I'll say it (1 Viewer)

Do I want him sacked? Absolutely not.
Do I think he needs to make some serious changes to our play? Definitely.
Everything is so structured and predictable in everything we do, it’s like the pitch has been separated into a grid and the players aren’t allowed in certain sections. At one point yesterday a Blackpool attack (may have been a corner) broke down and Mason ran out with the ball towards the right flank. He stopped, passed it to Sterling who passed it to Thomas to run with the ball into the same space. Fairly minor thing but it bought them about 5-10 seconds to regroup, rather than us attacking with a little bit of chaos. I want to see us take risks like that, but the players are too scared to shoulder the responsibility.

rob9872 said:

Same old story and I agree he has to go.

No leadership on or off the pitch.
Wasted budget.
Too many non scoring forwards.
No direction.
He/we got lucky last season with McNulty.
Taking Bright off today a joke
Persisting with Chaplin and not even subbing him
Persisting with right footed Hiwula on the left is a waste of time
Even in our winning run we were lucky
Our best players are all loanees
Relegation form
Never reacts to second half same pattern every week
Subs appalling
No height and constantly conceded from set pieces
Never score from corners. Delivery poor but equally height and movement lacking
Side too young and heads drop which is why we always seem to concede two goals quickly

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So apart from the above, everything is just fine?

Otis said:

It has.

CWR said it had anyway. Eakin said so today.

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The EFl website has the goal as Thomas still

Otis said:

Thing is though, Nick, we should have won that game and were all over them in that first half.

It's such small margins.....................................................ALL in the first half.

It's such fine margins and we could easily won 4 or 5 nil today.

Second half WAS dreadful though.

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This pattern - good in 1st half, shit immediately after the start of the 2nd half - has been repeated ad nauseam this season. Whatever MR is doing at half-time, it's clearly not working and he needs to change it. When our players came out for the second half yesterday, I knew from their body language that they were going to be shite. They ambled out in groups of two or three players and strolled into position for the KO. No sign of motivational energy, urgency, or team togetherness at all. I'm not in favour of yet another change in manager, but MR needs to to change the HT routine very urgently.

Where’s the change in direction?

xcraigx said:

Goals conceded 1st half = 7
Goals conceded 2nd half = 29

What on earth is being said at half time this season?

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Exactly.

We have a head of recruitment by the way...

This thread, like the others probably won’t age well.

He’s a good manager, we have a good, young team and it will come together next season when we add to what we’ve got.

PVA said:

We're not playing well at the moment, I don't deny that.

But I have seen enough this season to know that we're not far off being a decent side. We are a newly promoted team and we're 12th, that's not bad.

We are a goalscorer short of being decent.

There is no point in getting rid of Robins. We've been sacking managers for years and it's got us nowhere. Robins has a long term plan in place and is signing lots of young players.

Let's actually give a manager a chance at building something rather than getting back on the manager merry go round.

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I agree with all of this except the part where you say we are not playing well. I think we have played some great football in the last two games. As you say, a goal scorer away from being a very good team in this league.

Mucca Mad Boys said:

This thread, like the others probably won’t age well.

He’s a good manager, we have a good, young team and it will come together next season when we add to what we’ve got.

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Robins track record suggests otherwise

Mucca Mad Boys said:

This thread, like the others probably won’t age well.

He’s a good manager, we have a good, young team and it will come together next season when we add to what we’ve got.

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Will we after changes in the summer you start again trying to get a team to gel, we got lucky last season with McNulty but he had done it before at Livingston, none of our current batch of strikers have that sort of past record.
Also Robins seems tatically inept look at yesterday Chaplin up against the largest defense in the division, it might work if you had a large guy right by him, but on his own no way.
Then when we really need goals we leave Chaplin on the pitch in midfield, he looked lost there.
Robins needs to get a balance in the team and play the players in their best position, not Hiwula on the wing.

First half yesterday reminded me of an old git eating a steak without his false teeth in,it was never gonna happen,taking way to long on the build up,i mean,you could of had a small nap in a our build up play and not missed anything,it was that boring,and how Chaplin missed that sitter is beyond me,the bounce apparently.
Second half we were absolutely dreadful and to concede 2 goals like we did and yet before halftime we were the better side but without any real threat especially upfront,but what do we expect from Robin's,the guy has lost it,we need to go 4-4-2 at home,play with some tempo and be more direct,not send a postcard to the Opposition of what we are doing.We missed Willis and Bayliss yesterday.

