Pidge

Exactly. I’m sure it was the change from nice new manager, to one demanding more from the players.  This group are allergic to criticism.  Instead of pulling up their big boy pants, they just start pretending to play.

A few on here have criticised MM’s team selection, and really selections have  been strange.  My instinct is that he is picking the few players he feels have pride and will try.  McGahey being an example as well as Gardner. ( unfortunately they really just doesn’t have it anymore)

Where do you suggest funding comes from? 
 

Academies have to be self funding. A good few years ago I remember it being £400,000 to fund the academy for a year. It will be considerably more now. The youngsters can be poached by other clubs. 
 

So the whole philosophy of the club has to be that young players will be integrated and trusted to play in the first team early on, or else the good ones will sign somewhere else.  We as a club don’t tend to be able to bring many through. Hence there are no transfer fees adding up to the running costs, let alone profits. 
 

It’s a business decision.

Winners need to react quicker, move quicker and maintain your effort longer then the opposition. If players want to play for their team mates, manager, club organisation, trophies and fans, then motivation to winning effort levels is easier for players to achieve.  I’m hope most of us would agree the inconsistent team performances suggest this is a more important issue right now them the fact we haven’t signed a right back and have to many centre backs.

So, taking all that onboard, it is ease to see that all these factors are important.  Those of us who blame the booing fans for the players lack of effort are correct.  Those of us who blame the manager are correct etc etc. So is it useful for us on the forum to argue which of the factors is the only one that matters?

So my main point is that the one and only of those many factors that we as fans can influence directly is the matchday experience for players. Will those players be more likely to find the motivation to up effort levels if we boo them or cheer them?

1 hour ago, AndyB2 said:

You’re nice 

Who do you think AndyB2 is? Surely he is a renaming of someone who has been on before. Someone who talks/posts so much would not just have 157 posts. 
 

Any ideas?

Were there Away fans in the home crowd like people were worried about?

11 minutes ago, trickyrickyholden said:

Only makes you think if you don't understand how numbers work....

10 hours ago, diggleblue said:

Mellon interview. He's quote" thoroughly pissed off." I love him. Slowly the real Scott is emerging. I suspect the players got a right bollocking post match after today.

The problem is that the players are needing and getting more bollockings. There comes a point where players don’t want to be here anymore and are trapped because they are showing to poorly on the pitch for other teams to be interested. We can’t get rid because they are contracted. 
 

Managers usually come in to the club being personally supportive, encouraging and publicly supportive too. With successive poor performances, criticism in the dressing room becomes necessary, however much the manager knows he is taking a risk that performances may actually get worse because you may piss off modern players.  Then when players don’t respond, the manager starts going public.  It’s a sign that the manager is loosing the dressing room.  Very worrying that we are getting to this point at such a critical point in the season.

8 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

I won't give any love to repeated

turgid home perfornces.

Would you continue loving  a restaurant who served up sub standard meals at £20 or even if they offered you a watered down discount?

We have the ingredients (wingers) who can change the menu to be much more appetising, but the chef prefers bland hard to swallow  products.

 

 

Depends if I had identified that the reason the food dished up was poor was simple because the chef was scared of what I may say about his food.  Giving him some love may get some worldy football, sorry food (I forgot what we were talking about! )

11 hours ago, Ritchierich said:

Sounds like another horrific home performance, thank the Lord we only have 4 h9me games left and 5 away. Also, tonight puts paid to the silly idea that we could finish 2nd or 3rd, we need to focus on scraping 07th

How can a clean sheet 0:0 performance be “horrific”. Wow some of our fans still expect NL players to be as good as those worth 50 million.

9 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

Performances indicate that, the players seem scared of playing  at home, hence the hoofball.

So you have decided poor performances occur because the players are scared at home.  
 

I think you will find it is more complicated then that! 
 

BTW BP, if you do believe what you say, you could start by giving them some love rather then criticism.

2 hours ago, LightDN123 said:

I’m in the same boat as you on Hammond. He consistently loses the ball. 

So you would be happier if he quickly gets rid of the ball hoofball style?

We have to many of those don’t we. 
 

He is young and learning his trade, but he has ability. I would rather he tries things and sometimes looses the ball then he just passes back or boots it.

I think he is trying to put out a team that will compete for the ball.

Apart from Green, they are the players most likely to show some fight and pride. Hopefully Green will make something happen going forward.

31 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

 

I don't think Norman Hunter or Billy Bremner gave anyone an inch of space.

But when you weren’t playing Leeds—

5 hours ago, spanishfly said:

Interesting observation, Guy. There's no doubt that the game is much faster nowadays and players are fitter and physically stronger. Standard wise, though, I definitely saw more individual skill back in the day. I doubt I`ll ever see the likes of Groves, Stainrod, Valentine, McVitie, Shaw etc. in a Latics shirt again to be honest. Agree it's like comparing apples and pears really though. If those players could time travel forward, how would they look now? We'll never know but of one thing I`m pretty certain, nobody today would beat David Shaw for pace from a standing start over 20 yards. Perhaps only Warhurst and Barrett may have stood a fighting chance in my history of watching us. Oh and to have Simon Stainrod and his silky skills up front now, just superb to watch.

