Everybody new what milwall would bring to the table today a team full of average players who would run through a brick wall for there fans and manager unfortunately our lot are made of glass and are an embarrassment to our club
His predecessor at the dump and his successor here seem to have had no issue beating Norwich, so maybe he is out of his depth after all!
You can debate whether we should want L*ton to beat supposed league rivals all you want (I'll steer clear of that, especially when they're not far behind us!), but now they'll surely sack Smith and get that new manager bounce... EDIT: Wrong thread, mods, move to the Championship thread?
I really cannot vocalise how bad this game was. It was heinous. We fell into Millwall's trap. Again. I would rightly say the referee allowed them to hack our players down with near impunity and got the major (and minor) calls wrong, but even that doesn't do justice the apathy on display by us. Barring TDB at points, Davis at points and certainly Bachmann had we lost by 5 or 6, we couldn't have argued much against it. What the **** was Kamara thinking? What the **** was Bilic doing this week? What the **** is the medical department doing? What the ****? Our mentality first and foremost lost us the game today. No spirit, no cohesion, no will to win a ball or try and match them. We just turned up and assumed that would be enough. That is not acceptable and as much as I will whine about their methods, you can't say Millwall don't fight for the shirt and that will always keep you in games and create problems for opposition. Very few on our team can say the same. It was an unforigevably spineless showing as bad as any game last Season.
On course for top 5 is rather bullish. 3 of the last 4 performances have been awful, JP is now injured and the team in 16th is 5 points behind with a game in hand. We are absolutely bog standard championship currently and will drop fast if current performances persist, despite having parachute money and our owner feeling he can spend £5m on a reserve striker in the summer to help his mate out. The owner is a disgrace.
God. I’m generations behind. Usually get a curry after or stop for some food when I’m back in the West Midlands.
Cathcart is and has been a great servant to the club, but the captains job is more than leading the team out and participating in the toss up! He is in no way vocal enough to be captain, and doesn’t appear to me to be captain material, only person on the field today suitable is Bachman!
Bachmann is the last person who should be captain. He’s erratic and emotional when he runs around stomping his feet like a toddler. Cathcart as player or captain is the least of our problems. He’s been excellent this season and, along with Sema and Pedro, exempt from criticism over effort levels.
How much was that goalie who can’t make the bench? I’d genuinely have to lookup his name as I’ve forgotten it.
We've been in the top 6 mix for the majority of the season. We currently have no midfield but are still churning out okay results. Last 5 games we're averaging 1.6 PPG, last 10 games 1.7 PPG. Averaged out over a season that's *usually* enough for a place in the play offs. Caveated that the rest of the season depends on how well the new signings settle, and the timelines of Choudhury/Louza/JP returning.
Some might say we are in the top 6 more due to luck than judgement or good consistency performance wise but guess we have to take it and hope the injured do get fit and we can improve .
After a reasonable run since Millwall away in terms of results if not performances ( BCity away and Hull home) and Bilic saying how we needed to reverse that non performance at the New Den it was sadly so obvious after 10/15 minutes we were going to get nothing. Nkakia passing directly to them summed it up. Most of us don’t expect to win all games or even put on a winning run like West Brom are currently doing but we do expect to see some accurate passing and then control by the recipient as well as challenging for / shielding the ball when we have it. Not all the time but crikey I didn’t see anything remotely resembling a meaningful contribution today. If Bilic and JD cannot get that team to do that (Cathcart and Bachmann aside) given his build up to the game then no one can. As others have said we are reliant on JP too much and now with him out for a while even with this Kone coming it will be a real test of team management by those ex Hammers to get some momentum going again. There are many differing views on Sarr but imho we should sell next month and move on. We need a team that can work as a team not a team of individuals that occasionally works together but is reliant on the infrequent super contribution from a “ star” or two. If that’s what’s behind this new technical director fair enough but I don’t think it can happen in the half a season left Happy Boxing Day to us fans.
I'm almost speechless after that performance. The only thing I am going to say is this one is totally on the players.
You won’t get many words of defence for Sarr from me - he’s been poor. But I also realise he’s one of very few match winners in the squad. The reality is (for me at least) that it’s largely pointless selling him now because I think we know the end result from Gino would be poor anyway. I can’t see the money being put back into the squad in a way that means we could realistically improve a large amount. Far better to hold on to him, let Martins compete with him for a starting berth, and hope that kicks some form into him and we get a few more game-winning performances. And then sell in the summer. I don’t really think there would be a dramatic difference in fee between selling him now or selling him next summer. And I really don’t trust Gino with the money and it’s a bit soon to expect Manga to know what to do with it (on the small chance) he’d be given any if it. For me, we should be binning off the likes of Bayo, Hause, Kalu, Okoye, Gaspar, Ngakia - all players who aren’t going to make it here and we are just wasting our time with. Poor players who won’t get any better. Only worth selling Sarr if we get decent money AND reinvest it. I don’t see that happening in January.
