Thoughts on the slump

Personally I believe we are a victim of our own success. The reputation the team has acquired over the past few seasons has slowly grown and with it apposing managers have manipulated their approach to playing us.

We have now reached a point where at CCS teams will quite happily plot two banks of four and spend the majority of the game in their own half, commiting fouls and attempting anyway possible to break up the flow of the game and make it as boring and uneventful as possible.
This imo has had a direct impact on the atmosphere also - it can be quite hard to get a proper flow to singing and create alot of noise when we're watching a stop start affair (although I appreciate there are many other factors in regard to the atmosphere atm). Consequently we are now locked in a football vicious circle, and considering the fiery nature of us City fans it will only get more fiery unless our manager and senior players are big enough to arrest the situation.

We're great at playing when space is readily available, however not so good when we need to manufacture space. This is probably best illustrated when comparing our home and away form. When I think of game where we've played well and beaten teams well the first memory that comes into my head is Burke playing in acres on the wing attacking us at the Canton end in the second half of a game - I cant remember one instance where that has occurred this season in anywhere near the regularity it used to in previous seasons.

DJ has certainly got a new problem to tackle and has struggled in coming up with an answer so far this season. Whether it is down to the set of players we have or DJs lack of management skills with the players and tactics, we will have to wait and see. I think we all know what DJ thinks it is - and that it is the players he has to work with...as highlighted in his request for 5 new players in January.

Only time will tell now I suppose...one things for sure though, I'll be there to witness it all!!! BLOOOOOOOOOBIRDS

Personally I believe we are a victim of our own success. The reputation the team has acquired over the past few seasons has slowly grown and with it apposing managers have manipulated their approach to playing us.

We have now reached a point where at CCS teams will quite happily plot two banks of four and spend the majority of the game in their own half, commiting fouls and attempting anyway possible to break up the flow of the game and make it as boring and uneventful as possible.
This imo has had a direct impact on the atmosphere also - it can be quite hard to get a proper flow to singing and create alot of noise when we're watching a stop start affair (although I appreciate there are many other factors in regard to the atmosphere atm). Consequently we are now locked in a football vicious circle, and considering the fiery nature of us City fans it will only get more fiery unless our manager and senior players are big enough to arrest the situation.

We're great at playing when space is readily available, however not so good when we need to manufacture space. This is probably best illustrated when comparing our home and away form. When I think of game where we've played well and beaten teams well the first memory that comes into my head is Burke playing in acres on the wing attacking us at the Canton end in the second half of a game - I cant remember one instance where that has occurred this season in anywhere near the regularity it used to in previous seasons.

DJ has certainly got a new problem to tackle and has struggled in coming up with an answer so far this season. Whether it is down to the set of players we have or DJs lack of management skills with the players and tactics, we will have to wait and see. I think we all know what DJ thinks it is - and that it is the players he has to work with...as highlighted in his request for 5 new players in January.

Only time will tell now I suppose...one things for sure though, I'll be there to witness it all!!! BLOOOOOOOOOBIRDS

A fair assessment, teams are definitely trying to get in our faces and stop us playing rather than play themselves.

I agree about the atmosphere as well, I am get so frustrated with teams getting away with foul after foul without bookings and the constant time wasting, I swear I would have had a heart attack if the Preston game had gone on another 29 mins !!!!

It's funny how the luck has turned against us too, but that always seems to happen on a bad spell or perhaps it's because results are going against us we dwell on them more ???

Hopefully soon we can have Jay, Heaton and Riggot in and step it back up again, we need to get some clean sheets for a start...........

I also Believe if teams come here and have a few tough players, Our players shit out. We also cant beat teams who want to come for a Battle and are really up for it, QPR,JACKS, FOREST,PRESTON and BORO. Middle of the road teams who are just happy plodding along, We Can beat.

Personally I believe we are a victim of our own success. The reputation the team has acquired over the past few seasons has slowly grown and with it apposing managers have manipulated their approach to playing us.

We have now reached a point where at CCS teams will quite happily plot two banks of four and spend the majority of the game in their own half, commiting fouls and attempting anyway possible to break up the flow of the game and make it as boring and uneventful as possible.
This imo has had a direct impact on the atmosphere also - it can be quite hard to get a proper flow to singing and create alot of noise when we're watching a stop start affair (although I appreciate there are many other factors in regard to the atmosphere atm). Consequently we are now locked in a football vicious circle, and considering the fiery nature of us City fans it will only get more fiery unless our manager and senior players are big enough to arrest the situation.

We're great at playing when space is readily available, however not so good when we need to manufacture space. This is probably best illustrated when comparing our home and away form. When I think of game where we've played well and beaten teams well the first memory that comes into my head is Burke playing in acres on the wing attacking us at the Canton end in the second half of a game - I cant remember one instance where that has occurred this season in anywhere near the regularity it used to in previous seasons.

DJ has certainly got a new problem to tackle and has struggled in coming up with an answer so far this season. Whether it is down to the set of players we have or DJs lack of management skills with the players and tactics, we will have to wait and see. I think we all know what DJ thinks it is - and that it is the players he has to work with...as highlighted in his request for 5 new players in January.

Only time will tell now I suppose...one things for sure though, I'll be there to witness it all!!! BLOOOOOOOOOBIRDS

A fair assessment, teams are definitely trying to get in our faces and stop us playing rather than play themselves.

I agree about the atmosphere as well, I am get so frustrated with teams getting away with foul after foul without bookings and the constant time wasting, I swear I would have had a heart attack if the Preston game had gone on another 29 mins !!!!

It's funny how the luck has turned against us too, but that always seems to happen on a bad spell or perhaps it's because results are going against us we dwell on them more ???

Hopefully soon we can have Jay, Heaton and Riggot in and step it back up again, we need to get some clean sheets for a start...........

Riggott coming in to be paired with Darcy could well be the saving grace...I fukn hope so!

I also Believe if teams come here and have a few tough players, Our players shit out. We also cant beat teams who want to come for a Battle and are really up for it, QPR,JACKS, FOREST,PRESTON and BORO. Middle of the road teams who are just happy plodding along, We Can beat.

I find the 'shit out' issue some of our players have is probably the most frustrated aspect of watchn our team and whats obstructed us actually acheiving promotion for the last 3 seasons...

The only games last year I can remember us winning against a team who were proper up for it were the 2 play off semi final games and the Jacks game - is it coincidence those were high profile games where the players had no choice other than to steam into tackles etc? I dont think it is - I think it just highlights the little to no focus DJ puts on this aspect in training or whatever and thats why in the non high profile games we can look like fannies and end up having to put up with another shit post match interview by Mr Jones

I also Believe if teams come here and have a few tough players, Our players shit out. We also cant beat teams who want to come for a Battle and are really up for it, QPR,JACKS, FOREST,PRESTON and BORO. Middle of the road teams who are just happy plodding along, We Can beat.

I agree we are a nice footballing team, but we have no fight, I was hoping Olifinjana would be the man, he started brilliantly but seems half the player he was ???