Post-mortem Northampton

[Exiled_red]

There are two things that worry me alot about Roy: firstly he'd made alot of mistakes in his brief time here, you could accept these from a rookie manager bor someone who hasn't managed in the English league or Premeiership before; but neither of these are true, he's vastly expereinced in general and has alot of experience in the Premiership. I wonder now if he is cut out for a big club such as ours were every decision is analysed in detail and every error vastly critisised. Secondly he was supposed to be a manager who can get the best out of this players, make them play above their level, but so far IMO he has failed to do this and the players are performing worse than they did last season.

[Yozza]

Maybe those slaughtering Rafa last season will now begin to realise what we were on about.

Sad thing is they won't

[Rix007]

Should have rather put King Kenny in charge...Can this season get any worst....Depressed..
Roy to go, Hicks to go

[kris90210]

Originally Posted by merlboo
Maybe those slaughtering Rafa last season will now begin to realise what we were on about.

Absolutely.

[Helios Creed]

Soto up front = Rafa's fault.
Goalkeeper signed by Roy = Rafa's fault.
Pacheco, star of recent international tournament, gash tonight = Rafa's fault.
I could go on, but I can't be arsed.

If Rafa had been in charge last night and we'd gone out with that squad on the pitch/bench, he would have been slated for not taking the cup seriously, disrespecting it etc. Just shows the sort of crap that Rafa had to put up with.

[Exiled_red]

I'm most dissapointed in the likes of Babel, Lucas and Jovanovic. They are the players who are on the fringes of the squad, if Babel and Jovanovic could have put in good performances they could have shown the manager and the fans what they can do and show that they deserve a run in the first team. Jovanovic got a goal but in general their performances it seems were dire and if anything it shows why they aren't getting games. Babel in particular with his pace and skill should be tearing league two players and new one.

[Exiled_red]

If Rafa had been in charge last night and we'd gone out with that squad on the pitch/bench, he would have been slated for not taking the cup seriously, disrespecting it etc. Just shows the sort of crap that Rafa had to put up with.

But Rafa would have at least had Gerrard and Torres (or the like) on the bench and would probably have brought them on at 1-1 after 75mins or so. You would feel that if that had happened last night we would have gone on to win the game (we saw this happen numerous times in the League cup with Rafa).

As I said in earlier posts I think that in not having that insurance Roy made another big mistake last night.

I agree with what you're saying though.

[the rev leeroy brown]

am i the only one who doesnt really care about last nights result?

all i care about right now is new owners and getting top 4 in the league.

we had a reserve team out last night as did citeh and chelsea and we all paid price. who cares? move on and letsa look towards saturday and the games that actually matter.

[SimonNo7]

Bit of a ridiculous thing to say.

There was more than enough on that pitch tonight to beat a ****ing League 2side.

There was or so we would think.

But could it actually be that, if we take off our rose tinted glasses that tell us our team is really nearly as good as Manure, the Chavs, the Arse and ****ty that it really isn't, that the players we talk up are mostly actually just not good enough (I've also included some that have now gone), players like Babel, Lucas, Kuyt, Skrtel, Kyriakos, Aurelio, Ngog (I know he has had a good start in the Europa this season and has shown some development), Riera, Insua, Benny etc.

Now these players couldn't create, couldn't attack for Rafa (bar one season) and now they can't create, can't attack for Roy (and again I am not just going by this game).

So maybe we are all wrong from our high perches up here on internet forums (as we all think we know better than any manager about tactics and players) and it isn't actually the managers that are bad, it's just the overpaid, lacking passion, won't be motivated by two well respected managers, can't motivate themselves, lacking pride, embarrassment, poor excuse of footballers can't be arsed to put the effort in, to play for the thousands of fans who pay their hard earned cash to watch their feeble attempts at playing what is a pretty simple game.

[Exiled_red]

am i the only one who doesnt really care about last nights result?

all i care about right now is new owners and getting top 4 in the league.

we had a reserve team out last night as did citeh and chelsea and we all paid price. who cares? move on and letsa look towards saturday and the games that actually matter.

If the team had been performing well in the league I doubt people would be bothered so much, the problem being that isn't the case and alot of people are having doubts about the manager, his decisions and his ability to motivate the players, this adds to those doubts. Also a number of the players involved in that match will feature heavily in the Premiership this season which gives us huge cause for concern, it wasn't a team of 11 youngsters, there were 6 internationals in that team!

Yes the league has to be our prime concern, but last night we suffered what was probably our worst result in more than half a century. If we were doing well we could put it down as a blip, but given the way things have been going recently people can't be so confident that it is, we weren't unlucky in the game, we hardly created any chances, we didn't play them off the park the result was fair, and against a League 2 side that is very worrying!

[alunevans]

I agree with the comments about defending really deep. I find this really disconcerting and I don't understand why Roy is playing that way at all. It makes zero sense to me. And the team last night should have been easy good enough to dispatch a struggling Division 4 team.

Brad Jones played for Boro - way about Div 4.

Kyrgiakos (sp?) and Agger are both hugely experienced players, Wilson played for Rangers last year, and Kelly is way above a Div 4 player.

