We need battlers not bottlers.

[Beauchief Owl]

The stats illustrate what a weak mentality there is in the squad.

 

Teams with a tough mentality do not give up when losing. We have lost every match we've gone behind in over the season. The poorest record in the EFL. The last time we came from behind to win was Dec. 2019 and before that the record was nearly as bad.

 

Battling teams know how to hold on to leads. We have let 25 points slip from winning positions the second most in the Championship. Bad enough but it was a similar story last season when we let 28 points slip away.

 

This is lack of fight has been a problem now for several seasons and can not be pinned on individual managers. Something within the club culture suggests a complete overhaul is needed including long term coaching staff IMO. What I don't want to hear is the players 'did their best', 

'performed well', 'they're a great bunch of lads' and 'it's down to fine margins'. Battlers win those fine margins not lose because of them every single time.

 

[Barnwood62]

Got to agree they are a load of spineless, gutless players don’t deserve to wear the shirt, you could put Guardiola in charge and they still wouldn’t perform, it’s about time we changed the team and put in some of U23s surely they would put more effort in then drop all of those who are out of contract because they couldn’t careless 

[BarnsleyOwl96]

At least the end is near , all of the bottlers are out of contract just about , like you say especially for league one we need players who want to play for the club , may not be the best quality eg rob Jones , semedo , these kinds had the heart and character to do well and gave us fans a team to be proud of and fight 

[Blatter]

This is exactly why the bulk of this first team squad have to go at the end of the season. It’s like a collective acceptance of defeat and failure that has to be eradicated.

 

Look at the type of player that got us out of League 1 last time. They were battlers and fighters even though many had limited ability.

 

Can we again find the like of Reda, Buxton, Jones, Llera , Prutton, O’Grady and Antonio. They’re the type of battling of players required to get out of League 1. What we are going to be left with will need the type of major reinforcement that cannot be done under embargo. 

[sonofbert2]

It’s been happening for ages.

 

We were always a team who turned up especially in crucial games.  

 

We have key players, worshipped by some of the more gullible amongst us, happy to blame the manager, the chairman, the training pitch, the tactics blah blah blah etc who consistently fail to deliver in the most important moments of vital matches.

 

This mob are like a Poundland version of the English national team’s golden generation.

 

They are pathetic!

[Grimesthorpian]

Said this before, I  think we can cope with bad results if the players are giving their all.

This overpaid lot certainly aren’t and that’s unacceptable. 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Grimesthorpian

[paulrs]

The club needs an identity. What sort of club, and by extension team, do we want to be.

 

Many on here talk about the need for battlers and scrappers, players who are fit to wear the shirt. Reflecting of the working class area we live in.

 

Others, especially when Pulis was appointed, talked about wanting attractive attacking passing football. A hark back to the successful teams of 2016 and 1991-93. 

 

We can’t have it both ways.

 

Chansiri epitomises thus confusion as demonstrated by his sacking of Gray in his stated pursuit of entertaining football, before appointing Bruce, Monk & Pulis. It’s embarrassingly bereft of strategy and long term planning. 

[S72 Owl]

All I want next season is the young and more dynamic squad we were promised this year. We will always get behind a team that tries.

[Nero]

What has turned Adam Reach from the guy who single handedly kept the team going during the Jos - Injury season to the clearly couldnt give a throw unless its on Sky player we see now?

[wellbeaten-the-owl]

13 minutes ago, Nero said:

What has turned Adam Reach from the guy who single handedly kept the team going during the Jos - Injury season to the clearly couldnt give a throw unless its on Sky player we see now?

End of contract. 

[wellbeaten-the-owl]

20 minutes ago, Grimesthorpian said:

Said this before, I  think we can cope with bad results if the players are giving their all.

This overpaid lot certainly aren’t and that’s unacceptable. 

Agree with this.  

 

We can forgive an error as they happen but reaction yesterday for last hour was shocking, we should have been fighting and throwing kitchen sink at them 2nd half but zero shots on goal in last hour of the match tells you everything.

 

[Hughdowd]

Like Jimmy greaves said ..........You had footballers who became millionaires....... nowadays you have millionaires trying to be footballers!!!!

[Buxtongent]

At last, we're getting to the real cause of our current demise. The club may be (definitely is, IMO) badly run, but it still boils down to the eleven men who are wearing the shrt. If things are not going right o the field , then changes in play need to be made there and then. No Manager's system instructs players to pass to opponents, fail to tackle , fail to shoot etc.etc.. The men on the field  are being paid a fair amount to use not onlt their feet, but their heads. Players should be able to adapt to changing situations. Yes, they may get a b+++++g when they come off the field , but at least they would be able to say 'Plan A wasn't working, so we tried Plan B. Itdidn't work, but at leas we tried.'

I cannot count the number of times I've left Hillsborough in high dodgeon because we'd lost, but I've usuallt been able to say 'but at least, we tried'. This is something I'm rarely able to think now, AND IT HURTS.

[jonnyowl]

We need good players who can control and pass the ball.

 

For all of the lack of effort and lack of battling quality, the players on a technical level aren't good enough.

[sonofbert2]

They didn’t turn up at Wembley.

 

Key players let us down the year afterwards.

 

The ones that are still here have failed to turn up once more.

 

Lees has been atrocious last 2 games.  It’s ok BB and Hutchinson mouthing off etc but they need to have a good hard look at themselves.

 

I am totally sick of the lot of them bar a few.

 

It’s a holiday camp for jellyfish down there and has been now for a while.

 

They take the absolutepiss out of the club, the fans and also the chairman.

[Beauchief Owl]

Representing the Steel City, the current squad has anything but a steel-like mentality. The only steel I see relates to many of them stealing a wage. Sad but true.

[adelphi1867]

7 hours ago, Blatter said:

This is exactly why the bulk of this first team squad have to go at the end of the season. It’s like a collective acceptance of defeat and failure that has to be eradicated.

 

Look at the type of player that got us out of League 1 last time. They were battlers and fighters even though many had limited ability.

 

Can we again find the like of Reda, Buxton, Jones, Llera , Prutton, O’Grady and Antonio. They’re the type of battling of players required to get out of League 1. What we are going to be left with will need the type of major reinforcement that cannot be done under embargo. 

They had enough ability to get out of Div 1.

We do not need a squad of Championship or Prem league players who are on their last legs of a career.

We NEED players who are capable of playing in Div 1 next season, I am sure Moore and his coaching team know that and know what is needed.

[Blatter]

3 hours ago, adelphi1867 said:

We NEED players who are capable of playing in Div 1 next season, I am sure Moore and his coaching team know that and know what is needed.

That may well be true but will the accounts be submitted in time to get the embargo lifted before the transfer window opens. AND more to the point will  Moore be strong enough to wrench control out of the hands of Chansiri’s favourite advisor

[Pughies Jockstrap]

It would also help if a few of them could control a football and actually find the intended team mate when they pass the the thing. Unfortunately at the moment some of out so called players can do neither.

[0742]

I watched the Dortmund Vs City game tonight, compared to how we played agains Swansea, it's like watching a different sport.

 

Our players look like the first time they've ever seen a football is on match day!

 

We need players with a bit of a brain, one's that want the ball to feet, want to move it forward, want to win it back quickly, want to drive forward to support an attack. 

 

We've got a pretty useless squad, lacking in ability, that's had payment issues, playing for a football club with a bat shît crazy owner.