At what point does the button get pushed?

[Emilio]

I’ve pondered this question this evening. Whilst I’ve posted in a mild form of support in our manager in some capacity, I don’t think we should totally dismiss the idea of sacking him.

Cast your mind back to 2005-06. Talbot as manager was allowed to limp on as manager until mid-March. Whilst there were opportunities to arrest our slide after that under Jim Smith and Talbot wasn’t totally to blame as his hands were tied by a shoestring budget from FK (in an alternate universe, Patterson could have kept us up and FK continued as owner for longer), it was the occasional draw and win followed by a couple of defeats that kept him there for so long. We looked ok at times but ok slid us down the table when we needed to be better. How long do we put up with ‘positive’ draws that don’t pull us up the table when we really need wins?

Any incoming manager would have this group of players at their disposal and no others. There’s no opportunities for reinforcements. I do think that there are some good players in our current bunch even if the squad is unbalanced. Would a new manager be able to generate anything different from them? Maybe some different tactics, creative set pieces or motivation could help.

One to ponder especially when we continue to waste opportunities to pull away and KR plays the same rigid system that looks good but doesn’t deliver game after game.

Now that really is an alternate universe!

 

[Scotchegg]

We've just been narrowly beaten by a team who have been in and around the top 6 all season, conceding a goal to someone who cost £650k. That's on the back of looking the better team against Sunderland, Portsmouth and Barnsley.

We started out shite, and had a bad Christmas when injuries caught up with us. Aside from that, we've put together some decent results and performances. Many were predicting that we'd get nothing from the last few weeks, get no one in during January and see the likes of Browne, Nelson and possibly Brannaghan leave. Now we have talk of getting rid of Robinson, relegation as if it's a certainty, administration and Phoenix clubs!!

Seriously, get a bloody grip of yourselves! We've got 14 games left and I hope that everyone at the club has a lot more fight in them than some on here who gave up months ago.

 

[westyorkshireexile]

I admire your positivity but let's face it, the remaining 14 matches are against teams that we have already played in the first half of the season with relegation-level success. What leads you to think that we will improve upon this and increase our points ratio to more than one per game thus avoiding relegation. I sincerely hope that your optimism bears fruit.

Conceding a goal to a £650k striker, what about our £4m striker.

The bad Xmas cannot be attributed solely to injuries, other teams sussed out our rigid method of play and weaknesses and adopted appropriate tactics to achieve success against us.

January signings:- Sinclair, not the experienced striker that we needed. Sykes and Smith, not played at all. Kashi, limited playing time with no impact. Repeat of the Summer when KR held out to sign Smith at the expense of signing the type of player needed.

OK the likes of Nelson did not leave but will be a valueless free agent come Summer. People prayed he wouldn't leave as we were likely to be relegated without him! Where was he on Saturday against the £650k goalscorer.

Robinson, the epitomy of immaturity with a rigid playing style, unable to use players to their strengths and bereft of tactical imagination. I agree that replacing him at this stage would be unfair on any new manager even if we could afford to end his contract.

Fight from the players, little evidence of that against the Posh.

Get a grip of ourselves, people are simply being realistic based on the evidence to date.

 

[m]

....conceding a goal to someone who cost £650k.

About 1/6th of the cost of our 'main striker'!

 

[m]

You’re not allowed to use facts. Same as you’re not allowed to dislike the manager after the team has played well or maybe won a game, even though next time you are ‘allowed’ to moan you’ll have it thrown at you how you didn’t after the win. Even though you weren’t ‘allowed’ to moan then either.

Understand? No, neither do I.

What an amazingly paranoid outburst.

 

[North Wales Yellow]

Say what you like about the ownership and shambolic off the field stuff.

The fact of the matter is that our squad and budget is more than strong enough to stay in League One. Surely the on the field performances have to fall squarely at Robinsons door?

Blackpool for example have had all sorts going on off the field for years, yet they don’t let it affect them on the pitch and are punching well above their weight.

 

[Oxymoron]

I admire your positivity but let's face it, the remaining 14 matches are against teams that we have already played in the first half of the season with relegation-level success. What leads you to think that we will improve upon this and increase our points ratio to more than one per game thus avoiding relegation.

Barring Sunderland (and you could argue that we deserved to win away or were fortuitous to equalise at home), results in the reverse fixtures have not been repeated.

 

[westyorkshireexile]

Barring Sunderland (and you could argue that we deserved to win away or were fortuitous to equalise at home), results in the reverse fixtures have not been repeated.

A win at Luton then.

 

[Oxymoron]

That's the spirit.....

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

I wouldn’t get rid of the manager because statistics show that the new manager bump is a myth and I’ve no confidence that a new person appointed by Tiger would resurrect this squad.

Long term I do not believe in Karl Robinson though.

