Change in feelings on the terraces tonight…..

For me Lavery has to start alongside Rhodes. Dembele has to start behind those two with Dougall and one other sitting.

We are also too easy to play against out wide. Dale and CJ are not good enough defensively and so Pennington or Husband often need to cover, leaving us exposed in the centre of defence. I'm certainly not a fan of 3-5-2 but it can work if done with the correct personnel.

Critchley certainly warrants the criticism. This squad should be top two or seriously challenging for top two. We are certainly underperforming and it is down to one man. Going too defensive when we are in the lead or going very attack minded late on after he has got it wrong with his team selection at the outset.
 
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BFC_BFC_BFC said:
The last few games have been very entertaining and exciting (results aside)

There's plenty of ways to ply and win games of football..... That is for the manager to decide... Personally I prefer to finish the game strongly.
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The last two games we went 3 down and 2 down and then we decided to try and repair the damage and nearly did . Why can't we actually go out and try to win from the start. You seem to be on your own in defending Critchley's negative starts.
 
Shiggy said:
Has everyone forgotten this is the same guy who got us promoted from league 1 and secured safety for us comfortably in the championship on one of the lowest budgets? How is he now suddenly unqualified to be a manager?
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Because he's not learning from the same mistakes he's making week in week out..
I do think he'll do ok, but let's be honest, he's cost us quite a few points, we should be looking at outright promotion, not scraping thro 6th spot in the playoffs.
 
WIZARD OF TANGERINE said:
The last two games we went 3 down and 2 down and then we decided to try and repair the damage and nearly did . Why can't we actually go out and try to win from the start. You seem to be on your own in defending Critchley's negative starts.
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I'm not defending anything... I don't think think we start negatively either... I think we've been a bit passive and I also think we're maybe not quite as switched on as we need to be.
 
fromthehart said:
Because he's not learning from the same mistakes he's making week in week out..
I do think he'll do ok, but let's be honest, he's cost us quite a few points, we should be looking at outright promotion, not scraping thro 6th spot in the playoffs.
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Why should we be looking at outright promotion? If we’d have invested more in the summer I would agree with you but we didn’t. Is this squad really comfortably better than 22 of the 24 teams?
 
AngelBFC said:
Critchley- Ill be judging him at the end of the season.

Nothing i've seen so far would justify sacking him. His track record with us is decent and we are currently not in any danger. If we had spent fortunes on players different.
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I agree. We’ve got a more than decent squad of players and when the ones currently out injured return we will be more than capable of at least reaching the play offs.
Pity about Charlton and Fleetwood last night, we should be 4 points better off, but we went defensive with late subs which was a mistake
 
He’s a safe pair of hands for Simon, and it’s not working. Ok, give it until the end of November and what then, wait until the end of December? We’ve been here before last season waiting and waiting.
 
Shiggy said:
Nonsense. How can you possibly attribute all his success with us to his assistants? Can you not see your own stubbornness and delusion there?

Calderwood and McCall certainly helped but don’t think I’ve ever seen a fanbase be so obsessed with the assistant manager role?
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If you look at the comments from most of the fan base ,it is you that is delusional . Also you don't point out his success without Calderwood and McCall.
 
WIZARD OF TANGERINE said:
If you look at the comments from most of the fan base ,it is you that is delusional . Also you don't point out his success without Calderwood and McCall.
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McCall was here for about 3 months? Are we just ignoring the rest of the champ season now because it suits your agenda?
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
I'm not defending anything... I don't think think we start negatively either... I think we've been a bit passive and I also think we're maybe not quite as switched on as we need to be.
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Surely its the player choice that makes us passive and not switched on .Yet for the Fleetwood game I thought we were pretty good for the first ten to fifteen minutes.
 
