John Eustace - our head coach

[roversfan99]

Carter has done well to get the second highest rating. He was all over the place.

[AllRoverAsia]

Dolan and Gallagher both had xGs of FA, Nada, Zero... At Ewood against bloody rubbish

Edited April 22 by AllRoverAsia

[Exiled in Toronto Mk2]

11 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Dolan and Gallagher both had xGs of FA, Nada, Zero... At Ewood against bloody rubbish

Has Gallagher even had one attempt at goal since coming back from injury? I can’t remember one.

[wilsdenrover]

12 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto Mk2 said:

Has Gallagher even had one attempt at goal since coming back from injury? I can’t remember one.

I’ve no idea about that but this season as a whole he’s had 22 shots (12 on target) at an average of 1 every 66 minutes.

Edited April 22 by wilsdenrover
Shocking maths

[Mercer]

2 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

We had 3 shots on target yesterday. 

Which defender would you drop for another forward or midfielder? 

Yesterday wasn't one of our worst showing of club history, Stop going OTT after a defeat.

3 shots on target and you are getting orgasmic!  That stat is pitiful when we desperately needed to win at home against a bottom 3 side.

Which defender would be dropped!  Feck me, we aren't talking about Real Madrid's back 4.

As for our bad was that showing - well I've supported Rovers for 60+ years (decades before you were even a twinkle in your dad's eye) and seen some horror shows - let me tell you, yesterday was utterly abysmal given the importance of the game.  IMO, a team of total bottle jobs orchestrated by a USELESS head coach with a dire record since being appointed.

Wake up, smell the ☕️ and stop trying to defend the indefensible.

 

 

Edited April 22 by Mercer

[AllRoverAsia]

25 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto Mk2 said:

Has Gallagher even had one attempt at goal since coming back from injury? I can’t remember one.

Very few. In the past 5 games no goals, 1 assist and just 1 shot on target.

 

[Rogerb]

Think he's resigned to not getting another year

[MarkBRFC]

34 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto Mk2 said:

Has Gallagher even had one attempt at goal since coming back from injury? I can’t remember one.

Two goals, against QPR & Preston back in Feb. when he came back from injury.

Now 13 games without a goal.

[Rogerb]

In the last 13 games we've managed more than 1 goal in a game once. He has never been prolific and the present set up makes him even less so.

[Groundhog]

I was furious on Sunday. One of the worst days for a long while, I wanted the ground to swallow me up in that 2nd half, and the feeling of deflation across the entire ground was heartbreaking. But it may be an unpopular opinion, but I'm directing all my ire toward the players and the club hierarchy, not the manager. Forget the manager, whoever we have in charge, it won't make a difference.

The one common factor over the time of TM, JDT and now JE is:
1) the board, lack of ambition from the top down, cost cutting in all areas
2) the slow dumbing down of the playing squad, death by 1000 cuts, poor recruitment (1 player from the last 2 transfer windows in the starting XI)

I'm not sure even Warnock or Allardyce would get a tune out of this lot. 

I totally get the frustration of playing 5 at the back at home, just because it worked at Leeds doesn't mean we should have carried it into a must-win home game, totally different scenarios. The Millwall and Plymouth games were tedious dross too. 

But I'd love to hear what people would do to get this lot taking the initiative at Ewood, to put teams who are sitting back to the sword - what could we do differently with this set of players? The only thing I can think of is getting the squad to get back to basics when under pressure, get Gallagher running the channels, spread their back 4 wide, stop trying fancy flicks, keep the ball, play it simple for periods just to regain control - I just don't know what the game plan was.

Against Stoke at home, they were poor, and trying to attack, leaving space, plus we never went behind.

As someone said:

1) we're neither a technical, pacey free flowing side built to play JDT's football, City on the cheap doesn't work - fed up of club's trying to emulate it

2) we're not physical or have the nous to play long ball and have a striker who can hold the ball up - imagine if we had a Kiefer Moore, or prime Danny Graham?

We're stuck in between two schools, with League One players, no subs to change it either. It's an impossible job - the Sheff Wed players harried and closed down, they weren't easy on the eye or technically any better but they were physical - where do you get lads like this? Why is our recruitment limited to players like Clinton Mola? That for me is the real issue. 

It was probably a "sensible" approach (don't shoot me down for saying that) to keep it tight against Wednesday, don't over-commit, remain calm, and pick them off as they get desperate, trying to bring them onto us. We went out all guns blazing against Sunderland and we still lost 3-1 - but both approaches have the same issue: no plan B, and players who can't handle the pressure as it slowly ramps up when we go behind. Is that on the manager or the lack of options from a poor squad?

