Aaaaaaaaanyway, Norwich at Home.

[BL3]

Jesus! we're 5 games into a season! 3 of them were against utd, city and liverpool, we were never expecting to get much, if anything out of them. Fair enough we played awful in the united and the game today, but we've not been given a chance to get a decent run going with these fixtures.

That's true but there won't be a much more winnable game all season than Norwich at home. Perhaps OC was trying to gradually introduce the likes of N'gog but the players that have started the last few games have had a decent enough run by now. It's time to give others a chance.

[NiceHotCuppaTea]

Klasnic has done us a favour, at least we can start with Ngog now..

and whoever said Boyata was shit is on glue, for a cb at RB he played very well...did you not see him get the ball out the box with his head - whilst on the floor??

[chaddy_bwfc]

Jesus! we're 5 games into a season! 3 of them were against utd, city and liverpool, we were never expecting to get much, if anything out of them. Fair enough we played awful in the united and the game today, but we've not been given a chance to get a decent run going with these fixtures.

That's true but there won't be a much more winnable game all season than Norwich at home. Perhaps OC was trying to gradually introduce the likes of N'gog but the players that have started the last few games have had a decent enough run by now. It's time to give others a chance.

There will be harder games that we will win though, we just need to get a run going, something we haven't had a chance of doing as of yet. Let's hope OC plays a completely different team on Tuesday with players that have something to prove and then plays the best ones against arsenal. He isn't being spineless, he was just giving the defense a chance to bounce back today, obviously we never so at least now he can make a change next weekend

[TANGODANCER]

Jesus! we're 5 games into a season! 3 of them were against utd, city and liverpool, we were never expecting to get much, if anything out of them. Fair enough we played awful in the united and the game today, but we've not been given a chance to get a decent run going with these fixtures.
Yes we need to make changes defensively and maybe klasnic's red card could be a blessing in disguise because now it forces OC into a change up front. But come on, there's no need to be calling OC clueless and spineless 5 games into a season. Anyone would think we're bottom of the league going into the last 10 games of the season!

Exactly right. Knees breaking jaws all over the place here. Yes, it was an awful game, but it was that way because our shambles of a defence let them score two basically soft goals in the first half...er again? Who gets the stick... the forwards? How much ball did we get into their box first half exactly? My count was hardly at all. Nice pretty passing in our own half that led to nothing and inevitably went backwards. They did what we didn't, man-marked and hassled us off the ball time and time again. That soft Jessy of a defender got Klasnic sent off purposely by throwing himself down for a brush of eyebrows and we play with ten, so OC drops Davies. Add to that the twunker-king of referees and fighting uphill ain't in it.

Everybody looks for scapegoats and KD is flavour of the month (flavour of the year forsome). If the defence manned up and stopped playing panic-ball we might just look like a football team. Put it behind and move on. If axe-weilding is in order, it should start at the back not the front. Add to that that finding space helps and we're not top of the league at that either and that's hardly the forwards' fault.. Add again constant two-mile goalkicks to one man with nobody with enough savvy to get near him.

Solution, drop the captain. Great.

[Peter Thompson]

It wasn't actually the losing that bothered me today - yet again it was the manner of the performance, fecking spineless.

Yes - Coyle has been backed as much as possible in the summer, and he's got a decent squad of players now

But something isn't right for me behind the scenes - we have absolutely no team spirit or team motivation / inspiration (this was supposedly Coyle's strong point), we look like a team of individuals, we play with absolutely no tempo or pace and still can't pass a football, we are unable to move the ball quickly yet every other team in the top 2 leagues can do that - why can't we ?....we are the slowest team in the premierleague by a country mile (whatever that is...).

If its not Coyle's training or coaching then get shut of his Burnley mates on the coaching staff and bring in some quality premier league standard coaches quickly.

Our so called defensive coach Steve Davis was a good 3rd / 4th div player but he's not premier league standard, same with the goalkeeping coach who coached that world beater Brian Jensen FFS.

[plymouth wanderer]

i see klas was takin a kip again today all he needs now is davo to cuddle up nxt to him and we will be reet

[thebish]

...genuinely think we could be in trouble this year!

is there a season for the last 6 years where you haven't thought that?

[Peter Thompson]

Klasnic has done us a favour, at least we can start with Ngog now..

and whoever said Boyata was shit is on glue, for a cb at RB he played very well...did you not see him get the ball out the box with his head - whilst on the floor??

I said Boyata was shite and I actually rated him prior to the game - but he was fecking awful today, watch the game back for the whole 90 mins and then comment - he really was very poor and I take no joy in saying that because I thought he's improve us - he was even worse than Robinson and that's saying something.