Matesrates said:
He’s a safe pair of hands for Simon, and it’s not working. Ok, give it until the end of November and what then, wait until the end of December? We’ve been here before last season waiting and waiting.
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Last time we were obviously heading for relegation. Not a meaningful comparison.
 
fcblackpool said:
Oxford and P'Boro weren't the right games for OB to find his feet. Cheltenham, yes, but not the first 2. Once you've given him the start it's only fair to give him some games in a row.NC got it wrong.

Now we know NC isn't going to get sacked anytime this season and I think it's also clear that he seems too entrenched in his own thinking to approach a game with the intent of taking the match by the scruff of the neck.

So begs the question: When will Simon Sadler have a lightbulb moment and force a No 2 of experience on to NC?
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What are Garrity and the other one here for (Brinskil?) ? Are they just yes men?
 
Martonmosser said:
What are Garrity and the other one here for (Brinskil?) ? Are they just yes men?
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That's what it looks like. All 3 have a conflab (presumably during the week about selection too) and make the wrong decisions. If NC is listening to them, then he's not listening to the right people. If they are just backing him up without questions, equally.
 
If we hadn't conceded late against Charlton and Fleetwood, we'd be four points off second. I don't believe there would be the same angst.

As frustrating as some of the games have been, does it all boil down to a couple of late goals?
 
Delfino said:
If we hadn't conceded late against Charlton and Fleetwood, we'd be four points off second. I don't believe there would be the same angst.

As frustrating as some of the games have been, does it all boil down to a couple of late goals?
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Im sure the same scenario can be said of most other teams.
 
Christ some of you need to get a grip.

2 points off the play offs with two thirds of the season still to play for.

I think some of you forget how bad last season was, club and players confidence absolutely shot at, a load of new faces this season so to be two points off play offs after a third of the season is pretty decent.

You can make a good case Dembele & Lavery should have started but at least he made them changes at half time and it clearly changed the game? If he hadn’t made the second lot of changes and Fleetwood scored the same people moaning would say why didn’t he bring fresh legs on.
 
PR3BFC said:
Christ some of you need to get a grip.

2 points off the play offs with two thirds of the season still to play for.

I think some of you forget how bad last season was, club and players confidence absolutely shot at, a load of new faces this season so to be two points off play offs after a third of the season is pretty decent.

You can make a good case Dembele & Lavery should have started but at least he made them changes at half time and it clearly changed the game? If he hadn’t made the second lot of changes and Fleetwood scored the same people moaning would say why didn’t he bring fresh legs on.
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but surely it begs the question that if he made those changes at half time to get it right, will he ever get it right at the start of the game. It's stating the bloody obvious that he set up the team with a negative outlook.
 
Shiggy said:
Why should we be looking at outright promotion? If we’d have invested more in the summer I would agree with you but we didn’t. Is this squad really comfortably better than 22 of the 24 teams?
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Joseph is apparently the most expensive signing in league one, Norburn was one of the best players in a play-off team last year, Pennington Shrewsbury's player of the year and one of the most in demand defenders in league one. Those 3 alone we beat Bolton, Barnsley, Oxford to their signatures.

Dembele is a very high level loan signing, as is (on paper at least) Weir and there's not a single league one team who wouldn't want Rhodes. We might not quite have the volume of signings we needed but for league one we have spent some money, on the other hand we did lose quite a few of our bigger earners.
 
Delfino said:
If we hadn't conceded late against Charlton and Fleetwood, we'd be four points off second. I don't believe there would be the same angst.

As frustrating as some of the games have been, does it all boil down to a couple of late goals?
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They are the point of most of the criticism he is receiving as he keeps going negative when we are doing well and in those two games he got the subs wrong and we paid the price.
He is just not learning🤦‍♂️
 
PdxTangerine said:
Joseph is apparently the most expensive signing in league one, Norburn was one of the best players in a play-off team last year, Pennington Shrewsbury's player of the year and one of the most in demand defenders in league one. Those 3 alone we beat Bolton, Barnsley, Oxford to their signatures.

