(That long since we've had any, couldn't find the thread)

Alan Nixon: "Top Liverpool starlet Cameron Branagan will Ben allowed out on loan in Jan.

Bolton lead the race for the 20 year old midfielder"

Edited December 11, 20169 yr by Ratwhite

"Collins may not be the only high-profile departure this summer, with Schumacher also seeking to bring in a more direct and dynamic style of football to the possession-based brand which has been the norm in recent years"

1 minute ago, Zog1 said:

Why did Messi need Mascherano and Busquets to play at his best?

Do you think he'd have done AS well if there was a fictional Aess and Bessi(with identical characteristics to him) playing instead of them? 

You need a balance, we didnt have it, which is why we sucked. 

We will have it this season which is why we'll be promoted.

 

Because for the first time since we come up from league 2 we've had a competent manager.

 

If you dont agree with this...sorry youre a M o_n G!

 

 

 

You're posting this like we haven't all seen the look on George Johnston's face before the home match against the pie men

4 minutes ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

You're posting this like we haven't all seen the look on George Johnston's face before the home match against the pie men

Ofcourse he's worried their tactic because we had no midfield strength was to batter the CB's until they made mistakes, for which they were being held solely responsible. 

Edited June 16, 2025Jun 16 by Zog1

Collins and Charles would have worked, with victor as backup. 

He bought Lolos in as backup, having had a good season in League one, and can play mid or forward.

Knowing Charles to be hit n miss and victors bulking up slowing him down, panic bought McAtee, I feel some of that is off the back of his brothers success. 

He then panicked again and brought in Randall, 

Somehow we ended up with Collins, mcatee, lolos, randall, CMG and not a pulled up sock between them. 

None if them being able to play that box to box midfield we need, 

As it stands we've got Victor, Dalby and Big Dan as forwards,  mcatee, lolos, randall to pkay behind. 

Cmg can play wing and reckon he might end up out there. Schon will put in a shift but Tutu for me doesn't have it, all the skull but goes pieces in the box and backs out far too easy. 

Can see why everyone's for sale 

2 minutes ago, Zog1 said:

Why did Messi need Mascherano and Busquets to play at his best?

Do you think he'd have done AS well if there was a fictional Aess and Bessi(with identical characteristics to him) playing instead of them? 

You need a balance, we didnt have it, which is why we sucked. 

We will have it this season which is why we'll be promoted.

 

Because for the first time since we come up from league 2 we've had a competent manager.

 

If you dont agree with this...sorry youre a M o_n G!

 

 

 

You're 100% correct in what you say. We were totally unbalanced last season.

Such poor and bizarre recruitment left us insanely short in areas then overloaded in others. It was a total car crash.

But there has been 100% a poor mentality/weakness within the group stretching back seasons.

Our players and 2 managers on the bounce have stated this.

From bottling big games/derby game to poor fitness and training.

That Oxford season we had the sqaud and players to win promotion. It was our bottle job mindset that fucked that.

Last season capitulation at gaffs like Stockport and Barnsley had fuck all to do with balance and everything to do with their shithouse mindset.

That's why SS lost his shit with them and that's why he's currently weeding the fuckers out and replacing them with strong characters and direct players.

 

26 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Or he's building a unit of tough fast and direct players ready for a promotion push?

We are going for it big style imo

 

Think he seen enough last season that we was weak as piss....I love Collins as a player and think we have fucked up yet i like how he is building us.

Nothing to lose this year, but i think it may take until next June to get the squad he wants.

Eight players out of contract next June and they have all been on the physio bench as much as they have played

 

I will give Dempsey a free pass because he does not know when to say he is unfit.

Not many of Pre Schumacher team will be here next June

15 minutes ago, gonzo said:

You're 100% correct in what you say. We were totally unbalanced last season.

Such poor and bizarre recruitment left us insanely short in areas then overloaded in others. It was a total car crash.

But there has been 100% a poor mentality/weakness within the group stretching back seasons.

Our players and 2 managers on the bounce have stated this.

From bottling big games/derby game to poor fitness and training.