Whatever is it, I'm sure when JE is falling asleep at night, he's thinking to himself "why is someone who's built like Gallagher no able to become a decent striker at this level" just like we all are, he just can't say it. If JE was at another club, and allowed to spend and build a side, do you think he'd be able to pick a player? So many unknowns.

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, smiller14 said:

Quick question Chaddy - at 3-1 down, would you have sacrificed a defender for a more attacking player or were you happy with our attacking play and continued with 5 in defence? And if so, would you have waited until an injury in the 75th minute to make said change? 

as I said yesterday in the match thread, I felt Eustace was too slow with making his changes and his triple subs far too late. 

When we went behind at 2-1 I said to the person I go with I would have made a triple sub changed which would have been Chrisene, Buckley and Moran for Pickering, Tronstad and Wharton. and go 4-2-3-1 

2 hours ago, ABBEY said:

1-3 against a bottom 3 side and we rolled over and it don't rank with all time worst..really ?

going OTT yet again in typical Abbey style as per usual after a defeat. No one near rank all time worst. 

1 hour ago, ruggles1995 said:

The only player I think we can maybe chuck in at some stage that we just might get something out of would be Gilsenan, not saying hes the answer, but hes someone with something to prove, and has at least shown glimpses. Id for one shove that player in the starting 11 at home to cov. 

Gilsenan is injured so he won't be playing 

[Mercer]

Damning Gallagher statistics.

Underlines the absolute idiocy in not selling him to Ipswich in January for circa £1.5m as well as getting his relatively, for Rovers, astronomical wages off our books.  No matter who we might have replaced Gallagher with they could hardly have been as ineffective.

Seeing Gallagher in a Rovers' shirt simply makes my blood boil - IMO, he's stealing a very luxurious living from the club.

 

 

 

 

[RTM08]

4 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Damning Gallagher statistics.

Underlines the absolute idiocy in not selling him to Ipswich in January for circa £1.5m as well as getting his relatively, for Rovers, astronomical wages off our books.  No matter who we might have replaced Gallagher with they could hardly have been as ineffective.

Seeing Gallagher in a Rovers' shirt simply makes my blood boil - IMO, he's stealing a very luxurious living from the club.

 

 

 

 

I guess the argument is less that the replacement would be ineffective, but more that he wouldn't have been replaced at all.

I don't know what happened to Harry Leonard, but he'd have got a couple in the last month I'd have thought. 

[chaddyrovers]

8 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

I guess the argument is less that the replacement would be ineffective, but more that he wouldn't have been replaced at all.

I don't know what happened to Harry Leonard, but he'd have got a couple in the last month I'd have thought. 

Leonard is injured 

[smiller14]

1 hour ago, MarkBRFC said:

Two goals, against QPR & Preston back in Feb. when he came back from injury.

Now 13 games without a goal.

Gallagher is the king of hiding behind the defender. Even under JDT chances rarely fell to him and throughout various managers he doesn't miss *that* many chances (obviously had a few horror shows ie Reading away). It's either a lack of anticipation, fear of missing or both, but for a big lad he is very rarely in the right place at the right time. When in the first team Leonard missed a few but he made the runs and presented himself in attacking positions - Gally doesn't do that.

[smiller14]

55 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

as I said yesterday in the match thread, I felt Eustace was too slow with making his changes and his triple subs far too late. 

When we went behind at 2-1 I said to the person I go with I would have made a triple sub changed which would have been Chrisene, Buckley and Moran for Pickering, Tronstad and Wharton. and go 4-2-3-1 

going OTT yet again in typical Abbey style as per usual after a defeat. No one near rank all time worst. 

Gilsenan is injured so he won't be playing 

Fair enough! 

[roverblue]

1 hour ago, Groundhog said:

I was furious on Sunday. One of the worst days for a long while, I wanted the ground to swallow me up in that 2nd half, and the feeling of deflation across the entire ground was heartbreaking. But it may be an unpopular opinion, but I'm directing all my ire toward the players and the club hierarchy, not the manager. Forget the manager, whoever we have in charge, it won't make a difference.

