Steve_R

9 hours ago, rudemedic said:

Of course we should, as a guide 15 points off the top last season was 3 points off the playoffs. Anyone who says that isn't in promotion contention with 2/3 of the season left to play is deluding themselves.

I hate the phrase ‘only x amount of points off the play offs’. Once the table settles down, say after 15 games, if we are three points behind seventh place then we are massively underachieving and could be in the bottom half. That’s not being In promotion contention to me.

I agree with you that it’s far too early to say how the season will go just yet though.

19 minutes ago, rudemedic said:

If we are 15 points from the playoffs after 15 games, Unsworth will be gone. We would have hit a deeper bottom than the aforementioned Halifax home game last season.

 

We are 3 points adrift after 3 games. We won't be 15 points adrift after 15 games.

 

Chill TF out.

How about if he’s 15th points off the top? We should be aiming for 1st place, not 7th

2 hours ago, deyres42 said:

And gifted us Liam Hogan and Nathan Sheron, what a hero.

How come you defend Unsworth to the hilt, saying he’s not had enough time to build a team despite heavy backing, because of the mess he inherited, yet slaughter Shez at every opportunity, who had no backing and took over an even bigger mess?

15 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

Personally I would have thought 4 strikers enough, but maybe when someone of Norwood's ability comes along you can't turn it down as it's such an upgrade?

 

I would have said prior to the season starting we still needed a CM and a RB anyway. So I don't think those are knee jerk signings either. Another CM should in my view complete the squad and allow for decent competition all over the park.  It shouldn't need signings to replace injuries after that. The headache will come when everyone is fit, but it's better to have that problem that no competition or no decent back up.

We’ll he certainly needs to make this work pretty quickly now if this latest signing is true, given how much money we seem to be throwing at it.

No excuses now, just get the job done Unsworth!

34 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

If we sign a midfielder because we have an injury crisis then it's bad planning.

 

If we have more strikers than we can play because they're all fit then it's bad planning.

 

It's almost as if it doesn't actually matter what Unsworth and his team do, those positions are entrenched.

It’s not that, it just seems at odds with what he was saying before. Trimming the squad and getting all the signings in early so they’re ready to when the season starts. Now we’re heading for a bloated squad again with a few of them not fit because they’ve had no pre season.

If it all works out fine then happy days,  but we can’t carry signing players every time someone gets injured surely.

9 minutes ago, longtimeblue said:

 

Agreed. I just can't help feeling that it won't have the positive effect it should.

It all seems a bit strange that Unsworth has banged on about a good pre season since he got here, said he was doing all his business early at the end of last season, now we seem to be in a mad scramble to bring in more new players every week.

Different views here and I agree with parts of them all. Overall I’ve not been too impressed with Unsworth, and his record as a whole is average, despite being given everything he could want. I’ve no idea whether Lundstram and Ward will improve us as I’ve hardly seen them. Shelton came with glowing reports from Hartlepool and if he’d been out injured after his first couple of games we’d be preying for him back soon, but he’s been crap.

I also agree we should be aiming for the top and none of this top seven bollocks. 
To be fair I’ve not heard Unsworth mention the play offs, only promotion. He doesn’t help himself with some of the crap he comes out with most of the time, but I’m not for binning him off yet. Three games is far too soon, and he needs to be given the chance to bed all the new signings in once they’re fully fit.

Once the table settles down we’ll have a better idea of where we are, and I honestly can’t see us not being somewhere near the top. It’ll be harder for him to not be up there than to challenge given the backing he’s had and the standard of the opposition, so I doubt his job is under threat anyway.

He’s the Latics manager so I’ll back him, but he need to buck his ideas up and I can see why plenty of others won’t.

Who knows what the next two matches will bring, but I don’t think we can start saying we’ve had one win from five when we’ve only played three

1 hour ago, TheBigDog said:

I listened to the latest Podcast this morning. A good listen as always.

I love a healthy debate and listening to both sides of an argument - and in the main the Podcast achieved that.

 

My perception was it was a podcast of two halves.

 

First half - In general the three were in agreement about the the huge difference in performance against Aldershot compared to the shambles at Southend. Clearly it was down to a number of positive factors:

A reaction to the previous week from the players, the fact that we were at home, the recruitment of a right back which allowed a change to the formation - whether it was 442 or 433 or 424 - so that we didn't start the game with four Centre backs and the positive impact of having a midfielder who was prepared to run at the opposition.