Jovanovic just played in the World Cup, Babel was bought for millions from Ajax, Lucas is being courted by Juventus.

Ngog has enough Premier experience to be way better than Div 4, and Pacheco was the star of the recent international tournament at his age level.

That team should be able to comfortably beat division four strugglers at home so it's not a case of "we played the kids." We played the reserves but they should have gone through comfortably and as they didn't there are question marks over everyone on the pitch.

I'm perplexed by how we're playing at the moment in terms of how deep we are, and the fact that even a defensively set out side is leaking goals.

At the same time, to call for his head after 5 league games is making a snap judgement and doesn't strike me as reasonable. Last night was ****e, and same goes for how we've played all season so far, but we're also 3 points off fourth place.

I think shouting "sack him" after 5 league matches isn't right in my view. It's what I feared though should it not have gone well early doors. It's not a fair response in my humble opinion.

No matter how cack we're playing at the moment he's only been here for 2 minutes, and he did overachieve at Fulham both in the league and in Europe. It takes at least 12 months for a manager to really put his stamp on a club. To make "sack him" style judgements after 5 league matches leaves me pretty uncomfortable.

[Exiled_red]

There was or so we would think.

But could it actually be that, if we take off our rose tinted glasses that tell us our team is really nearly as good as Manure, the Chavs, the Arse and ****ty that it really isn't, that the players we talk up are mostly actually just not good enough (I've also included some that have now gone), players like Babel, Lucas, Kuyt, Skrtel, Kyriakos, Aurelio, Ngog (I know he has had a good start in the Europa this season and has shown some development), Riera, Insua, Benny etc.

Now these players couldn't create, couldn't attack for Rafa (bar one season) and now they can't create, can't attack for Roy (and again I am not just going by this game).

So maybe we are all wrong from our high perches up here on internet forums (as we all think we know better than any manager about tactics and players) and it isn't actually the managers that are bad, it's just the overpaid, lacking passion, won't be motivated by two well respected managers, can't motivate themselves, lacking pride, embarrassment, poor excuse of footballers can't be arsed to put the effort in, to play for the thousands of fans who pay their hard earned cash to watch their feeble attempts at playing what is a pretty simple game.

Sticking with the players that played last night 6 were internationals Jones, Lucas, Agger, Kyriakos, Jovanovic and Babel, the latter four were at the world cup in the summer!! Babel and Jovanovic are supposed to be attacking and fairly creative players, they should be creating chances for a decent and in-form striker in Ngog and have the support of a very promising youngster who took the U19s by storm there should be enough attacking quality there to beat a league two side. The midfield is backed up by Lucas (an international) and Spearing (who had a decent spell in the Championship last season) andare backed up again by two international defenders. There should certainly be enough quality there to beat a team from the lower half of league 2. Even if you accept that many of these players are overrated

[kris90210]

There was or so we would think.

But could it actually be that, if we take off our rose tinted glasses that tell us our team is really nearly as good as Manure, the Chavs, the Arse and ****ty that it really isn't, that the players we talk up are mostly actually just not good enough (I've also included some that have now gone), players like Babel, Lucas, Kuyt, Skrtel, Kyriakos, Aurelio, Ngog (I know he has had a good start in the Europa this season and has shown some development), Riera, Insua, Benny etc.

Now these players couldn't create, couldn't attack for Rafa (bar one season) and now they can't create, can't attack for Roy (and again I am not just going by this game).

So maybe we are all wrong from our high perches up here on internet forums (as we all think we know better than any manager about tactics and players) and it isn't actually the managers that are bad, it's just the overpaid, lacking passion, won't be motivated by two well respected managers, can't motivate themselves, lacking pride, embarrassment, poor excuse of footballers can't be arsed to put the effort in, to play for the thousands of fans who pay their hard earned cash to watch their feeble attempts at playing what is a pretty simple game.

Well said. There has to be question marks when it comes to all of those players. The sad thing is that we've gone from being a side who needed fine tuning (a couple of years ago) to a rebuilding job. Even with new owners with a best-case scenario (rich), we're 2-3 years off challenging for the title.

[barnes10]

I said this in the other thread and stand by it

Worst start for 18 years in the league

Fail to win Saturday and its the worst start for over 50 years (since we got relegated in the 50's)

Out of the League Cup by a side 17th in League 2 (or 3rd from bottom in the 4th division for any old arses like me out there)

He NEVER should have been appointed and how the **** we overlooked Kenny for him is beyond ****ing belief

we overlooked kenny for the managers spot as we want kenny here permanently.

whoever the manager is has to work with one hand tied behind their back. why put kenny in that position?

i dont believe roy was ever seen as anything other than a stop gap. someone to guide the club through the potential turmoil that is the next year or two.

once we're back on our feet. we get the right man in.

[Reece]

Jonjo Shelvey's appearance as a substitute in extra-time helped lift Liverpool, with the midfielder playing a part in Ngog's equaliser.

Hodgson said: "He did well but the fact is he came on in extra-time and people were tiring. We think Jonjo Shelvey is a player with a bright future, but I have to say I am not in the mood for talking about positives."

What a great way of lifting a young player's confidence.