That Oxford season we had the sqaud and players to win promotion. It was our bottle job mindset that fucked that.

Last season capitulation at gaffs like Stockport and Barnsley had fuck all to do with balance and everything to do with their shithouse mindset.

That's why SS lost his shit with them and that's why he's currently weeding the fuckers out and replacing them with strong characters and direct players.

 

Their heads had gone by the time SS had got in, which is why they collapsed after their first defeat. I wont deny that, but at the end of season before last and the start of last season yeah that's bs. 

From bottling big games/derby game to poor fitness and training.

It was never a bottle job.

The big games were mostly against good teams, we've struggled with since getting promotion. Half the reason for these was down to Evatt's inability to be dynamic and make tactical changes on the fly. 

How many of these injuries were picked up due to the teams facing us adopting a heavy pressing tactic because they knew we were weak in the middle?

How much of it was we had a non league level coaching set up full of ex Barrow staff and mates of Evatt. 

I dont think SS could believe the state Evatt had left us in because SB probably noshed on about him through the entire interview process.

He probably feels he's been conned. 

Edited June 16, 2025Jun 16 by Zog1

We did bottle games. There's a list longer than our roster of number 10's. 

Maybe the bottling and recruiting to a style are linked? Think Sheehan & Collins in particular would be playing at a higher level if they had a steelier mindset. Think we played fast and loose on the mental side of things when we thought we had players with the footballing attributes Evatt wanted. 

Edited June 16, 2025Jun 16 by RoadRunnerFan

23 minutes ago, Zog1 said:

Their heads had gone by the time SS had got in, which is why they collapsed after their first defeat. I wont deny that, but at the end of season before last and the start of last season yeah that's bs. 

From bottling big games/derby game to poor fitness and training.

It was never a bottle job.

The big games were mostly against good teams, we've struggled with since getting promotion. Half the reason for these was down to Evatt's inability to be dynamic and make tactical changes on the fly. 

How many of these injuries were picked up due to the teams facing us adopting a heavy pressing tactic because they knew we were weak in the middle?

How much of it was we had a non league level coaching set up full of ex Barrow staff and mates of Evatt. 

I dont think SS could believe the state Evatt had left us in because SB probably noshed on about him through the entire interview process.

He probably feels he's been conned. 

Getting beat 4-1 at Blackpool or 4-0 by Wigan had nothing to do with them being better.

 

Collins is a good footballer but if we are to address the well known balance issue in our squad then its not just a case of getting more physique, pace and strength in. Its also a case of reducing the numbers of diminutive, skillful, mercurial types. If MK have offered top dollar and our intention is to use that cash to buy in another one or two to aid that rebalancing, so be it. 

Tough thing to do as a football fan but its best to avoid the temptation to assess things signing by signing and sale by sale. The full picture is some way from emerging and its clearly going to be a dynamic summer with a lot of wheeling and dealing. 

If there's a genuine concern it is that such is likely to be the turnover that it'll be a good few months before the squad gels. But we can't have it all ways.

19 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Getting beat 4-1 at Blackpool or 4-0 by Wigan had nothing to do with them being better.

 

Missing the Carlisle game out that turned me against Evatt........Until then everything was good

1 hour ago, bwfc4ife said:

Let’s just hope that there’s a decent name coming in up top. Surely they’re not that naive as to let Charles and Collins go within 6 months without a recognised replacement coming in. Dalby’s an unknown quantity and hasn’t don’t anything in this league before.

All the best to Collins, them scenes away at Huddersfield this year are what it’s all about

 

Name?

Why do we need 'a name'

44 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Getting beat 4-1 at Blackpool or 4-0 by Wigan had nothing to do with them being better.

 

4-1 at Blackpool 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao0tGQ5U6JQ

All 4 goals come directly from their midfield putting simple through passes into runners on the wing or through the middle. They're barely being pressed.

4-0 at wigan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDHyElpKY88

Dempsey loses his man for their first goal, Jones gets bullied off the ball for their second, Sheehan loses his man for their 3rd and their 4th Dempsey fails to slide. 