Why? Why is it not also on the manager who has spent over a week preparing them and drumming into them how unacceptable we were last time around? To me it suggests he’s not strong enough to make players listen or really cannot get his message across. This desire to absolve Bilic of blame is odd. For me, two carbon copy performances against Millwall in a fairly short space of time is far worse (and less forgivable) than anything Edwards served up. The overall improvement under Bilic is minimal at best and some fans are in dreamland about it being better than that.
We do need a major clear out that’s so obvious. Far too many players are taking good money out of the club but do not deliver consistently. But we can’t ignore the fact we don’t have Louza, Choudhury and now Pedro. This has exposed the weakness of our squad. The backup players are not good enough. No viable backup keeper, no viable backup left back, no viable first choice right back. No midfield if you take away Louza and Choudhury. No viable backup central striker. It’s a bloody mess, and it’s so frustrating when you consider how much we wasted on players like Okoye, Kalu and Bayo. Even the freebies are duds like Manaj, Gaspar and Bacuna. Hideous signings the lot of them. I’m hoping that this scandalous incompetence stops now Manga is onboard. This season can still be turned around with the right signings. I believe the top two is now realistically beyond us, but there is no reason we can’t go into the playoffs as the third best team and deservedly gain promotion. But that’s not going to happen without a major revamp. Probably need at least 6 new players who are EPL or top end Championship level.
Agree with a lot of this but why would you be confident about winning the playoffs? Strong chance Millwall will be there, so our bottling pussies would get mauled a third time.
Okoye. Undisclosed Fee. Played one proper game when we lost 0-2 at home to MK Dons. He was trash that game, against League One chouder. I cannot see him starting a single league game and Hamer has been sitting on the bench a lot more.
I'm more or less convinced if we lose to Swansea in three days time and then lose to Norwich New Years day, Bilic will be gone, especially if we play like we did today in both games. The attitude of the players stunk, and has been getting worse despite an upturn in results. Yes we are down to bare bones squad-wise, without our most potent threat in front of goal, going into two very difficult away games. Norwich are in an awful run of form but in reality they have a better squad than we do mentality wise right now and we love to bend over for struggling sides. Whoever comes in would have the luxury of any new players signed (loaned) plus Kone' and the other guy I cannot remember his name right now. I like Bilic but we had no idea how to break Millwall down and that stops with him. Regardless of how crap our team is, we should never "give up" trying, which is exactly what we did from the get go.
It was terrible yes but Bilic is a good manager he's literally been out of this division before. Big difference between Rob Edwards who's best achievement was promotion in League 2. With time, Rob may end up having a managerial career that exceeds Bilic's but with our situation, immediate promotion is required, Rob didn't seem to be the man for that. Ironically, he's now at the perfect club to fuel any ill feeling he may have against us and engineer a promotion push off that alone to make us look extra silly. However, I agree that today isn't totally on the manager, he HAS to field a midfield on TDB & Bacuna like wtf is anyone meant to do with that? Then his best player gets injured then his only natural left back has a braindead moment, leaving him with 10 men for 60 mins. I even liked his subs, they were largely positive. In fact, his subs are probably a perfect analogy for where we're at and where the blame lies, let's look at the right back situation. Ngakia gash, replaced by more gash in Gaspar. Why has that happened? First choice right back shipped in a swap with an older, ******* replacement. Back up right back is young but injury prone. Bilic conjours up a solution by playing Gosling right back, it works, Gosling injures ACL and is out for the season. Wtf is Bilic meant to do with that? He's not a miracle worker, he'll make the micro mistakes every other manager does but the bigger picture is the squad building and management has been awful. As has injury luck or again possibly the medical team which again is above Bilic's pay grade.
As I’ve said before, the transition from premiership side to championship side will be a slow and painful one filled with unjustified hope, as it was for many of the sides now in the champ. Ps. We can still catch Brentford.
Eh? I think, once again, you’re confusing me with someone else and thinking I’ve said things in the past which I haven’t said.
That’s all well and good - but we were lucky not to be a few goals down before Joao Pedro got injured. And this league is full of teams like Millwall - Bilic has said that himself. It’s a worry that we have been poor since the restart against 3 average-to-poor sides who should be cannon fodder for us. Bilic can’t just point to injuries and wash his hands of how bad we have looked. I agree there’s a wider issue around squad building as well. But Bilic knew the squad he walked into and claimed it was very good etc etc. You said yourself, immediate promotion is required…well, we are on a fast-track to not getting it unless we improve the squad, the mentality of the players AND Bilic learns how to prepare them far better. Bilic seems an honest and open man - I’m not sure why fans want to provide him with a long list of excuses that I doubt he’d even give for himself. He has to be better because that was literally the proviso he was appointed under…to be immediately far better than Edwards. And so far, he hasn’t been.
