Blackburn Home

After watching THAT yesterday, wow, I'm still left perplexed as to what on earth is going on with us.

It wasn't so much direct yesterday as other times and we had quite a bit of the ball, but without tempo. It's all well and good people saying " we need to stop being route one and play more footy " - yesterday is perhaps a perfect example of why some of the ridiculous anti football win every head tennis battle under Mick has actually served us quite well. Ideal world I'd love us to play good stuff, but we tried to more at a difficult place ( best home record in the league I discovered after ) and the " tempo " was like watching sodding paint dry. Cannot pass it more if it's slower than watching milk turn.

Anyway, H to Blackburn Tuesday with our game in hand. I think we'll win this. Derby + Brum helped us over the weekend by not the best results ever - win this we go one point off and would set up a very important game with Rotherham Saturday which I don't feel good about.

However, I do feel good about this one. Home in a must win game vs a summer holiday mess of a club in Blackburn Rovers, 2-0, and more headscractching.

I cannot make a case of us playing either good footy, or being good in anything.

What I CAN make a case for, is other sides bottling it, and us generally being very mentally strong.

COYB.

 

To play good fast open attacking football we need the players who are comfortable on the ball and sadly we don't have many of those, so I suppose it will be back to the usual format onTuesday, I really hope we can sign some decent players in the Summer but I'm not complaining about our progress over the last three years in fact we are in a situation I couldn't have imagined when MM arrived.

 

I don't think many of us on here realistically expected all three points against Cardiff, but the nature of our defeat, and the complete loss of consistency in 2016, has undoubtedly affected this side. The impression I get appears to be one of a campaign listing lifelessly into mediocrity and stagnation. And also, what was with Bart wearing a green and yellow goalkeeper kit? I know it's not the worst crime in the world, but the way this club is run sometimes, there is nothing else to do but laugh.

On the pitch, like last season, we failed to invest and strengthen in January and, if anything, our squad was actually weakened by the departures of Jonathan Parr and Tommy Oar, who were ostracised from the team. This has again led to a downturn in points and a loss of consistency. Now I've generally supported McCarthy, and I am appreciative of the improvements and strides that we've made over the past few years, but I think if we fail to pick up points against Blackburn or Rotherham, then, in an ideal world, we should be looking towards a more progressive and entertaining manager to build on the foundations already laid down.

The main problems with a change in management are McCarthy's long and expensive contract (a move that provides stability and shows faith, but also restricts us in moving on the manager without shelling out millions in compensation). Also, the fact that any potential new manager would want to come in and, presumably, overhaul the squad and hopefully bring in more technically proficient players. Question is, would he be able to do that on a shoestring budget? If Evans isn't going to open the chequebook to support his new man, and I've seen nothing to point towards that being the likely reaction, then what's the point in getting rid of McCarthy? He's doing well, despite spending next to nothing, and he has at least has made us competitive.

I really think we're doomed to be nearly-men, at best, for the foreseeable future. We do not seem to possess a coherent, long-term strategy other than make us tough to beat, reinforce our squad with loans, and buy players cheap/on a free then sell for a profit. I'm interested to see what the season ticket renewal figures are like, because I can't imagine attendances spiking anytime soon and the general consensus around Portman Road seems to be that of resigned indifference.

 

I completely agree, it's difficult to determine if this non- football style we use is purely down to MM and his out dated football philosophy or a lack of investment from ME
I sometimes wonder if MM had 11 top premier players to pick would we still play this awful awful excuse for football, and unfortunately I believe that answer is yes
So I think we have to bite the bullet, put MM out to pasture, hire a younger more modern thinking manager and start again
No matter how unappealing this May sound, it's for sure that he is unable and unfit to take us further, and as a club ME has to decide just what is his goal, stay where we are for another 5-10 years or do something about it

 

I'll go for a 2-1 win.
There's one thing that can be said about life under Mick....we are competitive, but that's about all really.
We rarely get trounced, lose more than two in a row or go four games without a win.
Is that enough for some?
Probably not, especially those who attend regularly.

 

As for the prediction for tomorrow night, a bore draw. 0-0 or 1-1, with not much separating the two sides.

 

As several of us have sadly predicted, it does seem we are aimlessly adrift now, heading for a limp 8th or 9th..... However, a win Tuesday, and another unexpected 3 pts Saturday, and we are back in the mix. This I find hilarious after our loss of form! Did we have form?

