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It seems the forum has gone a bit quiet on this one with the excitement of the FA Cup approaching. How we all feeling about it?
Think their home form is pretty good at the minute and it's a bit of a commute on what promises to be a cold, wet Tuesday night. Surely it's got all the makings of a scrappy 1 nil away win? :-)
Hopefully Randall and Wilbraham disappear from the line up for a considerable amount of time. Both very poor tonight. What’s the odds that the keeper changes on Sunday again...
Wilbraham last started a league game: 29th Sept McNulty last started a league game: 2nd October Randall has never started a league game for us before tonight.
No wonder the 3 of them weren't ready or able. Putting 1 in would be a risk Putting 2 in would be riskier Putting 3 in would be football suicide
Its a BRILLIANT goal to cap a BRILLIANT start by Rochdale - Don Goodman 26/08/10
It’s a sad shame we have to rely on Calvin Andrews. A striker should have been brought in over the summer. Dagnall would have done. We are a one man team. Without Henderson we would be screwed
Is consistently spelling Calvin's surname wrong supposed to be some sort of pathetic attempt to show how much disdain you have for the man or are you really that thick?
Very poor - disappointing Hill hasn't taken the blame for going 2-0 down so early. Yes individuals haven't performed but they haven't started games for months! To start so many in a tough away game was suicide.
Very poor - disappointing Hill hasn't taken the blame for going 2-0 down so early. Yes individuals haven't performed but they haven't started games for months! To start so many in a tough away game was suicide.
I could not watch this to the end. Hill has lost the plot. If you needed any proof that Hill is psychotic or deranged, same result, listen to what he says. Its been said often even by me that Hill is the best manager the club has ever had, yes he was 2 years ago but not now something has triggered his psychosis the man needs help, seriously he needs help... someone needs to sit him down and tell him to stop being an idiot. five changes before half time from a winning line up including. a player we all had forgot was on our books, a player that nobody can defend based on past performances, a player that hasn't featured for several games. Throw in a kid playing only his second league start and then say it went wrong after 10 mins when In reality it was never right.
Asking players who've been out of the side for weeks to suddenly perform as if they were fully match-fit and then slagging them off when they INEVITABLY aren't is quite simply rank bad management; both in footballing terms and man-management
Any player at whatever level needs a run of games within a tried and tested framework in order to produce something like their true form
He's quite simply set them up to fail, which they duly did. Not only that, he's set up the fans who travelled on a shite day to experience the trashing of their hopes, and on a whim
I go back to the point i made a couple of days ago - winning is no longer his priority; rather the exploration of his ability to sustain the circumstances he's built for himself at the club through earlier success, knowing he'll almost certainly never take it, or his career, much further. We, i'm afraid are simply pawns in his game, just as those players thrown onto the pitch tonight were
As per my post to Fitz, what a depressing, dystopian future you paint. I am struggling to embrace this fully, as any hope we have for the season is over and I haven't even finished my third box of mince pies! Has Hill now out-tinkered the Tinkerman himself?
I dread to think what the posts on here will be like post-Christmas if nothing has changed by then.
Is consistently spelling Calvin's surname wrong supposed to be some sort of pathetic attempt to show how much disdain you have for the man or are you really that thick?
As per my post to Fitz, what a depressing, dystopian future you paint. I am struggling to embrace this fully, as any hope we have for the season is over and I haven't even finished my third box of mince pies! Has Hill now out-tinkered the Tinkerman himself?
I dread to think what the posts on here will be like post-Christmas if nothing has changed by then.
Don't get the despair - yes, we're divided on players (eg me v D'Alien re Perkins) but overall why the despair now - our results by month are:- Aug: WLLDLL (0.8 ppg) Sept: WDWLL (1.4 ppg) Oct: DLWLW (1.2 ppg) Nov: DLWL (1.0 ppg)# Last 6 games we're 17th, last 10 we're 17th and guess what, after 20 games we're....17th! So we're inconsistent but the trend looks like just retaining our place in Lge 1 (cf James' poll) - what's new?
Don't get the despair - yes, we're divided on players (eg me v D'Alien re Perkins) but overall why the despair now - our results by month are:- Aug: WLLDLL (0.8 ppg) Sept: WDWLL (1.4 ppg) Oct: DLWLW (1.2 ppg) Nov: DLWL (1.0 ppg)# Last 6 games we're 17th, last 10 we're 17th and guess what, after 20 games we're....17th! So we're inconsistent but the trend looks like just retaining our place in Lge 1 (cf James' poll) - what's new?
There was no options for anything like finishing in mid-table. Which with our 'best manager ever' and 'biggest budget ever' we should be more than capable of doing. We've conceded 3 or more goals in 45% of our league games and the constant chopping and changing clearly isn't helping.