Dembele is a very high level loan signing, as is (on paper at least) Weir and there's not a single league one team who wouldn't want Rhodes. We might not quite have the volume of signings we needed but for league one we have spent some money, on the other hand we did lose quite a few of our bigger earners.
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I think you have a point on who has been brought in .I also think that the team as a whole should be pointed out as they played over 40 games against better opposition then they are facing now. We really should be in the top 6 of this division and easily so.
 
fcblackpool said:
That's what it looks like. All 3 have a conflab (presumably during the week about selection too) and make the wrong decisions. If NC is listening to them, then he's not listening to the right people. If they are just backing him up without questions, equally.
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Listen to yourself! 😆
 
20togo said:
but surely it begs the question that if he made those changes at half time to get it right, will he ever get it right at the start of the game. It's stating the bloody obvious that he set up the team with a negative outlook.
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Did he though? We had three defenders on the pitch plus Dougall. Carey TOB Dale CJ Rhodes Kouassi all played high up the pitch. We went too gung ho and Fleetwood exploited the open space, I would say.

The difference second half was down to Dembele and Lavery replacing TOB and Kouassi. Huge difference. Those two should have started, we would have won.

We need to sort the defensive structure out. It's a bit of a mess.
 
Oakley Booth is obviously not ready and shouldn’t be starting at all. Koussi has done well tbf and should be rotated with Lavery. If we sign Rhodes in Jan and smooth out the creases then we should be looking at playoffs which tbh is the minimum requirement this season.
 
Simonized said:
They are the point of most of the criticism he is receiving as he keeps going negative when we are doing well and in those two games he got the subs wrong and we paid the price.
He is just not learning🤦‍♂️
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I think some of the criticism is going beyond that though. Some want him removed.

I think most managers would try and 'shut up shop' late in the game. In those two games, it hasn’t worked. Clearly if it continues that way, he needs to try something else.
 
Simonized said:
They are the point of most of the criticism he is receiving as he keeps going negative when we are doing well and in those two games he got the subs wrong and we paid the price.
He is just not learning🤦‍♂️
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He didn’t go negative vs Fleetwood at least though. We were backing off and coming under increasing pressure for around ten minutes before he made the double substitution on Wednesday.

As soon as he made it, we regained the upper hand and Fleetwood barely touched the ball (all in their half) for the next 10 minutes and until another Blackpool attack and Carey’s pass, which led to the goal.

The substitution itself couldn’t have worked better tbh… The Fleetwood equaliser was unrelated and Blackpool we’re pushing forward at the time.

If you don’t believed me, the full 90 minutes is available now on TTV, go and watch that section of the game @td53 and @TwelveAngryMen might have benefited from doing so, before last night’s podcast tbh 😂😂
 
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voyeur said:
Did he though? We had three defenders on the pitch plus Dougall. Carey TOB Dale CJ Rhodes Kouassi all played high up the pitch. We went too gung ho and Fleetwood exploited the open space, I would say.

The difference second half was down to Dembele and Lavery replacing TOB and Kouassi. Huge difference. Those two should have started, we would have won.

We need to sort the defensive structure out. It's a bit of a mess.
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Yep, you're right. This was a much more open game than Critchleys usual starting tactics but i think my overall polnt stands.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
You've been there along with me for the last 40 years or more. For the most part we've being flummoxing around in the old 3rd and 4th division with the chance of a half decent FA Cup Draw being the highlight of our season FFS. OK We've had a bit of short term success under Oyston, but look at the state of the Club during that time... The way we handled the Premier League, the lack of investment, tin-pot stands, bargain basement players, Jose Riga, starting the season with 5 players or whatever.... It's been one long line of complete and utter shit from start to finish.... We've been nothing short of a Basket-Case.

Critchley is a top class manager and frankly if he hadn't been here previously our fans would be creaming their pants right now about the progress we've made this season (after last years absolute dogs dinner). We're seeing some of the most exciting games of football we've witnessed in ages and last night was an absolute hum-dinger of a Derby game in all honesty... Yep we should have won and yes we need to improve a few things, but people also need to get a grip.

