So what are the solutions?

[1889]

I've said elsewhere I thought Hammond looked stronger last night but I still have a feeling Coutts will emerge as a key player. Maybe Hammond won't fancy staying with us in this environment.

I would like to think that he won't be offered the opportunity

 

[Pollingtonblade]

I would line

We are "not where we want to be and have to find solutions".

What would your solutions be? Please try to avoid "sack the lot of'em" type comments, it's not possible!

The loan window has ended and the JTW is 5 games away.

To start the thread I reckon we need to:

1. Play 5 in midfield
2. Play 2 forwards
3. Make 3-5-2 work. This would be a fresh start and mitigate the lack of quality defenders at full back/ central defence.
4. Hatchet at least 2 players by settling their contracts/loan deals now - symbolic and practical.
5 Generally select the most industrious players in front of skilled ones
6. Have the senior players, perhaps the ones in Adkins communications group of 6 chosen players to each apologise to the fans
7. Manager and his coaches to apologise to the fans in the context of a "fresh start"

My team for Barnsley would be:

Long or Howard

Brayford. Edgar. Basham

Freeman , Hammond or Coutts, Baxter. Reed K.Wallace

Sharp. Done

Use Adams in short bursts when the opposition is trying.

Fresh formation, fresh start, something to work on and way different to 4-4-2 which we just don't have the players for.

In January seek a new central defender and play Braford at right wing back.

Footnote: 3-5-2 can be a very solid, safe formation.

I would line every player up and kick them in the bollocks and only pick the ones that kick back.

 

[zablade]

Hope for a zombie apocalypse?

 

[alcoblade]

I love the discussion, but there's a few cringes;

"Coutts will be a key player"
"Keep Long in the net"

Now these statements might or might not be true, but my word how rubbish are we if they are?

UTB

 

[alcoblade]

One way or another I'd play Done up front, not wide. We know he will score goals there, and he is the only palyer we have with genuine pace.
I'm less sure about Sharp - he may be the 2nd striker
JCR - because despite the frustration, he's the only one with the bollocks to always play with his front to goal.
Basham in midfield - He's the only midfielder with any legs, which goes to show just how short we are
Edgar at the back - because he's the only CH that hasn't removed all doubt that he's not up to the task yet.

The rest - put the names into a tombola and perhaps sell tickets.

UTB

 

[metalblade]

Looks to me like we don't have a penny spend in January unless we can free up some wages, for starters I would transfer list most of the squad and then send Sammon back to Derby unless they are paying his wages, is Higdon any worse than he is may as well recall the pie man at least he can head the ball and score a few goals. Hammond would be on the first train back to Leicester too if I had my way, I would only keep Edgar as the alternatives are Collins and McEverley
The only ones that I'd want for this season are Brayford, Baxter, Adams, Done, K Wallace, JCR and maybe Sharp, bring into the squad as many of the youngsters as possible ................................ the rest I'd make them train on Concord Park till they either fuck off or die of cold.

 

[Harry's Game]

A few actions Adkins could take so we can see he does "get it " by admitting his mistakes

1. Terminating the loans of Hammond and Sammon, if they can't be terminated make them train with the kids and never pick them for the first team again until the loans expire.

2. Take the club captaincy off Jay Maceverly give it to Brayford

3. Drop Billy Sharp to the bench show that unlike Cough he does not play favourites and selects on form.

4. Give Done a run of games in the position he was signed to play in.

5. Sign a decent Keeper on the 2nd of January.

 

[Kenilworth]

Solutions eh?

I suggest these are a few that are within the realms of possibility.
Brine
Brawn
Epsom Salts
Jiz (or is that an emulsion?)

We've been getting diarrhoea for the most part, so far.

 

[alcoblade]

Looks to me like we don't have a penny spend in January unless we can free up some wages, for starters I would transfer list most of the squad and then send Sammon back to Derby unless they are paying his wages, is Higdon any worse than he is may as well recall the pie man at least he can head the ball and score a few goals. Hammond would be on the first train back to Leicester too if I had my way, I would only keep Edgar as the alternatives are Collins and McEverley
The only ones that I'd want for this season are Brayford, Baxter, Adams, Done, K Wallace, JCR and maybe Sharp, bring into the squad as many of the youngsters as possible ................................ the rest I'd make them train on Concord Park till they either fuck off or die of cold.

I wonder if you'd think the same if we knew Brayford and Sharp's wages.

UTB

 

[Ashtonsmashton]

I do rate Collins but I am assuming his days are numbered after last night.