Fans have become disillusioned with Hill due to him blaming everyone but himself and berating paying fans all the time. He's called us for not having ambition before and now the shoe is on the other foot. The punching above our weight line got boring years ago.
The argument earlier in the season was, we were playing the best teams. We've now conceded 10 goals in our last 3 away games, all against teams that were below us at the time.
Don't get the despair - yes, we're divided on players (eg me v D'Alien re Perkins) but overall why the despair now - our results by month are:- Aug: WLLDLL (0.8 ppg) Sept: WDWLL (1.4 ppg) Oct: DLWLW (1.2 ppg) Nov: DLWL (1.0 ppg)# Last 6 games we're 17th, last 10 we're 17th and guess what, after 20 games we're....17th! So we're inconsistent but the trend looks like just retaining our place in Lge 1 (cf James' poll) - what's new?
James' poll is a good point from which to answer your question Tony. Not a knock on him, but I think he used the wrong word (and I may be guilty of this in the past too) - instead of expectation (which no footy fan should ever have by the way) - I think he should have used aspiration. Semantics I know, but there is a subtle difference.
I was hoping after the pre-season fans forum, after seeing Sam Hart play, after seeing Hendo bag his ton-up goal, after seeing Dan Adshead score on his u18 debut and play in all three games for his country, after seeing the new wunderkind Matheson in the Checka, after seeing Dooley make some jinking runs, after seeing Delaney get an u21 cap for his country, after seeing Alby get a worldie, after adding Zac Clough and hearing Hilly say we are on the verge of something special ……… last night happened. It was one game, I know, and I am not normally a member of the knee jerk brigade, but for me, the "despairing" feature of last night was that we don't seem to be learning from our mistakes. I hoped last season was a blip. I am coming to the dawning realisation that unless evidence to the contrary appears soon, it is going to come under the heading of a habit, not a blip.
Even if we have another great escape it would not be a disaster for the club. The thing is though, winning breeds winning and momentum is very important in psychological terms. Two bad seasons back to back has the danger of becoming a mindset. That's what's worrying me at present, when my "aspirations" as stated previously, are that we should be a top half club with the players we have and their ability to play that we have seen in the past. At the moment, we are less than the sum of our parts. Under KH, historically, we have always been greater then the sum of our parts until last season.
Is consistently spelling Calvin's surname wrong supposed to be some sort of pathetic attempt to show how much disdain you have for the man or are you really that thick?
Re the poll, shouldn't have used the word just. I did mean anywhere from 7th - 20th when saying retain league one status.
Re last night don't despair. It sounds like Hill has settled on who his best squad and formation is hopefully this will mean consistency in team selection, injuries permitting.
'Only happy when you've got it often makes you miss the journey'
Its hard to know where to start analysing the whys and wherefores of the game last night, but the moment I saw the team sheet I feared the worst. Playing McNulty, Alby and Randall in this game suggests Hill saw the game as a free hit, as most fans wouldn`t expect us to get anything from the fixture. How wrong could he be. I and many others saw this game as a platform for us to consolidate and perhaps even close the gap on the top half, but after 15 minutes that wasn`t going to happen. Credit where credit is due though, we did score 2 goals away from home for the umpteenth time this season, but when we are conceding for fun at the other end what is the bloody point. Any team should be built from the back but it seems although the brickwork still stands the mortar is falling out at an alarming rate because of the constant changes to personnel. Why does Hill have to approach each game as home and away? Why can`t we play as we used to away from home, when we`d win as many as we lost? Choosing a defensive lineup shows an instant lack of confidence of the manager in his players and encourages the opposition to go out and run riot. Hill IS consistent in the fact his team selection appears to be random and baffling for fans to understand. I`m sure the majority of fans know who his best team would be, so why doesn`t he? Why is it Rafferty always the first to face the chop (admittedly he wasn`t at his best v Accy) and what has happened to Cannon? Dooley didn`t have a bad game on Saturday and although Inman and Done weren`t brilliant either, did they really deserve to be dropped for inferior incoming players? I really don`t know what the answer is, other than I know who our best players are, whether or not they are on form. Is Hill chopping and changing the team purely to keep all squad members happy? I don`t think so or else Clough and Cannon would get playing time. In a nutshell I think our manager has lost his way and is trying to achieve a type of football which his squad isn`t capable of delivering.
Re the poll, shouldn't have used the word just. I did mean anywhere from 7th - 20th when saying retain league one status.
Re last night don't despair. It sounds like Hill has settled on who his best squad and formation is hopefully this will mean consistency in team selection, injuries permitting.
It sounded like a man who never shoulders any responsibility to me
It sounded like a man who never shoulders any responsibility to me
The worrying thing for me is the line "I thought I had picked the best team" I reckon he's in a group of 1 who thought that. Either he is lying to the interviewer or just kidding himself but that was clearly not the best team. Let's hope he comes out fighting on Sunday or the atmosphere could get very strained.
