Roberto Di Matteo

[Michael118]

54 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

Kozak?! What...

Yes, Kozak. I rate him as our best striker and with a proper run of matches I am confident he would show that.

I haven't seen enough of Kodjia to rate him properly yet, but I have seen enough of Kozak and I am sure he is good enough for what we need especially if he's partnered next to a quick and intelligent goal poacher like I believe Sellars can be.

Edited September 15, 2016 by Michael118

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

7 minutes ago, Michael118 said:

Yes, Kozak. I rate him as our best striker

[Richard]

41 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

Having spent 60 odd mill then that is a damning indictment of the manger. Had he have had a limited budget you could understand it but having pretty much a free hand and a fortune at this level to spend it shouldn’t have resulted in an unbalanced squad.

I don’t think the personnel he is putting on the pitch is the main issue for me. It is the tendency for us to have attacking players on the pitch but then get them to sit back late in games that is the issue. Last night we did it for the whole of the second half and that is when the players on the pitch becomes an issue as asking Kodija to ensure his starting position is in our half and for him to track back is never going to work. Put the players on the pitch and ask them to play to their strengths. We had the players on the pitch to kill the game off last night. We came out with a negative attitude though in the second half, sat deep, invited Brentford onto us which resulted in the nervy finish and the ball becoming like a ticking bomb. The way we started the second half meant we got what we deserved in the end.

Thing for me mark is that it is the personnel on the pitch. I don't disagree that we are asking them to sit back but we are doing that because of the personnel we have on the pitch. If we had players on the pitch playing in their right positions and included in that some midfield balance then we wouldn't be asking those on the pitch to sit back, we wouldn't need to play that tactic . We'd play a normal game. Now you could argue we do not have the correct personnel and I would not argue but IMO it's because we do not have balance to the squad that we are playing the way we are

[Mjvilla]

46 minutes ago, BigAl said:

Who would you get in instead of RDM ?

Don't expect an answer Big(gay)Al

[Villan_of_oz]

57 minutes ago, KSV said:

Depends who the director of the movie was. If James Cameron had a movie on at the same time.. i may switch channels

Fair enough but you still might on some great movies. 

[Gary Thomas]

People are pointing at our midfield or certain individuals, but that is not the problem for me. This team has shown on numerous occasions it can outplay most teams in this division for long periods. The main problem is not individuals, it is the strange tactics and overly defensive mindset we switch to once we get in front and have a chance of winning. This is RDM.  He needs to develop a more aggressive attack-minded identity where we go out with one thing in mind; to dominate the opposition from start to finish.  When we go 1-0 up we keep attacking until we get another goal and so on.  At no point is there a defensive switch, or a going into our shell - we kill the opposition off.  We are capable of doing that IMO and we just need to have the balls to do it.

[Nicho]

21 minutes ago, Michael118 said:

Yes, Kozak. I rate him as our best striker and with a proper run of matches I am confident he would show that.

I haven't seen enough of Kodjia to rate him properly yet, but I have seen enough of Kozak and I am sure he is good enough for what we need especially if he's partnered next to a quick and intelligent goal poacher like I believe Sellars can be.

Hes so slow he looks like hes running backwards, while I always quite liked Kozak he seems to have a bit of cult status going on. Ultimately hes rubbish and Kodija looks ten times the player.  

[Gary Thomas]

10 minutes ago, Richard said:

Thing for me mark is that it is the personnel on the pitch. I don't disagree that we are asking them to sit back but we are doing that because of the personnel we have on the pitch. If we had players on the pitch playing in their right positions and included in that some midfield balance then we wouldn't be asking those on the pitch to sit back, we wouldn't need to play that tactic . We'd play a normal game. Now you could argue we do not have the correct personnel and I would not argue but IMO it's because we do not have balance to the squad that we are playing the way we are

 

So we play a 'normal' game with the personnel on the pitch and completely dominate. Then we sit back because of the personnel we have?  That makes no sense to me Richard. We are not sitting back because of the personnel - I think they have shown in most games they are more than capable of pushing up a pitch and dominating games. We are sitting back because RDM is instilling or encouraging a defensive mind-set to take hold when we go in front - this is his mistake.

[bobzy]

1 hour ago, VillaCas said:

Whoopdee-do! We've competed with giants like Huddersfield and Brentford and not lost. RDM must be doing a brilliant job!

Any championship team that spends £60m should rightly expect to be nearer the top of the table than the bottom, but the real problem is that there are no signs that we have the tools to put this right. RDM has overseen the spend and has left us with a woefully unbalanced squad.  Lots of forwards but few to win the ball, close down or create.

I had enormous patience with Lambert and Garde because they were working with limited resources - RDM has no such excuse and shows no sign that he has a plan or the ability to motivate

Give him 20 games and then see where we are!!!! With Ipswich, Newcastle and Barnsley up next he may be lucky to last 10. 