I don't but with Brayford injured and Kennedy loaned, he's better than the ones left, However I did when he played alongside Harry Mags

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

We are "not where we want to be and have to find solutions".

What would your solutions be? Please try to avoid "sack the lot of'em" type comments, it's not possible!

The loan window has ended and the JTW is 5 games away.

To start the thread I reckon we need to:

1. Play 5 in midfield
2. Play 2 forwards
3. Make 3-5-2 work. This would be a fresh start and mitigate the lack of quality defenders at full back/ central defence.
4. Hatchet at least 2 players by settling their contracts/loan deals now - symbolic and practical.
5 Generally select the most industrious players in front of skilled ones
6. Have the senior players, perhaps the ones in Adkins communications group of 6 chosen players to each apologise to the fans
7. Manager and his coaches to apologise to the fans in the context of a "fresh start"

My team for Barnsley would be:

Long or Howard

Brayford. Edgar. Basham

Freeman , Hammond or Coutts, Baxter. Reed K.Wallace

Sharp. Done

Use Adams in short bursts when the opposition is trying.

Fresh formation, fresh start, something to work on and way different to 4-4-2 which we just don't have the players for.

In January seek a new central defender and play Braford at right wing back.

Footnote: 3-5-2 can be a very solid, safe formation.

Thought we were going up automatically or have you woken up?

 

[Dnblade]

Definitely think we should either play 5 in midfield or maybe a 4411 with Baxter in the hole behind Sammon and give Billy a rest,it's not really happening for him at the minute....Wouldn't mind seeing 352 though,allowing us to keep 2 up top and not get outnumbered in the middle.

 

[alcoblade]

Install Brayford as captain straight away (& build a side around him & the ex-academy players/other young players).

Or sell him,and use the £2M in fees and freed up wages to buy better players in positions that count. (of course we'd sell him and buy more Coutts / Hammonds).

I love Brayford, but this was a truly ridiculous signing.

UTB

 

[raul]

Or sell him,and use the £600k in fees and freed up wages to buy better players in positions that count. (of course we'd sell him and buy more Coutts / Hammonds).

I love Brayford, but this was a truly ridiculous signing.

UTB

Fixed.

 

[Hunkerby]

What are the solutions?

First of all there is no short term fix. The solutions need to be long term and sustainable.

Solution number 1
Stop sacking managers every five minutes.
Every time a manager is sacked resources are wasted in bringing in new staff and players.
Also it has a detrimental effect on bringing players through from the academy.
If a manager thinks his job is under threat he will not build for the long term and instead will panic and bring in a player
who is deemed to be the finished product (an expensive solution).
Unless the manager is obviously in over their head (e.g. Weir) give them at least 5 years to build a team from the ground up.

Solution number 2
Build an effective scouting system.
In the past the club appear to have skimped on scouting possibly because they have an Academy.
In my opinion both are needed. Whenever a star player is sold off (inevitable unfortunately) the management should have a handful of younger replacements lined up ready to bring in.
Ensure the scouting system reports to the club and not the manager.
With this system Simon Clough could still be scouting for us instead of being paid for sitting on the couch.

Solution number 3
Improve the player recruitment committee.
I think this committee is a good idea but needs to get smarter with the type of players brought in.
The club brings in too many cheque cashers at the end of their careers.
Also it appears to lack ability in talent evaluation - add more scouting knowledge to the recruitment committee.
In the past we managed to steal players like Tony Currie and Brian Deane from lower league clubs.
You cannot do this now unless your scouting is superior to your competition.

Solution number 4
Improve the culture.
Brainwash the players into believing that they can become world class players if they stay behind after training to practice free kicks.
Play subliminal messages during training to encourage them to spend Sunday night in the gym not the nightclubs.
Bring in a mental coach to get them believing in themselves.
Bring in a faith healer so that they don't keep thinking they are injured all the time.
Also bring in that lady doctor that got the push from Chelsea.
They have lost the plot since she left so she must have done some good after all!

 

[blade too long]

Fuck em.

If they can't handle criticism then they are in wrong profession.

all individuals are different
they say managers can shout instructions to some players , and some they have to put an arm round
Some will play better only when they feel loved
its the same in life

 

[Woodwardfan]

Thought we were going up automatically or have you woken up?

I am 100% confident there will be a strong upturn this season. Maybe it will come too late for automatic promotion, but I believe we'll go into the Play-Offs in a strong run of form.

