Oscar has lost the fans...

[Mr Bridger]

In the next game:


-----------Ulloa-----March--------------

Lua Lua-----Stephens-----Ince----Buckley

Ward--------Bruno---Upson-------Chicksen

--------------Kuszczak------------------


I know it looks desperate, but the game can't possibly get any worse from that.
Dunk, Greer and Upson have all made a lot of mistakes, but unfortunately at least one of them has to play.

I like that team.

never seen kuszczak play up front , but having Ulloa and March in goal is a master stroke. Should plug the leak.

 

[Deano's Invisible Pants]

Little picture

Disappointing end to our play off challenge, reminiscent of 2011/12. Some turgid displays at home. Lack of punch up front and dreadful scoring record. Puzzling signings, making little impact.

Big Picture

Third consecutive finish in the top half (probably) of the Championship. Now a well established and respected Championship side, moving into one of the country's top training facilities, in a better position than most in relation to new financial fair play regulations.

Question is, are we going in the right direction? On the playing side, the emergence of Ince, Dunk, March and JFC is a good sign, but I feel we will need several top new signings in the close season to give us a chance of going up next year.

So much depends on how FFP is implemented. If the clubs on the wrong side of it face losing their players to those on the right side of it (eg. BHA) on the cheap, as per the letter of the rules, we could be in a very strong position. If not, it's going to need a manager to succeed against all the financial odds to do any better than Oscar has done this year.

 

[Commander]

He hasn't lost the fans. He's lost three games in a row. As soon as he wins a few more he'll have er, found them again.

 

[bhawoddy]

He hasn't lost the fans. He's lost three games in a row. As soon as he wins a few more he'll have er, found them again.

What are your personal views re oscars management style?

 

[withdeanwombat]

There's too much Premier League football on the telly, too many pundits overanalysing too many slowed down replays, too many know-it-alls introducing too many overcomplicated concepts into too many readily receptive minds.

Then the Albion lose three games in a row - something that has never happened before, obviously - and, bingo, out come the assimilated analyses, complicated concepts, and.............the head coach must go.

Now,excuse me, but I thought Mr Bloom had suggested this was a long term plan, that the head coach would be given time, and two thirds of a season is really only time if your club is Portsmouth. We are not the only club trying to get by on a limited budget (something else to reflect on with so much Premier League stuff on, and so many expensive signings on display and teams with a couple of players whose fees would have paid for the Amex, so why don't "we" (aka Mr Bloom) splash the cash ?)

So, if I was head coach I might chose a different team, but that would be based on my vast professional football experience of, well, nil actually. And my choice would vary from the choice of the next happy amateur, and the next and so on.

No, the whole concept is based on getting people who actually have a backgound in this industry working with the players and trying - trying - to put out the best team from the available staff. That staff is finite. As supporters we have limited knowledge of the training performance, fitness etc of this limited group. The head coach and his staff have, and to suggest they are not trying to send out a winning team is an insult to them.

Players don't train to miss chances, to waste penalties or to bore the pants off supporters. Sometimes it happens, and that's what makes the times when it doesn't so good.

 

[Commander]

What are your personal views re oscars management style?

I think it's way too early to judge. He doesn't come across as very inspiring in his interviews, but nor do lots of managers. Wenger isn't exactly a motivational speaker, for example. And after all Poyet's colourful interviews last year, this was what people supposedly wanted.

Oscar was a top player and learned his trade at the greatest place of all. He was highly rated as a coach at Barca and did a fantastic job at Maccabi Tel Aviv, so he must have something about him. Bloom took the decision to take on someone with no experience of the English league, and it was always going to take time for him to crack it. To get rid of him now, before he's even had a full pre season at the club, would be madness. Oscar was always going to be a 'long game' appointment, especially with the academy coming, otherwise we'd just have hired Warnock or someone. Bloom's plan is surely for Oscar to create a mini La Masia, which will allow the club to compete at the highest level over time.

If at the end of July last year we'd been offered the scenario of being 4 points outside the play-offs with a game in hand and 8 to play, and young players like Forster-Caskey, March and Ince having made the transition to first team players successfully, who would have turned it down? And if someone had then said that half the first team would have been out injured for half the year as well, you'd have bitten their hand off.

Keep the faith, these things take time.

 

[Commander]

There's too much Premier League football on the telly, too many pundits overanalysing too many slowed down replays, too many know-it-alls introducing too many overcomplicated concepts into too many readily receptive minds.

Then the Albion lose three games in a row - something that has never happened before, obviously - and, bingo, out come the assimilated analyses, complicated concepts, and.............the head coach must go.

Now,excuse me, but I thought Mr Bloom had suggested this was a long term plan, that the head coach would be given time, and two thirds of a season is really only time if your club is Portsmouth. We are not the only club trying to get by on a limited budget (something else to reflect on with so much Premier League stuff on, and so many expensive signings on display and teams with a couple of players whose fees would have paid for the Amex, so why don't "we" (aka Mr Bloom) splash the cash ?)

So, if I was head coach I might chose a different team, but that would be based on my vast professional football experience of, well, nil actually. And my choice would vary from the choice of the next happy amateur, and the next and so on.

No, the whole concept is based on getting people who actually have a backgound in this industry working with the players and trying - trying - to put out the best team from the available staff. That staff is finite. As supporters we have limited knowledge of the training performance, fitness etc of this limited group. The head coach and his staff have, and to suggest they are not trying to send out a winning team is an insult to them.

Players don't train to miss chances, to waste penalties or to bore the pants off supporters. Sometimes it happens, and that's what makes the times when it doesn't so good.

Fantastic post.

 

[The Truth]

and who said football fans are fickle?