If I'm wrong about RDM I'll happily come back on here and say so. Sadly, I don't think I will be. He needs a win on Saturday and another against Newcastle or Barnsley to hang on to his job

All the bold points:

Firstly, you said we should be competing with Huddersfield and Brentford - I just stated that we are.  Now it's a "whoopdee-do"!  Amazing.  Further, where did I say RDM is doing a brilliant job?  Oh right, nowhere - that's where.  But, naturally, if you don't think something is entirely shit, you must think it's brilliant!  It's the VT way, right?  **** hell...

Secondly, I think anyone that spends £60m in the Championship should rightly expect to be near the top of the table at the end of the season.  After that much change in the squad, I don't think it's right to expect to be up there straight away.  A new manager and a new squad need time to integrate and understand each other.  It could click straight away, of course it could (and, for the most part, I actually think we've done pretty well but not got the wins needed), but I think it's harsh to expect it straight away.  "Lots of forwards but few to win the ball, close down or create" - haven't we created the second most chances in the league?  Or am I missing something here?

Finally, 20 games is absolutely a fine indicator of where we are - 7 games just isn't.  Judging anyone on 7 games is **** ridiculous, to be honest (with the slight exception of if we had played awfully in all of them and lost every single one).

[mottaloo]

Whilst I  agree that 7 games is no time at all to decide whether RDM should stay or go, there are other teams that ARE getting on with it and if we're not careful we'll slip further away each week and before we know it, the gap is 18 points to the top 2 or at least a dozen to 6th.

Yes, there are plenty of games to come but I think most of us have realised that this league is gonna be a slog.....a looooong slog 

[Guest av1]

1 hour ago, Michael118 said:

3-5-2 would be the formation I'd use with Bacuna and Amavi as wing backs. 

Not a bad call. I think Chester would also benefit from playing in a 3. 

1 hour ago, Michael118 said:

McCormack in the creative role behind Kozak or Kodjia or possibly both. 

Eh? Kozak should never play for the club again, and I'm not sure how you fit 3 Strikers into your 3-5-2. Your plan is faltering Roberto.

1 hour ago, Michael118 said:

I'd bring Jerrell Sellars into the fold as I think he would complement Kozak perfectly 

Another striker.

So just to be clear, after spending over £30m on strikers, you want to promote a kid from the youth team to play alongside the worst striker at the club?

 

Makes sense.

[R.Bear]

People reading from quotation books to try and convince us that RDM is a good manager and things will turn around 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

It's too early, today, to be talking about the sack, but fans are right to ask questions.

Last night was a disaster. Again we created the chances to bury the game, whilst playing poor admittedly, again we failed to deliver. Though worse than that the fitness levels were utterly shocking. I had assumed, wrongly it seems, that we would not be in such a position by this stage but clearly something is amiss. 

They were blowing out their arse after 35 minutes which allowed Brentford to take hold. It's no wonder that mistakes were made, they could barely stand on their own two feet by the 88th minute. There's only one man ultimately responsible for that.

He has to turn this around, fast. He has to start delivering results. That is the business he is in. If he can't do that this weekend then by all means Tony is well within his rights to wield the axe.

Make or break time Roberto. 

Edited September 15, 2016 by dont_do_it_doug.

[hippo]

12 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

It's too early, today, to be talking about the sack, but fans are right to ask questions.

Last night was a disaster. Again we created the chances to bury the game, whilst playing poor admittedly, again we failed to deliver. Though worse than that the fitness levels were utterly shocking. I had assumed, wrongly it seems, that we would not be in such a position by this stage but clearly something is amiss. 

They were blowing out their arse after 35 minutes which allowed Brentford to take hold. It's no wonder that mistakes were made, they could barely stand on their own two feet by the 88th minute. There's only one man ultimately responsible for that.

He has to turn this around, fast. He has to start delivering results. That is the business he is in. If he can't do that this weekend then by all means Tony is well within his rights to wield the axe.

Make or break time Roberto. 

Agree about the fitness levels. Do these geezers really train for 4 hours a day ? - Gestede virtually collapsed before he was substituted.

Also the first touch of some our players was awful - Westwood and Ayew in particular. Surley this is the very basics in training.

I agree 7 games is to early. But you have to ask what does another 2 or 3 games prove ?. Id jump the gun and do it now. If RDM gets another clubs and builds a great team - yeah then we got it wrong.  I suspect he will get a few more games. But will be surprised if he is here after the wolves game.

 

[TRO]

35 minutes ago, Gary Thomas said:

So we play a 'normal' game with the personnel on the pitch and completely dominate. Then we sit back because of the personnel we have?  That makes no sense to me Richard. We are not sitting back because of the personnel - I think they have shown in most games they are more than capable of pushing up a pitch and dominating games. We are sitting back because RDM is instilling or encouraging a defensive mind-set to take hold when we go in front - this is his mistake.

I am not disagreeing with you by the way, but just to add an observation.