It should be noted that last Tuesday Wigan lost, so did Walsall, Millwall and Bury; Coventry drew albeit a good draw.

Everyone says this is a poor league and it is in the top half of the table, but how the standards have improved in the bottom half of the table and any team can lose to the bottom clubs at any time.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

I am 100% confident there will be a strong upturn this season. Maybe it will come too late for automatic promotion, but I believe we'll go into the Play-Offs in a strong run of form.

It should be noted that last Tuesday Wigan lost, so did Walsall, Millwall and Bury; Coventry drew albeit a good draw.

Everyone says this is a poor league and it is in the top half of the table, but how the standards have improved in the bottom half of the table and any team can lose to the bottom clubs at any time.

Genuine question, what have you seen that makes you thing anything will change?

 

[Woodwardfan]

Genuine question, what have you seen that makes you thing anything will change?

I know every player can do a lot better. I know the manager can do a lot better now that he knows his squad better and has re-attuned to a very competitive League 1.

I think Tuesday night was a watershed. The manager stated he had to take stock and make changes. I expect him to drastically change formations and personnel and do a lot of things differently, including the way he manages the players. He said he had to "get the most from this group of players" and " we had to make changes because we are not where we want to be".

There will be an upturn, it's a question of when. "This group" has limitations where there shouldn't be any. I think the manager and his staff will have got into certain players who think they are better than they are and are coasting when they should be fighting.

On Tuesday we only had about 3 fighters in the whole team in the first half. After going ahead they thought we were on our way to an easy win as I did. The shock of what happened will help the manager get home some home truths. If he doesn't then his days may be numbered. I think he will.

In training this week I reckon every player will have to earn the right to play.

 

[sitwell]

Genuine question, what have you seen that makes you thing anything will change?

Hes seen Adkins down Pitsmoor eyeing up some talent.

 

[alcoblade]

What are the solutions?

First of all there is no short term fix. The solutions need to be long term and sustainable.

Solution number 1
Stop sacking managers every five minutes.
Every time a manager is sacked resources are wasted in bringing in new staff and players.
Also it has a detrimental effect on bringing players through from the academy.
If a manager thinks his job is under threat he will not build for the long term and instead will panic and bring in a player
who is deemed to be the finished product (an expensive solution).
Unless the manager is obviously in over their head (e.g. Weir) give them at least 5 years to build a team from the ground up.

Solution number 2
Build an effective scouting system.
In the past the club appear to have skimped on scouting possibly because they have an Academy.
In my opinion both are needed. Whenever a star player is sold off (inevitable unfortunately) the management should have a handful of younger replacements lined up ready to bring in.
Ensure the scouting system reports to the club and not the manager.
With this system Simon Clough could still be scouting for us instead of being paid for sitting on the couch.

Solution number 3
Improve the player recruitment committee.
I think this committee is a good idea but needs to get smarter with the type of players brought in.
The club brings in too many cheque cashers at the end of their careers.
Also it appears to lack ability in talent evaluation - add more scouting knowledge to the recruitment committee.
In the past we managed to steal players like Tony Currie and Brian Deane from lower league clubs.
You cannot do this now unless your scouting is superior to your competition.

Solution number 4
Improve the culture.
Brainwash the players into believing that they can become world class players if they stay behind after training to practice free kicks.
Play subliminal messages during training to encourage them to spend Sunday night in the gym not the nightclubs.
Bring in a mental coach to get them believing in themselves.
Bring in a faith healer so that they don't keep thinking they are injured all the time.
Also bring in that lady doctor that got the push from Chelsea.
They have lost the plot since she left so she must have done some good after all!

"In the past the club appear to have skimped on scouting possibly because they have an Academy."

Good point. Close the academy and put the resource into scouting for good young talent from elsewhere.

UTB

 

[Jehovah]

I strongly believe there are no solutions. Rotate the squad and you bring shit in to replace shit. If by some miracle we avoid defeat at Barnsley, he will be gone after Coventry destroy us.

 

[BushBlade]

"In the past the club appear to have skimped on scouting possibly because they have an Academy."

Good point. Close the academy and put the resource into scouting for good young talent from elsewhere.

UTB

Why not do both? You may have noticed that Spurs now have a few of their own in their team. That's because a few years ago they made a decision to add a successful academy to supplement their scouting and their policy of signing good young prospects.
Spurs have more or less a zero net spend on transfers and the 6th highest wage bill in the PL and consistently finish in the top 5 so usually when they do something it's for good reasons.
If we're serious about being a 'big' club, we need both.