The one common factor over the time of TM, JDT and now JE is:
1) the board, lack of ambition from the top down, cost cutting in all areas
2) the slow dumbing down of the playing squad, death by 1000 cuts, poor recruitment (1 player from the last 2 transfer windows in the starting XI)

I'm not sure even Warnock or Allardyce would get a tune out of this lot. 

I totally get the frustration of playing 5 at the back at home, just because it worked at Leeds doesn't mean we should have carried it into a must-win home game, totally different scenarios. The Millwall and Plymouth games were tedious dross too. 

But I'd love to hear what people would do to get this lot taking the initiative at Ewood, to put teams who are sitting back to the sword - what could we do differently with this set of players? The only thing I can think of is getting the squad to get back to basics when under pressure, get Gallagher running the channels, spread their back 4 wide, stop trying fancy flicks, keep the ball, play it simple for periods just to regain control - I just don't know what the game plan was.

Against Stoke at home, they were poor, and trying to attack, leaving space, plus we never went behind.

As someone said:

1) we're neither a technical, pacey free flowing side built to play JDT's football, City on the cheap doesn't work - fed up of club's trying to emulate it

2) we're not physical or have the nous to play long ball and have a striker who can hold the ball up - imagine if we had a Kiefer Moore, or prime Danny Graham?

We're stuck in between two schools, with League One players, no subs to change it either. It's an impossible job - the Sheff Wed players harried and closed down, they weren't easy on the eye or technically any better but they were physical - where do you get lads like this? Why is our recruitment limited to players like Clinton Mola? That for me is the real issue. 

It was probably a "sensible" approach (don't shoot me down for saying that) to keep it tight against Wednesday, don't over-commit, remain calm, and pick them off as they get desperate, trying to bring them onto us. We went out all guns blazing against Sunderland and we still lost 3-1 - but both approaches have the same issue: no plan B, and players who can't handle the pressure as it slowly ramps up when we go behind. Is that on the manager or the lack of options from a poor squad?

Whatever is it, I'm sure when JE is falling asleep at night, he's thinking to himself "why is someone who's built like Gallagher no able to become a decent striker at this level" just like we all are, he just can't say it. If JE was at another club, and allowed to spend and build a side, do you think he'd be able to pick a player? So many unknowns.

Agree with most of this. As soon as Adam Wharton left it took the only creativity out of the team, a player who could make a forward pass to change the game.

All we are left with is plodders who work hard but hate having the ball at their feet. Its like a hot potato and they cant wait to pass it 6 yards to someone else to remove the responsibility for it.

If I was Sam Gallagher and got any grief for my goal record I'd just respond with that fact that he gets zero chances created for him. How is he going to score with balls launched into orbit for him whilst he is just past the halfway line.

The squad is a total shit show full of similar players, no wingers, no strikers, no creativity, no pace, no dribbling and no power.

Whatever summer budget we have must be spent on 4-5 attacking players.

[vyeo]

It's been so depressing over the last 4-5 months that I have not been able to muster the energy to post my thoughts about our farcical season. But after watching that s-show yesterday, I feel that I need to let it out.

I'm in the Eustace = useless camp. I did not like his appointment from the start, because I thought his good spell at the start of the season was a purple patch and not indicative of his normal standards. But I did not want to pre-judge him and certainly hoped that he would come good. Given our constraints, we need our head coach to be able to get the team to produce at 110% of as a collective, and I just don't think he has the tactical and coaching nous that we need to be able to do so. Eustace's initial comments about togetherness sound like an empty soundbite recycled from JDT, who in contrast, meant it when he said it. 

In fact, Eustace lost me on day 2 with his dramatic entrance in the second-half of the Stoke game. I thought he saw that we had a safe win, and wanted to claim credit for it, though I'm sure one could argue that he genuinely wanted to shore the team up. For me though, it was more performative than substance given that he had not had any training session with the team before that. The fact is that the Stoke game was one of the few positive games that we've had in the last six months, and Eustace did not set the team up.  

Since then, I've not been impressed at all with Eustace's contribution. Sure, he shored the defence up somewhat, but the team as a whole looks disjointed. For all the players' complaints about JDT and our poor results this season, we could see a plan and a method to the madness - there were indications that the players knew what to do, what patterns to play, and were well-drilled. Whether they could do it or not is a different story, but on balance, I would argue that JDT extracted more from them than they otherwise would have been able to produce. In that sense, our current situation is just a reversion to their normal standards. 