[Tombwfc]

End of the day nobody on here can convince me that this is owt different to what we churned out under Megson. In fact it's worse. Put it is way if we get to Sammy Lee levels of shitness of 5 (or less) points from 10 games then things need to change, because I actually think we have a decent group of players, who are just being criminally mismanaged!

If we have a 'decent group of players', then it's because we have a manager who has assembled that group on a fraction of the budget that Megson had to spend.

Megson assembled what could be reasonably described as a 'decent group of players', and then got himself sacked because he couldn't manage them. We're a long way away from that point yet, but bringing in decent players is only half the battle. Particularly when a good number of those players either don't play, play out of position or are endlessly chopped and changed.

The defence will get the blame again, and possibly rightly so, but another game goes by where we've barely created a meaningful chance on goal. We're very poor all over the pitch.

[TKIZ!]

I think the performance in the second half was a long way better than the first, I thnik both optimistic and pessimistic fans make very good points but here's mine for what it's worth:

1. Don't play Klasnic and Davies as the front two again, unless we've exhausted all other options
2. Knight must be dropped and a re-think of the defence (Wheater as Cahill's partner has proved that he's a better foil, the 8 weeks of no Knight, Worthy may know what the goals to game conceded might be?)
3. Coyle needs to stop being so 4-4-2 centric, we don't have the players for it. Possible go 3-5-2 or 4-2-3-1to offer better protection to the LB/RB
4. Stop marking zonal from corners, proved today that it does work
5. If you want to play counterattacking football you can't have all your players bar one back defending set-pieces. The move breaks down way to easily.

I think Coyle is the best manager for the job, I think to call for his head already is stupid but he needs to look at the last four games and get them to realise that they need to fight for the shirt

[BL3]

Megson assembled what could be reasonably described as a 'decent group of players'

That's debatable. Riga? Shittu? Steinsson? Robinson? Knight? Half a decent season from Elmander. The odd decent performance from Mark Davies.

[TKIZ!]

Coyle will have to play N'Gog now and he showed today with that performance that he has the ability, we just need to get a run together

[thebish]

is there a pill you can take that makes you not give a toss about how Bolton do? If so - I want some...

Who needs pills when 3/4 of a bottle of vodka has the same effect. Join me.

I think I will - and am hoping that England can give me summat to cheer about in the morning...

[BL3]

Let's hope OC doesn't read these forums if he's trying to work out his best eleven, because if he does he will have learned the following:

Boyata is shite/Boyata was the best player on the pitch

Reo-Coker is crap/Reo-Coker was our best player

Pratley is a Championship player/Pratley was the only positive

[Worthy4England]

Klasnic has done us a favour, at least we can start with Ngog now..

and whoever said Boyata was shit is on glue, for a cb at RB he played very well...did you not see him get the ball out the box with his head - whilst on the floor??

I said Boyata was shite and I actually rated him prior to the game - but he was fecking awful today, watch the game back for the whole 90 mins and then comment - he really was very poor and I take no joy in saying that because I thought he's improve us - he was even worse than Robinson and that's saying something.

I think in amongst the general sea of shite on display today, Boyata was one of the better ones - but not much in it.

[Tombwfc]

Megson assembled what could be reasonably described as a 'decent group of players'

That's debatable. Riga? Shittu? Steinsson? Robinson? Knight? Half a decent season from Elmander. The odd decent performance from Mark Davies.

All of those, apart from Shittu and Riga, are decent players. If they were that shit it wouldn't have been hard to replace all of them, even on a limited budget.

Let's hope OC doesn't read these forums if he's trying to work out his best eleven, because if he does he will have learned the following:

Boyata is shite/Boyata was the best player on the pitch

Reo-Coker is crap/Reo-Coker was our best player

Pratley is a Championship player/Pratley was the only positive

Would you expect a group of a dozen or so different people to unanimously agree on everything? I don't see it as that surprising.

FWIW, I thought Boyata was ok defensively, but he's not much more than that. For Reo-Coker, I think he does a solid job, but it's a pretty basic job. It's a lot easier to look good just intercepting balls and passing it to someone else, than it is to actually create something.

[Peter Thompson]

Based on today's performance only - all three are no better than we had last season, I was very disappointed by all three of them today against a really average Norwich side of which I had heard of non of their players. I can't believe anyone who rated Boyata today (he's young and will improve a lot but today defensively he was really poor)

I hope Coyle or someone he knows does read this and other forums to see how the fans feel. And for me its now time for the real Owen Coyle to stand up and be counted, because since Wembley we've had a very poor imitation.