With a pumper crowd next week i am expecting a massive improvement on yesterday,( i know,i'm asking a lot ),we need to get back to winning ways and quick otherwise i can see us being dragged into the relegation,we look a relegation side at the mo,our Strikers are duds and we have Robin's i believe looking to bring yet another dud in..my rating for the team yesterday.. 5..and im being kind,some didn't even deserve that.

I f we fail next week,time to Robin's to look for other employment..

sylus said:

our strikers are duds and we have Robin's i believe looking to bring yet another dud in

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Sensational.

sylus said:

With a pumper crowd next week i am expecting a massive improvement on yesterday,( i know,i'm asking a lot ),.

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From my experience whenever we get a bog crowd in the team freezes and we are absolutely awful. I'm sure people can point to games with big crowds like Wembley etc that we've won. but I tend to find big home crowds sees us do worse than normal. I can really see the pressure getting to the strikers, Chaplin especially, and then being truly shit and may well see the crowd turn on them. I hope not but it's what I fear.

Otis said:

I don't see it as idiocy at all though. We may disagree as fans, but Chaplin has 4 goals in 5 matches. It sort of makes sense to keep him on. Even if you disagree, it's hardly idiocy is it.

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Maybe idiocy wasn't quite the right choice of word, but it definitely seems his refusal to bring Chaplin off is stubbornness rather than due to performance or tactics, and if he doesn't stop doing it it'll cost him his job. I think you can argue that is idiotic.

No-one can say that there hasn't been a game where he's subbed/moved others like Hiwula or Bakayoko when Chaplin was far more deserving of being hooked. Remember when Hiwula was looking like he was causing problems up front, Chaplin was anonymous and on the hour he brought on JCH and shoved Hiwula on the left. Yesterday he brought on both Baka and JCH and despite both Hiwula and Chaplin being very poor and you can argue either way who was the worst of the two, Chaplin stayed on the pitch. He even took Bright off, who had at least looked slightly capable of doing something.

Not only is he giving this unwavering loyalty and support to a striker who isn't doing the goods (you can point to the goals but one was a pen and there is no way he touched Thomas' goal regardless of what you say. I haven't seen a single angle that suggests a deflection or that he was close to it.) but he's running a severe risk of losing the support of the other strikers who must feel a bit like scapegoats at times.

skybluebeduff said:

We have a head of recruitment by the way...

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I would love to know how the set-up of this works. Is it MR tells the HoR who he wants and it's the HoR's job to negotiate the transfers (which is how I'd prefer to work it) or is it that HoR gets reports from scouts and decides who to sign and MR has to fit them in?

Only reason I ask is that MR has intimated on a few occassions that a lot of the U23 recruitment he hasn't really been involved in and from the moment Bakayoko arrived he hasn't seemed to want him.

Grendel said:

Where’s the change in direction?

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You can't tell from that angle. You had to be behind it right in line.

It was a definite deflection. As I keep saying (but no-one's listening), I was right in line with it. Definitely veered slightly.

You can see Chaplin immediately claiming it in the clip.

If as we believe Robin's is in the hunt for yet another striker,that would mean 5 currently playable ones with 2 injured,a striker is NOT required, a bloody left attacking Midfielder is, if he hasn't any intention of playing Allassani which doesn't look like the case,would bring balance to the team and free up for the strikers to play where they should be..UPFRONT..

Otis said:

You can't tell from that angle. You had to be behind it right in line.

It was a definite deflection. As I keep saying (but no-one's listening), I was right in line with it. Definitely veered slightly.

You can see Chaplin immediately claiming it in the clip.

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The camera is behind it and no fans are

He may claim it, but he didn't hit it. All strikers do it.

Are you sure it maybe didn't hit a small imperfection on the pitch that caused it to move ever so slightly, or just a natural curve on the ball? Because no matter how many times I've seen it, I don't see any chance in direction at all. Even slightly.

Otis, No way was that Chaplins goal,i too was more or less behind the ball as Thomas struck it,it was his goal,Chaplin's just being a dickhead trying to claim it

I went to see Elche CF play in the Spanish equivalent of the Championship two weeks ago. It was all a bit Cov City in some ways. Huge stadium, one third full, played a nice enough brand of football but with one shit striker up front they just scraped home 1 - nil against the bottom side. I haven't been to many at the Ricoh this term but they were all pretty poor matches with strikers looking too slow or isolated. Hope it's better on Saturday for my visit to the Coventry Club Lounge or I'll be propping up the bar, especially if its Baltic outside !

