[lesgeo]

Listened to Cods’ game.
I had never listened to Tonder for any sustained period before. He is so desperately poor beyond all belief that I am truly shocked.
Descriptive powers 1/10. Continuity 0/10 – 8 second gaps between utterances. Incredible!
Not saying which team was in possession? – 10/10.
Dead air – 10/10.
Learning names of opposition players? – 2/10

[lesgeo]

2017/18 one of the worst seasons – AWG.
Gave us hope and Alexander smashed it into smithereens.

1 user thanked author for this post.

alcazar

[lesgeo]

My biggest single gripe is that throughout most of this last six years we’ve been witness to the most tedious football in the club’s entire history.
Okay – there were a few little periods of entertainment but let’s be honest – they didn’t last long!

When the ground is fully open next season – I am expecting to see gates regularly way below 2,000 – even if we are in the top half. (My little joke!)
My best four footballing friends have all decided to stop going; their kids – brought up Iron – have already stopped; Mrs LesGeo has stopped wanting to buy a season ticket ever again; I care less about outcomes than any time since pre-1966 before I had even discovered the delights of pride in The Mighty Iron.
Well. That pride and me are no longer good cousins. I maintain a connection – more out of habit than anything else.

I will become a rare visitor – except on exceptional occasions, perhaps.
I do still hope to watch from from afar in sunnier climes without all the bovver of driving over from Sheffield when I am resident in the UK.

[lesgeo]

Gilliead puts in a shift every game.
When there is no outlet ball (a VERY frequent occurrence) – he keeps the possession like no other.
His passing is measured and far away the best we have. He can trap a ball; tackles back; heads pretty well. He is the best reader of a game in the squad by a country mile.
He cares.
Do we all believe that Eisa cares even a third as much?

Under Hurst, we saw the pure quality he can bring to a side. Of all those OOC, he is the only one I am desperate to keep. He is consistently MOTM – maybe as much as 80% of the time.
A terrific player who does not deserve to be surrounded by incompetents.

1 user thanked author for this post.

MK Iron

[lesgeo]

The problem here is that many are arguing two opposites: resentment of the £11 million debt yet forgetting that they were the very ones calling for more money to be spent to prove the club’s ‘ambition.’
I never really grasped what the expression ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it’ really meant. I think I do now.

1 user thanked author for this post.

B.gray

[lesgeo]

Holding up the ball or distributing when played forward – 1/10.

1 user thanked author for this post.

alcazar

[lesgeo]

Watson wasn’t playing.

1 user thanked author for this post.

inspector

[lesgeo]

Can’t pass.
Can’t move into space.
Incapable of rational thought.
Can’t control the ball. Some of the worst ball control I’ve ever seen!

I don’t think this was a lack of effort – it was just quality which was two full notches below wretched.

Two goals conceded and that based on three mistakes from next season’s defenders.

It matters not what system you play when you are that bad on the basics. You keep thinking that these players just can’t get any worse but …

The midfield was indescribably poor – again. I repeat – if your midfield don’t work then neither do your forwards and defence.

Season after season the standards have got ever more shocking. Well, let me tell you – it just ain’t possible to get any less ept!

4 users thanked author for this post.

alcazar, IRONINTHEBLOOD, bartonscorpion, inspector

[lesgeo]

The challenge on Beestin was surely a penalty.

[lesgeo]

Guaranteed 999 years on the site sounds impressive. Either this is true or it ain’t.
What situations can now happen to make it all go pear-shaped?
Looks like a very decent stadium for the National League North into the foreseeable.

Any fans on here with legal training who can either remove fears – OR confirm them?

[lesgeo]

Should be mathematically safe today.
If so – let the hacking of deadwood commence forthwith!

[lesgeo]

All of that is outside my zone of experience.
TBH – it sounds sound.
Please enlighten me either way.

[lesgeo]

Howard is certainly the better keeper – but if Rory can keep improving at the recent rate – will be glad to have him as backup.

[lesgeo]

I remember acting as a fitter’s mate to Len at Starco Engineering (Archer and Sharpe) in 1968. I was there a couple of months and a good proportion was alongside this great bloke.
Hadn’t seen him from then to now – but he made a great impression on me.
RIP.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Sanfran49

[lesgeo]

Harsh on Rory, Mick.

It is midfield for me which is where we are being let down. Think it was Newey who pointed out what Loft was having to contend with – and that on top of playing alongside Eisa.

Beestin was poor. Green had a few runs but overall contribution was mediocre. Gilly did his best against all odds, of course.
After a good 15 or so matches, I have seriously started to think that Karacan has got dragged into the underperforming.

When midfield fails – your defence is up against it. Last night, I thought both Taft and Onariase did not look fit/match fit.

A good few saves and for me, only one goal where Rory might have done a bit better.

When midfield fails – your forwards get no supply. Clough used to say that you build a team starting with defence. I reckon that the midfield is actually more important. One Bishop-type in that CM yesterday and I believe the whole match would have been very different.

[lesgeo]

Basically, I agree, Ferrite. The problem is that if we are not aiming for midway up The Championship there are many on here who will claim ‘no ambition’.
Me? – I don’t agree with silly spending for a club with a crowd base as minute as ours is going to be after a number of years of nearly unwatchable crap served up as something purporting to be football.
Living within your means is as important for a business as it is in your own domestic situation as it is in the artificial world of football clubs.
My ‘zero ambition’ was more than a little tongue-in-cheek as I was talking about nothing more than survival next season. I suppose you can argue that constitutes ‘ambition’ in itself.
I would rather like the club to survive. On that premise I do not care to see too much criticism on here of the man who can so easily pull the plug on the whole shebang!
Those who believe in magic money trees will obviously declare my suggestion in the previous posting to constitute ‘zero ambition’.