Going back to statements and how he presents himself, Eustace has also proven useless. No clear communication, hides in generalities, and as yesterday's comments show, does not pursue accountability and certainly does not set the right standards. These are basic leadership traits which you would expect a good coach/manager to possess. I hoped he would prove me wrong; after all, who expected Gary O'Neil to turn out so well? Unfortunately, Eustace is more in the Ince/Coyle/Appleton class.

On JDT, I lament what could have been everyday. I think he's the best we've had in the last decade, and could have done something special with us. It pains me but objectively, I definitely hold JDT responsible to some extent for this season's mess too. In this regard, I think his broken relationship with the board is the key factor. 

There was no trust after the Lewis O Brien incident last year and no alignment of vision, and I think JDT found it difficult to be motivated in such a demotivating environment. If Maggot had been more professional, if the board had been straight with JDT, if they had set more ambitious targets despite the financial difficulties - tell JDT we need to ride it out this season, that we still want to have a good go despite the limitations, find a way to do it - we might have had a better outcome. (Remember, JDT showed that he could deploy tactics to shut the shop and play the dark-arts when he first arrived - I remember this well during our win/loss sequence in the first half of last season, when we barely conceded when we won, and it looked like we were playing some form of 90s Italian tactics.) Instead, Maggot obfuscates and publicly says that mediocrity is ok, sets no targets except to develop players - well, my assessment is that JDT decided to work to rule and gave Maggot exactly what he asked for by playing an expansive game at all costs and giving kids like Adam Wharton and Harry Leonard (too) much game time, even when it might have been better to rest them at times. 

In the end, JDT's departure was inevitable. That said, if we got relegated, I would still have more trust in JDT to create something with a youth squad in L1 - in fact, I would be pretty confident of a reset and our chances of winning the league by a clear margin, given how we regularly spanked lower league sides with youth-heavy teams over JDT's reign. 

Now with all the above said, the root cause of our woes is still Maggot and Venky's, no doubt about that. I don't know how involved or uninvolved the Venky's are on a day-to-day basis, but if we had a competent CEO who can set the agenda correctly, aim high, and maximise what he can within his remit, we may have a fighting chance. Instead, we have a chancer, more than happy to settle for the mediocre, so we get what we get. Put it this way, if we sign Coventry rejects (both in the boardroom and on the pitch), we get Coventry-standards (the terrible version from a couple of years back, not the heroic one at Wembley yesterday).  

Finally, our prospects this season - we're certainly doing our best to snatch relegation from the jaws of safety. I've had a foreboding feeling all season. Too many similarities to our relegation in 2016/17 - massive cost-cutting, terrible signings (Telalovic - Stokes, Moran loan - Emnes loan, Greer - McFadzean etc), the same type of FA Cup draw (good effort and near upset against a big PL team - Man Utd then in the freezing cold and Newcastle this time), freakish results in the run-in (I remember thinking that we had done enough when we beat Villa(?) was it, and Brentford on the last day), but the other relegation candidates fought hard and chalked up enough points elsewhere. I'm praying for a miracle in our last two games, but am not optimistic. 

If we somehow survive this, I pray that we can somehow reset in the summer. But back to the start of this post and the theme of this thread, Eustace is not the man to get us there.  

 

[arbitro]

15 minutes ago, vyeo said:

It's been so depressing over the last 4-5 months that I have not been able to muster the energy to post my thoughts about our farcical season. But after watching that s-show yesterday, I feel that I need to let it out.

I'm in the Eustace = useless camp. I did not like his appointment from the start, because I thought his good spell at the start of the season was a purple patch and not indicative of his normal standards. But I did not want to pre-judge him and certainly hoped that he would come good. Given our constraints, we need our head coach to be able to get the team to produce at 110% of as a collective, and I just don't think he has the tactical and coaching nous that we need to be able to do so. Eustace's initial comments about togetherness sound like an empty soundbite recycled from JDT, who in contrast, meant it when he said it. 

In fact, Eustace lost me on day 2 with his dramatic entrance in the second-half of the Stoke game. I thought he saw that we had a safe win, and wanted to claim credit for it, though I'm sure one could argue that he genuinely wanted to shore the team up. For me though, it was more performative than substance given that he had not had any training session with the team before that. The fact is that the Stoke game was one of the few positive games that we've had in the last six months, and Eustace did not set the team up.  

Since then, I've not been impressed at all with Eustace's contribution. Sure, he shored the defence up somewhat, but the team as a whole looks disjointed. For all the players' complaints about JDT and our poor results this season, we could see a plan and a method to the madness - there were indications that the players knew what to do, what patterns to play, and were well-drilled. Whether they could do it or not is a different story, but on balance, I would argue that JDT extracted more from them than they otherwise would have been able to produce. In that sense, our current situation is just a reversion to their normal standards. 

