The Pissing-Conduit run Nothing but Claret. Burrnla A 17/10

[Peter Thompson]

I'll admit I'm starting to doubt Lennon's ability to move us forward - he doesn't appear to have a clue how to improve us and continually makes the same selection errors as the last man.

He appears to favour effort over ability - I'll say it again Danns & Feeney are fcuking awful (both have only one good game in every 6 or 7), and Madine is a limited league 1 standard & Heskey is way past it - he (Lennon) hit on a half decent defensive pairing (Derek & Prince) yet he continually tinkers with the back four week after week.

He like the fans rightly continually questions the mentality of the side, but yet continually plays the same mentally weak players - we need leadership on the pitch, we need winners we need some organisation - we are easy to play against and toothless upfront and this has been all season, and despite saying we desperately need a goal scorer Lennon has wasted the international break and we are left with the dross that is Madine & Heskey.

[jetsetwilly]

Anyone else think carlton Cole is the answer?

[TonyDomingos]

Anyone else think carlton Cole is the answer?

Depends. What's the question?

[jonnycooper]

Lennon reckons Love is the answer!

And he knows that..For sure..

[Jugs]

As good as Mavies has been as a holding midfielder, now that Pratley has returned and Clough is out it's time to push him up the pitch and play him where he can cause a bit of havoc - not bench him.

[SmokinFrazier]

Our tactics are solid enough and Lennon knows what he's doing and the players aren't bad either, but the lack of ability to take our chances is really hurting us because you need to punish teams when you're on top and when you don't do that, it leads to an absolute lack of confidence throughout the pitch which is what we've got right now. We're in a slump and I'm not sure how we'll get out of it now that we don't have Clough, our only natural goalscorer. We've been defensively solid at times, we've got a good structure in the team, we have creative players but it just isn't clicking in front of goal and if you aren't scoring, it has a knock on effect on the rest of the team. Had we been able to sign Le Fondre instead of Madine, things would be so much different than they are right now but this is what happens when you don't score enough.

[bobo the clown]

Our tactics are solid enough and Lennon knows what he's doing and the players aren't bad either, but the lack of ability to take our chances is really hurting us because you need to punish teams when you're on top and when you don't do that, it leads to an absolute lack of confidence throughout the pitch which is what we've got right now. We're in a slump and I'm not sure how we'll get out of it now that we don't have Clough, our only natural goalscorer. We've been defensively solid at times, we've got a good structure in the team, we have creative players but it just isn't clicking in front of goal and if you aren't scoring, it has a knock on effect on the rest of the team. Had we been able to sign Le Fondre instead of Madine, things would be so much different than they are right now but this is what happens when you don't score enough.

Yup

[BWFC_Insane]

If we'd have signed Juke we'd have been much better. This hasn't been an excuse in the past and it isn't one now.

Perhaps if Lennon hadn't wasted money on right backs he seems to have little faith in and Heskey and Dobbie we might have some proper back up for Madine.

Also our last away game we scored 3 and still lost.

We just aren't getting the best out of the players. Tactically Lennon is as bad as I can remember. All over the shop. Making bizarre decisions and swapping and changing every week.

Young Vela was the bees knees, the absolutely symbol of how bad Freedman was for not giving a chance to according to many on here. Why is he not able to get ANY game time? Why is our best defender not picked today? Why play centre halves at full back having just signed 2 specialist right backs? Why is Mark Davies captain and main man, and then left out entirely?

The full backs thing is crazy. We didn't need Pisano. Not in a million years. Yet having got him I can't understand why we're now playing centre halves at full back.

It's a mess, just like last season. Only a place lower in the league.

[Jugs]

If we'd have signed Juke we'd have been much better. This hasn't been an excuse in the past and it isn't one now.

Perhaps if Lennon hadn't wasted money on right backs he seems to have little faith in and Heskey and Dobbie we might have some proper back up for Madine.

Also our last away game we scored 3 and still lost.

We just aren't getting the best out of the players. Tactically Lennon is as bad as I can remember. All over the shop. Making bizarre decisions and swapping and changing every week.

Young Vela was the bees knees, the absolutely symbol of how bad Freedman was for not giving a chance to according to many on here. Why is he not able to get ANY game time? Why is our best defender not picked today? Why play centre halves at full back having just signed 2 specialist right backs? Why is Mark Davies captain and main man, and then left out entirely?

