As far as other results at the top go, a poor night for Town. Cant help but think this fixture last season, when Town dominated but came away empty handed, was a Sliding Doors moment. It’s looking as though promotion could go to the wire with six or seven sides contesting a lottery for promotion.
Come on Blackpool! Although with Grant Ward as CM I’m not holding out much hope! Edit.Grayson obviously feels the same he’s just subbed him!
One side effect of Evans' approach is that there is no threat to most of the first team players to their place in the match day squads and no player has got an incentive to be promoted aside from their own competitive streak. The biggest risk to their place in the squad is if we go up, otherwise there are no funds to improve what's there already. Players with contracts up in the summer know they have little chance of re-signing if we are promoted. I think this set of circumstances and a lack of competition is why we are lacking an edge in matches like last night.
I listened on the wireless, and it genuinely sounded like one of the worst performances of the season. Three days after arguably one of our best. For me, this was one of those games where Paul Lambert's lack of managerial nous and 'plan B' is underlined and comes into focus. I don't blame him for retaining the same formation and starting line-up that has been particularly successful over the last few weeks - but I would question whether the likes of Huws and Keane were fit enough to play two matches in four days, especially coming off long injury setbacks. The most crucial thing we didn't learn was that when we played them at Portman Road, I mentioned how they pressed us, closed us down, and bullied us all over the pitch. Surprise, surprise they proceeded to do the same again. And what did we do? The same effing thing we revert to doing whenever we go up against a side that wants to get in our faces - we panic, hoof it long up to Jackson, and fail to control the ball or the game. We may have got away with it at times half a decade ago when we had strikers like Daryl Murphy and David McGoldrick to control the ball, but last night we were relying on Jackson. The most worrying thing is we haven't beaten one of the 'better' teams in League One this season. We are currently without a win against a team in the top nine. This doesn't bode well for the next couple of fixtures. Lambert talks about how he took over the club when it was 'in a really bad place', but it's got worse on his watch. We are a division lower for starters. The local media needs to get out of his a*** and not be afraid to start asking some serious questions.
Lambert has done as much as he can without any backing - we have never repaired the damage that McCarthy and Evans did to the squad at the end of his tenure. The sparse signings we have made are not enough to improve the side - we don't have the full backs we need, which has an effect on the whole balance of the side and means we are having to play Chambers way past his sell by date. We don't have the options to mix things up in attacking areas. We don't have control of our destiny and it's going to be a lottery whether we go up or not - but for me it's a wonder that we are in with a chance. Not to say Lambert is getting everything right - Ben Morris should be getting an opportunity.
I think that's letting Lambert off the hook there slightly, Hampy. In terms of wages, we've got one of the most expensive squads in the division and the summer additions have provided quality and competition in areas of the squad that needed it. We've effectively got two players competing for every position, which not many teams in this division can comfortably claim. I agree injury has enforced some depth challenges out wide and up top, but to state we don't have the options when we've currently got eight defenders, twelve midfielders, and four senior strikers on the books is stretching it a bit in my opinion. It was seemingly Lambert's decision that the likes of Georgiou and El Mizouni did not deserve consistent first team opportunities. As we know on here, I'm nowhere near Evans' biggest fan, but I don't think he has bungled this squad. What Lambert asked for in the summer, he got. We're currently third in the table, so we're arguably on par for what many of us expected at the start of the season. The worrying thing is the poor form against the better teams in this division, and the fact many sides on our tails have one or two games in hand on us (and they're only a couple of points behind). The sustained run of poor form, when we were chopping and changing formations and starting elevens throughout, were the failings of the manager. His lack of tactical awareness and nous during matches (demonstrated by his refusal to make substitutions until 20 minutes from the end last night) can hardly be blamed on the ownership. Yes, the owner ultimately must take responsibility for the extent of our decline on his watch. Most notably, his record of appointing managers has been almost terrible and his complete lack of football strategy or direction. However, Lambert is a manager who has had a thoroughly average career for the past several years and who contributed to our relegation last season. If we fail to get promoted this season, he must take responsibility for the results and performances on the pitch with a squad that, in all honesty, should be good enough to be one of the top three sides in this division.
I usually agree with most of what you say Nuggets but Lambert really seems to have got your back up and I disagree. I think Lambert has done an outstanding job this season given the circumstances surrounding our relegation and decline over a number of years. We have talent in the squad but name me a player in that squad who over the past 3 years has consistently performed well at this level or above? To say Lambert has asked and got what he's wanted I disagree with, the squad isn't too far away from the team which got us relegated, he hasn't been able to add to much to it and whilst Keane and particularly Wilson has been half decent I'm sure if ME offered more backing he would have signed different players.