I think everyone needs to chill out a bit. Yes, we’re having an inconsistent season but we were 6th best team in league two last year, lost McNulty who scored over half our goals last season and often have a starting line up with an average age of about 22/23....what do we expect ?!

Robins tried to sign a couple of more experienced (well regarded) players in Brown and Ogogo but so far they don’t appear to be working out. Others brought in have been more for the future.

If there’s a threat of going down then fair enough, look at changes but otherwise let’s see where we are at the end of the season

Ps I genuinely think the negativity of the crowd is effecting the players. I’ve recently read Gilbert’s book ‘Club without a home’ and it’s interesting to see comments from several people saying that playing at Sixfields really helped the younger players due to less pressure, smaller crowd and ground etc. Baker even suggesting that it’s very difficult playing at the Ricoh and in front of our fans sometimes !

Pete in Portugal said:

This pattern - good in 1st half, shit immediately after the start of the 2nd half - has been repeated ad nauseam this season. Whatever MR is doing at half-time, it's clearly not working and he needs to change it. When our players came out for the second half yesterday, I knew from their body language that they were going to be shite. They ambled out in groups of two or three players and strolled into position for the KO. No sign of motivational energy, urgency, or team togetherness at all. I'm not in favour of yet another change in manager, but MR needs to to change the HT routine very urgently.

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I’ve tried to think about this situation, is the blame with MR or the players for the lack of commitment or energy in the early stages of the second half.

For me I think the situation is all in the players hands. You can build the belief and gee up the players at half time giving instructions and pointers to them but as soon as they amble back out and cross the line it’s all in the players hands to be switched on and do the jobs required, we always seem first out so maybe we should be the last however will that help I doubt it.

We’ve recently started a 15 second mini running drill to raise players tempo but don’t recall it yesterday.

I’m sure MR is just as frustrated with the issue too but as you suggest it needs addressing.


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Grendel said:

The camera is behind it and no fans are

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We were directly in line with Thomas' shot.

If Chaplin didn't touch it, why did me and my mate sitting next to each other immediately turn to each other and at the same time both say 'that was defelcted?'

We could debate it all night. It was deflected and we saw it.

I can't unsee what we both saw.

We saw it, Chaplin claimed it and the club have said it was Chaplin's.

Pointless to go round it circles.

The ball deviated after a touch in the box. Ever so slightly, but it happened.

I don't get it. If you said to me you were right in line with something and you saw it deviate I would accept that it did.

Otis said:

We were directly in line with Thomas' shot.

If Chaplin didn't touch it, why did me and my mate sitting next to each other immediately turn to each other and at the same time both say 'that was defelcted?'

We could debate it all night. It was deflected and we saw it.

I can't unsee what we both saw.

We saw it, Chaplin claimed it and the club have said it was Chaplin's.

Pointless to go round it circles.

The ball deviated after a touch in the box. Ever so slightly, but it happened.

I don't get it. If you said to me you were right in line with something and you saw it deviate I would accept that it did.

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The EFL still have the goal down for Thomas and you are the only person in the forum that thinks Chaplin should be credited with it. No one else accepts your version so I don’t get it either

Otis said:

We were directly in line with Thomas' shot.

If Chaplin didn't touch it, why did me and my mate sitting next to each other immediately turn to each other and at the same time both say 'that was defelcted?'

We could debate it all night. It was deflected and we saw it.

I can't unsee what we both saw.

We saw it, Chaplin claimed it and the club have said it was Chaplin's.

Pointless to go round it circles.

The ball deviated after a touch in the box. Ever so slightly, but it happened.

I don't get it. If you said to me you were right in line with something and you saw it deviate I would accept that it did.

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From my view, I thought it took a deflection.

Hey perhaps the moss direction was down to the pitch - given you think he didn’t even head the ball yesterday you are hardly a strong witness are you?

Brighton Sky Blue said:

Answer the question when did we last sack a manager who didn’t deserve it?

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Correct me if I'm wrong, as my memory is a little hazy of that era, but I seem to remember thinking the Dowie sacking was harsh at the time.

Mucca Mad Boys said:

From my view, I thought it took a deflection.

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Thank you!!!

Grendel said:

Hey perhaps the moss direction was down to the pitch - given you think he didn’t even head the ball yesterday you are hardly a strong witness are you?

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I said he headed it. That's exactly what I believed.

It was only after Robins said it took a bad bounce that made me wonder what he thought he had seen.

Stop twisting everything and you have just had another poster there say they thought it was deflected too.