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Agree in principle on limiting the 'churn', but on the other hand a lot of that 'experience' has been ineffectual, injured, and/or inept (Messrs Fox, Colback, Paal, and Frey - I'm looking at you). Young or old, there's a feeling that a lot of this squad just aren't good enough often enough.
The one I'd be worried about losing is Chair as he's such a linchpin, and players with his sprinkle of angeldust are so difficult to replace, but I'm also worried about whether, or at any rate how quickly, he will or can come back and get back to the player he was.
Not sure about the Hatti Jacques reference, but I like Martin, who tries to play the game in the right way, so will take that as a compliment from the mad Muppet Chef. He (Martin, not Chef) deserves a gong just for his Milton Keynes Dons team scoring a goal - set gobs to gobsmacked! - after a a FIFTY-SIX passing move, a then record in 2021 (with possession stats only bettered by Barcelona and Man City at the time) and also having the most touches in the opposition's box that year. After stamping his class on Swansea, he then went and broke another divisional record at Southampton for keep-ball, and took them up on the back of a 25 match unbeaten run. If we could one day find that elusive striker we seem determined not to, he'd be brilliant for QPR if Marti turns out to be a very naughty boy after all.
How many passes did we manage vs Bristol in one go again? Three? And how many touches in their box to their 35? O yes, 8 - I just checked!
Those joyless dullards who think football is all about winning, like Alan f*cking Shearer, and/or the most passive-aggressive rope-a-dope slaughter of the beautiful game is OK if you 'grind out' and 'fight' for a result, like Ainsworth, remind me of the kind of morons who used to charge up and down during bouts of British Bulldog in the Scout Hut my mother packed me off when I was too young and programmed and stupid to do anything about it. I like a bit of blood and guts as much as the next guy, but football is ballet with a ball. Forget possession - they're the ones who should do one!
So this week, Marti and your merry men, try to f*cking entertain me now and then (and maybe win another home game while you're there), eh? Football's what we make it!
PS I'm not always as much of a cantankerous w*nker as I might sound, and there's a nicely nuanced spectrum of views on this thread, which I'm grateful for.
Skimming through Clive's Bristol report's pitiless forensic breakdown of how we are actually going backwards as a football team under MC, having begun the season worse than Ainsworth (this time with his players/tactics + a pre-season, and, lest we forget, beaten the previous season's club record for no home victories into the bargain), it becomes all the more glaring how some people still refuse to join the dots and instead give Marti a free pass (or even amplify him) for telling us we should be 'proud' of his team's utterly dismal stats, its benefiting from a plethora of disallowed goals/missed penalty decisions/psychotic goalkeepers in recent weeks, and inability or refusal (or both) to do what they're paid to do and, uh, play football. (I'm riffing on said report, though if anything with more rhetorical moderation.)
Apparently, what we should be proud of, according to MC and one or two posters, is that we work hard, haven't given up with less than half the season played, and mostly defend fairly well in the last 30 yards of the pitch from a block so low it's virtually underground! And all because we've got, when I last checked, four first teamers out (one now gingerly coming back, and one who's mustered barely a dozen games and four goals in all competitions for the club in nearly a year with us), and aren't very well-off. Marti is a football manager, so, however honest he likes to tell us he is, he'll make excuses (apparently, the fact that Brizzle had another day to prepare was worth mentioning in regard to the way the game played out) and spin things whenever he can, even if your eyes don't lie to you. I get that charade - albeit through gritted teeth! However, I posted a post-match pod with two ex-QPR players after the Bristol game, which made clear what a lot of bilge they thought it was, and how undeserved our point. No sh*t, Sherlock(s)!
Looking ahead to Preston, personally, I think I'd rather see us lose the game if it means we actually put in a credible 90-minute performance that offers us some feeling of promise and purpose. I'm a football fan who began with this club in 1976 and all that went with it. I don't want to go up two or three places in the table at all aesthetic costs. In fact, if that's the deal, I don't want to be a QPR fan at all.
I'm wondering about others. Would you continue to put up with halves like Oxford and wholes like Bristol if it means we stagger home to 16th? At one point does the beautiful game become so anaesthetising it's basically a sad and stupid way to spend time? If the coaching team aren't watching from the bench embarrassed and ashamed, they're not watching!
What do I fear we'll see? Another turgid display of Champ tripe with the sh*thousery starting about 30 minutes in, our coming in 30-40% possession and two or three on-target efforts if we're lucky. And, I'll put my house on it, another 0-0, or 1-1 at best (which the usual suspects will take).
