[kh83]

Ok, we have conceded more goals than we would have liked but lets put things into perspective.

A few games ago, despite conceding goals we were in and around the play off spot, playing some great football and competing with the best teams in this league. In addition, looking at the goals we had conceded, Preston and Bristol away, there's not going be many if any harder places to this season. 3 at Donny, well we had a really makeshift defence with no jones, young Raglan CB and Morsey went off early, so understandable Imo.
I think most people would safely say that if wd were to carry on regardless we would have won enough games to compete..

Add to this, Paul Cook often saying how much he believes in our style of play and saying on more than one occasion that we will carry on doing what we believe in..

All these things considered, I cannot for the life of me understand why he would make such drastic changes. Bringing a new holding midfielder in, dropping our best attacking midfielder and playing a new, more defensive formation... At a team looking poor. With Morsey and Ryan, we already have the best holding midfielders and Johnson is arguably the best attacking midfielder in the league and we should be playing to there strengths. The not playing Johnson coz he returns to villa in a few weeks is one of the most ridiculous decisions Ive ever known.

Please Cooky, some adjustments - yes. But these drastic changes really aren't needed. What we do need is results and points on the board and to get these points we need to play our best players in a system that suits them. Back to plan A please Mr Cook.....

[60s 70s Spireite]

kh83, on 25 October 2014 - 04:58 PM, said:

Ok, we have conceded more goals than we would have liked but lets put things into perspective.

A few games ago, despite conceding goals we were in and around the play off spot, playing some great football and competing with the best teams in this league. In addition, looking at the goals we had conceded, Preston and Bristol away, there's not going be many if any harder places to this season. 3 at Donny, well we had a really makeshift defence with no jones, young Raglan CB and Morsey went off early, so understandable Imo.
I think most people would safely say that if wd were to carry on regardless we would have won enough games to compete..

Add to this, Paul Cook often saying how much he believes in our style of play and saying on more than one occasion that we will carry on doing what we believe in..

All these things considered, I cannot for the life of me understand why he would make such drastic changes. Bringing a new holding midfielder in, dropping our best attacking midfielder and playing a new, more defensive formation... At a team looking poor. With Morsey and Ryan, we already have the best holding midfielders and Johnson is arguably the best attacking midfielder in the league and we should be playing to there strengths. The not playing Johnson coz he returns to villa in a few weeks is one of the most ridiculous decisions Ive ever known.

Please Cooky, some adjustments - yes. But these drastic changes really aren't needed. What we do need is results and points on the board and to get these points we need to play our best players in a system that suits them. Back to plan A please Mr Cook.....

We left out a player who could still have played three more games for us, and played one who, after today, has only three more league matches left to play for us....

[fishini]

Whatever has happened we have gone from looking like a play off team to one more akin with relegation all in a few weeks. Who is to blame? I don't know, what I do know is its PC who has to carry the can. That is what he gets paid for. It is also his job to sort it out. I have faith he can do it, but I would imagine there is growing number of fans who don't. So come on sort it PC as on present form there can only be one outcome

This post has been edited by fishini: 25 October 2014 - 05:16 PM

[BlueRover52]

60s 70s Spireite, on 25 October 2014 - 05:07 PM, said:

We left out a player who could still have played three more games for us, and played one who, after today, has only three more league matches left to play for us....

Yeah I don't get it.Our star performer and doesn't even make the bench.

[moondog]

Daft decision not to play Johnson, cost us the game today

[Radders]

kh83, on 25 October 2014 - 04:58 PM, said:

Ok, we have conceded more goals than we would have liked but lets put things into perspective.

A few games ago, despite conceding goals we were in and around the play off spot, playing some great football and competing with the best teams in this league. In addition, looking at the goals we had conceded, Preston and Bristol away, there's not going be many if any harder places to this season. 3 at Donny, well we had a really makeshift defence with no jones, young Raglan CB and Morsey went off early, so understandable Imo.
I think most people would safely say that if wd were to carry on regardless we would have won enough games to compete..

Add to this, Paul Cook often saying how much he believes in our style of play and saying on more than one occasion that we will carry on doing what we believe in..

All these things considered, I cannot for the life of me understand why he would make such drastic changes. Bringing a new holding midfielder in, dropping our best attacking midfielder and playing a new, more defensive formation... At a team looking poor. With Morsey and Ryan, we already have the best holding midfielders and Johnson is arguably the best attacking midfielder in the league and we should be playing to there strengths. The not playing Johnson coz he returns to villa in a few weeks is one of the most ridiculous decisions Ive ever known. Please Cooky, some adjustments - yes. But these drastic changes really aren't needed. What we do need is results and points on the board and to get these points we need to play our best players in a system that suits them. Back to plan A please Mr Cook.....

The phrase 'cutting ones nose off to spite ones face' springs to mind. Cook said it was nice to get plaudits for the way you played but he wanted to win - well from what I've heard from the last 2 games we haven't got many plaudits and we still haven't won. Way to go!
I appreciate mister Cook wants us to be patient and we were while we were playing well because we knew it would come right again. Its when he tinkers for no apparent reason that I get worried

[spireitetoo]

Didn't he say in interview that he needs to play the lads that are here for the foreseeable.....???