Because if we manage to drive this manager out through our own ** stupidity, there's going to be an awful lot of very fucked off supporters with what comes along next....

Dobbie isn't the answer... So we'd best start counting our blessings
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Your Simon Sadler - should have clocked it sooner
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
He didn’t go negative vs Fleetwood at least though. We were backing off and coming under increasing pressure for around ten minutes before he made the double substitution on Wednesday.

As soon as he made it, we regained the upper hand and Fleetwood barely touched the ball (all in their half) for the next 10 minutes and until another Blackpool attack and Carey’s pass, which led to the goal.

The substitution itself couldn’t have worked better tbh… The Fleetwood equaliser was unrelated and Blackpool we’re pushing forward at the time.

If you don’t believed me, the full 90 minutes is available now on TTV, go and watch that section of the game @td53 and @TwelveAngryMen might have benefited from doing so, before last night’s podcast tbh 😂😂
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Oi. Rewatching the 10 min highlights is all I'm prepared to do until John starts paying us a living wage. 🤣

Tbh, I thought I said I thought the subs were a bit of a red herring. Who knows? I was knackered last night. Probably my fault it went on so long cos I kept disagreeing and then deciding I didn't know if I agreed or disagreed after all.

Bottom line for me is, I'm far more bothered about us having the bravery to unlock teams with the obvious skill we possess and not setting up in a rigid/cautious way than I am about subs and formations.

I did think Andy's point about CC vs OD in terms of ball retention on the flanks was valid. Dale is very good at retaining the ball (when he's not doing that move where he just runs into the full back) and I felt (I'm sure I said) that we needed to regain the central midfield and I'd probably have chucked CC in there myself. But then, I'm just literally doing what I said I'm not bothered about so much in over analysing a substitute appearance. I definitely said I didn't actually think CC did owt wrong.

Fuck me, I need a break from talking about Blackpool for a few days.
 
This was prompted by @20togo observation that we're more open than a typical Critch approach.

I did wonder to myself "how would we have reacted to that game had Dobbie managed it?" as it actually felt a bit like how I could imagine Dobbie doing at the moment had he got the job.

I.e. us being really good at some stuff and other things looking a bit sketchy and not really being sure if we're any good or not overall.

I'm quite surprised that Critchball 2.0 reminds me more of McMahon than it does Allardyce at the moment if that makes sense.

I think Critch has got a real conundrum. Does he encourage that chaos we seem to thrive in (I e. When we're more front foot/instinctive and commit more players forward) or does he try to shore it up.

Obviously, he does both - but he's got to choose a priority. One more goal scored or one less conceded?

I think he's as surprised as anyone to be honest that he's managing a side that seem suddenly quite free scoring but also quite porous. He looked more rattled by Fleetwood than he did by some worse performances earlier in the year to me. As if he wasn't 100% sure himself on where what he'd seen fitted into his vision.

He does my head in sometimes, (and I think that's possibly more over familiarity with him than anything) but I'll credit him with a brain and I hope he works out that balance between harnessing what we are good at and making us more solid/consistent.
 
td53 said:
Oi. Rewatching the 10 min highlights is all I'm prepared to do until John starts paying us a living wage. 🤣

Tbh, I thought I said I thought the subs were a bit of a red herring. Who knows? I was knackered last night. Probably my fault it went on so long cos I kept disagreeing and then deciding I didn't know if I agreed or disagreed after all.

Bottom line for me is, I'm far more bothered about us having the bravery to unlock teams with the obvious skill we possess and not setting up in a rigid/cautious way than I am about subs and formations.

I did think Andy's point about CC vs OD in terms of ball retention on the flanks was valid. Dale is very good at retaining the ball (when he's not doing that move where he just runs into the full back) and I felt (I'm sure I said) that we needed to regain the central midfield and I'd probably have chucked CC in there myself. But then, I'm just literally doing what I said I'm not bothered about so much in over analysing a substitute appearance. I definitely said I didn't actually think CC did owt wrong.