The full backs thing is crazy. We didn't need Pisano. Not in a million years. Yet having got him I can't understand why we're now playing centre halves at full back.

It's a mess, just like last season. Only a place lower in the league.

I rate Vela and want to see him starting, but posters on here - possibly including you - kept telling me earlier in the season that Danns is more Lennon's type of player, has more dynamism etc and Vela was awful against Wolves when he came on (which I disagreed with - I thought he played well). Maybe that's why. Maybe Lennon agrees with people on here.

The Dobbie one is a bit of a strange one; he can clearly finish (often from the bench), but Lennon doesn't seem too keen on throwing him into games early enough, or if at all.

[Peter Thompson]

Our tactics are solid enough and Lennon knows what he's doing and the players aren't bad either, but the lack of ability to take our chances is really hurting us because you need to punish teams when you're on top and when you don't do that, it leads to an absolute lack of confidence throughout the pitch which is what we've got right now. We're in a slump and I'm not sure how we'll get out of it now that we don't have Clough, our only natural goalscorer. We've been defensively solid at times, we've got a good structure in the team, we have creative players but it just isn't clicking in front of goal and if you aren't scoring, it has a knock on effect on the rest of the team. Had we been able to sign Le Fondre instead of Madine, things would be so much different than they are right now but this is what happens when you don't score enough.

Sorry Joe but I disagree with almost everything you have posted apart from Le Fondre. If our tactics are so solid how come we have only got 8 points all season and have won something like 1 out of our last 16 away games and sit bottom of a shit league. If Lennon knows what he's doing why does he continually pick dross such as Danns, Feeney, Madine, Heskey etc...the failure to take our chances is down to the poor quality of our players as is our shite schoolboy defending (which I certainly wouldn't call solid !) so the quality of the players can't be that good can it.

'We have a good structure in the team' - do we really ? so good that we are bottom of the league and can't win a fcuking game, we are poorly organised, lack leadership, have a team of losers, are weak and have little creativity and the shape of the team changes every week - we haven't put a 90 minute performance together for years.

[BWFC_Insane]

Let's not forget 'any half decent manager .....' and 'I'd like to see what Lennon would have done if he'd had a full pre-season'.....

[Enoch]

Let's not forget 'any half decent manager .....' and 'I'd like to see what Lennon would have done if he'd had a full pre-season'.....

[thebish]

Our tactics are solid enough and Lennon knows what he's doing and the players aren't bad either, but the lack of ability to take our chances is really hurting us because you need to punish teams when you're on top and when you don't do that, it leads to an absolute lack of confidence throughout the pitch which is what we've got right now. We're in a slump and I'm not sure how we'll get out of it now that we don't have Clough, our only natural goalscorer. We've been defensively solid at times, we've got a good structure in the team, we have creative players but it just isn't clicking in front of goal and if you aren't scoring, it has a knock on effect on the rest of the team. Had we been able to sign Le Fondre instead of Madine, things would be so much different than they are right now but this is what happens when you don't score enough.

just bad luck then?

Lenny has signed more than one striker - Dobbie, Heskey, Madine are all his permanent signing business... not many goals between the three of them.

we can decry luck and lack of funds - but there's more missing than that...

last time round (I think - IIRC) you said that if we signed Eidur then we'd be challenging for playoffs - we signed him - and we didn't...

sometimes one player makes a difference - but I don't think our problems are the kind that a fixed with one magic signing...

I'm still backing Lenny to turn it around - but aside from blaming luck and lack of cash - i'd like to see him doing better with what we actually have - quite a chunk of which were his signings.. make us harder to beat - give us more steel - a gameplan... get them working like dogs - closing down the opposition - just making it fecking difficult to beat us. we look too soft... we shouldn't look soft.

[thebish]

Our tactics are solid enough and Lennon knows what he's doing and the players aren't bad either, but the lack of ability to take our chances is really hurting us because you need to punish teams when you're on top and when you don't do that, it leads to an absolute lack of confidence throughout the pitch which is what we've got right now. We're in a slump and I'm not sure how we'll get out of it now that we don't have Clough, our only natural goalscorer. We've been defensively solid at times, we've got a good structure in the team, we have creative players but it just isn't clicking in front of goal and if you aren't scoring, it has a knock on effect on the rest of the team. Had we been able to sign Le Fondre instead of Madine, things would be so much different than they are right now but this is what happens when you don't score enough.

