Where do we go from here?

[admira]

3 hours ago, DRBee said:

What a superficial post  ..... to put the blame on Martin not scoring goals shows you can't see the wood for the trees.

 

Nothing superficial about it. I appreciate there are other elements of the team not operating as they should, I'm just suggesting if Martin, or indeed the rest of the team aren't scoring goals (as I pointed out in the 4th paragraph), then we are not going to win games. 

Goals scored in last seven games = 5.

[ram1964]

8 hours ago, admira said:

 

We’ve all been analysing where things have gone wrong for us recently and what we can do about it so here is my two-penny worth.

I’m sure I am not the only one who a few weeks ago was getting complacent, thinking a draw was a bad result and how we were going to ease ourselves to promotion. But teams don’t win all the time, things can’t always be good and life isn’t like that either.  There was always going to be a bad patch and this is it. It will just take that little bit of luck, maybe a fortuitous penalty or a loose ball falling to a Derby players feet and we go ahead in a game. The heads will rise, the confidence levels will start to grow and we will be on our way. Maybe the catalyst to this will be the return of Will Hughes. God knows we need that creative spark right now. Whatever it is, sooner or later it WILL happen.

So, where did it all go wrong? In my opinion, it’s when Chris Martin stopped scoring goals. It’s now 16 games and 24 hours of football since his last goal from open play. Imagine the pressure he must be feeling? Apart from his first few games in a Rams shirt, he has scored for us consistently.  With every game that passes, he must feel that pressure increasing. He knows scoring goals is his job, it’s why he is in the team and to coin a cliché, ‘goals win games’.

Now imagine that’s you at work, not delivering, not doing the job you are paid to do. But you have 25,000 people watching you fail. I feel nothing but sorry for the guy but what can Clement do about it? He rested Martin for one half but did that make him feel relieved or de-motivated? Who knows? He bought in Blackman, a proven goal scorer at this level (for this season at least), but instead of replacing Martin during his lean spell, he plays him too but out of position. He leaves Bent a 200 goal career striker out of the squad when we are crying out for goals. What of the rest of the team’s contribution? It’s pretty damning. Weimann had a purple patch, went off the boil and hasn’t been seen since. Ince bangs in a few, Johnson who arrived with a reputation of scoring goals from midfield haven’t delivered, Butters gets the odd few and that’s about it. Bryson who used to score regularly hardly gets on the pitch and Russell has dried up too.

Think back to last season. When Martin had his spell out, Bent came in and scored goals at a similar rate.  Once he was out too, we were out of options. Russell played up front, didn’t score and we stopped winning. It’s no different this time round.

We all bemoaned Macca as not having a plan B. It looked like Clement did at first but that’s looking less likely now. For the Bristol City game, Ince played in a central role and banged in a hat trick. Why are we not doing that again, putting Bent or Blackman as the number 9, starting Razza instead of a late sub? Calls for Cement’s head are ridiculous though. A few weeks ago we thought he was one of the best bosses we’d ever had and things don’t change that quickly. He is still learning the ropes in his first job as Head Coach.

The important thing is for everyone at the club to stick together thorough this lean spell, the players, the fans, the boss and Mel.  We still only have 5 defeats, we are still 4th and there is a long way to go. Let’s hope and pray that the little bit of luck comes at Craven Cottage. COYR.

 

Totally agree ,however you need to create luck and unless you play offensive attacking football creating chances ,the only luck we will be getting. Is keeping clean sheets

[ram1964]

6 hours ago, emjlc02 said:

1. Carson never releases the ball early to launch counter attacks

I must be watching a different game, Carson distributes the ball quicker than any keeper we have had for years

Who can he release it too? Think Carson is the least of our worries, his job should be safer than mine and I employ myself

[ram1964]

6 hours ago, admira said:

If we changed manager, he would want to bring his own players in and I think we've spent enough for one season. It would be madness to change manager just because we have gone a few games without a win. If we were bottom of the league then maybe.

Believe PC should be given an opportunity to resolve problems until end of season.Who would be a suitable appointment at this moment in time should he go?Worst scenario is we don't go up this season and albeit  disappointing its some thing we are used to.

Just need to keep up the support for the team ,club and owner at this time and not let it be said that the fans have had any dirogatory influence which has contributed to performances

[Ramos]

1 minute ago, ram1964 said:

Believe PC should be given an opportunity to resolve problems until end of season.Who would be a suitable appointment at this moment in time should he go?Worst scenario is we don't go up this season and albeit  disappointing its some thing we are used to.

