Problems! Problems! Problems!

For the last two seasons we have been so close to going up we end up close to the end of the season losing games when we need the points and this season so far is going the same way.

I have to say that it is highly frustrating being a Wanderers fan at the moment!

As i'm beginning to now doubt, Is Ian Evatt actually the right man to take us up?

Is it the players where they can't handle the pressure with having games in hand against Portsmouth that would take us top if we had won them all?

Is it down to the board with not having much funds for new players or loans?

Is it simply down to our luck?

It kind of reminds me of Baz Ball in cricket, where England only play one way - all out attack.

When it works it is amazing but sometimes all out attack has needlessly lost us wickets and matches when we were in winning positions.

Baz Ball however seems to have been refined a little bit from how it was, and whilst players look to attack, they also consider the game situation and reign it in a little bit when the circumstance call for a cool head.

We play Evatt ball - tippy tappy everywhere on the pitch - it looks wonderful when it comes off but dreadful when it doesn't - look at the goal we gave away today, playing tippy tappy in our own crowed penalty box and caught in possession on the edge of the 6 yard box.

I mean wtf???

We had two or three chances to clear the danger but no, play it around the opposition whilst in our own penalty area instead - madness.

How many goals have we conceded with Santos fannying about with the ball whilst being the last man, with Baxter out of his goals playing alongside him???

Now I'm all for Moneyball stats and all that but surely the one stat that should stick out is that the opposition don't score goals if our players stop losing the ball in front of goal whilst they are the last line of defence?

Someone simply should have booted the ball away - even concede a corner - rather than faff about trying to make passing triangles, in front of our goals, whilst the opposition had about half their team in our penalty box closing us down!

Like Baz Ball we have to refine our tippy tappy footballing philosophy to take account of the situation what we are in at the time.

It's not really rocket science is it?

We can't do much about having bad luck, or playing poor, having an off day, a player being injured or sent off, being pressed by the opposition and a hundred and one other things but one thing we can control is to boot the ball away when circumstance demand it - and today we easily could (and SHOULD) have done.

But we didn't and they scored a very soft goal indeed.


Take away that one moment of madness (which we often seem to have) then I'm sure we would be looking at the game completely differently.

We would moan we didn't play well, Thomason is a booking / sending off waiting to happen, Adebayo isn't worth his place now, and a whole lot of other stuff but we would be leaving with a clean sheet and maybe even a lucky (and undeserved) win.

We simply can't continue to play tippy tappy stuff when the circumstance simply don't favour it.

As the saying goes 'pride goes before a fall' - or in other words, swallow our pride of tippy tappy and play safe when the circumstances demands it rather than keep on playing it and end up being yet another goal down for doing so!

Play tippy tappy but use your brains not to do when required.

karlypants wrote:For the last two seasons we have been so close to going up we end up close to the end of the season losing games when we need the points and this season so far is going the same way.

I have to say that it is highly frustrating being a Wanderers fan at the moment!

As i'm beginning to now doubt, Is Ian Evatt actually the right man to take us up?

Is it the players where they can't handle the pressure with having games in hand against Portsmouth that would take us top if we had won them all?

Is it down to the board with not having much funds for new players or loans?

Is it simply down to our luck?

I find some of this a bit difficult to stomach. Particularly the bit about not having much funds. We spent heavily on a forward - I reckon the most paid by a L1 team this window - who has looked good. Ramsey may not have impressed, but not long ago he was above Bradley in the pecking order at Liverpool.  And two more promising loans that I’d be surprised if they were cheap. 
Yes, I’m also frustrated as a fan, as we should have been nailed-on to win this match, but don’t blame the finances.

The players we have have all shown that individually and collectively they are good enough but our recent problems seem to be a recurrence of what happened when we were battered by Wigan ie that several players seem to lose the  ability to pass, move and control the ball and the malaise spreads through the team. In essence we seem to cause our own problems. Struggling to recall a goal conceded recently where we haven’t played a part in it’s creation.
There are extenuating circumstances notably with the revolving door at the back and I guess the lack of focus and precision we need could be laid at Evatt’s door, but ultimately it’s down to the players.
All is not yet lost though.

Evatt seems unable to learn from what is in front of him.

His stupidity in not learning from what we can all see is very worrying.

Row fucking Z kills the danger dead.

Why do none of the players have the common sense to hoof the ball to safety, are they all so scared of their manager.

Evatt needs to wind his neck in on the touchline too, it's not a good example to set to Thomason and other young players.

Take the blinkers off IAN!!!

ROW Z!!!!!!

Every time I hear someone mention 'row Z' it reminds me of this little classic about Bobby Zamora...