So what was it last night then?

[matthefish2002]

Think a poor squad of players playing a lot of games close together then a poor performance is no surprise.

[Junglejay]

One of the saddest things about our current plight is that I genuinely believe both Craig Gardner and James Beattie could come back from retirement and make us a better side.   

[gurujuan]

6 minutes ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

Its a justifiable point to put forward. As much as I wanted someone more attack minded, I saw Pulis as someone capable of grinding out results for us. I saw last night as an opportunity for us to be effective - keep it tight against a team who are hardly prolific but work the ball more in their half and at least create opportunities to be a threat from set plays. Instead we were on the back foot from minute one and never looked like being able to get back into the match.

 

If I'm having doubts about what he is trying to do already then like you say, it is not beyond the realms of possibility for the players to be somewhat disillusioned with it. Fair enough set up to defend away to the likes of Norwich and Swansea but if we don't intend to try and gt at Huddersfield then it might be a bit demoralising for anyone wanting to try and play some football.

I had first hand insight into how the players think when Megson was in charge of the side. Megson’s tactics resemble those of Pulis, but at least he did have us on the front foot, and by and large, we were winning games. Even so, most of the players hated it, hated the limitations it put on them. The relief when Jones took over was palpable, as witnessed by the winning run we then embarked on. Most players will consider Pulis out of touch, and won’t be happy with the effect it’s having on their careers. 
Most fans who support the Pulis approach, would only tolerate it if he were getting results It’s the same with the players

[Kopparberg]

4 minutes ago, matthefish2002 said:

Think a poor squad of players playing a lot of games close together then a poor performance is no surprise.

You’re totally right. It’s scary. 
 

Not to mention lack of intelligence 

 

2-0 in the first half.... one of our players goes flying in to give a penalty away, minutes into the second half.... and we accept that as normal catastrophic decision making 

[Kopparberg]

4 minutes ago, gurujuan said:

Most players will consider Pulis out of touch, and won’t be happy with the effect it’s having on their careers

Maybe so but 

 

What have they achieved elsewhere? 

[SallyCinnamon]

For me there’s something deep rooted in the squad. Our ability to put in a decent performance and follow it up with a ‘I can’t be arsed’ performance in the past couple of years has been staggering.

 

Hate to speculate, but are they being paid properly? We had that leak in the press the other day about the pay structure. Because on last nights showing there was absolutely no effort whatsoever. 

[Owl Be Back]

The basics just aren't there a lot of the time. Even something as simple as always moving into space when your team is in possession, doesn't happen. It's woeful.

[gurujuan]

Just now, Kopparberg said:

Maybe so but 

 

What have they achieved elsewhere? 

That’s a valid point, but all players will feel that, success could be just around the next corner. Who knows, maybe it’s just that they feel they are not enjoying what they are being asked to do. 

[striker]

36 minutes ago, gurujuan said:

A lost dressing room? It would seem unlikely so early in his tenure, but we’ve seen how devisive his tactics are amongst us fans, so I can imagine it will be the same amongst the players

At the end of the day, players want to play football. I'm sure they don't enjoy defending for most of the game in their own half without the ball. 

[cowl]

It's obviously fatigue. Possibly the disappointment of the late goals at Norwich knocked them too.

 

Not that saying so brushes it under the carpet because what can begin as fatigue can lead to other problems. And we do have another 3 games in the next 10 days so Pulis has to find a way to get every last drop out of them.

 

Speculating about a lost dressing room due to Pulis is a bit daft really. The performance at Norwich was excellent for 80 minutes. You quite simply don't go from that to losing a dressing room in just a couple of days. Whether you're okay with Pulis' playing tactics or not, no-one can deny Pulis' experience as a manager. Maybe a rookie can lose a dressing room in 72 hours, but not Pulis.

[CircleSeven]

I have posted similar comments elsewhere but I think the summary is that the squad is very poor but was to some extend assembled to play in a way Monk wanted us to play. 
It wasn’t really fit for purpose for that but was at least designed with that in mind. 
The squad that wasn’t really good enough for the purpose for which it was assembled is now being used for a job it wasn’t assembled for. 
So we have a poor squad of poor players being used in a system that they don’t even fit into. 
Hence the form under Pulis. 
Pulis can organise us as much as he wants but it’s like doing a jigsaw with half the wrong pieces.

 

We were rubbish under Monk. We are dire under Pulis. 
 

Jan is the great hope but I think it will be too late and not as influential as everyone hopes. 

[gurujuan]

2 minutes ago, SallyCinnamon said:

For me there’s something deep rooted in the squad. Our ability to put in a decent performance and follow it up with a ‘I can’t be arsed’ performance in the past couple of years has been staggering.

 

Hate to speculate, but are they being paid properly? We had that leak in the press the other day about the pay structure. Because on last nights showing there was absolutely no effort whatsoever. 