WRONG...you play your strongest 11 possible and worry about the loss of players when it happens.....

This post has been edited by spireitetoo: 25 October 2014 - 06:36 PM

[lindave]

The biggest mistake Cooky has made this season has been to leave out an inform Johnno.Who cares if he only had 4 games left? There were 12 pts to play for and if he had played instead of being left out of the side,he would have created plenty of chances for Doyle which he has done in his time here, and we may have got at least 9pts once we had beaten Yeovil.To bring in a defensive midfielder from Hudders.who had hardly had any game time (but had a decent game),ahead of an inform player, was riddiculous.We lacked any creativity in midfield, the new lad used the ball fairly way but he slowed our play right down,we are much better when the tempo is high.
On the way home we all said we need a commanding cb other than Evo.who hasn't commanded the centre in the past 6 games.Jones looks good coming forward, but defensively he's been a bit off since the Vale game. For the 2nd game running Doyle wasn't given any chances to had to his tally and we looked weak up front.Clucas tried his best and was unlucky with 2 good efforts.If we repeat this team selection and performance on Tuesday we will get well and truely hammered.I'd would have played Bocco today to help the fullback.
Not the time to panic just yet but its so frustrating when Tommy didn't have much to do whilst RO played out of his skin for them.The defence invited them in once again to come and score the winning goal by not getting in one decent tackle ,the forward virtually walked it in.

[60s 70s Spireite]

spireitetoo, on 25 October 2014 - 06:35 PM, said:

Didn't he say in interview that he needs to play the lads that are here for the foreseeable.....???


WRONG...you play your strongest 11 possible and worry about the loss of players when it happens.....

Unless we have an agreement that Gobern is going to sign permanently, I wonder why he played then? Has Cook looked at the fixture list, just three more games to play before he goes back, unless we receive permission to play him in the Cup.

One of a few supplementary questions to be put to Cook. Using Cook's new found philosophy, you would never play a player on a month long loan.

[spireitetoo]

60s 70s Spireite, on 25 October 2014 - 06:40 PM, said:

Unless we have an agreement that Gobern is going to sign permanently, I wonder why he played then? Has Cook looked at the fixture list, just three more games to play before he goes back, unless we receive permission to play him in the Cup.

One of a few supplementary questions to be put to Cook. Using Cook's new found philosophy, you would never play a player on a month long loan.

Goberns loan can be extended ....dj's can't maybe thats why he played??

[Radders]

spireitetoo, on 25 October 2014 - 06:44 PM, said:

Goberns loan can be extended ....dj's can't maybe thats why he played??

Just listened to an interview with Cook after todays defeat and he stated yet again that Johnson has a fantastic future but it's not our future. That may well be the case, but we have signed him and then we don't play him in the last month of his loan spell just because he's going back. Instead we sign someone else for a month to make us harder to beat - (that seems to have failed too) - if Goberns loan can be extended then extended it once Johnson has gone back don't just get rid of Johnson for the sake of it. Unless of course Cookie is making a point to Mr Allen? (If that is the case its never going to work)

[lindave]

spireitetoo, on 25 October 2014 - 06:44 PM, said:

Goberns loan can be extended ....dj's can't maybe thats why he played??

Although he had a decent game today I don't think he's the type of player to move us forward in the future.Our play was slowed right down and I hated it, it's aweful to watch. ( I felt like I was watching a reserve game).

[spireitetoo]

Radders, on 25 October 2014 - 07:07 PM, said:

Just listened to an interview with Cook after todays defeat and he stated yet again that Johnson has a fantastic future but it's not our future. That may well be the case, but we have signed him and then we don't play him in the last month of his loan spell just because he's going back. Instead we sign someone else for a month to make us harder to beat - (that seems to have failed too) - if Goberns loan can be extended then extended it once Johnson has gone back don't just get rid of Johnson for the sake of it. Unless of course Cookie is making a point to Mr Allen? (If that is the case its never going to work)

As I said elsewhere, and up this thread ....play thd best 11 worry about the loss of players when it happens...to not play a guy of dj's quality is madness

This post has been edited by spireitetoo: 25 October 2014 - 07:16 PM

[Sammy Spireite]

We've not lost by more than one goal all season, which would suggest were not far off

After the close-season we had, to be where we are, even now, is amazing and if we're this far off the play offs come May, I'll be more than happy.

Any successful teams, builds slow, over a number of seasons, staying in the division was always the aim this season, and if we do that, we can then look to build again for next season.

Some people we're getting carried away after our start, probably a lot of the same people who were doom-mongering before a ball was kicked.

If we finish mid table, where most predicted, then were gonna lose a lot of games along the way, and need to appreciate and accept that.

[Dreaming Spire]

All of these recent, shall we say, 'out of character' decisions by Paul have really surprised and bewildered me. Ok, we have witnessed weird and unexpected substitutions in games for quite a while and we don't expect every tactical change to come off, but just recently .... Blimey ! ....