Its a BRILLIANT goal to cap a BRILLIANT start by Rochdale - Don Goodman 26/08/10
It sounded like a man who never shoulders any responsibility to me
But hopefully we will start to see a more consistent team selection. Also many people find it difficult to admit they are wrong. In Hill's defence once they cross the white line they are responsible for carrying out their role and instructions given
'Only happy when you've got it often makes you miss the journey'
As per my post to Fitz, what a depressing, dystopian future you paint. I am struggling to embrace this fully, as any hope we have for the season is over and I haven't even finished my third box of mince pies! Has Hill now out-tinkered the Tinkerman himself?
I dread to think what the posts on here will be like post-Christmas if nothing has changed by then.
I haven't even started on t' mince pies, but maybe underexposure to them causes me to not mince my words!
Oddly enough, i don't see it as dystopian. L1 football with an emphasis on incubating young talent who can be followed throughout their post-Dale future is hardly depressing either! But - and this is of course just my opinion - what it does mean is not expecting every game, especially in the league, to be approached with 100% focus on winning. Surely last night's starting XI is enough evidence, on top of the multitude of previous odd starting XI's and players played out of position?
I'm by nature an optimist, probably at the extreme end of that particular scale, but the evidence just keeps on piling up and in the end, i enjoy the challenge of seeing how things unfold when the manager can't be too ambitious for the team (or himself) but find consolatory mechanisms in the nurturing of talent; staying in L1 helps considerably to that end! If that's any consolation?
Don't get the despair - yes, we're divided on players (eg me v D'Alien re Perkins) but overall why the despair now - our results by month are:- Aug: WLLDLL (0.8 ppg) Sept: WDWLL (1.4 ppg) Oct: DLWLW (1.2 ppg) Nov: DLWL (1.0 ppg)# Last 6 games we're 17th, last 10 we're 17th and guess what, after 20 games we're....17th! So we're inconsistent but the trend looks like just retaining our place in Lge 1 (cf James' poll) - what's new?
As it happens - and just to prove i'm open to having a change of mind - I'd now say Perkins role should remain one of helping see games out from the bench. He did this again last Saturday - his chest down and immediate layoff with the outside of his boot to Williams in front of the main stand was typical of what he can give us - but he also lost the ball whilst running back from midfield, putting us at risk
Now, if a younger player does that (and they all do) it's a learning curve, but i'd rather a younger player was learning from a starting line-up point of view
I haven't even started on t' mince pies, but maybe underexposure to them causes me to not mince my words!
Oddly enough, i don't see it as dystopian. L1 football with an emphasis on incubating young talent who can be followed throughout their post-Dale future is hardly depressing either! But - and this is of course just my opinion - what it does mean is not expecting every game, especially in the league, to be approached with 100% focus on winning. Surely last night's starting XI is enough evidence, on top of the multitude of previous odd starting XI's and players played out of position?
I'm by nature an optimist, probably at the extreme end of that particular scale, but the evidence just keeps on piling up and in the end, i enjoy the challenge of seeing how things unfold when the manager can't be too ambitious for the team (or himself) but find consolatory mechanisms in the nurturing of talent; staying in L1 helps considerably to that end! If that's any consolation?
L1 football and developing talent is indeed a worthy cause in itself. Spurs spent a long time as PL "also rans" developing talent and selling on until they got to a tipping point where they became a contender. That, in my opinion, should be our goal too, whilst developing talent in parallel (not a contender at a higher level - just getting in or around the L1 play-offs and always looking to better ourselves and hope to catch some lightning in a bottle one year). Had we played a Checkatrade-type team last night, I would have been interested to see how the young guns fared. Having Alby in the side though? Not only does he add very little at best, but he's a progress stopper for another player. I'd rather see Yonsi up there (who looks nowhere near ready btw) than a big fella who doesn't put himself about and looks like he's seeing his career out trying to avoid injury. That's what sticks in my craw. There was scant little ambition at all in that side.
I'm an optimist by nature too, and will "get my mind right" (a la Cool Hand Luke) by the weekend. I'm just very disappointed by the fielding of a side which had a snowballs chance in hell of succeeding. If Hilly has learned something and has got clarity, 0 points from an away game is a small price to pay too. I too will be looking for the positives come Sunday.
The worrying thing for me is the line "I thought I had picked the best team" I reckon he's in a group of 1 who thought that. Either he is lying to the interviewer or just kidding himself but that was clearly not the best team. Let's hope he comes out fighting on Sunday or the atmosphere could get very strained.
To be fair Hill has only ever needed a group of one to justify his selections.
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