[lesgeo]

Even the mighty Adkins could not motivate some of these losers.
The trouble is – it only takes a handful of the couldn’t-care-less brigade or the I-do-not-get-why-they-are-all-rattling-on-about-pride-and-professionalism crew for an attitude to run rampant through a squad.

I got into trouble from Ferrite some months ago for talking about sergeant majors and boots up rears.

Obviously, I must have been wrong.

4 users thanked author for this post.

IRONINTHEBLOOD, alcazar, inspector, SDH57

[lesgeo]

MKI – Yes.
Sackcloth and ashes time.
I do hereby humbly apologise for having defended this crew by stating that they are not the worst Iron team ever. Mea maxima culpa.

Gilliead – player of the season and by a margin. I wonder if he gets that lonely in real life?

Thanks, Tom. The word ‘pitiful’ epitomised it all. Your ‘woeful’ resonated with me.
The ‘garbage’ was right on the money.

All that mealy-mouthed crap we have so often had from RH is now history. Good innit?

If we have to put out juniors in preference to players shipping out – fine by me!

1 user thanked author for this post.

IRONINTHEBLOOD

[lesgeo]

Eisa must not play again.
Tell him to clear off home and not come back.

2 users thanked author for this post.

SDH57, IRONINTHEBLOOD

[lesgeo]

If we want Howard, will probably be able to get him.

[lesgeo]

I think there is ‘an end of term attitude’ kicking in.
In our last few games we’ll maybe get a few more points from others who are going neither up nor down.
We have to be concerned about players who know they are leaving and do not want to pick up an injury, though.

[lesgeo]

I think Jarvis is probably lightweight but to be fair to the lad – expecting a youngster to lift a team which was as bad as ours was last Autumn is just unreasonable. He might well be decentish – we do not honestly know.
We have seen two distinct versions of Loft – the guy played up front on his own whose game goes to pieces whenever surrounded permanently by four defenders and then there is the interesting player in there who can score, shoot and put himself about when in a proper system. A good forward alongside might well transform him.
Hippo has some genuine ability but is NOT a wingback and again, in a reasonable system would be someone who can contribute – he certainly tries and I like his attitude.
These players are staying – like it or not.

[lesgeo]

Bedeau’s positioning today was dire. The penalty was infantile defending.
Olamola will obviously leave – and was another big bucks player if the blurb at the time contained any truth at all.
Mooney is only on a year, I think. Dales is just not quite there.

[lesgeo]

Well, AWG, I see no prospect of Eisa remaining, in any circumstance.

I thought Rory was still under contract. Pardon me if I’m wrong about that. Rory is an improved keeper, in any case.

Buying up contracts to get rid of players will gut an already reduced budget. Consequently, I have only suggested it in one obvious instance.

Just spotted that I put Rowe in twice! Sorry there, y’all.

The thinking is that high wages combined with regular injuries is a highly debilitating combination.
This squad lacks class and having a chunk of our class on the treatment table is inadvisable.

Eisa will be a loss for those 40 – 50% games in which he makes any kind of difference. Do I want to pay megabucks to keep him? – Not really. A player who varies between a 4 and an 8 is not necessarily a better option than one who is a 6.5 week in, week out.

Gilliead is proven class without a bad record for injuries. He is the only player on the books worth breaking budgets for.

We are stuck to an extent with the squad we have. I do not think sufficient change can happen to realistically alter (SI)the fact that we will be a lower bottom half side next year.
If the signings made are decent, we may not struggle but don’t expect things to suddenly improve (SI) to any great degree.
The season after – maybe. Provided we are still in L2.

[lesgeo]

A huge amount of effort expended – cancelled out by a fair smattering of headless chicken syndrome.
It wasn’t gutless – it was aimless.

[lesgeo]

Almost a year ago, I was saying how we needed a nucleus of fourth division grafters. Cut your coat …
We did not get the four or five who would surely have been at budget prices and would have transformed us into a decentish squad. After all – we had the ex-Shrewsbury class acts to build around AND Kev was still under contract.
We could allow youth to develop and try out some non-leaguers.
But – how much was wasted on loan players?
(At least Neil got us Taft and has brought on the young FBs and Manny.)

Last pre-season I was also demanding a spine to the team. For those in high places who do not know this fact, ‘without a spine you end up spineless.’

Somehow McAtee and Eisa took some waking up which presumably would not have been necessary under Hurst. Kev has been a walking sicknote.
Now we find ourselves going into a new season with very few class acts and precious little likelihood of being able to attract any. To say I’m worried is a gross understatement.

[lesgeo]

I like what is being said …

1 user thanked author for this post.

alcazar

[lesgeo]

Didn’t Rod Stewart sing, Every Statistic Tells A Story, Don’t It?

[lesgeo]

I stated before that I shall support Neil, come what may, til October at the earliest.
He deserves to bring in his own players before being written off.
A number of players that have come in under his regime have been decent.
Turan is apparently a write-off but Hippo is not as bad a player as some say. (He reminds me a bit of a puppy that has not quite been trained properly. He cares and tries hard and sometimes gets it wrong. I’ve never questioned his attitude. Hopefully – a bench player in a decent squad.)

Now here is the question. Will Neil be allowed to bring in new blood in the early phases of the close season? If he is left picking through the dregs after training has recommenced – I predict a relegation battle as the only outcome.
I would strongly advise the club to exercise great caution before bringing in loanees.
We do not need too many Taylors and Cordners, thanks!

1 user thanked author for this post.

inspector

[lesgeo]

Am now so looking forward to the date when we find out who has been axed.
I try SO very hard to defend the players. I never throw brickbats at anybody until it becomes absolutely essential.
It is now absolutely essential.

[Author]

Posts