Fleetwood Home Sat 18th March 3.00pm

[Tamworthram]

4 minutes ago, StrawHillRam said:

 didn't think Fleetwood did anything amazing apart from turning us, winning first balls and crossing when they had opportunity to do so. From that they won the game and we didn't do any of that.
 

that sums it up

Apart from that, what have the Romans ever done for us??

[jimtastic56]

A few weeks ago , we all agreed that our players were looking tired . Many of them have been “Bench Warmers” in the last few years and not used to playing 40 games a season. Warne has tried to freshen things up, but it hasn’t worked.However he may have burnt his bridges with Hourihane by subbing him in the first half and leaving Bird on.

[Jimbo Ram]

7 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Knight trained. Where did you hear the 'badly' bit? Doesn't excuse his chosing to continue to play Fozzy at LB where most know he's been poor. Ignoring the setup that had a long unbeaten run. Taking off a player who scored two goals in the previous game. Etc, etc.

It was clear in the 2nd half, when Fozzy and Cashin were the two CHs, that we could finally play the ball down the pitch rather than just kick long. And is it any surprise that there's little chance of the ball sticking up front when Collins is the 'striker'.

He said training went badly yesterday? Not sure what he meant??

[Caerphilly Ram]

5 minutes ago, angieram said:

Brilliant! 

I really like Bird, Sibley, Knight and Hourihane. I just feel we’re lacking (and have been for years) a bit more athleticism and strength in the squad. We get bullied far too often, did in the championship too. Every now and then we have a Kazim or Bradley Johnson type figure to help out those slighter frames but feel (at this level especially) we could do with a couple of stronger, mobile players to play alongside the neat academy footballers. 
That’s what I would target for our summer recruitment, find out who from league two and one clubs, championship clubs likely to get relegated, prem academies might be on a free to add that physical presence. 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Caerphilly Ram

[Anag Ram]

Curtis Davies is finished as a player. Superb servant, just past it now.

 I got lambasted when I said it a few weeks ago but I think people will see it.

We’ve done okay with Cashin and Forsyth at CB. Roberts played well at LB and Smith, despite being the softest player we’ve ever had, has been okay at RB.

That’s our best defence.

Bird will prove his worth again, Knight is a must and McGoldrick (not the one we saw today) obviously starts.

That is the basis of a top six side.

 I like Dobbin because he keeps defenders busy.

We can come back but it’s a mental battle now.

 I saw players unable to play a ten yard pass today. That’s scrambled brains.

For some reason we keep getting sucked in to kick and rush tactics. Strong characters need to get the team playing it on the ground.

We are technically superior but physically inferior to most teams in the league.

If the players can work that out, we’ll be okay.

[MaltRam]

Wildsmith

Rooney Forsyth Cashin Roberts

Bird Knight

NML Sibley Dobbin

McGoldrick

Hourihane, Smith and Barkhuisen as options.

Nobody else outside of that 14 gets a run out unless injury and suspension demand it.

We're limited, but that's the best we've got. It might even be good enough. 

Keep the faith.

 

 

 

[RoyMac5]

2 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

I really like Bird, Sibley, Knight and Hourihane. I just feel we’re lacking (and have been for years) a bit more athleticism and strength in the squad.

Don't you think you have to wait for younger players to 'grow up'? Those three are just starting to develop physically. I'd rather those three and we played football around them than some 'athletic clogger'.

How did we manage in our long unbeaten run?

[PistoldPete]

7 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

2014-15 was completely different. We went from 1st in February and looking like the best team in the league to 8th in May.

This season we are going from 4th at our best but still some way off the top two to maybe 7th if we have a poor run in and other teams capitalise.

It’s not the huge drop off you think it is. We have only ever been 2-3 poor results from looking over our shoulders. Promotion has always been an outside chance not a certainty.

I think we could beat all four of those teams if we play well and play to our potential. We have beaten Barnsley and Bolton and competed in tight games with Ipswich, Plymouth and even runaway leaders Wednesday.

It’s up to Warne to find a way to deliver that and time is still on his side. Yet you have written us off in March when there’s still so much life left in the season. You’re making yourself look silly.

We have got 10 points from 9 games.  That is relegation form. And we have dropped seven points against lowly opposition .. at home. It's not just a wobble, its a full on meltdown. 

[angieram]

3 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

I really like Bird, Sibley, Knight and Hourihane. I just feel we’re lacking (and have been for years) a bit more athleticism and strength in the squad. We get bullied far too often, did in the championship too. Every now and then we have a Kazim or Bradley Johnson type figure to help out those slighter frames but feel (at this level especially) we could do with a couple of stronger, mobile players to play alongside the neat academy footballers. 
That’s what I would target for our summer recruitment, find out who from league two and one clubs, championship clubs likely to get relegated, prem academies might be on a free to add that physical presence. 