 

This is nothing to do with mentality, if we'd had a proper DM most of these goals dont happen. Sheehan and Dempsey are not DM's. 

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2025Jun 16 by Zog1

2 hours ago, Casino said:

Explain the collapse otherwise

 

We were always that shite. The 'collapse' was just regressing to the mean in terms of results.

Even at in our 'purple patch' under SS where people were predicting automatics, we were still conceding first in every game and going life and death to beat Crawley at home. We were never any good, never played well for any length of time and eventually got what we deserved in terms of results.

I remember Gethin Jones hinting at a mentality issue among the squad and he was vice-captain at the time

1 minute ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

I remember Gethin Jones hinting at a mentality issue among the squad and he was vice-captain at the time

11 minutes ago, Zog1 said:

4-1 at Blackpool 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao0tGQ5U6JQ

All 4 goals come directly from their midfield putting simple through passes into runners on the wing or through the middle. They're barely being pressed.

4-0 at wigan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDHyElpKY88

Dempsey loses his man for their first goal, Jones gets bullied off the ball for their second, Sheehan loses his man for their 3rd and their 4th Dempsey fails to slide. 

 

This is nothing to do with mentality, if we'd had a proper DM most of these goals dont happen. Sheehan and Dempsey are not DM's. 

 

 

 

All those incidents can be directly attributed to mentality.

Just now, gonzo said:

All those incidents can be directly attributed to mentality.

I disagree.

Has the ESL Bob Dylan written a song about R.Taylors love organ yet? 

Edited June 16, 2025Jun 16 by auckland_bwfc

Anyway, only four of the bottle jobs who started the play-off final under Evatt now remain

2 hours ago, waffer cup 07 said:

Loads of injures, a couple of defeats that should never have been, loss of confidence, all added to a terrible loss of form. After the Brum performance we didn't suddenly become a bad team.

That's one way to look at it, but surely if a team plays at an average 5 out of 10 for about 30 games, then an 8 out of 10 for one game (we didn't touch the ball in the 1st half hour) - the question must surely be we didn't suddenly become a good team.  Its like when Wigan play like Barcelona against us, they aren't suddenly a good team.  We just did to Brum what local teams do to us, a total one off.

In 9 of the last 11 games (Wigan and Rotherham the exceptions) some players declined a bit (not all eg Forino, Matete), we got even more injuries and lost any fight we had when the games became meaningless.

8 hours ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

That wouldn't really be in our interest though

We were fighting for a play-off place at the time so surely we'd just have picked whoever we thought the best option was

Indeed.

Yet Baxter was largely poor in that time, received many a criticism, but remained in the team as it went to ratshit.

At that time, it would also have become clear that he wasn't staying. 

I was surprised Southwood didn't come back in then.

35 minutes ago, Tombwfc said:

 

We were always that shite. The 'collapse' was just regressing to the mean in terms of results.

Even at in our 'purple patch' under SS where people were predicting automatics, we were still conceding first in every game and going life and death to beat Crawley at home. We were never any good, never played well for any length of time and eventually got what we deserved in terms of results.

Agreed.  Our points total before the "collapse" flattered us, without going through different games we can all recall a few times when the opposition did us a massive favour getting a man sent off, usually for something stupid, and others when we scored in about the 98th minute whether we deserved to win or not.  Our points return was bound to return to something like what we deserved eventually.

7 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Indeed.

Yet Baxter was largely poor in that time, received many a criticism, but remained in the team as it went to ratshit.

At that time, it would also have become clear that he wasn't staying. 

I was surprised Southwood didn't come back in then.

SS had enough of Southwood after that third goal at Bristol. 

Goalie stayed on his line and just left their player with a free header.

Dropped him for the next game.

4 hours ago, tomski said:

Do you really think this was where this broke down?

I think there may be something in it. 

There was part of an interview where SS explained why he'd dropped Collins previously- he openly said he had spoken to the player and indicated that he'd let his levels drop below where they were expected. 

It may be that Collins didn't take it too well.

Guess we'll not get to know to be honest, but if he is on his way, then so be it.