I always stand by everything I write, so what's your (moralising) point? And, once again, if you read all my posts since I started writing for this site, only a small number could be construed as inflammatory/deliberately provocative - which is part of the point of a discussion board anyway! In fact, my rhetoric is actually often quite moderate compared to, say, Clive's (excellent) reports, and that of some others here. For my part, I try respond to people's posts and not the people. I really don't care who writes what, don't usually even notice, and have said so more than once.
If you think I need to take 'accountability', whatever that means, 'caricature' and 'scapegoat' seem to be the words for you to meditate on!
I don't know what's happened to him, and I agree it's rather pitiful. He needs to be offloaded back to any Scandi minnow who'll take him as things stand. Embarrassing for Marti and the recruitment team either way!
I get that, but I still just don't rate some of the performances as anything like as creditable, overall, as the manager (who has to be seen to talk us up, like all managers) and others appear to. As for players 'giving up' because some of their teammates are getting treatment remotely from Dubai, you seem to be saying that wouldn't have been surprising! In fact, as I'm sure most people would agree, 100% effort is the minimum requirement, no matter how bad the injury list gets! Have some standards for the players, and some respect for the fanbase! If anything, it should be the reverse - the players who are coming in have an opportunity to show what they can do (or, in some cases, what they can't do)!
With Chair coming back, we only have three significant injuries, all of whom we're told are imminent returnees (and in fact were supposed to be back by now), and the likes of Frey were hardly tearing up trees before this, so that issue becomes a smaller and smaller fig leaf going forwards. Meanwhile, it worries me that MC cites the extra day of prep that Brizzle had as some kind of mitigation for that utterly execrable first half performance and barely improved second half, as well as their superior athleticism. That's why and where my patience runs thin, and my frustration kicks in. If we're not as 'athletic' as our opponents, why not, and what are the coaches and backroom staff doing about it? And how is it that other teams with three or four out don't revert to such an enshelled first 65 minutes, we might as well have played a flotilla of prawns (25% possession and no shots)?
To sum it all up, in recent weeks, while I'd be churlish not to give us some credit for defensive resilience, organisation, and a creditable/somewhat reassuring, if perplexing, points tally, and the Norwich performance was certainly very committed, this manager and his players still have some way to go for me to take them fully seriously and make me feel they don't look for excuses to cover up massively scary failings in their performances.
And people call me a provocateur/contrarian! More or less goes to prove that, on this board, it's not what's said but who's saying it that matters - just like life!
God, you're a monotonous twit, aren't you! Why not go away and, I dunno, make some vol-au-vents for a while, rather than embarrassing yourself again over your obsession with your tedious caricature of me and pathetic emojis! If you don't have anything worth reading to add to my threads (or anyone else's) other than childish idiocies, have the self-respect to shut the f*ck up!
MC said, twice, that 'the way the guys are currently performing is something to be proud of'. This after Oxford (first half) and Bristol (first half, but almost all of the second half too)!
I'm delighted with our points haul over recent games, but if you and dm don't find that problematic, you're (both) in denial!
Both thought we were 'poor', but, god, they're boring to listen to. Hilarious that the interviewer describes the likes of Rosenoir as 'prolific', who was ordinary at best during his time with us, and Thorpe wasn't much cop either from memory.
Two ex-pros write off our showing, while our manager tells us we should be 'proud' of our performance - go figure, folks! I'll make up my own mind as usual!
Manning was scathing about it after, which suggests their keeper went off piste. Hopefully Smyth will try the not going down thing a bit more often now, now he and we know he can finish. Doesn't alter the fact it was our sole shot after 65 minutes, but what a beauty!
The guy played 6 games (no goals) for Shamrock Rovers reserves - that was his 'starting level' before coming to us'. Since then, he's managed a paltry 6 goals in nearly 80 games for us and Brizzle. He's a non-scoring barnstorming winger, probably at League One level, for me, at best. Failing that, an amateur boxer.
For someone who's supposedly a good passer (just as well, as I'm not sure if he's good at anything else), Madsen's capacity to hit the first man from corners and free kicks is barnstorming!
We can/should do both, viz, question the recruitment and criticise the player - the one doesn't have to exclude the other. We might be stretched, but no one was holding a gun to Marti's head today and forcing him to play Ashby until the last 10 minutes of a game that was a continuous nightmare for him. He and his manager were very lucky he didn't cost us the game, and it's not the first time.
The manager's wrong - it's not harsh. Which is worrying in itself. Marti is mostly competent, but his decisions are mystifying at times. After our last two first halves, he clearly still has lots to prove and improve on. We got out of jail today with a glorious bit of inspiration from Smyth, but had Brizzle been firing up front, they'd have hammered us, as Manning pretty much said post-match.
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