Wycombe 2 Rovers 1

[Ian]

I honestly think we'd be helped a great deal by changing to 4-4-2.

At this stage Les needs to adapt or else. We clearly have a team that is capable of playing good football, because they have done it before.

I agree. He simply has to change the way he's playing. If he's too stubborn to do this, then he's in for a relegation scrap.

No disrespect to Les, great servant for the club, and it's going to be a sad end for him when he goes (whenever that is) but you have to realise there are big issues at the club when your physio becomes your manager. Lack of ambition or money, call it what you will, but can we really expect much from someone that has no managerial experience whatsoever? I think he's really getting exposed now.

No doubt this will be Les' first and last job as a manager, but who shall we get in to replace? Andy Quayle maybe? and those shouting for Goody as manager, please tell me you're joking?!

Les stays put, keep our fingers crossed for rest of season. Les goes, get a man with a clown suit in to replace (as we know it won't be anyone with any managerial know-how). Not a great situation to be in.

But the board won't sack Les. No chance. I just hope he manages to keep us up!

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I understand the reservations about having someone like Goodison in charge, given his limited communication skills, but I think you could have similar concerns about Les at present. He sounds increasingly glum and bemused in press interviews, and if he is now doubting his own ability - understandably given what has been thrown at him - is he able to rouse and inspire the players any longer ? Looking at many of our recent away performances you have to wonder. We only respond as a team when it is too late and the pressure is off anyway.

Switching to 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 wouldn't just give us a tactical change in matches, it would freshen things up on the training ground and give the players a new focus, a new problem to grapple with. At the moment we just plod along from week to week with the same methods and the script for matches virtually written before we kick off.

I do worry that Les is in denial about the severity of the situation. He says that we are still 'on course' for 50 points and survival and he is not worried about relegation. While this may be statistically correct, the vast majority of those points were picked up in August and October. We have won one in sixteen. We need to win 5 or 6 of the next seventeen to stay up. Clearly this requires a dramatic improvement in form.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

The thing is in the last two games alone we've changed personnel and formations during the matches and created enough chances to win 4 or 5 games. On Saturday we went to 442. The reasons we got 1 point out of 6 were rank poor defending and our complete inability to put the ball in the net. Given we've got the squad we've got - what exactly could or should Les have done differently during the last two games? You can argue about tactics, formations and motivation all you like and that's fair enough. You can blame him for putting together the squad we have if you want but you simply cannot blame him when professional footballers make basic errors that cost us points. That's their responsibility. It's an old adage in football: players get managers the sack.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

We only switched to 4-4-2 on Saturday in the 69th minute when Lateef came on at which point we were already chasing the game. In the first half we played with an isolated striker and were extremely poor, creating no real chances apart from the goal scored from thirty yards. Is it sufficient to try a different formation reactively when the opposition have already got a stranglehold on the game ?

Yes, in the last couple of matches we have missed chances we should have scored, but this run has gone on for sixteen games, not two. Do we really believe that our poor recent performance is solely down to individual errors ?

Perhaps our poor defending in the first half was partly the result of the whole team being too deep allowing the opposition too much space to play. Perhaps our lack of creativity was the result of the front man being too isolated and the number of high balls we played forward. These are tactical decisions.

I have never questioned Les's ability to spot a player and think he has put a good squad together, which makes our current form all the more frustrating.

I was not suggesting that 4-4-2 or any other system would be some miracle cure to our problems, just that any team has to freshen things up with new ideas when stuck in the kind of run we are in, rather than rigidly defending one system.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

I wouldn't disagree with that - certainly the fact that we dropped right off in the first half after going a goal up is a tactical error and the manager has to take responsibility for that. On the other hand, I am not convinced that 442 is actually going to solve our problems. Most teams play 541 away from home in our division, which will cause us problems if we go 442 at PP as we don't have the wide players who can stretch the game and we would find ourselves overrun in midfield (one of the main problems during the Ronnie Moore years).

We've won 1 in 16 but not actually played that badly. We were worse last season much of the time but managed to win games. I am still convinced this team is not too bad and with the confidence a couple of wins will bring, we'll do OK again. But time is running out....

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I agree that we have good players and the football has been better than it was for much of last season. That is what makes this run so perplexing. With 4-4-2 there is a danger of being outnumbered in the middle, but with Devaney fit we do have the natural width in the squad to play that system, at least against certain opposition.

Preston are almost as out of sorts as us and seem to have problems off the pitch, so maybe the tide will turn on Saturday.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

Hope so. It's been a miserable four months!

 

[DIW]

Preston are almost as out of sorts as us and seem to have problems off the pitch, so maybe the tide will turn on Saturday.

Yeah Preston are probably due some luck and a good result. :-D

 

[Ian]

I noticed in the Echo today Les was saying the vultures are already out. Ex-managers sitting in the stands baying for blood. OK, maybe not baying for blood, but you get the idea. Welcome to the wonderful world of football management.

He said: “Next Saturday it will be like Jungle Book in our Main Stand. All those vultures will be up there, who have been looking at our results and thinking there might be a job going here.

“A couple of ex-managers actually said to our chairman at our last home game that they could come here and do a job. That does not happen anywhere else.”

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/spor...unting-his-job-100252-30279772/#ixzz1lk8dmUH2

Les is a realist and I certainly don't think he's in denial. He's just trying to put a positive spin on things as all managers have to do.

And on a side note, if your after a bit of nostalgia, check out this excellent timeline again from the Liverpool Echo website about the rise and fall of TRFC under PJ with some excellent photos and videos mixed in. Enjoy if you can!

Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/spor...under-peter-johnson-timeline-100252-29149844/

 

[TRFC_Ian]

The problem is it isnt just the tactics, its also the personnel that are picked. On Saturday McChrystals complete lack of pace was exposed for both goals. Holmes was anonymous. I'm surprised Akins didn't get frostbite spending the whole match standing on the touchline with his arms in the air. Tiryaki might have been horribly isolated but I didn't think he moved around much to help himself either.

Goodi showed that at his age hes not only our best defender, he's also our best target man as he played the last part of the 2nd half upfront, holding the ball up and combining well with McGurk, who I thought was excellent. A rare ray of sunshine along with Owain who looked rusty but still made some decent saves and Lateef who looked lively. Also thought Brunt looked like a decent kid but totally out of his depth in a match like that.

Totally agree that formation should have been changed earlier - but when the fans start singing "442" isnt that just going to make the manager more determined to do his own thing? (plus if Akins is one of the wingers then 442 isnt going to work anyway)

 

[Boz]

The problem is that there aren't many options available in personnel. Ash Taylor isn't any faster than McChrystal, for instance. If you don't pick 2 up front, then it would be brave if not foolish to pick Brunt ahead of Tiryaki. Danny Holmes may feel anonymity is better than poor, which is how Buchanan appeared to be last weekend.

 

[SonkORLY?]

Most teams play 541 away from home in our division

They definitely don't!

Put simply we have to play 4-4-2 at home because if Les is so hellbent our approach play being so direct then it's the only way we'll ever see another player vaguely close to Muz.