Going back to statements and how he presents himself, Eustace has also proven useless. No clear communication, hides in generalities, and as yesterday's comments show, does not pursue accountability and certainly does not set the right standards. These are basic leadership traits which you would expect a good coach/manager to possess. I hoped he would prove me wrong; after all, who expected Gary O'Neil to turn out so well? Unfortunately, Eustace is more in the Ince/Coyle/Appleton class.

On JDT, I lament what could have been everyday. I think he's the best we've had in the last decade, and could have done something special with us. It pains me but objectively, I definitely hold JDT responsible to some extent for this season's mess too. In this regard, I think his broken relationship with the board is the key factor. 

There was no trust after the Lewis O Brien incident last year and no alignment of vision, and I think JDT found it difficult to be motivated in such a demotivating environment. If Maggot had been more professional, if the board had been straight with JDT, if they had set more ambitious targets despite the financial difficulties - tell JDT we need to ride it out this season, that we still want to have a good go despite the limitations, find a way to do it - we might have had a better outcome. (Remember, JDT showed that he could deploy tactics to shut the shop and play the dark-arts when he first arrived - I remember this well during our win/loss sequence in the first half of last season, when we barely conceded when we won, and it looked like we were playing some form of 90s Italian tactics.) Instead, Maggot obfuscates and publicly says that mediocrity is ok, sets no targets except to develop players - well, my assessment is that JDT decided to work to rule and gave Maggot exactly what he asked for by playing an expansive game at all costs and giving kids like Adam Wharton and Harry Leonard (too) much game time, even when it might have been better to rest them at times. 

In the end, JDT's departure was inevitable. That said, if we got relegated, I would still have more trust in JDT to create something with a youth squad in L1 - in fact, I would be pretty confident of a reset and our chances of winning the league by a clear margin, given how we regularly spanked lower league sides with youth-heavy teams over JDT's reign. 

Now with all the above said, the root cause of our woes is still Maggot and Venky's, no doubt about that. I don't know how involved or uninvolved the Venky's are on a day-to-day basis, but if we had a competent CEO who can set the agenda correctly, aim high, and maximise what he can within his remit, we may have a fighting chance. Instead, we have a chancer, more than happy to settle for the mediocre, so we get what we get. Put it this way, if we sign Coventry rejects (both in the boardroom and on the pitch), we get Coventry-standards (the terrible version from a couple of years back, not the heroic one at Wembley yesterday).  

Finally, our prospects this season - we're certainly doing our best to snatch relegation from the jaws of safety. I've had a foreboding feeling all season. Too many similarities to our relegation in 2016/17 - massive cost-cutting, terrible signings (Telalovic - Stokes, Moran loan - Emnes loan, Greer - McFadzean etc), the same type of FA Cup draw (good effort and near upset against a big PL team - Man Utd then in the freezing cold and Newcastle this time), freakish results in the run-in (I remember thinking that we had done enough when we beat Villa(?) was it, and Brentford on the last day), but the other relegation candidates fought hard and chalked up enough points elsewhere. I'm praying for a miracle in our last two games, but am not optimistic. 

If we somehow survive this, I pray that we can somehow reset in the summer. But back to the start of this post and the theme of this thread, Eustace is not the man to get us there.  

 

Post of the season.

[roversfan99]

3 hours ago, Groundhog said:

I was furious on Sunday. One of the worst days for a long while, I wanted the ground to swallow me up in that 2nd half, and the feeling of deflation across the entire ground was heartbreaking. But it may be an unpopular opinion, but I'm directing all my ire toward the players and the club hierarchy, not the manager. Forget the manager, whoever we have in charge, it won't make a difference.

The one common factor over the time of TM, JDT and now JE is:
1) the board, lack of ambition from the top down, cost cutting in all areas
2) the slow dumbing down of the playing squad, death by 1000 cuts, poor recruitment (1 player from the last 2 transfer windows in the starting XI)

I'm not sure even Warnock or Allardyce would get a tune out of this lot. 

I totally get the frustration of playing 5 at the back at home, just because it worked at Leeds doesn't mean we should have carried it into a must-win home game, totally different scenarios. The Millwall and Plymouth games were tedious dross too. 