I havent travelled up for a few months now, do I really want to? I just dunno, which says it all.

The really sad thing is, who knows where we might be today with just 2 new talented players brought in to revitalise the team?

Head says 1-1, heart 3-0!

 

Dice predict 1-3

So the groundswell against MM increases,do managers ever recover once the fans start to turn?I wonder if ME is regretting extending the contract?

 

If ME won't open his wallet it doesn't matter a damn who we have as manager, the foundations are there but this season the same as last season he won't invest to compete with the best in this division, thankfully Bart has been in great form which has prevented us getting a right hammering in a couple of matches.
Blackburn will be a tough game to win but hopefully Sears and Murphy will get back amongst the goals, if we play well I ll go for a 2 1 win.

 

Nuggets that game Saturday is honestly the worst game by both sides I've seen live. It was worse than Hull 1-0 under Keane when we were very bad and they were quite good. Both us and Cardiff were absolutely pants Saturday. They didn't go hunting for 2-0 / 3-0 they were very happy to sit and us offer absolutely nothing. God it was pants. The only helpful point for us is Blackburn and Rotherham H give us a realistic chance to get back in amongst matters.

Field as you've said manager is academic the direction of where the club is going is - well - god knows. It's poor so very poor.

Win tomorrow and who knows. Weird as hell season - we could be bottom 6 and wouldn't look out of place in how we've played BUT WE'RE NOT!

 

As you said Westy it's the direction of the Club thats worrying when with a billionaire owner it surely doesn't have to be this way, ME seems quite content to let the Club just drift along with minimum investment in fact the only party that's been concerned for quite a while now is the fans who travel up and the Country to support our Club.
Maybe that's the difference between an owner and a supporter, the owners fabulous lifestyle would continue if his businesses stopped tomorrow whereas the supporter has to think about which games they can afford to go to and be really pissed off when there are games he can't afford to go to, money's great but it can't buy passion for the Club, dedication to the Club, and that feeling of elation when we win and desolation when we lose, players, management, and owners move on but the fans who care are always here.
At the recent QPR game there were Town fans from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Norway and Ireland that I met, now that's what I'm talking about.

 

Westy, you do raise a good point about the inconsistency of others around us. With the recent exception of Burnley, sides are capable of dropping points and losing games. This is natural, of course, but particularly at this level, where there are really 'no easy games', as the cliché goes. Middlesbrough are looking dodgy, with the manager recently threatening to walk out. Derby and Sheffield Wednesday seem incapable of stringing together a couple of wins, despite their investment and early form.

Yet we cannot rely on the mistakes of others. It's not sustainable and it's not reliable. I know we got the rub of the green last season, most notably on the final day of the campaign, to be precise, and we were able to say we were play-off semi-finalists rather than nearly men (the margin is that fine sometimes). However, we benefited from some amazing results and incredible consistency between September and December 2014. Without that run, we'd be nowhere near the top six.

Just look at the table in the link below, and in particular note our form over the last ten games. We're still there, yes, but we've lost half our games on that form guide. Keep that record up, and we'll eventually be overtaken by Preston and QPR, who appear to be on the ascendency. Not to mention the sides above us will start putting some more distance between us.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/championship/table

 

It's a similar pattern to last season Nuggets.
Some great results before the christmas period helped to put a lot of points on the board. Some indifferent performances and results in the new year have seen us fall away a bit and I expect we will pick it up again in time to sneak into the top six. Injuries have had the same effect at the same points of the season for the last two campaigns so it's remarkable that we are still playing for something after having the squad decimated at times.

Things may have been so much different if we'd had the likes of Fraser, Bish and McG available throughout. I can also understand why ME may be a bit reluctant to release funds for replacements knowing full well that we own two of those players and they will come back into the team at some point. I'm not a fan of bringing in players on high wages to cover for somebody injured. If you can get hold of somebody with real quality, what happens when they are all fit again, you can't fit everybody on the pitch at once.

 

COYB

 

Come on Ipswich!!

 

4-3-3 no Pringle or Bru. Interesting.

 

Get the 1st goal and we are off! Feeling optimistic....

 

Both positive players to bring on.

 

Florist on worst run take the lead at Hull......what an extraordinary league!

 

Come on Town...it's Tuesday night in Suffolk!