Rotherham did. I'd not be surprised if they survive, they do have two games which are 6-pointers against Coventry & Birmingham., but they've known what they've been up against all season, play to a set style and now need 4pts from 3 games to overhaul us. The only positive is that they have two tricky away games though Cardiff now look out of the play-off equation.

I really think it could come down between us & Huddersfield, two sides who have been dragged into the dog-fight. We could do with Forest doing us a favour on Saturday & three of Huddersfield's five remaining games have something riding on them including a final day game at Reading. I'm afraid it is looking that things may go to the final game which is unheard of in recent years. Under Nigel Clough, we only once left it so late, beating a relegated Charlton, similarly under George Burley, the home win against Millwall (both match day 45, the penultimate game).

I think Blackburn's remaining games are against relegation threatened sides including Huddersfield and one win, perhaps against us, could seal their Championship survival. Likewise, Preston's win at Swansea was demoralizing because I thought they wouldn't win another game after sacking Neil.

I was very pleased with our loan signings, Gregory has weighed in but they have proved a mixed bag, three months on. Injury prone (Edmundson, Gregory), ineffective (Baningime), I expected Roberts to make more of an impact, Mengi appears to have made the biggest contribution of the lot. It's not an encouraging thing to say that he brought about our best chance against Norwich.

I study the form & Luton will be challenging. They have only 1L against sides in the bottom half & 11/14W have come against sides in the lower half. I went against the stats for the Stoke game, hoping we'd take the Brentford 2nd half performance into this game, (Stoke had a record of 6W 2D 1L v lower half).

Preston have just sacked Alex Neil. I think he had taken the side as far as he could & then totally revamped it which has led to more instability. They are on 44pts & may have acted because they fear getting dragged into the dogfight. They have lost 10 in 16 since the New Year (3W), a run akin to Hull's last season. Virtually all their remaining fixtures, bar Stoke, are against sides needing points at either end of the table. (Our last 16, 6W 2D 8L)

I've always felt Rotherham might survive, Coventry as well especially now they have the incentive of returning to the Ricoh.

I'm afraid we are really in the scrap on current form & our inability to score & create chances from open-play. Defensively, we've held up until recently.

Great player at Championship level, we may have got promotion (top 2) if he'd been able to play alongside Will Hughes, rarely did they get the chance to play alongside one another, as one got injured just as the other made his return. They worked well in tandem. That challenge on him at home to Ipswich, such a ridiculous one.

I'm not sure I want to judge his character, and if he's bitter regarding his career, then maybe he has some cause, & we all have our low/dark moments in life that we have to work through. He had a cruciate injury while he was at WBA as well if correct.

You'd like to think the PFA, somewhere along the line, could help him, maybe with advice if he ever wants to return to the game in some capacity (coaching/working with youngsters) or just support in general. If he wants a clean break out of the game, I can't blame him.