Fuck me, I need a break from talking about Blackpool for a few days.
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In fairness, you did say something to that effect @td53 in fact (despite you obvious tiredness, which I did wonder whether it was bemusement at the complete nonsense being spouted by your Co-podcasters) you were a shining light in an otherwise gloomy edition.

Andy talks absolute poo to be honest... CC actually retained possession brilliantly down the Left Hand side when he came on... In fact we experienced one of our longest periods of possession down that side (and in Fleetwood's half) in that period. They were getting on top of us just before the substitution and clearly looking to expose Dale's defensive weaknesses.

I think at times people just say what they imagined to be the case, based on preconceptions, rather than actually basing their opinion on what actually happened.

On the whole we started the game with an attacking line-up and we were certainly not trying to be defensive. If anything it was just a case of the players selected Kouassi and Oakley Boothe just not being on it... I'm also inclined to say looking back... That Dougs fucked up for their first goal.
 
td53 said:
This was prompted by @20togo observation that we're more open than a typical Critch approach.

I did wonder to myself "how would we have reacted to that game had Dobbie managed it?" as it actually felt a bit like how I could imagine Dobbie doing at the moment had he got the job.

I.e. us being really good at some stuff and other things looking a bit sketchy and not really being sure if we're any good or not overall.

I'm quite surprised that Critchball 2.0 reminds me more of McMahon than it does Allardyce at the moment if that makes sense.

I think Critch has got a real conundrum. Does he encourage that chaos we seem to thrive in (I e. When we're more front foot/instinctive and commit more players forward) or does he try to shore it up.

Obviously, he does both - but he's got to choose a priority. One more goal scored or one less conceded?

I think he's as surprised as anyone to be honest that he's managing a side that seem suddenly quite free scoring but also quite porous. He looked more rattled by Fleetwood than he did by some worse performances earlier in the year to me. As if he wasn't 100% sure himself on where what he'd seen fitted into his vision.

He does my head in sometimes, (and I think that's possibly more over familiarity with him than anything) but I'll credit him with a brain and I hope he works out that balance between harnessing what we are good at and making us more solid/consistent.
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I think he is 'inadvertently' shoring it up by playing Dembele and Lavery... As I said on another thread I think Dembele allows us to retain possession in the opposition half and offers options for the wide men (in particular, he's worked well for CJ)... Without that, we have a tendency to lose possession and get caught out on the break.... In addition Lavery will often regain lost possession and again helps the process of defending in the opposition half.

Just a theory for now, but I'm going with it 👍
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
In fairness, you did say something to that effect @td53 in fact (despite you obvious tiredness, which I did wonder whether it was bemusement at the complete nonsense being spouted by your Co-podcasters) you were a shining light in an otherwise gloomy edition.

Andy talks absolute poo to be honest... CC actually retained possession brilliantly down the Left Hand side when he came on... In fact we experienced one of our longest periods of possession down that side (and in Fleetwood's half) in that period. They were getting on top of us just before the substitution and clearly looking to expose Dale's defensive weaknesses.

I think at times people just say what they imagined to be the case, based on preconceptions, rather than actually basing their opinion on what actually happened.

On the whole we started the game with an attacking line-up and we were certainly not trying to be defensive. If anything it was just a case of the players selected Kouassi and Oakley Boothe just not being on it... I'm also inclined to say looking back... That Dougs fucked up for their first goal.
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The Dougs point is one I wondered a bit. It was a combination of things that goal. I didn't think anyone either covered themselves in glory or deserved individually tarring and feathering. Carey might have dived in to try and get acrosd but he did sprint from an advanced position and track. Dougs might have been stronger and the other defender got done a bit but it was nice play by their lad. Put it this way, if Kouassi scored that, we'd not see it as 'a gift' but great strong play from Kylian. The only really howler was Grimmy patting it back and I thought Andy's point that the shot was maybe a bit scuffed and Grimmy had set for a bullet was bang on.