Just need to keep up the support for the team ,club and owner at this time and not let it be said that the fans have had any dirogatory influence which has contributed to performances

Neil FREAKIN Warnock.

But only so we can do the Yaya, Kolo, toure chant but with Neil and Stephen Warnock. 

[24/7ram]

If clement was to go I would go for at this very moment someone with a point to prove Rodgers ( dreaming of course) but honestly who is out there that is better 

[duncanjwitham]

3 hours ago, TETRA said:

This is clearly the main problem, & rather worrying to say the very least. How long do we have to keep saying we are no good when Chris Martin isn't scoring, it all goes to prove that we've been relying on one man for MUCH TOO LONG. Instead of spending £25 Million on a cross section of different players many of whom we've certainly paid well over the top for when you examine their influence on our performances. We should have spent at least half of that amount on a proven out to out goalscorer. Unfortunately owing to what we've bought this season I can't see an easy fix to our problems right now I'm afraid. The automatic places are now gone in my opinion & unless things change during the rest of Febuary when we are facing a bunch of teams that we simply should be beating. Then the top six might also be beyond us sadly.

The thing is, in the past 2 seasons we weren't really reliant on Martin. Yes he scored a lot of goals, but we had goals coming from all over the team as well - the wingers were all getting 5-10 each, Hendrick/Bryson the same and Hughes, Thorne and the fullbacks chipping in. If Martin didn't score, someone else would.  This season, we've gone from being a team that attacks as a unit, with goals coming from anywhere, to a team that is utterly reliant on a moment of magic from a forward player to get a goal.  And the players we have aren't really the type of players to do that.  Ince will pop up with a few, Butterfield and Thorne will lash a few long-rangers in and that's about it.  if we really wanted to play like this, we should have spent the money on big powerful forwards like Andre Grey or Antonio - players that can play without support.  Not lightweight dribbly players like Ince, Weimann and Blackman.

[sage]

23 minutes ago, ram1964 said:

Who can he release it too? Think Carson is the least of our worries, his job should be safer than mine and I employ myself

I said this was a minor one, but Blackman made a good run 3 times without receiving the ball. Whoever plays left wing never gets a quick release from Carson, only Ince gets that, AS I said a minor one, but it still makes us more predictable.

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

hampionship Table 2015/2016

Previous dates

 

 

 

Short tableLast updated: 14:36pm 3rd February

#	Team	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	+/-
1	Hull City	28	17	5	6	45	18	56	27
2	Middlesbrough	27	17	4	6	37	14	55	23
3	Burnley	29	14	10	5	47	26	52	21
4	Derby County	29	13	11	5	39	25	50	14
5	Brighton and Hove Albion	28	13	11	4	34	28	50	6
6	Ipswich Town	29	13	9	7	39	36	48	3
7	Sheffield Wednesday	29	12	11	6	43	32	47	11
8	Birmingham City	29	13	8	8	37	28	47	9
9	Cardiff City	29	11	11	7	38	33	44	5
10	Brentford	29	11	7	11	42	41	40	1
11	Nottingham Forest	29	9	12	8	30	25	39	5
12	Wolverhampton Wanderers	29	10	9	10	39	40	39	-1
13	Queens Park Rangers	29	8	12	9	35	35	36	0
14	Preston North End	29	8	12	9	25	27	36	-2
15	Leeds United	29	8	12	9	29	33	36	-4
16	Reading	29	9	8	12	33	33	35	0
17	Huddersfield Town	29	8	8	13	39	42	32	-3
18	Blackburn Rovers	27	6	12	9	24	24	30	0
19	Fulham	28	6	10	12	43	48	28	-5
20	Milton Keynes Dons	28	7	5	16	23	41	26	-18
21	Rotherham United	29	7	4	18	35	53	25	-18
22	Bristol City	29	5	10	14	24	47	25	-23
23	Charlton Athletic	29	5	9	15	26	55	24	-29
24	Bolton Wanderers	29	3	12	14	26	48	21	-22

KEY

• Positions: Promotion 1,2. Play Off 3,4,5,6. Relegation 22,23,24.
• Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. The bottom 3 teams will be automatically relegated to the division below.
• If two or more teams finish level on points the team with the better goal difference will finish higher.
• If two or more teams have the same points and the same goal difference, the team which has scored the higher number of goals will finish higher.
• If two or more teams finish level on points, goal difference and goals scored, and the championship, a relegation place or European qualification is at stake, they will then play off to decide who finishes higher.