Fair enough itfcptc, I acknowledge the positives Lambert has implemented, and I’ve offered praise where I think he deserves it. Most notably if we play like we did against Lincoln on the weekend, and we did it more frequently, then I'd certainly be encouraged about Lambert at the club. He’s provided opportunities to the likes of Wolfenden and Downes and helped them to progress. I know a lot gets made of it, but he did help heal a perceived divide between supporters and the club (although he exaggerates his influence). Working under Evans is also not the easiest of gigs, granted. And as stated, we are third in the table. On the flip side, I think he’s been given far too much praise by elements of the fanbase. We have one of the strongest, biggest, and most expensive squads in a division that lacks a stand-out promotion favourite. Achieving promotion, an entirely realistic objective, is important. Unfortunately, as evidenced in our results against the current top nine teams in League One, we cannot beat the better teams in this league. Granted that can change with a win over Sunderland or Peterborough over the next couple of weeks. My wider concerns are that we don’t appear to be coached very well. It was only by dint of player intervention that Lambert stopped chopping and changing the team every week that had us on a winless run for a couple of months. One win in thirteen matches was poor form. Our early form did not have us playing particularly well, we often scraped through games on the basis of having better players. How many games have we played this season where we’ve honestly looked impressive? Three? Another key concern of mine is that Lambert appears to have a lack of tactical acumen. The opposition seems to react quicker to the state of the game and make proactive changes. Lambert typically makes changes that don’t work and resorts to like-for-like swaps. I see limited signs of progression under Lambert over the course of his year and few months in charge. One excellent result and performance against Lincoln is followed up by one of the worst games we’ve played in years only three days later. While blame for relegation rightly rests with the owner, and arguably Paul Hurst to an extent, Lambert certainly played his part and had more than enough time to make a difference. His whole argument that he came in and revitalised a broken club looks cheap when he oversaw a relegation and we’re arguably in a worse off position than when he took over. He’s won 20 games out of 70. In the summer, he made a public case about needing a few more signings in key areas and Evans, in a rare sign of good judgement, enabled the additions of KVY, Keane, and some loans. Not ideal, but we’re playing to a budget and a bigger budget than most in League One. Fair point on the players who have played well at this level over the past three years. But our best players are either players that have come from the academy over the past couple of years or guys that have gone up a level. I imagine most teams in this division are in the same boat. Maybe even worse. Players at the likes of Sunderland, Rotherham, and Peterborough haven't exactly been great in recent years. And Wycombe have a lot of players used to League Two level. I just expected more this season. I think he’s doing a fairly average job. We don’t look comfortable in third and I can see us to continue struggling against the ‘bigger’ teams in this division.
We have not brought any superstars in - KVY being the best player and he’s injured, Norwood struggling to get into the side and Keane and Judge not contributing much. Loans are loans and it’s no different for all the clubs around us. So if we’ve got good players then in Paul Hurst’s very short stint it seems he worked wonders when at the same time you’re blaming him for our problems. Our squad is poor and Lambert is doing well to get out of them what he is getting.
I think that we've got some very good players for this division. I believe Wolfenden, KVY, Garbutt, Downes, and arguably both Huws and Norwood could conceivably walk into any League One side at the moment. A look at the squad will show you that we've got a lot of options and our depth in defence and midfield, in particular, would be the envy for most teams in this division. There is no stand-out dominant side in League One this season. With one of the relegated teams (Bolton) being in such a poor state, this season provides a brilliant opportunity for clubs like Peterborough, Oxford, and Wycombe (no disrespect to them) to push for automatic promotion. Our lack of consistency and shoddy tactical approach against fellow promotion contenders has directly contributed to this wide open league. The worrying thing for us is that Sunderland and Portsmouth are starting to find form. Paul Hurst's recruitment issues, if put a little simply, is that he brought in players with good records in Leagues One and Two, but were collectively unable to make the step-up to perform consistently well against tougher Championship opposition. The main reasons we got relegated last season was losing our top five goalscorers and arguably our best centre-back in Webster and then not adequately replacing them. The issue around their replacements were two-fold - 1) Evans invested far too little into the playing squad for the fees that we received and 2) Hurst failed to bring in players with proven Championship experience. This is why, on paper, we've got a good team at this level and will likely not be good enough for Championship football next season without serious investment.
Having good League One players is not going to get you promoted - having Championship standard ones is, otherwise you are no better than anyone else. We have a couple of players better than that, but we also have some big deficiencies in the side. The reason we were relegated was chronic underinvestment - 2) is just a symptom of that - and so it continues. I have seen that Hurst has been fired from Scunthorpe today - hard to see a way back for him now. Town’s roll call under Evans is starting to read like a graveyard for managers’ careers.
It's obvious to a fool that we are not scoring enough goals even when we dominate possession as we did v Lincoln, so either the ball isn't getting to the front players early enough or we are seeing the folly of relying on 4th division standard strikers, either way there's a severe lack of quality even at this lowly level to be sure of promotion.
Playing the formation we are, we need the number 10 (Judge) to be pulling the strings. I’m not sure if it’s lack of confidence but when he receives the ball, he tends to go back or square and therefore slows the attack down. It’s time to give Bishop a run in that position as he might actually get beyond the front 2. As well as they’ve played, our central midfielders don’t score enough goals. I might be wrong but between Downes, Judge, Huws and Skuse, I think they have 3 league goals