I stand by taking Andy's other point though. I thought it was valid in that game management isn't necessarily about simply packing the defence, it's also about how you hold possession. I'm not dissing CC at all - but he's less likely to hold the ball and make a cute little pass or shimmy than Dale is. Just as CC is far more likely to win a defensive header. I'm doing it again....

I suppose the thing about football is, it's this mad list of hypothetical interrelated actions and events and that's what makes it so good to discuss. It's mad how people see different things like how I love Carey and the guy next to me can't stand him or I adored wor Gaz and others saw him as an immobile lump who slowed us down.

I think the attacking line up thing - yeah, ok, on paper yes, but it's increasingly evident that without the chaos engine the system itself is fairly blunt. I've thought a few times "ok, I can see how this is supposed to work" but it hasn't. I noted before Oxford that everyone in that line up can carry the ball well but no one did cos we just kind of stayed in lane and hoped space would open up. Essentially Dembele or someone else given license is like the power supply ATM...

I don't think Critch is telling them 'pasd it sideways and don't go for goal' but as I sort of said, sometimes they run out and collectively, they don't feel it cos they don't have that one player who can make the difference - (it's kind of like Bowler but also how they knew Madine would win more headers than he lost or whatever, so they could sit in and clatter it out and it not always come straight back. It's like how Mellon knew Morrison would smash anyone if he lost the ball and it gave him confidence to do those runs from the middle and shoot)

Every good team should have a little lad or a really tall lad or a fat lad in it basically. We're too homogenous without Dembele. Down with uniformity and that.

I've read your other reply and I think we're saying the same thing kind of - players compliment each other. CJ loves Dembele cos he finds him and he runs onto his mad little cute through balls and also, Dembele always shows for him when he's in the corner on his wrong foot and he loves that cos CJ knows as well as anyone he's a brilliant runner but not a world class crosser.

Agree on Lavs 100% Rhodes can't do it, Kylian isn't that sort of player. Lavs in intense bursts is horrible to play against.
 
td53 said:
The Dougs point is one I wondered a bit. It was a combination of things that goal. I didn't think anyone either covered themselves in glory or deserved individually tarring and feathering. Carey might have dived in to try and get acrosd but he did sprint from an advanced position and track. Dougs might have been stronger and the other defender got done a bit but it was nice play by their lad. Put it this way, if Kouassi scored that, we'd not see it as 'a gift' but great strong play from Kylian. The only really howler was Grimmy patting it back and I thought Andy's point that the shot was maybe a bit scuffed and Grimmy had set for a bullet was bang on.

I stand by taking Andy's other point though. I thought it was valid in that game management isn't necessarily about simply packing the defence, it's also about how you hold possession. I'm not dissing CC at all - but he's less likely to hold the ball and make a cute little pass or shimmy than Dale is. Just as CC is far more likely to win a defensive header. I'm doing it again....

I suppose the thing about football is, it's this mad list of hypothetical interrelated actions and events and that's what makes it so good to discuss. It's mad how people see different things like how I love Carey and the guy next to me can't stand him or I adored wor Gaz and others saw him as an immobile lump who slowed us down.

I think the attacking line up thing - yeah, ok, on paper yes, but it's increasingly evident that without the chaos engine the system itself is fairly blunt. I've thought a few times "ok, I can see how this is supposed to work" but it hasn't. I noted before Oxford that everyone in that line up can carry the ball well but no one did cos we just kind of stayed in lane and hoped space would open up. Essentially Dembele or someone else given license is like the power supply ATM...

I don't think Critch is telling them 'pasd it sideways and don't go for goal' but as I sort of said, sometimes they run out and collectively, they don't feel it cos they don't have that one player who can make the difference - (it's kind of like Bowler but also how they knew Madine would win more headers than he lost or whatever, so they could sit in and clatter it out and it not always come straight back. It's like how Mellon knew Morrison would smash anyone if he lost the ball and it gave him confidence to do those runs from the middle and shoot)

Every good team should have a little lad or a really tall lad or a fat lad in it basically. We're too homogenous without Dembele. Down with uniformity and that.