I have every sympathy for those pushing the panic button though even if they’d done it after Sunderland. It’s worth stating that if you haven’t won away all season, then noble draws at home aren’t much use. We may “play well” for 45 minutes but we don’t grind out results and our elegant attack distracts from an impotent defense and strike force.

So quite frankly I’d be pushing the panic button after Sunderland at home and all the other draws that go down as another missed opportunity on the sandtimer of relegation

 

[Mellowyellow]

I loved one of the first stats pushed out by Radox on Saturday, we were looking to go 5 or 6 unbeaten. Shouldn't the real stat be 3 wins in 13?
Nathan seems to ask questions of kr, that are nice, soft and cotton woolly, not likely to stray kr from his usual tirade of blaming the ref, blaming individual players, the pitch etc.
For god sake ask him how he intends to get us out of the season long relegation battle, does he take the blame for his poor acquisitions, especially the crocked ones?

 

[gofish2]

I might be missing the point but I don't see the relevance of the Sunderland game as I'm looking at the season so far. The other thing that occurs to me is that this really isn't about player. Imagine what Mapp could do with the same squad...

 

[Scotchegg]

I might be missing the point but I don't see the relevance of the Sunderland game as I'm looking at the season so far. The other thing that occurs to me is that this really isn't about player. Imagine what Mapp could do with the same squad...

So what would MApp do with this squad?

 

[Thehorse777]

For me it isn't just about what Appleton would do with the team.

A large amount of my frustration with Robinson is how much he talks and promises and then fails to deliver.

A number of times he's given it large about who he is going to sign and how good the team is and then failed to bring anyone in.
We all know its difficult to bring players in, especially good ones so just say nothing until the deal is announced.

When you say things like this you only increase expectation and therefore pressure on yourself to perform.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

So what would MApp do with this squad?

(Not that I think Mapp will come back any time soon, but...)

He'd be calmer with them
He'd organise them better
He'd have more than one formation he was prepared to play
He would give them confidence rather than dissing individuals in post match interviews
He would be more measured in his statements before and after games
He would not say 'I can take no credit' and then in the next sentence take the credit every time we win or get a 'good' draw
And we wouldn't be in this situation to start with.

Apart from that - nothing....

 

[gofish2]

(Not that I think Mapp will come back any time soon, but...)

He'd be calmer with them
He'd organise them better
He'd have more than one formation he was prepared to play
He would give them confidence rather than dissing individuals in post match interviews
He would be more measured in his statements before and after games
He would not say 'I can take no credit' and then in the next sentence take the credit every time we win or get a 'good' draw
And we wouldn't be in this situation to start with.

Apart from that - nothing....

Thank you for answering that for me, and sadly we will never get the opportunity to experience that.

 

[Scotchegg]

(Not that I think Mapp will come back any time soon, but...)

He'd be calmer with them
He'd organise them better
He'd have more than one formation he was prepared to play
He would give them confidence rather than dissing individuals in post match interviews
He would be more measured in his statements before and after games
He would not say 'I can take no credit' and then in the next sentence take the credit every time we win or get a 'good' draw
And we wouldn't be in this situation to start with.

Apart from that - nothing....

But what difference would there be in the way we set up? Would he turn Mackie into a 20 goal a season striker? Would he create proper full backs? Would he have prevented our injuries?

Because the rest of it is nothing more than sentimental guesswork.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

But what difference would there be in the way we set up? Would he turn Mackie into a 20 goal a season striker? Would he create proper full backs? Would he have prevented our injuries?

Because the rest of it is nothing more than sentimental guesswork.

So you don't think MApp's post match comments would be more sensible?
Or that he'd be calmer on the touchlines?
Or that MApp's team was no better organised than what we are watching week in week out?

All of those three are not 'sentimental guesswork' they are what happened when he was here!

It's a straw man argument to say what would he do with the players we've got. He isn't going to suddenly be our manager at this stage of the season, and if he was put in place earlier we would have different players.
And you don't think that he would have been able to attract better players in the first place?
Would he have signed Mackie? I very much doubt it.

Do you really think Robinson is actually getting the best out of the players he has? Because I certainly don't.

 

[Mojofilter]

And then MAPP would turn water into wine and heal the sick with just a warm embrace and would sort out brexit and would get the SSU to sing ....

 

[unification]

About 1/6th of the cost of our 'main striker'!

I think the fees that have been paid for Sinclair should really be ignored at this level. They're utter nonsense. They're from a world where a declining Fernando Torres was worth £50m (in 2011!) and Luke Garbutt commands £20k per week. The money paid for players, even at youth level, in the PL is preposterous.

Toney is 'worth' £650k. Sinclair's 'value' certainly isn't £4m. That's not meant as a diss - just an indictment on the warped levels of spending that place in the top leagues nowadays.

EDIT. We have another in our squad not living up to his price tag - Jamie Hanson. £400k is looking a lot for a 5/10 RB and a 4/10 midfielder.