And the Academy is an important part of our relationship with the community, with the city whose name we bear. It's part of the link between them and us, part of the reason why we're supporters and not just 'customers'.

 

[JJ Sefton]

According to t'other thread the solution is to piss off out and sign The Temptations.

 

[alcoblade]

Why not do both?

Because we aren't cash rich Premier league Spurs, and we can't afford it. And as a result, as pointed out before, we don't concentrate on the areas most needed at the time, we get what's delivered whether we like it or not. Enter a massive squad, full of home grown players who can't evenmake our piss poor third division bench.

If we're serious about being a 'big' club, we need both. .

But we aren't, we're a tin pot, firmly entrenched 3rd division club. When that alters, we could perhaps think about paying for an academy

And the Academy is an important part of our relationship with the community, with the city whose name we bear. It's part of the link between them and us, part of the reason why we're supporters and not just 'customers'.

I mean this with the greatest of respect to you, but I can't help but consign this type of stuff to the already full "absolute guff" bin. It's already overflowing with the "ethos" bullshit that's led to the worst period in the club's entire history.

Without an academy, we will be the club that delivered Monty, Jags and Tonge. If you can point to a tangible thing that we were missing back then, I might start to understand.



UTB

 

[BushBlade]

Because we aren't cash rich Premier league Spurs, and we can't afford it. And as a result, as pointed out before, we don't concentrate on the areas most needed at the time, we get what's delivered whether we like it or not. Enter a massive squad, full of home grown players who can't evenmake our piss poor third division bench.



But we aren't, we're a tin pot, firmly entrenched 3rd division club. When that alters, we could perhaps think about paying for an academy



I mean this with the greatest of respect to you, but I can't help but consign this type of stuff to the already full "absolute guff" bin. It's already overflowing with the "ethos" bullshit that's led to the worst period in the club's entire history.

Without an academy, we will be the club that delivered Monty, Jags and Tonge. If you can point to a tangible thing that we were missing back then, I might start to understand.



UTB

It was still an academy, just under a different name. And how much does it cost?

I'd rather we stopped paying stupid wages to shit twats than shut the academy.

 

[loyalblade95]

once Brayford is fit i'd go for something like this

Long
Brayford Banton Edgar K Wallace
Freeman Coutts Hammond Adams/JCR
Baxter
Sharp

Subs: Howard/Willis, Harris, Basham/Dimaio, Reed/Scougall, Sammon/Calvart-Lewin, Done/J Mcdonough, Khan

This formation worked well for Clough when we made our January transfers, different players this time but might still work ive always preferred playing 2 strikers but made an exception for this. Keep Long in goal doing better than Howard this season most goals hes conceded have either been ones where he couldn't possibly save or down to bad defending with the exception of 1 or 2 poor goals. Brayford needs to be on right-back with Banton next to him they can both play right-back and centre half Banton is easily best academy defender atm needs to be on pitch if not bench. Kieran Wallace has impressed me enough at left back to be in squad. Freeman out wide on the right because that's where he played at Forrest before Clough made him a right back at Derby and he pushes forward trying to score as well. Coutts and Hammond in midfield because they linked up well at Worcester. Baxter just behind striker his best position where he can either run with the ball or pick out a good pass to Sharp up front. I'd give Edgar another go as he had a good run before international break. Play Sharp on his own up front where if he picks up the ball he can run and shoot like he did against Swindon and Bradford.

Have Khan on the bench because hes like a taller Jose Baxter he can pick out a good pass and is dangerous from range. Jamie Mcdonough possibly on bench very good for under 18s reminds me a bit of Chris Porter trying to score as many goals as he can by getting forward. Calvart-Lewin or Sammon on bench as their both very similar players in terms of height and power, perfect to bring on after the hour mark where Sharp needs resting. Keep Harris there in case Wallace needs to come off. Might not work but could be worth a try.

 

[loyalblade95]

Or sell him,and use the £2M in fees and freed up wages to buy better players in positions that count. (of course we'd sell him and buy more Coutts / Hammonds).

I love Brayford, but this was a truly ridiculous signing.

UTB

can use the £1.5 million from the murphy sale

 

[Woodwardfan]

Well, Adkins found a way to respond to the Shrewsbury debacle and all credit to him.

 

[Rodley]

Well, Adkins found a way to respond to the Shrewsbury debacle and all credit to him.

Fair play you stuck with him.

Onwards and upwards.