You're absolutely right. Even though I generally dislike those physical, in your face, head it and shove it players and much prefer to see my football played on the ground, if we need to spend another season in this league it's what we're going to need to get out of it.

[OssieEnd]

17 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

You’re wrong. Their current form isn’t relevant to whether they deserved the win or not.

It doesn’t matter if they’ve won ten games on the trot or lost ten games. Today they were by far the better team and deserved their win.

Er ?? lol 

 

I did say they " deserved" the win . lol 

 

But. Their current "form" is oh so relevant. Can we not fall out over this please ?

[Osbaldwick]

That was properly terrible. Given that it was the first time I’ve made it down this season, I’m clearly a jinx and will now drown myself in jäger as penance. Sorry. 

[uttoxram75]

Bad day at the races today, formation was wrong from the start and once that first goal went in it all seemed to go against us. We couldn't put two passes together.

Put it behind us and move on.

Come on you Rams?

[Ramarena]

15 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Possibly the post match interview from the club, Warne said training yesterday was poor. 
I’d like to see us approach the next game back with what was working well for us earlier in the season 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 or whatever it is, get back to being tough to beat and passing the ball to players with a ram on their shirt. A reaction is a must.

Interesting that he said they were poor in training. You could see their heads were elsewhere as a group.

Warne now needs to work out why and how to get them back focused as soon as possible.

[Mr Tibbs]

17 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Knight trained. Where did you hear the 'badly' bit?

PW post match. Sounds like the opposite of what you want the day before a game. 

If that's Knight after a week's worth of training it makes today even worse for me, I thought I was being kind thinking he hadn't trained. He was so far off the standard required it's laughable he's going to be playing international fixtures next week. 

[duncanjwitham]

19 minutes ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

Absolute f****** nonsense. That’s our first home defeat since October and the worst performance (first half ) I’ve seen in 25+ years of watching Derby. It is in no way representative of Warne or recent performances. It is a one off, and you can question Warne but this wasn’t tactics it was players not running and doing their jobs.

However, It was an Aberration, abomination whatever you want to call it and playing like that there’s no chance we’re going up. Never been so angry as I was at half time.

It’s not so much about being representative of recent performances, but as the culmination of a downward trend.  I think we’ve been getting slowly worse, pretty much since the Cheltenham away game.  We’ve stopped keeping clean sheets and started conceding sloppy goals. We’ve stopped playing through midfield and started hitting aimless long balls all game. We’ve started giving the ball away cheaply.  We’ve stopped pressing as aggressively and so on and so on. That hasn’t always translated into poor results, in part because we have good players that can bail us out (Dobbin away at Port Vale, for example).  But we can’t keep playing below par and winning, and it’s starting to catch up to us IMO.

[Caerphilly Ram]

4 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Don't you think you have to wait for younger players to 'grow up'? Those three are just starting to develop physically. I'd rather those three and we played football around them than some 'athletic clogger'.

How did we manage in our long unbeaten run?

I absolutely do, hence my point about it complementing them. I’m not writing those players off, I’d love it if they stayed and lead the club back up through the leagues. And I didn’t say “clogger” other people are assuming that, physical and athletic doesn’t exclude footballing ability.
How much better would Byrne have been as an example if he was a few inches taller and a bit stronger? I love Cashin, and would love him more if he grew a few inches taller so he could win even more headers in both boxes. I think if we are able to do so, adding a couple of those types of players in the summer makes us stronger. 
 

[Crewton]

Least said, soonest Mendez.

[TomTom92]

The biggest worry for me and I say this as a Warne fan is that tactically he looks limited. If you take how we’re heading along with Rotherham’s complete drop off last season and it would appear his tactics are; get them fit, play basic football and ride the crest of the wave. 
 
Concerning for next season if we’re gonna run out of steam towards the back end. 
 
I know every manager has their pros and cons but it doesn’t look like we have another way to skin the cat.

 

[Tamworthram]

4 minutes ago, OssieEnd said:

Er ?? lol 

 

I did say they " deserved" the win . lol 

 

But. Their current "form" is oh so relevant. Can we not fall out over this please ?

Er?

In response to the comment "thank god that's over. well deserved Fleetwood"

You said "Yeah maybe but you do know their record coming into this game??"

So by saying "maybe" which part of the post were you challenging? the "thank god that's over" or the "well deserved Fleetwood"?

I don't want to fall out over it. I was just assuming (silly me) that you were questioning the second part of the Sillybilly's post.

[Ramarena]

18 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

I really like Bird, Sibley, Knight and Hourihane. I just feel we’re lacking (and have been for years) a bit more athleticism and strength in the squad. We get bullied far too often, did in the championship too. Every now and then we have a Kazim or Bradley Johnson type figure to help out those slighter frames but feel (at this level especially) we could do with a couple of stronger, mobile players to play alongside the neat academy footballers. 
That’s what I would target for our summer recruitment, find out who from league two and one clubs, championship clubs likely to get relegated, prem academies might be on a free to add that physical presence.