Just Back

Waited a while to post, Osborne and Pearson great, subs were ok, Why didnt Gunning do the great block on one of their players earlier in the game, might have made them think twice about running at us, and someone should have nobbled Cooper early on, he made Davies look like a school boy. (Not difficult his positioning for most of the game was like watching a 5 yr old)  Davies was awful. he was actually taking the kickoffs, If we had a penno he would have insisted on taking it and I bet gone in goal if we gave a penno away.
Clements did a bit 2nd half but thats because Crewe sat back which gave him time on the ball, Jones looks decent.
Poor reffing today let their centre halves get away with murder and seemed to like booking our players for things he did not consider fouls against us,
Forget this 352 unless your wing backs have genuine pace and energy and your holding midfielder can read the game better so your central defs dont spend half the game chasing down the opposing wingers.
4 more wins and we a deffo safe.

Was like men against boys in that first half. Garbage and only McKeown and Osborne can come away from that with any credit. The fans deserved an apology.

Think it was coming because we never look convincing, even when we manage to come away with good results but I guess we'll have to judge for sure next season. Really don't think we needed to prat around changing the squad so much mid-season though.

Back To Essex...

My most bizzare game since October 1991 when Tranmere smashed us 5-1 in the Zenith Data Systems Cup.

Couldn't believe my eyes today... it was just so strange right fom the start

Gunning is a lunatic.

Bignot was a wally for doing a team talk at the end of the game next to the fans. I like and want him to succeed - but it was embarrassing

Quoted from Lincspoacher

Seen every game under Bignot so far and come to following conclusions

Squad overall improved in terms of individual players
Bit like Les Dawson on the piano, all the notes in wrong order. No clear pattern of play or system which for a full time pro manager is worrying.
Interviews  are a car crash. Tonight he ran out of cliches and his own answer for the performance was they got blown away in first twenty minutes. No excrement. The question was why. .......he was unable to answer and actually buried is head in his hands as was lost.

My fear is that if we see that he is full of cliches and seems more concerned about courting favour with fans by blowing smoke up our arses, the players will quickly suss him out too.

I'm not going to Newport, cos today has sapped me for a week

Bignot...honeymoon over lad and time to turn the talk into some walk.

I agree entirely with this post. His interviews are shocking! The team is completely disjointed. Most teams in this division can just plough straight through our midfield.
Where was any sort of left winger today? When we did manage to get the ball there was always acres of space over there with no one there or running towards it.
We look like Charles Charlie Charles Liverpool team from the Harry Enfield sketch show where they all just run after the ball in a group. So narrow! So slow! So clueless! This is all down to the manager. He has dismantled a decent team and yes some of the signings do look good. However it's how you use the tools that counts!

I wouldn't call them tools, they do have good games every now and then

Quoted from headingly_mariner

I also think we are in a tricky position. Bignot is good at signing loads of players, he doesn't seem to be particularly clever at getting them to play. Mike Newell spent his time signing loads of players.

Wow, someone else is on my train of thought. This is alarmingly like the Mike Newell debacle!

I wasn't at the game, but may still have a point or two to make.

Team performance is not about turning a switch and it happens-even with very talented individuals.

I don't know whether the goals were due to individual mistakes, or lack of team interaction-thoughts please.

Once you go 2 down in short order, the team chases the game. Did this happen and we were caught out, or were we just endlessly outclassed for 30 minutes?

Sometimes if you get a hot streak you over-achieve-did this happen to Crewe-their Manager would have certainly wound them up before the game-I assume MB told his players what to expect, that we could not just turn up and expect to win.

Were the last 60 minutes a case of Crewe sitting on a 4 goal lead, or did we get better.

Its all about opinions, but fans are entitled to theirs as much as players and managers!

Quoted from Lincspoacher

Seen every game under Bignot so far and come to following conclusions

Squad overall improved in terms of individual players
Bit like Les Dawson on the piano, all the notes in wrong order. No clear pattern of play or system which for a full time pro manager is worrying.
Interviews  are a car crash. Tonight he ran out of cliches and his own answer for the performance was they got blown away in first twenty minutes. No excrement. The question was why. .......he was unable to answer and actually buried is head in his hands as was lost.

My fear is that if we see that he is full of cliches and seems more concerned about courting favour with fans by blowing smoke up our arses, the players will quickly suss him out too.

I'm not going to Newport, cos today has sapped me for a week

Bignot...honeymoon over lad and time to turn the talk into some walk.

Thought provoking post

I don't think we need to hit panic stations just yet. Record in the last ten games is won 4, drawn 2, lost 4. We'll be OK, providing we can manage to keep a reasonable record for the remainder of the season.

What I do want to see is some sort of a coherent plan for how we're going to play. Are we going to pass it out from the back and play through midfield? Are we going to knock it long to the tall young lad on loan from Everton? Are we going to put it in the corners for the forwards to run on to? Are we going to sit back and defend in depth, trying to nick a goal on the break? Don't have a clue what we're trying to do, even after months under Bignot's management.

I can't help but feel that we're playing 3-5-2 because it had some success in a couple of big away games after various other formations/line-ups struggled but it seems most teams have worked it out since then. I hope the manager can come up with some sort of a coherent alternative before too long.

https://youtu.be/AeISHcF1ySU I actually feel sorry for Marcus, the guy is passionate and the players let him down