I hate saying this but today was IMO as bad as any poor games under Megson - IMO 1st half today was the worst ever at the Reebok (worse than Watford & Derby) and that's saying something - the team look like they are poorly coached during the week, unprepared for the opposition, shapeless and leaderless put on the pitch.

[BWFC_Insane]

Jesus! we're 5 games into a season! 3 of them were against utd, city and liverpool, we were never expecting to get much, if anything out of them. Fair enough we played awful in the united and the game today, but we've not been given a chance to get a decent run going with these fixtures.
Yes we need to make changes defensively and maybe klasnic's red card could be a blessing in disguise because now it forces OC into a change up front. But come on, there's no need to be calling OC clueless and spineless 5 games into a season. Anyone would think we're bottom of the league going into the last 10 games of the season!

Exactly right. Knees breaking jaws all over the place here. Yes, it was an awful game, but it was that way because our shambles of a defence let them score two basically soft goals in the first half...er again? Who gets the stick... the forwards? How much ball did we get into their box first half exactly? My count was hardly at all. Nice pretty passing in our own half that led to nothing and inevitably went backwards. They did what we didn't, man-marked and hassled us off the ball time and time again. That soft Jessy of a defender got Klasnic sent off purposely by throwing himself down for a brush of eyebrows and we play with ten, so OC drops Davies. Add to that the twunker-king of referees and fighting uphill ain't in it.

Everybody looks for scapegoats and KD is flavour of the month (flavour of the year forsome). If the defence manned up and stopped playing panic-ball we might just look like a football team. Put it behind and move on. If axe-weilding is in order, it should start at the back not the front. Add to that that finding space helps and we're not top of the league at that either and that's hardly the forwards' fault.. Add again constant two-mile goalkicks to one man with nobody with enough savvy to get near him.

Solution, drop the captain. Great.

The biggest problem first half was tempo. You are asking your midfield to do an awful lot to get the ball down, pass and move and be incisive when there is no movement ahead of them. Davies was static all game, takes 93 touches to control a ball and doesn't win very much in the air either. Our midfield wasn't any better second half but the big difference was NGog actually bothered to move and ran off the ball to open up space, he also provided a threat in behind. Added to that he won a decent amount in the air, held it up well and could control a ball get it out of feet and run at the back four without taking 93 touches to bring the ball under control. If you cant see that then you are blind. Davies is meant to be the captain but he doesn't so much leading, seems quite happy to put his head down shrug his shoulders and disappear. He's been shite this season, everyone AT the games can see it, even Coyle can see it which is why he's hoiking him off every game, first sub. NGog showed second half what a forward needs to do in this division, show pace and movement, a good first touch, bring others into the game and sometimes run at defenders. Davies is offering none of that, fooking none!

[Worthy4England]

Based on today's performance only - all three are no better than we had last season, I was very disappointed by all three of them today against a really average Norwich side of which I had heard of non of their players. I can't believe anyone who rated Boyata today (he's young and will improve a lot but today defensively he was really poor)

I hope Coyle or someone he knows does read this and other forums to see how the fans feel. And for me its now time for the real Owen Coyle to stand up and be counted, because since Wembley we've had a very poor imitation.

I hate saying this but today was IMO as bad as any poor games under Megson - IMO 1st half today was the worst ever at the Reebok (worse than Watford & Derby) and that's saying something - the team look like they are poorly coached during the week, unprepared for the opposition, shapeless and leaderless put on the pitch.

I'm struggling to remember (m)any decent attacks they launched down their left flank (Boyata's) where it caused us any problems he didn't deal with.

[BWFC_Insane]

Based on today's performance only - all three are no better than we had last season, I was very disappointed by all three of them today against a really average Norwich side of which I had heard of non of their players. I can't believe anyone who rated Boyata today (he's young and will improve a lot but today defensively he was really poor)

I hope Coyle or someone he knows does read this and other forums to see how the fans feel. And for me its now time for the real Owen Coyle to stand up and be counted, because since Wembley we've had a very poor imitation.

I hate saying this but today was IMO as bad as any poor games under Megson - IMO 1st half today was the worst ever at the Reebok (worse than Watford & Derby) and that's saying something - the team look like they are poorly coached during the week, unprepared for the opposition, shapeless and leaderless put on the pitch.

I'm struggling to remember (m)any decent attacks they launched down their left flank (Boyata's) where it caused us any problems he didn't deal with.

Aye agree W4E, Boyata looked ok. Though Coyle did say he lost his man for the second goal I think on the radio. Sadly Robinson was shite again, and Zat Knight did all he could to let their striker turn him inside out time and time again!