Oldham 0 Yeovil 4

[Buckshawlatic]

LJ's interview on player seems to be fighting back tears and say a few people need to look at themselves including himself at the end

[TheBigDog]

I think today's result is a reality check....we're not as good a we thought we were and without the midfield combo of Kelly and Jones and Forte up top we are an easy touch,

The 14 teams between the relegation places and top 6 are separated by just 8 points. By the end of next month we could quite easily be fighting to stay out of the bottom 4.

This is a piss poor division where on the day any team can beat any other and today has clearly demonstrated that fact.

Strange that I haven't read a single post that gives any credit to Yeovil...

They worked hard, closed us down, defended and attacked in numbers - yes Kasunga was at fault for two of the goals but we were outfought and outsmarted by a physically and tactically better team on the day.

[Oh Heck C-Beck]

A question for those who attend regularly. Has changing the keeper unsettled the defence?

 

My dad said he didn't think rachubka had done much wrong to be dropped, especially as we had been solid defensively with him in goal despite a few short comings.

[ShakerT]

Tinkered too much today 6 defenders on the same pitch at home, Have we ever played that many defenders before? Tidser and Winchester on the bench made it more of an absolute joke. Johnson messed up bad, real bad, set up to never score not even a 3-5-2 formation, that was a 5-3-1-1. Lee deserves pelters after that, dog crap, now he's given Daddy the points lets pick a team that can get a result at the franchise. Went down in my estimation today bloody amateurish at best. All that positivity tarnished in 2 games. Rant over! ?

[ShakerT]

Tinkered too much today 6 defenders on the same pitch at home, Have we ever played that many defenders before? Tidser and Winchester on the bench made it more of an absolute joke. Johnson messed up bad, real bad, set up to never score not even a 3-5-2 formation, that was a 5-3-1-1. Lee deserves pelters after that, dog crap, now he's given Daddy the points lets pick a team that can get a result at the franchise. Went down in my estimation today bloody amateurish at best. All that positivity tarnished in 2 games. Rant over! ?

[stargazer]

There was bound to become a point in the season where the team had a run of poor results. There have been very few defeats until recently.

 

Unfortunately the run coincides with 2 cup ties and we now have none to look forward to in 2015.

 

A home game against 23rd in the division for a team in 6th place is as good as you will ever get to get back to winning ways.

This was a miserable failure , the inconsistency of lower league players performance , attitude , etc never ceases to amaze me.

 

It is hardly going to help get a bumper Bank Holiday crowd to throw in such a wretched performance now.

[opinions4u]

We'd have been fifth with a win.

 

Do we hang on in there or will we fade like Chesterfield ...

[nzlatic]

Went to the game and it was dreadful. Tactically LJ got it wrong but the defending errors were criminal. Kusunga getting a lot of justified stick but having seen the goals on FLS this morning the first one is absolutely criminal. Johnson left marking their giant centre back who he then didn't follow and the guy had a free header. And a free follow up.

 

Despite kenny and George playing there was no leadership at the back throughout.

 

Other points, it looked like Jabo should have been clean through early on but had a heavy touch and ballsed it up. Plus it looked like a clear studs up over the ball challenge on mills that only got a yellow.

 

Anyway, my first home game of the season. Great choice. But still in the hunt and there's no need to chuck the toys out of the pram yet. Unlike some of the fans in the chaddy. Some of the bile screamed in the first half was shocking. You'd think we started 2nd bottom rather than play offs the way some people were talking.

[Chaddy_Ender]

We'd have been fifth with a win.

 

Do we hang on in there or will we fade like Chesterfield ...

Depends if the club and I mean everyone from the chairman down has it in them to step up, rumblings of players leaving and players being hung out to dry will drain any confidence thats been instilled in the squad, we need to get back to basics play our best 11 in a formation thats done us no harm and come back stronger, this is when you see the character of players and a manager whose took plenty of plaudits in recent months, if we can put this game to bed and quickly we could still finish top 8 if we dont we could be looking at a Bradford situation from last season which would be a disaster with a new stand on the way.

[Dave_Og]

Doom and gloom from me. I think we'll flirt with relegation for a bit but ultimately end up mid table.

