Robinson has seriously underperformed from the play offs onwards. He deserves a lot of credit for getting us to the play-off final, but there have been some catastrophic mistakes since and a couple of his old old mannerisms (trying to reinvent the wheel / throwing players under the bus) have come back to the fore.
He has tried to be too clever with his recruitment this year. A lot of sides find it tough to recover after a playoff defeat, couple that with a non existent pre-season and the potential of a Covid interrupted season then he needed to play it safe. This season wasn't the time to try and convert a right midfielder into right back, there was limited time to work on it and Clare was coming in to an inexperienced back line. If we'd signed an out & out right back, and an experienced centre back we'd be a few points better off.
If we'd signed an experienced centre back (150 games at League 1 etc) then Moore and Atkinson would have been better for it. A Duberry type signing was needed from them both to learn from. Both have the ability to become very good centre backs, but their development will not be as quick as it could be because they are part of a mix and match back 5. If we'd had an experienced centre back then Clare may have found it slightly easier, i.e. talked through the game.
Eastwood has been on a downward spiral for a while. Yes he has been great, but he is nowhere near a top Div 1 keeper. It is sad but we need to move on. If we couldn't move him on in the Summer, and if KR wasn't quite sure about Stevens then we needed a short term experienced keeper in with Stevens going out on loan to get proper experience. The time to give Stevens a chance is in a settled back 4, but he'll probably get a chance now when defensively we are at the weakest we have been for a while and that is poor management.
Hall, Mousinho are 2 wasted squad players and it seemed quite obvious that their playing time with us should have been up. Why give Hall a new deal? Again in different ways both have been great but we need to move on. I can understand the gamble on Winnall, Taylor has had his niggles and we needed an experienced option if he broke down. I reckon between then KR was hoping to get 46 league starts, I can understand that gamble and it may still come off.
Substitutions & formations. Tuesday's subs worked, yesterday's didn't and some will say that is the way it goes. But it was obvious yesterday we needed at least 1 experienced sub to come on, someone with legs who would tighten us up in the middle of the park. Had he made that substitution then we would have had a more solid base to counter attack from. With 5 substitutions it was maddening we didn't put Forde on to help give us that base.
It's been pointed out before but we are so soft, and at times must be a dream to play against. How can this not be seen by KR, how can it not have been addressed properly? Earn the right to win and then play your snazzy football. Recent comparisons with the likes of Appleton's team are obvious, some of his players had top flight ability along with the right mental toughness. But how about an Andy Crosby type figure at the back? Nothing spectacular just someone who knows their job and is a leader.
His attitude when things go wrong is poor. His comments about Sykes were bang out of order, he may have thought that but do it in private. That is just poor man-management, such public 'hanging out to dry' is a long-standing ugly characteristic of his management. Tactically he has messed up big games when the pressure is on (free hits against the likes of Man City / West Ham are different kettles of fish) and his treatment of certain players publically (Agyei, now Sykes) is bang out of order.
I'm not yet calling for him to be sacked, but someone in the club has to hold him to account for his post Wembley performance. I can't believe his contract will be written in a way that we simply have to pay the remainder off if he is let go, surely there will be performance clauses in there etc (12 months notice??). Regardless, if in a couple of months we're still seeing similar muddled and gutless performances which are followed by more singling out of players then he'll need to be gone.
The January window is going to be huge, a couple of players need moving on / paying off and a couple of sensible & pragmatic signings are needed.