Yup

Nope!

what exactly ARE our tactics?

[jaffka]

We played very well in parts today against a side that will be challenging for automatic promotion. We had chances but they didn't go in. Their £6m striker bagged a brace and was a handful for our free transfer players.

I came away disappointed and the crown did their best to get behind them but that second goal just kicked the stuffing out of the fans and team.

Some people need a reality check, out team is made up of apparent no good enough and augmented by frees and loans, its where we are. Avoiding relegation will be great.

If Lennon had been paying transfer fees for the players we had brought in then I may be less patient but he hasn't, he has had/got f**k all to work with. Some people need a reality check.

[twilight]

jaffka you make some good points there, not least the one where we have frees/loans in our team, very average players, against a team who have just come down from the premier and have players who would easily get into our first team. It's still frustrating but think with a bit more support from the chairman/board, he might just do a little better...

[Nicko58]

Our tactics are solid enough and Lennon knows what he's doing and the players aren't bad either, but the lack of ability to take our chances is really hurting us because you need to punish teams when you're on top and when you don't do that, it leads to an absolute lack of confidence throughout the pitch which is what we've got right now. We're in a slump and I'm not sure how we'll get out of it now that we don't have Clough, our only natural goalscorer. We've been defensively solid at times, we've got a good structure in the team, we have creative players but it just isn't clicking in front of goal and if you aren't scoring, it has a knock on effect on the rest of the team. Had we been able to sign Le Fondre instead of Madine, things would be so much different than they are right now but this is what happens when you don't score enough.

just bad luck then?

Lenny has signed more than one striker - Dobbie, Heskey, Madine are all his permanent signing business... not many goals between the three of them.

we can decry luck and lack of funds - but there's more missing than that...

last time round (I think - IIRC) you said that if we signed Eidur then we'd be challenging for playoffs - we signed him - and we didn't...

sometimes one player makes a difference - but I don't think our problems are the kind that a fixed with one magic signing...

I'm still backing Lenny to turn it around - but aside from blaming luck and lack of cash - i'd like to see him doing better with what we actually have - quite a chunk of which were his signings.. make us harder to beat - give us more steel - a gameplan... get them working like dogs - closing down the opposition - just making it fecking difficult to beat us. we look too soft... we shouldn't look soft.

They're his signings, but the trouble is he's been asked to replace the last lot of failures with half the budget. As a general rule in football, a team's league position tends to correlate with their spend on salary. The more you spend the higher up the league you finish. Our total wage bill probably isn't the lowest in the league, but in real terms we have the likes of Medo and Spearing who I imagine take up a significant chunk of our budget and who we can't seem to shift. Lennon is therefore left with a relative pittance to work with. He's far from blameless, but when our second choice striker is a footballing pensioner who hasn't scored a goal since Boxing Day it tells you something about where we are.

As I wasn't at the game today I can't comment about it all that much, but I've read elsewhere that the difference between the teams was Andre Gray. That got me thinking, if you were Eddie Davies and you were sat watching this from afar, wouldn't you just hand Lennon a million or two so that he can try and get someone who can put the ball in the back of the net? While I don't mean to sound ungrateful for all that he's done for us, and I understand that he wants to sell the club, he's supposedly a supporter as well as the owner and you would expect that he can at least afford to throw Lennon a f*cking bone.

[Worthy4England]

There's only one conversation that counts for owt. League position.

We're bottom. If it stays that way, then any conversation about the merits of the manager are quite frankly ridhiclooush. He's not good enough unless it improves.

We don't have the lowest wage budget in the division. We signed 12 players in the summer. Don't think we were the only club in the division not to spend hard cash. We still have players that were ours in the Prem.

Other than Plymouth promising promotion season and Lennon saying his target was playoffs, I expect safe lower mid-table. Don't think that's unrealistic.

[thebish]

There's only one conversation that counts for owt. League position.

We're bottom. If it stays that way, then any conversation about the merits of the manager are quite frankly ridhiclooush. He's not good enough unless it improves.

[jaffka]

relegation wasn't decided in October.