But I'd love to hear what people would do to get this lot taking the initiative at Ewood, to put teams who are sitting back to the sword - what could we do differently with this set of players? The only thing I can think of is getting the squad to get back to basics when under pressure, get Gallagher running the channels, spread their back 4 wide, stop trying fancy flicks, keep the ball, play it simple for periods just to regain control - I just don't know what the game plan was.

Against Stoke at home, they were poor, and trying to attack, leaving space, plus we never went behind.

As someone said:

1) we're neither a technical, pacey free flowing side built to play JDT's football, City on the cheap doesn't work - fed up of club's trying to emulate it

2) we're not physical or have the nous to play long ball and have a striker who can hold the ball up - imagine if we had a Kiefer Moore, or prime Danny Graham?

We're stuck in between two schools, with League One players, no subs to change it either. It's an impossible job - the Sheff Wed players harried and closed down, they weren't easy on the eye or technically any better but they were physical - where do you get lads like this? Why is our recruitment limited to players like Clinton Mola? That for me is the real issue. 

It was probably a "sensible" approach (don't shoot me down for saying that) to keep it tight against Wednesday, don't over-commit, remain calm, and pick them off as they get desperate, trying to bring them onto us. We went out all guns blazing against Sunderland and we still lost 3-1 - but both approaches have the same issue: no plan B, and players who can't handle the pressure as it slowly ramps up when we go behind. Is that on the manager or the lack of options from a poor squad?

Whatever is it, I'm sure when JE is falling asleep at night, he's thinking to himself "why is someone who's built like Gallagher no able to become a decent striker at this level" just like we all are, he just can't say it. If JE was at another club, and allowed to spend and build a side, do you think he'd be able to pick a player? So many unknowns.

The blame should always go back to India. 

The players arent very good, surrounded by other players who arent very good, managed by someone who seems out of his depth. That same manager though is hindered by poor players. Broughton's transfer record is poor but he is working with buttons. And Waggott's a failure in many ways but seemingly just working to the owners commands.

All of these issues are just symptoms of the real problem. The same problen that has existed for is it 13 long years?

In the last 2 seasons, we have overperformed with some very good work from Tomasson and Mowbray. But not enough players led to the season imploding. More cuts at a more aggressive rate and this season has been in the post for years.

[roversfan99]

3 hours ago, Mercer said:

Damning Gallagher statistics.

Underlines the absolute idiocy in not selling him to Ipswich in January for circa £1.5m as well as getting his relatively, for Rovers, astronomical wages off our books.  No matter who we might have replaced Gallagher with they could hardly have been as ineffective.

Seeing Gallagher in a Rovers' shirt simply makes my blood boil - IMO, he's stealing a very luxurious living from the club.

 

 

 

 

Dismissing any thoughts of reinvesting as fantasy land stuff. We can get worse, simply because of the cuts. Telalovic, Ennis and Hirst have all been worse in the last 2 years. Thats the standard we are working with.

1 hour ago, roverblue said:

Agree with most of this. As soon as Adam Wharton left it took the only creativity out of the team, a player who could make a forward pass to change the game.

All we are left with is plodders who work hard but hate having the ball at their feet. Its like a hot potato and they cant wait to pass it 6 yards to someone else to remove the responsibility for it.

If I was Sam Gallagher and got any grief for my goal record I'd just respond with that fact that he gets zero chances created for him. How is he going to score with balls launched into orbit for him whilst he is just past the halfway line.

The squad is a total shit show full of similar players, no wingers, no strikers, no creativity, no pace, no dribbling and no power.

Whatever summer budget we have must be spent on 4-5 attacking players.

I have always said that Gallagher simply is not very good at anticipating chances. Thats the main reason why his goal tally is never going to be near the top of the league, he doesnt have that instinct and never will be. Offers other things but is simply not a natural goalscorer.

That being said, under Eustace he like every other attacker is hindered more than ever. There is absolutely no sign of an attacking game plan. He often spends much of the game wide and the tactic of centre backs whacking it aimlessly in the channels just has him running after the ball with the defender naturally ahead of him. He wins throw ins and the odd corner which is all he can really do in that situation but its just not going to lead to him doing anything constructive.

[JHRover]

18 minutes ago, vyeo said:

It's been so depressing over the last 4-5 months that I have not been able to muster the energy to post my thoughts about our farcical season. But after watching that s-show yesterday, I feel that I need to let it out.