Possibly that has more to do with our limited expectations. Latching on to small positives in a performance that would otherwise be substandard. Over the course of these last few matches, I’ve been amazed at some of the comments, pointing to things we might occasionally do, that is the norm at most other clubs. I understand why we do this, we are searching for positives, but we cannot ignore the fact that most of what we are doing is not acceptable

[83owl]

3 minutes ago, cowl said:

It's obviously fatigue. Possibly the disappointment of the late goals at Norwich knocked them too.

 

Not that saying so brushes it under the carpet because what can begin as fatigue can lead to other problems. And we do have another 3 games in the next 10 days so Pulis has to find a way to get every last drop out of them.

 

Speculating about a lost dressing room due to Pulis is a bit daft really. The performance at Norwich was excellent for 80 minutes. You quite simply don't go from that to losing a dressing room in just a couple of days. Whether you're okay with Pulis' playing tactics or not, no-one can deny Pulis' experience as a manager. Maybe a rookie can lose a dressing room in 72 hours, but not Pulis.

We havnt been playing anymore games than anyone else in the league.

[RedDragonOwl]

A mid table league one squad playing against a championship one. No consistency in performance whatsoever. Our tempo was so slow it gave all the impetus to Huddersfield. It easy for our midfield to drop backwards to receive the ball from the defence, but the midfields forwards movement is so poor, our defenders have no choice but to hoof it to their defence. Harris and Reach, were receiving the ball too deep, and they kept cutting inside mid way through their half, that only works if their defence leaves space behind, which they didn't. So in reality we needed Harris, Reach, Odobadjo and (Iorfa, or Palmer) which hardly ever happened.

 

That performance had Gary Monk written all over it. 

[83owl]

2 minutes ago, gurujuan said:

Possibly that has more to do with our limited expectations. Latching on to small positives in a performance that would otherwise be substandard. Over the course of these last few matches, I’ve been amazed at some of the comments, pointing to things we might occasionally do, that is the norm at most other clubs. I understand why we do this, we are searching for positives, but we cannot ignore the fact that most of what we are doing is not acceptable

Agree we seem to think it’s ok to be absolutely dire and unable to do basics just because we managed to string 3-4 passes together 10minutes earlier. 

[cowl]

Just now, 83owl said:

We havnt been playing anymore games than anyone else in the league.

 

But we didn't play everyone else in the league last night. We played a team that were at home on Saturday, whereas we had a trip down to Norwich and back. It's a significant difference.

[gurujuan]

4 minutes ago, cowl said:

It's obviously fatigue. Possibly the disappointment of the late goals at Norwich knocked them too.

 

Not that saying so brushes it under the carpet because what can begin as fatigue can lead to other problems. And we do have another 3 games in the next 10 days so Pulis has to find a way to get every last drop out of them.

 

Speculating about a lost dressing room due to Pulis is a bit daft really. The performance at Norwich was excellent for 80 minutes. You quite simply don't go from that to losing a dressing room in just a couple of days. Whether you're okay with Pulis' playing tactics or not, no-one can deny Pulis' experience as a manager. Maybe a rookie can lose a dressing room in 72 hours, but not Pulis.

 

2 minutes ago, gurujuan said:

Possibly that has more to do with our limited expectations. Latching on to small positives in a performance that would otherwise be substandard. Over the course of these last few matches, I’ve been amazed at some of the comments, pointing to things we might occasionally do, that is the norm at most other clubs. I understand why we do this, we are searching for positives, but we cannot ignore the fact that most of what we are doing is not acceptable

This is what I mean though, our performance at Norwich was not excellent for 80 mins, though it was substantially better than last nights offering. Luton, a club in a similar position, ran Norwich ragged by taking the game to them, and putting pressure on their vulnerable defence. Their performance might merit the term excellent, ours did not.

[S36 OWL]

41 minutes ago, Green Calx said:

I think we've just got to accept that we've got a really poor team at the moment and results are probably going to be like this until TP can bring in 5 or 6 players in Jan 

 

You really believe we will sign 5 or 6 players in January? I don't. 

[H2Owl]

Most of them are all out of contract in the summer and don't really care that much. Eyeing up their next move, trying not to get injured. Were a team of poor individuals looking out for themselves.

 

Not sure how we've managed to get to a point where half the squad can leave in the summer for nowt, again.

[farlego]

29 minutes ago, Kopparberg said:

Huddersfield passed the ball and moved - not Barcelona stuff, just showed some fluidity... not pass then stop. 
 

Our guys are going to get more tired by not having the ball - than doing the passing and moving themselves. 
 

Their keeper literally stood on the ball as no one challenged him - and when someone jogged forward, he just passed it either side of Windass. 
 

Our best movement came from Joey !!!  FFS   
 

I think they need showing some videos of how players are meant to move !  
 

It’s meant to be a fun sport - not a chore 

The movement, or lack of it is exactly what I was thinking.

Funnily enough I watched Rhodes when he came on. A couple of times he got the ball, passed it wide and busted a gut to get in the box only for the wide player to unnecessarily delay the cross and the chance was gone.