The first thing that I noticed was his very out of character reaction to the Andy Giddings interview, which was uncalled for and just plain embarrassing. Then we witnessed the substitutions in the last home game which, as everyone seems to accept, killed the game, lost the momentum and probably resulted in two points lost. I can remember walking out after the end of the game just shaking my head and wondering why ?

Now we hear of what we might well call 'a change in philosophy' by Paul .... and again, this seems out of character and by the sound of it has not worked today. Why leave Johnno out, for starters ?? .... Just bewildering (!)

I find it very hard to believe that Paul has changed his thinking to this extent and just wonder if maybe he is listening too much to all the 'advice' he gets from those around him ?? ..... "Why don't we try THIS, Paul" .... "Why don't we try THAT, Paul"

Probably wrong, I know, but how else can we explain his thinking, recently ?

It's all a bit worrying, really.

[Tyrion]

Maybe Johnson isn't playing as he has been asked not to by his parent club and they want him in their squad when he returns.
Or maybe Cook is being clever by not playing him and taking him off the radar for a January bid

[kh83]

Sammy Spireite, on 25 October 2014 - 07:18 PM, said:

We've not lost by more than one goal all season, which would suggest were not far off

After the close-season we had, to be where we are, even now, is amazing and if we're this far off the play offs come May, I'll be more than happy.

Any successful teams, builds slow, over a number of seasons, staying in the division was always the aim this season, and if we do that, we can then look to build again for next season.

Some people we're getting carried away after our start, probably a lot of the same people who were doom-mongering before a ball was kicked.

If we finish mid table, where most predicted, then were gonna lose a lot of games along the way, and need to appreciate and accept that.

i can accept that we are going to lose games as Im sure everyone else can. But the thread is about the drastic decision made by Paul cook to completely change our approach when we don't need to... One of those changes being the Johnson saga..... Considering how good we were looking and then rightly expecting us to compete to then looking like relegation fodder is what's difficult to accept, regardless of pre season expectations

[dim view]

Dreaming Spire, on 25 October 2014 - 07:23 PM, said:

Why leave Johnno out, for starters ?? .... Just bewildering (!).......

....without pretending to know 'owt myself, I've spoken to one influencial bloke who reckons we could have kept Johnson under the terms of the Youth Loan system. If that's right, I reckon there will have been high level pow-wows to discuss whether keeping him is a sound strategic decision. I think PC has got his eye on at least 1 other loanee who a) he can't afford unless Johnson goes back and b) strengthens another position and c) allows him to play his contracted goalscoring midfielders, which Johnson aint. Patience required.

The thought that we can sign another loanee earlier if Johnson returns might reduce your bewildernment.

[Wooden Spoon]

kh83, on 25 October 2014 - 04:58 PM, said:

Ok, we have conceded more goals than we would have liked but lets put things into perspective.

A few games ago, despite conceding goals we were in and around the play off spot, playing some great football and competing with the best teams in this league. In addition, looking at the goals we had conceded, Preston and Bristol away, there's not going be many if any harder places to this season. 3 at Donny, well we had a really makeshift defence with no jones, young Raglan CB and Morsey went off early, so understandable Imo.
I think most people would safely say that if wd were to carry on regardless we would have won enough games to compete..

Add to this, Paul Cook often saying how much he believes in our style of play and saying on more than one occasion that we will carry on doing what we believe in..

All these things considered, I cannot for the life of me understand why he would make such drastic changes. Bringing a new holding midfielder in, dropping our best attacking midfielder and playing a new, more defensive formation... At a team looking poor. With Morsey and Ryan, we already have the best holding midfielders and Johnson is arguably the best attacking midfielder in the league and we should be playing to there strengths. The not playing Johnson coz he returns to villa in a few weeks is one of the most ridiculous decisions Ive ever known.

Please Cooky, some adjustments - yes. But these drastic changes really aren't needed. What we do need is results and points on the board and to get these points we need to play our best players in a system that suits them. Back to plan A please Mr Cook.....

Back to plan A and keep plan A simple. Why swap Clucas and JOS after 20 mins in a game? Clucas and Jones work well together so leave them. If you feel JOS isn't covering, then look at Gardner/Boco to replace him. Keep the simple shape and balance.

[Westbars Spireite]

dim view, on 25 October 2014 - 07:43 PM, said:

....without pretending to know 'owt myself, I've spoken to one influencial bloke who reckons we could have kept Johnson under the terms of the Youth Loan system. If that's right, I reckon there will have been high level pow-wows to discuss whether keeping him is a sound strategic decision. I think PC has got his eye on at least 1 other loanee who a) he can't afford unless Johnson goes back and b) strengthens another position and c) allows him to play his contracted goalscoring midfielders, which Johnson aint. Patience required.

The thought that we can sign another loanee earlier if Johnson returns might reduce your bewildernment.

Do you think it's a little odd we've signed the lad from Huddersfield, who, if played dictates the formation? I thought it made sense when I heard he'd come in but I didn't know that Cook planned to sit him in front of the back four and change dramatically our attacking make up.