I'm in the Eustace = useless camp. I did not like his appointment from the start, because I thought his good spell at the start of the season was a purple patch and not indicative of his normal standards. But I did not want to pre-judge him and certainly hoped that he would come good. Given our constraints, we need our head coach to be able to get the team to produce at 110% of as a collective, and I just don't think he has the tactical and coaching nous that we need to be able to do so. Eustace's initial comments about togetherness sound like an empty soundbite recycled from JDT, who in contrast, meant it when he said it. 

In fact, Eustace lost me on day 2 with his dramatic entrance in the second-half of the Stoke game. I thought he saw that we had a safe win, and wanted to claim credit for it, though I'm sure one could argue that he genuinely wanted to shore the team up. For me though, it was more performative than substance given that he had not had any training session with the team before that. The fact is that the Stoke game was one of the few positive games that we've had in the last six months, and Eustace did not set the team up.  

Since then, I've not been impressed at all with Eustace's contribution. Sure, he shored the defence up somewhat, but the team as a whole looks disjointed. For all the players' complaints about JDT and our poor results this season, we could see a plan and a method to the madness - there were indications that the players knew what to do, what patterns to play, and were well-drilled. Whether they could do it or not is a different story, but on balance, I would argue that JDT extracted more from them than they otherwise would have been able to produce. In that sense, our current situation is just a reversion to their normal standards. 

Going back to statements and how he presents himself, Eustace has also proven useless. No clear communication, hides in generalities, and as yesterday's comments show, does not pursue accountability and certainly does not set the right standards. These are basic leadership traits which you would expect a good coach/manager to possess. I hoped he would prove me wrong; after all, who expected Gary O'Neil to turn out so well? Unfortunately, Eustace is more in the Ince/Coyle/Appleton class.

On JDT, I lament what could have been everyday. I think he's the best we've had in the last decade, and could have done something special with us. It pains me but objectively, I definitely hold JDT responsible to some extent for this season's mess too. In this regard, I think his broken relationship with the board is the key factor. 

There was no trust after the Lewis O Brien incident last year and no alignment of vision, and I think JDT found it difficult to be motivated in such a demotivating environment. If Maggot had been more professional, if the board had been straight with JDT, if they had set more ambitious targets despite the financial difficulties - tell JDT we need to ride it out this season, that we still want to have a good go despite the limitations, find a way to do it - we might have had a better outcome. (Remember, JDT showed that he could deploy tactics to shut the shop and play the dark-arts when he first arrived - I remember this well during our win/loss sequence in the first half of last season, when we barely conceded when we won, and it looked like we were playing some form of 90s Italian tactics.) Instead, Maggot obfuscates and publicly says that mediocrity is ok, sets no targets except to develop players - well, my assessment is that JDT decided to work to rule and gave Maggot exactly what he asked for by playing an expansive game at all costs and giving kids like Adam Wharton and Harry Leonard (too) much game time, even when it might have been better to rest them at times. 

In the end, JDT's departure was inevitable. That said, if we got relegated, I would still have more trust in JDT to create something with a youth squad in L1 - in fact, I would be pretty confident of a reset and our chances of winning the league by a clear margin, given how we regularly spanked lower league sides with youth-heavy teams over JDT's reign. 

Now with all the above said, the root cause of our woes is still Maggot and Venky's, no doubt about that. I don't know how involved or uninvolved the Venky's are on a day-to-day basis, but if we had a competent CEO who can set the agenda correctly, aim high, and maximise what he can within his remit, we may have a fighting chance. Instead, we have a chancer, more than happy to settle for the mediocre, so we get what we get. Put it this way, if we sign Coventry rejects (both in the boardroom and on the pitch), we get Coventry-standards (the terrible version from a couple of years back, not the heroic one at Wembley yesterday).  

Finally, our prospects this season - we're certainly doing our best to snatch relegation from the jaws of safety. I've had a foreboding feeling all season. Too many similarities to our relegation in 2016/17 - massive cost-cutting, terrible signings (Telalovic - Stokes, Moran loan - Emnes loan, Greer - McFadzean etc), the same type of FA Cup draw (good effort and near upset against a big PL team - Man Utd then in the freezing cold and Newcastle this time), freakish results in the run-in (I remember thinking that we had done enough when we beat Villa(?) was it, and Brentford on the last day), but the other relegation candidates fought hard and chalked up enough points elsewhere. I'm praying for a miracle in our last two games, but am not optimistic. 

