TheBigDog

He’s a decent footballer at this level when fully fit but, and he would probably admit it, is now past his best.

He came in for a huge amount of criticism from a vocal minority but he always gave his all. The late sending off at home to Northampton and the first minute penalty at Brentford seem to have clouded the judgement of some.

Great team goal but there have been others and sometimes we can look decent going forward. As you say, it’s when the opposition are attacking us that we don’t seem to have any idea of how to deal with the pressure. Strange when you consider that our manager was a defender…

Yeah… but apart from that, what do you think?

It’s the age old conundrum - why do these players, who perform well in training, seem to lose their basic skills and determination when they cross that white line? I put this question to David Unsworth when he did the Q&A with Suzanne Geldard recently - this was his response: DU: It’s a great question. Confidence plays a huge part, performance anxiety and playing in front of a crowd and the pressure that match day brings, you can’t replicate that in training. I agree - Confidence is key. And as a manager, DU should keep it simple by adopting a system that the players are comfortable with. He should pick players in their rightful positions and give them the freedom to go and play. There are leaders on the pitch and DU should demand of them that they are more vocal and supportive of the whole team. Stick to the basics but, as JS used to say: ‘look after the ball’. As you rightly say above @yarddog73, the players need to step up too.

We thank him for all his input to the rebuild off the pitch, we really do. But his primary role is the one ON the pitch and that’s what he will be judged on. If he cannot motivate and coach his players to put in the effort and level of performance that is needed, then he has to accept a large portion of the blame. Ultimately he will sink or survive by the way his team performs.

I think the players are now coming to the same conclusion about the manager

This says it all for me. I can accept losing to the league leaders, I cannot accept another poor performance from players and manager. We lose this one and Unsworth will go to Dorking with a points total of 9 from 42. Lose at Dorking as well and he will be sacked.

Ex players and that, innit…

De Bruyne and Haaland

Or more accurately 11 days as they played at Buxton Dec 10 - but still a longer gap than we had.

I did post this about Reid in the PS match thread: This is perplexing. He plays him up front on his own asking him to work tirelessly and then takes him off and then goes to two up top… why Dave, why?

Berry.

Lost 3-0 at Buxton last time out - hopefully the game this Saturday counts as the third game of Nuttall’s suspension. Also, it would be good to see Reid play as part of a front two! I would definitely rest one of our ageing centre backs…

me too - bring ‘em back!

Do you mean the 35 year old Chris McCann @Monty Burns?

At home possibly…

Sort of an obvious statement there.. what would you do if yours was the ultimate decision?

Total games are 14. However, If we just go on league games played: League results under Unsworth: L L D D W L L L D L L Played 11 Won 1 Drawn 3 Lost 7 Points 6 Wins 9% Interesting to note that: - after 5 games he had amassed a mighty 5 points - the next 6 games he has gained a further 1 point - of the last 6 games, 5 of them have been away games - only 4 of his 11 games have been at home - since taking over the manager role he has brought in 8 new players There’s an oft quoted phrase “Let’s judge him after 10 games”… well I wonder if the jury is still out?

It was a tongue-in-cheek comment methinks

yeah… but apart from those five things, what’s the obsession?

Forshaw Jake

And Suzanne Geldard reckons we will be bringing in Willoughby and Nuttall …

Some of us, thought that he was a decent league 2 footballer. He was sent off late in the game against Northampton and missed the next three only returning for the final game against Crawley in a 3-3 draw. We’ll never know, unless he spills all in his biography, whether there was anything sinister about the sending off

fwiw - I reckon he could make it at league 2 but not convinced he will go any higher.