 

However - It seemed to me that there was a shift in attitudes that came immediately AFTER the Unsworth clip was played. The tone of the podcast changed to being more defensive of Unsworth and justifying his performance as a manager solely based on what he inherited. 

Matt placed too much emphasis on the small minority of keyboard warriors who call out Unsworth and continue to call out Unsworth. They are a minority and should be seen as that. 

 

A lot of the debate got bogged down in this defense of Unsworth approach and not giving Joe P's views due consideration. Like it or not, he was expressing opinions that reflect the current views of many Latics fans.

 

Matt went on to say that he doesn't understand why people forget how Unsworth turned it around. 

Its football isn't it?  - the expectations from the strong finish to last season, plus the good recruitment in the close season were totally shattered by an abject performance at Southend - and the reaction was understandable.

At the end of the day, Latics fans are no different to fans of teams throughout the footballing pyramid.

 

But I would argue that the vast majority of Latics fans are prepared to be patient and see that progress is happening.

Joe P made the point that Aldershot was the first game under Unsworth where Latics have actually gone for it - and it was completely at odds with anything we have seen before.

 

It was, and therein lies the rub - its taken a huge effort to get to this point and, like it or not, the fans have the right to question the manager, who at times does seem slow to change his tactical approach.

 

One final point - Unsworth seemed to want to absolve himself of any responsibility for the Southend performance by his non-presence at the club due to Covid - fair enough. But does that then raise the question about Ebbrell's coaching ability? Just saying like....

 

 

 

This is a great post and sums up my feeling on the pod in general, which I largely enjoy. Matt’s opinion fluctuates all the time, and he doesn’t seem to have any time for anyone who doesn’t agree with whatever his view is at that moment. He definitely changed after Unsworth’s interview, previously admitting having the flutters when they pulled a goal back, then slamming anyone else who did and ‘it has to change’ because Big Dave said so.

We’re football fans, that what we do, as they do at every other ground up and down the country. 
Last week it was all “It must improve, and if not after 10 games the board will have a decision to make”, to this week that idea being ridiculous.

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but we all want the same thing, a successful Latics, and it doesn’t make you a numpty if you don’t agree with the mood of the moment.

Some interesting points, but it seems it was ok for them to criticise last week after the Southend debacle, but everyone should show patience now.

The Phil Parkinson facts were way off also. He got Colchester promoted to the Championship long before his Bradford promotion, and did the same with Bolton before he went to Wrexham.

One last thing. Can you go one episode without mentioning Abdallah. He’s gone, get over it.

Excellent yesterday, the type of football we all want to see. Plenty of options, great goals, and despite a dodgy spell midway through the second half, we kept up it to the end.

Central to it all to me though was Norwood. What a signing he’s going to be. He’s one of those players that will make all those around him better, and his partnership with Nuttall worked a treat.
They set the bar with that yesterday. Time will tell if it was us who were that good or Aldershot that bad, a bit like last week in reverse. We’ll see what the next few weeks bring first, but for the first time in a long time I walked out of Boundary Park with a big smile on my face having thoroughly enjoyed the game of football.

Keep it up lads!

41 minutes ago, Hemel latic said:

I did say it's how I expect us to line up. BUT folk need to remember we got plenty of good results earlier this year with that central midfield. I don't mind admitting I voted for Sheron for Player of the Year last season, he was our most consistent performer over the course of 22/23. They've come in for so much stick this week at least in part because of the formation played last Saturday which saw our midfield over run. There's clearly an argument for playing Gardner (whose reputation has grown somewhat as a result of not being involved last week) but I expect Rhino to stick with Sheron and Shelton in the middle of the park.

We also had Rooney, who played himself into a bit of form before Unsworth fell out with him. Don’t think we’ll see him tomorrow somehow.

I think we’ll win, and again on Tuesday. We need two good performances though as well, to get people off his back (for a while at least) and not grinding out a couple of narrow wins like last year.

9 hours ago, Londonboy said:

Shouldn't matter. Shit embarrassing performance of the highest order. Fans let down abysmally.

So yes the club should stump up. 

We can pay all.Unsworths cast offs every week for doing not very much at the moment it seems.