Hardly doom and gloom - mid-table would be the best outcome for some time

[JoeP]

Would it? Looked slightly promising for a few games and that we could achieve more. Now it looks like as usual we will sell our better players in the transfer window, replace them with yet more loan signings and have to watch a few more abject performances like yesterday. I suppose that's the life of a third division football fan though.

 

I reckon yesterday was a cunning ploy to put all interested parties off.

 

LJ's a genius.

[bigfatjoe1]

Rednapp is right. Christmas parties are not a good idea for footballers.

It's a wobble. We'll bounce back...after Christmas.

[Stainrod]

Doom and gloom from me. I think we'll flirt with relegation for a bit but ultimately end up mid table.

Overeaction perhaps??

[ShireBlue]

Couldn't make it yesterday (which is unusual as we usually dick the opposition when I'm not at BP, Coventry this season, Peterborough last for example), but to me this sounds like a rather terrible attempt from the manager to outsmart Yeovil.

 

We've played well in a variety of diamond-esque formations, against better opposition, but this seemed just bloody daft.

 

However, the problem we've had against lower league opposition is that they pack the midfield and make it difficult for us to play, settling for a draw, or the typical spawny 0-1 win. I wouldn't be suprised if LJ set the team up to invite pressure, and hit them on the break. Cue the discussion if League 1 players are/should be intelligent/skillful enough to adapt.

[mikejh45]

There was a Blackburn scout there who said on his way out he couldn't believe the :censored: he was watching!!!

[Oh Heck C-Beck]

He gets paid to watch football and has no idea about the standard of L1 football? Don't think he'll be a scout for long!

[Chaddy_Ender]

There was a Blackburn scout there who said on his way out he couldn't believe the :censored: he was watching!!!

Was it the same scout who had David Goodwillie on a par with Wayne Rooney and recommend they sign him for £2.8 million ? Cracking judge he is.

[whitey1980]

Whilst LJ will rightly take a large element of the blame for the performance, professional footballers have got to take their share for their contribution to the debacle.

 

We have stopped trying to make a progressive pass from the midfield areas - who in turn are receiving less space because our centre halves are not carrying the ball and committing opponents. We desperately missed Kelly yesterday, but how often did our centre halves split and ask for the ball? Surely we should still have had a man spare? Too often in the last month we have been forced into longer balls that make us far easier to defend against!

 

In turn the forward players must take responsibility for the lack of movement centrally. At times we had players in good crossing positions with nobody to hit. On the occasions we did, the delivery was spectacularly bad!!

 

Elokobi must go for me next week. Kasunga was awful yesterday, but at least he is mobile and willing to receive the ball. Big George is painfully one footed, slow and Wilson is clearly struggling to play with him.

 

I would also bring back Rachubka for his speed of distribution. Kenny has actually made some decent stops, but the unit has been weakened for me and communication and understanding of roles has been poor.

 

I don't understand Tidser's or Daytons absence yesterday - I would imagine the first half against Preston would be the reason, but they would at least have allowed us to keep our shape.

 

Yesterday was as bad a display as I have seen a professional team produce, but we can - and we must - bounce back next week. Back to a flat back 4, 2 holding midfielders and a rotating attacking 3 behind Ibhere for me. The players must be hurting, but they need to regain the courage to play the attacking pass - its been lacking for a good few weeks!!

Edited December 14, 2014 by whitey1980

[opinions4u]

If you need cheering up, Brad Jones is in goal for Liverpool today.

 

This reminded me of another game.

 

[BP1960]

Was it the same scout who had David Goodwillie on a par with Wayne Rooney and recommend they sign him for £2.8 million ? Cracking judge he is.

 

I bet he put Yeovil's centre back Athurworrey in his note book though.

[opinions4u]

48 seconds of highlights on the highlights thread:

 

http://www.owtb.co.uk/index.php/topic/45860-201415-video-highlights-brought-to-you-by-playershare/page-3

[slystallone]

We'll, running an event for a load of pissed up corporate delegates turned out to be not as bad as I thought it was going to be then? Decent game to miss all told eh?