I've read your other reply and I think we're saying the same thing kind of - players compliment each other. CJ loves Dembele cos he finds him and he runs onto his mad little cute through balls and also, Dembele always shows for him when he's in the corner on his wrong foot and he loves that cos CJ knows as well as anyone he's a brilliant runner but not a world class crosser.

Agree on Lavs 100% Rhodes can't do it, Kylian isn't that sort of player. Lavs in intense bursts is horrible to play against.
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I'm still not convinced about the whole Dale is better at creating possession down the left thing. I think he might have more attacking intent, but for me we tend to see more possession break down in the opposition third with Dale than we do with Connolly and as I said, we had possession and retained possession (far better than we did with Dale on the pitch) in the opposition half, down the left.

So what I'm seeing is Andy theorising that 'theoretically Dale enables us to retain better possession in the opposition half down the left' and then saying it was a poor substitution based on what he theoretically assumed would happen.... Rather than focusing on what actually did happen, which was in fact the complete opposite.

And that for me is why I sat watching the pod, pretty exasperated and frustrated last night tbh...

I get criticising the Manager for what he does get wrong.... But to criticise him when he gets it right and just pretend he got it wrong, because you decided to imagine something that's completely the opposite of reality... Well Frankly, that's kind of a little bit unfair.


We were all over the fact that the Cheltenham Manager was a ** genius for his half time changes the other week.... "Critch would have never been brave enough etc..."... Well vs Fleetwood he was brave enough, he inspired a ** brilliant come back, he made a fantastic decision with the subs that allowed us to regain the momentum when it was slipping away from us... And he gets a ** 3 ffs

I nearly threw a ** rock at my laptop, never mind a Fleetwood Tram!!
 
td53 said:
This was prompted by @20togo observation that we're more open than a typical Critch approach.

I did wonder to myself "how would we have reacted to that game had Dobbie managed it?" as it actually felt a bit like how I could imagine Dobbie doing at the moment had he got the job.

I.e. us being really good at some stuff and other things looking a bit sketchy and not really being sure if we're any good or not overall.

I'm quite surprised that Critchball 2.0 reminds me more of McMahon than it does Allardyce at the moment if that makes sense.

I think Critch has got a real conundrum. Does he encourage that chaos we seem to thrive in (I e. When we're more front foot/instinctive and commit more players forward) or does he try to shore it up.

Obviously, he does both - but he's got to choose a priority. One more goal scored or one less conceded?

I think he's as surprised as anyone to be honest that he's managing a side that seem suddenly quite free scoring but also quite porous. He looked more rattled by Fleetwood than he did by some worse performances earlier in the year to me. As if he wasn't 100% sure himself on where what he'd seen fitted into his vision.

He does my head in sometimes, (and I think that's possibly more over familiarity with him than anything) but I'll credit him with a brain and I hope he works out that balance between harnessing what we are good at and making us more solid/consistent.
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I think it's important to highlight the massive difference between the Championship and L1. I don't think it unreasonable to think that against pretty much the vast majority of teams in L1 we should be able to start on the front foot and want to play at a quicker tempo and in our opponents half. In the Championship, it's stating the obvious that that is much harder to do and so will likely be less or not as effective. This can have an impact on team selection and for me it's something Critchley hasn't fully grasped. For far too many games this season it's been a slow laboured start with far too much caution. I'm not overstating it when I say we've got a squad and players within it who are much better on the front foot and going forward rather than square and backwards.

Generally, not been impressed with what I've seen this season and there is the potential to be so much better. Sure, we're around the play offs and we should be able to make them come the end of the season but should we be doing better than we are. I think so. And I think a lot of the fans do too.
 
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