The players.

Reminded me of Hope and Hayward when we signed them. Didn’t go well either.

I suspect a few players will be feeling personally culpable for PH's dismissal, not least those who have given away goals and penalties recently.

Quoted from Spurn boy

Something was sadly wrong somewhere, even Jason Stockwood mentioned it in his interview with JT.

Perhaps hurst wasn’t the problem perhaps somebody else was

Quoted from golfer

If we could get rid of all the players on the books in one go without having to pay compensation how many would we be prepared to  offer new 2 year contracts to ?    -- Clifton Cohen Hallohan ?  there's not many is there ?

Maher. Clifton. Cohen. Hollohan. Wilson. Rose. Mullarkey. Rodgers.
The above alone is more than a good enough spine for a mid table league 2 side. I really liked PH as a person but his tactics and formations have let him down this season sadly.

You are forgetting that Mcatee and Smith (and Lloyd) weren't our players.  Crocombe and maybe Orsi have been missed. But Eisa hasn't been injured for us, you didn't mention Wilson or Rose, and many thought Mullarkey would be an upgrade on Michee.    

Having said all that, it hasn't been a good 3 months, one win per month, and many dire performances.  We've lacked pace and creativity, we've been predictable and ineffective, and many players have been woeful after a decent start.
Player of the year so far would sure be Maher for consistency or Wilson for his goals.  Not many contenders.  Cartwright was my MoM yesterday, again serious lack of contenders.  Our loanees have done very little. And our use of subs has been laughable.

quote=120888]

No, we didn’t all think we made some good signings. We signed players who’d just been relegated (Eastwood, Rodgers, Mullarkey), midfielders who weren’t needed (Conteh), perennially injured players (Vernam and Eisa) and strikers who weren’t strikers (Pyke). These guys replaced Crocombe, Smith and McAtee. Those who blindly said they were upgrades had no evidence at all.

I personally was blinded by the signing of Vernam, but the others were clearly not wanted elsewhere, and haven’t done much at this level.

Some of Hurst’s acolytes were even saying that Conteh would leave for £1m, and he was the best player in L2 - either he was never that, or Hurst beat the class out of him.

We’ve been utter garbage since the Gillingham game.[/quote]

Quoted from RonMariner

We all thought that we made some good signings in the summer. The fact that they are not performing as well as expected may be because they are not comfortable in the roles they have been assigned, the formations they have been told to fit into and the tactics they have been told to adopt.

So instead of playing their natural game and in formations which play to their strengths, they have effectively been square pegs in round holes. So they are performing nowhere near their optimal level. Hurst has persisted with his systems despite the shortcomings that were plain for all to see.

The thinking may be that a new manager will utilize these players to far greater effect.   Let's hope so,

I think it's more of the converse, PH has been caught out by players not performing and has been tinkering to get a tune out of the squad and failed. Who expected Glennon and Hunt to be virtually absent from the matchday squad? This is combined with key signings being injured or not good enough; Vernam, Eastwood, Eisa. Watching Eisa yesterday and he just frustrates; he doesn't anticipate and make runs into space at the right time to give us passing options and also picks the wrong options tracking back to cover leaving Amos exposed. Comparing him back to Sousa, for all his lack of end product the one thing you rely on with him is providing an outlet. Amos was a bit at sea in the first half but did better in the second and was clearly up for it. there were occasions when he broke forward in space and Eisa was in the shadow of the defender when the pass needed to be made. Amos is what PH would have had in his mind for his squad role - a decent second choice L2 full back.

If Cartwright proves ok, then I agree the spine is there. Let's see what the new person does with the underperformers.

I've only seen the home games except for Bradford, which I watched on TV, and I think one of the biggest issues is that we seem to have missed more open goals than most of our opponents. We lost by two goals to Accrington after Eisa had somehow smacked a shot over the bar from about 2 yards out, then we missed another couple of open goals against Colchester when it was 2-2. You miss chances, you lose games. 6 points from those games and Hurst would still be in a job.

I must admit, I'm surprised we've struggled so much over the past month or so after a solid start to the season, but I think Hurst would have to admit that he's not got the strength in depth in the squad and we're not playing the high-tempo possession game we expected to see at the start of the season.

I suspect Hurst's loyalty to his players has led us to keep a few from last season who aren't quite up to the job, or at least have them as first choices when we really require a bit better.

It will be interesting to see who comes in as manager and see how they decide to play with the squad which they have available. You'd have to imagine that, barring a miraculous turnaround in form, we're unlikely to be worrying the play-off places this season. If we can pick up some results to drag our way up towards mid-table by January, I'd be very happy and I'd hope once the transfer window opens that we will add a bit of pace to the squad and have the option of a physical presence up front, even if they aren't starting games.

Quoted from Heisenberg

No, we didn’t all think we made some good signings. We signed players who’d just been relegated (Eastwood, Rodgers, Mullarkey), midfielders who weren’t needed (Conteh), perennially injured players (Vernam and Eisa) and strikers who weren’t strikers (Pyke). These guys replaced Crocombe, Smith and McAtee. Those who blindly said they were upgrades had no evidence at all.

I personally was blinded by the signing of Vernam, but the others were clearly not wanted elsewhere, and haven’t done much at this level.

Some of Hurst’s acolytes were even saying that Conteh would leave for £1m, and he was the best player in L2 - either he was never that, or Hurst beat the class out of him.

We’ve been utter garbage since the Gillingham game.

Neither McAtee or Smith were our players so we had very little choice in having to  find replacements for them. It is a very risky approach in building a strategy, game plan and team aroun loan players unless you have a cast iron chance of signing them permanently.

Quoted from rancido

Neither McAtee or Smith were our players so we had very little choice in having to  find replacements for them. It is a very risky approach in building a strategy, game plan and team aroun loan players unless you have a cast iron chance of signing them permanently.

Be more interested to understand how he believes Conten was not required? Assuming he thinks our midfield was good enough so just goes to show how different we all see the same game!

Quoted from AdamHaddock

I suspect a few players will be feeling personally culpable for PH's dismissal, not least those who have given away goals and penalties recently.

I’m not sure they’ll give a sh1t to be honest, all they’ll be concerned about is getting in the team under Ben & Shaun and after that the new manager.