 

Obviously this comes from someone who wasn't at the game, and was relying on text updates from my mates who were watching; but - unfortunately it smacks of 2 things to me:

 

1 - LJ trying too hard to out smart his Dad and in doing so, massively :censored:ing up. As soon as I saw on here it was 3-5-2; I was worried. As I said on that post, i'm not a fan of that formation as it is, but - i actually dont think we have the players to play it correctly. We have League One players; used to 4-4-2 & varying connortations of it.

I'd expect Gary Johnson was expecting & preparing to come up against our diamond midfield that has served us pretty well; and was looking to set up a la Donny did, so too Crawley. He must have rubbed his hands together with Xmas glee when he saw our side and formation.

Too much trying to over-think and out-smart his Dad i think. LJ has to shoulder a huge portion of the blame here for this shocking loss.

2 - but.......we're talking of 13 players, professional footballers, going out and collectively playing as poorly as they did. They have to have a big slice of the blame apportioned too?

Yes they are League One players, and will suffer inconsistencies. But - looking at the goals on the FLS and from reading on here: sounds like there were far too many of them who had shockers.

Yes , they were playing a formation that may have been unfamilair and uncomfortable for them, and i'm sure that's what they'll say, but it really shouldnt be an excuse. They're professionals and should play as such.

 

 

Bad result, following on from 2 other bad results in the Cups.

 

I hope this is minor blip in our season. We're 8th going into Christmas; the highest we've been in years & years. Its been great watching us this season for the most part. We all need to collectively put this behind us and move on, players, management and fans alike.

 

Hope its a blip, one that happens over a season, and we pick back up again...

[BP1960]

We'll, running an event for a load of pissed up corporate delegates turned out to be not as bad as I thought it was going to be then? Decent game to miss all told eh?

 

Obviously this comes from someone who wasn't at the game, and was relying on text updates from my mates who were watching; but - unfortunately it smacks of 2 things to me:

 

1 - LJ trying too hard to out smart his Dad and in doing so, massively :censored:ing up. As soon as I saw on here it was 3-5-2; I was worried. As I said on that post, i'm not a fan of that formation as it is, but - i actually dont think we have the players to play it correctly. We have League One players; used to 4-4-2 & varying connortations of it.

I'd expect Gary Johnson was expecting & preparing to come up against our diamond midfield that has served us pretty well; and was looking to set up a la Donny did, so too Crawley. He must have rubbed his hands together with Xmas glee when he saw our side and formation.

Too much trying to over-think and out-smart his Dad i think. LJ has to shoulder a huge portion of the blame here for this shocking loss.

2 - but.......we're talking of 13 players, professional footballers, going out and collectively playing as poorly as they did. They have to have a big slice of the blame apportioned too?

Yes they are League One players, and will suffer inconsistencies. But - looking at the goals on the FLS and from reading on here: sounds like there were far too many of them who had shockers.

Yes , they were playing a formation that may have been unfamilair and uncomfortable for them, and i'm sure that's what they'll say, but it really shouldnt be an excuse. They're professionals and should play as such.

 

 

Bad result, following on from 2 other bad results in the Cups.

 

I hope this is minor blip in our season. We're 8th going into Christmas; the highest we've been in years & years. Its been great watching us this season for the most part. We all need to collectively put this behind us and move on, players, management and fans alike.

 

Hope its a blip, one that happens over a season, and we pick back up again...

 

You would have been horrified yesterday.

However, playing formations even great players cannot adapt to is not a new phenomenon. I remember the Revie Plan at Manchester City in the 1950s suffering a heavy 5-0 defeat in the first match it was implemented.

Edited December 14, 2014 by BP1960

[BLUMAX]

if we can put this game to bed and quickly we could still finish top 8 if we dont we could be looking at a Bradford situation from last season which would be a disaster with a new stand on the way.

 

New stand? Dont hold your breath!

[BP1960]

if we can put this game to bed and quickly we could still finish top 8 if we dont we could be looking at a Bradford situation from last season which would be a disaster with a new stand on the way.

 

New stand? Dont hold your breath!

 

I do agree we are higher in the league than expected, but the manager said some of his players heads went down yesterday and that for me is a worrying aspect, even if not the best players in the division he has a right to expect 100% commitment from his squad in every game.