 

Anyway, I`m being positive and looking forward to a victory tonight, only wish I could be there to see us perform away from home.

They had time to control and play back then.  Now if a player does a step over and looses the ball they get roasted.

7 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

Good job Bobby Johnstone never wore a tracker vest to measure his running, he'd have been disciplined for not covering more than 100 yards in a full match.

Another trendy gadget. Never mind football at BP will be played by robots in the future where the team can be properly programmed to play 7 at the back by a schoolkid in Japan.

I think you will find that the introduction of GPS was not to discipline players for being lazy.  The main reason it is used is to track the work load muscles have done and try to predict a player at risk of injury, so their training can be altered.

I can assure you the average player is much fitter in a cardiovascular sense now then back in the 80s and 90s. That includes the teams we are playing who are much further down the league. That’s why we are not simply fitter then other teams and actually need to be more switched on (react to second balls first) and physically aggressive to get to the ball ahead in a 50:50.

5 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

 

I wonder who our sports therapist was in the 1990s when sometimes the same players played 3 times in a week and still gave everything?

Cant play twice a week! what a load of trendy mumbo jumbo.

Part time players work a full shift and play midweek games on a regular basis due the many extra local cup competitions they take part in.

Some of our players don't play for weeks and still look tired.

If they did come in on a Sunday it wouldn't  be a full pelt training session anyway, more of a realisation poor performances have their consequences.  That goes for the Manager and coach too who should set an example.

 

 

I’m beginning to understand McFluff a little better.

I thought we were discussing why the players looked leggy (your word). 
you seemed BP, to be suggesting extra training without time to recover would help. I hope you are not suggesting playing 3 times a week will give them even more energy.

Often in Big Joe’s day, if we were playing twice a week he wouldn’t have the players train in between except to work on shape and game plan.  I’m guessing that was so the players wouldn’t look leggy.

6 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

Often described as 'leggy' which our players look to be.

Why is that?

I’m not usually expected to explain someone else’s observation, you seem to understand what is meant by “leggy” as you agree our players look to be.  What can say is that bringing them in on the Sunday after a league match and only a short time before the next league game is not the advise a sports Rehab Therapist would give to result in them being converted from leggy to lively!

1 minute ago, BP1960 said:

 

So they were tired before the game as well as after?

I’m confused

11 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

A recovery? They never broke sweat.

That is such bollocks mate. Were you in the changing room after?

The performance was poor because they were often half a yard behind the opponent. The statistics on their GPSs won’t be different from other matches where they played well !

10 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

Having worked for many managers I've seen them bring players in on a Sunday just to make them realise its not such a cushy life.

 

Maybe you didn’t take note of whether there was a Tuesday game on those occasions. If there was, take it from me that physical training the day after a competitive match without sufficient recovery time (ie match Tues) was counter productive.

19 minutes ago, TheBigDog said:

I think that you and many others are missing the point of the growing frustration.

 

We don’t expect Melon to ‘revolutionise a club and its identity in a matter of months’

 

We don’t compare ‘fifth division football and what is possible to elite level football’

 

All we are asking for is a team that can do the basics at this level  - you know stuff like ‘trap a ball’, ‘pass to a team mate’, play with energy, be first to second balls, not panic and boot the ball away at every opportunity, maybe play through the midfield and have more than three attempts on target in 90 minutes at home against a team in the bottom four. 
 

Ordinary stuff like that.

I agree with most of this Big Dog

The truth is that this group of players were unable to compete yesterday with a team which was strong and quick and took advantage of a weak referee who allowed pushing, pulling and holding all over the pitch. Players of “better” quality still have to earn the right to play.  They have to be mentally strong enough to be first to the loose ball, to win more then 50% of the 50:50 balls they complete. To find a way to win headers despite physical attentions from a defender.  Once you are winning possession, you can pass and play football.

Yesterday there were not enough with the mental strength to be physical enough and aggressive enough to best their opponent.  Most either lost the ball under that pressure or just hoofed it aimlessly before they did loose it. Motivation wise you have to wonder why the big crowd of fans, and the expectation of the owners family was not enough to make them want and need to compete. 

4 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

'Why are we not there'.

That comment suggests you are not very knowledgeable about the nuts and bolts of football management. Why when you are playing again Tuesday night, would you train the players on the training pitch, they need to recover. 
if you want to punish them, bring them in to watch the match. 

1 hour ago, deckyd said:

If this is true, thats poor form, today's display certainly could do with an explanation.

Really? Do you think there is an explanation?

3 hours ago, TheBigDog said:

Melon’s response is bollox in my opinion.

 

 

Asked by The Oldham Times about Reid's absence, Latics boss Mellon said: "I have the group that I'm working with and I'll continue to do that.

 

Bollox.

You have no idea how Reid responded to MM when sanctioned at the beginning.  Whatever happened at the beginning clearly cannot be undone/unsaid. 

12 hours ago, deyres42 said:

People insisting Norman was better than Hudson and the budget worriers the standouts for me.

For me the budget worry was one of the reasonable “worries”. Do any of us know the depth of the owners pockets?  Every other Oldham owner in recent years have either run out of money or just decided to stop wasting money on our/their football club. 
 

I still find myself hoping we get promoted for many reasons, but one is that league 2 money will help the owners.