If we somehow survive this, I pray that we can somehow reset in the summer. But back to the start of this post and the theme of this thread, Eustace is not the man to get us there.  

 

Pretty much agree with the lot of it. What a post.

JDT by no means perfect but he had valuable assets. Ambition, drive, personality, a vision. I think back to last season, particularly August to February, and the first half of this season, and this was a guy capable of dragging this club out of the stinking cesspit that it has been dragged and into a potentially bright future.

Alas as we saw with the Allardyce fiasco, as we saw with the Bowyer/Lambert fiasco, these owners and their minions will always find a way to derail and destroy any positive momentum or progress and set the club back years. I should have known better but I admit I believed. I genuinely thought that with the Director of Football approach and JDT leading it and after the season we had, going so close in league and cup, that the ingredients were there to take the next step and crack the play-offs.

More fool me. I can't describe the disappointment I feel about the way in which once again these people have destroyed something that should have been good and positive and that fell into our lap almost by accident after Mowbray finally left.

Yes it was clear that JDT was burned by the O'Brien fiasco, yet he stuck at it and we still went close last season. It was clear he was unimpressed by the summer's shenanigans yet he stuck at it, moved his family over, accepted the constraints and we, somehow managed to get ourselves sat just outside the top 6 in December with this squad.

Then a third transfer window of nonsense, culminating in Adam Wharton being sold, the McGuire disgrace (what sort of club treats other clubs and players in such a disgusting and humiliating fashion?) and no reinvestment was the straw that broke the camel's back. Totally understandable for anyone with any self-respect to draw a line at being undermined by your colleagues.

Of course ownership and a board with any finger on the pulse would have sacked JDT once it became clear that the damage was irreparable and the direction things were going. I agree that he was essentially saying 'f... you' to them and going gung ho wanting to be fired.

Yet they couldn't even manage his departure correctly. It came far too late, even in the week it happened they took days on end to announce it.

They're just a disgrace. There's no coming back from this in my book. It's happened too many times and I won't fall for it again.

[vyeo]

3 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Pretty much agree with the lot of it. What a post.

JDT by no means perfect but he had valuable assets. Ambition, drive, personality, a vision. I think back to last season, particularly August to February, and the first half of this season, and this was a guy capable of dragging this club out of the stinking cesspit that it has been dragged and into a potentially bright future.

Alas as we saw with the Allardyce fiasco, as we saw with the Bowyer/Lambert fiasco, these owners and their minions will always find a way to derail and destroy any positive momentum or progress and set the club back years. I should have known better but I admit I believed. I genuinely thought that with the Director of Football approach and JDT leading it and after the season we had, going so close in league and cup, that the ingredients were there to take the next step and crack the play-offs.

More fool me. I can't describe the disappointment I feel about the way in which once again these people have destroyed something that should have been good and positive and that fell into our lap almost by accident after Mowbray finally left.

Yes it was clear that JDT was burned by the O'Brien fiasco, yet he stuck at it and we still went close last season. It was clear he was unimpressed by the summer's shenanigans yet he stuck at it, moved his family over, accepted the constraints and we, somehow managed to get ourselves sat just outside the top 6 in December with this squad.

Then a third transfer window of nonsense, culminating in Adam Wharton being sold, the McGuire disgrace (what sort of club treats other clubs and players in such a disgusting and humiliating fashion?) and no reinvestment was the straw that broke the camel's back. Totally understandable for anyone with any self-respect to draw a line at being undermined by your colleagues.

Of course ownership and a board with any finger on the pulse would have sacked JDT once it became clear that the damage was irreparable and the direction things were going. I agree that he was essentially saying 'f... you' to them and going gung ho wanting to be fired.

Yet they couldn't even manage his departure correctly. It came far too late, even in the week it happened they took days on end to announce it.

They're just a disgrace. There's no coming back from this in my book. It's happened too many times and I won't fall for it again.

Yes, couldn't have summed it better. It's the hope that kills you. I truly believed too and was the most excited I've been about our prospects since the Kean days.  

[Rogerb]

18 minutes ago, vyeo said:

 I truly believed too and was the most excited I've been about our prospects since the Kean days.  

That could be read two ways but I'm guessing you weren't excited by him.

[vyeo]

2 minutes ago, Rogerb said:

That could be read two ways but I'm guessing you weren't excited by him.

Hahaha, yea I should have written abject, dark, Kean days. 

The sad thing is how after the promise of last season, and the first third of this season, it has all unravelled so badly, so quickly.