We may be sitting back......but we are not defending, we are conceding ground.......there is a difference.

and defending in the proper sense of the word.... we are not doing IMO

EG Against Forest, if we have of conceded the ground they did to us, we would have been buried.....but they adopted all the attributes required to defend and kept themselves in the game

[dont_do_it_doug.]

1 minute ago, hippo said:

Agree about the fitness levels. Do these geezers really train for 4 hours a day ? - Gestede virtually collapsed before he was substituted.

Also the first touch of some our players was awful - Westwood and Ayew in particular. Surley this is the very basics in training.

I agree 7 games is to early. But you have to ask what does another 2 or 3 games prove ?. Id jump the gun and do it now. If RDM gets another clubs and builds a great team - yeah then we got it wrong.  I suspect he will get a few more games. But will be surprised if he is here after the wolves game.

 

There is, clearly IMO, something amiss with the training regime. Their individual performances yesterday are as a result of that I think, that was a completely different team to the one we saw Sunday. 

Perhaps now he, RDM, will be taking stock of the situation and coming up with a solution. I can't answer that. Though I think given the time and money invested in him coupled with performances which up until yesterday could have yielded vastly different results, he will be given 2/3 more games. 

That said, lose on Saturday and I can see his head rolling. 

[markavfc40]

36 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

It's too early, today, to be talking about the sack, but fans are right to ask questions.

Last night was a disaster. Again we created the chances to bury the game, whilst playing poor admittedly, again we failed to deliver. Though worse than that the fitness levels were utterly shocking. I had assumed, wrongly it seems, that we would not be in such a position by this stage but clearly something is amiss. 

They were blowing out their arse after 35 minutes which allowed Brentford to take hold. It's no wonder that mistakes were made, they could barely stand on their own two feet by the 88th minute. There's only one man ultimately responsible for that.

He has to turn this around, fast. He has to start delivering results. That is the business he is in. If he can't do that this weekend then by all means Tony is well within his rights to wield the axe.

Make or break time Roberto. 

I am not sure on the fitness levels Dave for me it was more we took the lead then it was a change in mentality. We went from pushing for a goal to sitting deep and allowing Brentford to come on for us. What we should have done was push for the second and kill the game off.

I was relieved when half time came as we were on the back foot at that stage. I genuinely thought RDM would sort it out but we started the second half sitting even deeper with Kodija and Amavi wide midfield focused more on defending and tracking back than getting forward. That comes from the manager.

I think we had plenty of running in us. Certainly at the start of the second half Kodiaja, Ayew, Amavi did but for me they were told to not press too high and to sit deep. Gestede for me was the only one that seemed to be blowing out his arse around the hour mark.

Regardless of it being down to fitness or instructions from the manager to ask forward thinking players to sit deep or a bit of both whichever way you slice the cake it is down to the manager.

I don’t personally think Ipswich is a must win but I think he needs a win with in the next three games otherwise I would not be a bit surprised if Xia wields the axe. One win in 10 after spending a fortune at this level would be totally unacceptable.

Edited September 15, 2016 by markavfc40

[dont_do_it_doug.]

5 minutes ago, TRO said:

I am not disagreeing with you by the way, but just to add an observation.

We may be sitting back......but we are not defending, we are conceding ground.......there is a difference.

and defending in the proper sense of the word.... we are not doing IMO

EG Against Forest, if we have of conceded the ground they did to us, we would have been buried.....but they adopted all the attributes required to defend and kept themselves in the game

I'm completely convinced it's fitness. They're footballers, not machines. When they're blowing they make mistakes, when you're tired your mental capacity is greatly reduced. 

Elphick, Chester, Jedinak, Cissokho even, these are decent experienced footballers. It should have been enough, but whether they're being overtrained or undertrained, they're strained and something is not right. They get to 80 minutes and they start to fall apart physically and mentally, panic, make mistakes. We suffer as a result.

[TRO]

3 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

Start of second half Ayew dropped into the middle just behind Gestede with Kodija right and Amavi left although they swapped over on a number of occasions.

Kodija starting position was also very deep which would not be natural to him so something he must have been told at half time to do. This contributed to Brentford pushing us back as we were sitting way too deep. We needed to start the second half on the front foot and go all out for the second. We did the opposite though and invited Brentford onto us and the inevitable happened.

 

 

John Egan said that they tweaked their tactics after the break and pushed one forward in to midfield.

Its all very well changing tactics, but the players have to deliver on those tactical changes

I am generally with you Mark, the old saying " Attack is the best form of defence" .....but, sometimes easier said than done.

I still believe its the defensive side of our game that is at fault.....not necessarily the back 5 , but could be too.

Just an observation......sitting back is just conceding ground, not defending.....In the proper sense of the word, we are a poor defensive TEAM.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Honestly @markavfc40 they looked completely done in to me by the 35th minute. By the end of the game Ayew could barely run and he got pelters for it, unfairly IMO. 

The poor choices tactically only served to amplify the situation. I am bitterly disappointed.