 

Well I went on Saturday, spent a fortune and came back well pissed off.  I don’t expect a refund. Seen loads of shit performances on my travels over the years and no doubt will see a good  few more, but I won’t be asking for my money back after any of them. I’ll moan and groan all the way home while sinking a few beers, then move on to the next one.

Its the price of supporting a shit football team I’m afraid.

I thought we were following Brighton and Brentford’s methods for recruitment?

Maybe he’ll have to consider bringing Rooney back from the naughty step.

It really irks me when the ‘it took Wrexham 15 years etc’ line gets trotted out. it took Bristol Rovers and Grimsby one year, Orient two and Tranmere three. Orient we’re in the same state as us when they came down but sorted themselves out pretty quickly.

It can be done. It might be hard, but it’s not mission impossible.

9 hours ago, TheBigDog said:

Norman

New RB, Raglan, Hogan, Kitching

Green, Gardner, Sheron, Dickenson

Nuttall, Norwood

Subs: Hudson, Reid, Willoughby, Fondop, Hobson

 

Who you bringing off the bench to replace Gardner when he goes off injured?

How can we be that desperate after all the players we’ve brought in since Unsworth’s been here, that we all want this potential new right back to play and no one knows who he is yet!

Unsworth was in charge of his 38th league game yesterday, which means he’s our longest serving league (or non league) manager since Lee Johnson.

10 minutes ago, Dave_Og said:

As I said at 5pm, I'm not booing but I sure as hell aren't staying to applaud

I was exactly the same. I just walk out of the ground if I’m not happy with the performance, which unfortunately happens far more than it should 

2 hours ago, TheBigDog said:

Totally agree about the abuse.

 

However he should have done better in stopping the first goal and then was caught in possession (as were others) far too often. He was no worse than most of the others on the pitch.
 

Fondop missed a great chance in the box failing to connect properly with his attempted shot and Norwood didn’t have the pace when through on goal in the second half.

 

Neither got any stick from the ‘fans’ I note…

 

 

I understand this point and plenty of others have made it. Is the view though that no player should get stick no matter how badly they play, or that they should all cop for it every time they fuck up? 

I always find booing our own players bizarre and wrong.

I don’t see Unsworth going anywhere soon, and in reality, as disgusting as yesterday’s performance was, nor should he. 
He and the players will have to prove though that yesterday was one of those freak results that can happen. We need to win the next two home games with convincing, front foot performances and plenty of goals. Scrappy 1 or 2 nil wins will only paper over the cracks and convince no one.

if, once the table settles down after 10 or 12 games we’re in the bottom half of the table looking like that’s where we belong then Frank and co will have a decision to make, but I think he’ll get plenty of time to get it right.

Whether he is capable of doing it I’m far from convinced, but unless the start is really disastrous and we’re getting dicked every week, I don’t see any change happening.

2 minutes ago, Steve_R said:

Not sure what relevance that has to anything. Please enlighten me

Sorry, my mistake. As this is the Unsworth out thread I thought the post I replied to was referring to Unsworth’s claim a while ago that he had a great relationship with the fans now.

I should pay attention more, but still don’t know who you are or why that should matter.

15 minutes ago, mcfluff1985 said:

 

Definitely enough disagreeing with my pointing out he was shite

 

 

Have a look back through some match posts if you want

 

 

 

 

You clearly don't know who I am then

Not sure what relevance that has to anything. Please enlighten me

7 hours ago, Flemboy said:

Same here.Can he show where all these fans who love him are?

He’s best mates with the podcast boys and presumes everyone loves him as much as they do

33 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

I honestly thought Norwood had come in as a direct replacement for Nuttall so the fact they were named in the same team was a bit bewildering even more so given the form of Fondop pre season, Reid travelling and not even on the bench is equally confusing. I'm presuming Gardner was fit given the bench options, why didn't we see him on for Shelton or Sheron?.

I honestly didn’t think Nuttall was that bad today. The problems were the way the back line set up, an inept midfield and a poor goalkeeping performance.

The way we set up was all wrong. We should have gone at them from the off and put the game to bed early doors, knowing they’d have nothing to bring off the bench
Instead we allowed a far better better footballing side to play far better football, and then laid down without a whimper to a better side.

Pathetic.