So sick of negativity

Where would we be without IH? Roughly where we were before he was here in terms of PPG

Bignot 1.26 PPG
Slade 1.05
Jolley 1.30
Holloway 1.30

Bignot, Jolley and Holloway have all achieved what is roughly our "par" of around 14th position. Slade dipped below that par and was sacked for poor results.

Many will shout Covid regarding the progress or lack of made under Holloway and they’re not entirely wrong.

Before Covid it wasn’t much better, if a little more positive but it wasn’t players here necessarily have purchased.

Now we’ve assembled a squad of players on peanuts from clubs I don’t believe we’d have even thought about looking at unless we were lent offering these cheap rate contracts (it’ll remain to be seen if they’re a good thing or not). Can we truly judge the manager and the squad during these times? Many will say no...but had we had a good start, we’re near the top and winning more often than we lose I’d imagine nobody would be blaming Covid or the amount of games. Always easy to look for an excuse when you don’t win very often.

Undoubtedly the club have made mistakes, we’ve had players making costly mistakes, the manager, however proud he claims to be, has made mistakes. It’s as simple as that.

I don’t believe, Covid or not that Holloway will be gone (I wouldn’t have an issue if he was but plenty would disagree) but it’s impossible for people not to be frustrated, even the rose tinted brigade must be frustrated?

People claim it’s about survival but in all fairness, that’s been churned out as a justification for a lack of progress for a while now.

Quoted from aldi_01

Many will shout Covid regarding the progress or lack of made under Holloway and they’re not entirely wrong.

Before Covid it wasn’t much better, if a little more positive but it wasn’t players here necessarily have purchased.

Now we’ve assembled a squad of players on peanuts from clubs I don’t believe we’d have even thought about looking at unless we were lent offering these cheap rate contracts (it’ll remain to be seen if they’re a good thing or not). Can we truly judge the manager and the squad during these times? Many will say no...but had we had a good start, we’re near the top and winning more often than we lose I’d imagine nobody would be blaming Covid or the amount of games. Always easy to look for an excuse when you don’t win very often.

Undoubtedly the club have made mistakes, we’ve had players making costly mistakes, the manager, however proud he claims to be, has made mistakes. It’s as simple as that.

I don’t believe, Covid or not that Holloway will be gone (I wouldn’t have an issue if he was but plenty would disagree) but it’s impossible for people not to be frustrated, even the rose tinted brigade must be frustrated?

People claim it’s about survival but in all fairness, that’s been churned out as a justification for a lack of progress for a while now.

I think without Covid we’d have seen a completely different squad. I suppose you could call me “rose tinted” because I can see that we’re one or two things “clicking” away from being a very good side.

Yes I’m frustrated at some of the things that are happening, I said on here the other week if we got a penalty we’d probably play it back to McKeown, but I also appreciate that there might not be 92 clubs finish this season (and possibly less clubs survive if the season itself doesn’t finish)

I appreciate that lots of people are frustrated, I dare say the majority of posters on here are, but we have to remember the fishy is only a small proportion of people who follow Town.

Nobody likes seeing us lose but we all want a club to follow in the 21/22 season.

I think the worse thing is the posters who are nowhere to be seen when we win and come on here spouting venomous bile the second we lose. I assume the management and players read this board and when they’re low on confidence (evidenced by some of the play) being slagged off isn’t constructive. There are a couple of players in the squad I don’t think are anywhere near league 2 standard but I wouldn’t name and shame them.

I made some harsh comments on saturday after the match, I was very upset at the way we lost for that I apologise to IH and his team.

Unfortunately, the style of play does not rock my boat ( im old fashioned) , I don't want the lump it style just an abridged version of what we are trying to do. Pull the opposition about, open them, create a space and advance into it preferably into the box.

Anyway, I'm sure IH will get it right just do it soon.

Do you know what depresses me the most?  Is it Macca more and more becoming a liability, is it the lack of a proven goalscorer, is it because we don't create enough chances?  No, it's coming on the Fishy and reading all the sh!te you whinging, moaning, feckers spout every time we lose a match.  If you feel that strongly about our club, feck off and watch Scunthorpe every Saturday.

Quoted from 123614

Do you know what depresses me the most?  Is it Macca more and more becoming a liability, is it the lack of a proven goalscorer, is it because we don't create enough chances?  No, it's coming on the Fishy and reading all the sh!te you whinging, moaning, feckers spout every time we lose a match.  If you feel that strongly about our club, feck off and watch Scunthorpe every Saturday.

I think 17 years of depressing mediocrity would drive even the most optimistic fan to despair .

Quoted from 123614

Do you know what depresses me the most?  Is it Macca more and more becoming a liability, is it the lack of a proven goalscorer, is it because we don't create enough chances?  No, it's coming on the Fishy and reading all the sh!te you whinging, moaning, feckers spout every time we lose a match.  If you feel that strongly about our club, feck off and watch Scunthorpe every Saturday.

Why go there, they lose too .... how about all those small town inhabitants of Market Rasen & Caistor etc, pop down the A46 to the LNER/Sincil Bank?

A new SW Stand being built to allow more fans in, positive atmosphere abound, forward thinking Board, slick Buckley-esque football at its finest, 2nd Tier football on the horizon, what's not to like?

Quoted from 123614

Do you know what depresses me the most?  Is it Macca more and more becoming a liability, is it the lack of a proven goalscorer, is it because we don't create enough chances?  No, it's coming on the Fishy and reading all the sh!te you whinging, moaning, feckers spout every time we lose a match.  If you feel that strongly about our club, feck off and watch Scunthorpe every Saturday.

Do you know what depresses me the most? It's the people who utter sanctimonious crap as an apology for our continued inability to put together a decent football team. Yes, times are difficult but they're no more difficult for Grimsby Town than any other lower league club. Why can't we aspire to be better than we have been for the last 17 years?

It's a tough one the thing about playing out from the back.

Personally I've missed having a culture at the club, a style, a thing that separates us from the rest.  In 20 years we haven't had a style really.   I like the idea of my club having something that stands it out, a Grimsby Way if you like.

Holloway clearly wants his sides to play out from the back and I don't have any objections to that.  I think you need a balance and that you need to understand when to play it and when to just hoof it.  Even the very best teams and players will put it out of play when they have no other option.  The difference is that the likes of Van Dijk are quicker with their brain and feet than defenders at this level, therefore they won't be under as much pressure as often.  I think the problem is when players at this level try to be like Van Dijk and don't realise their limitations.  

If we're going to play out from the back we have to accept that we will, by default, face sides who will play a high press on us.  With all the respect in the world, if you're a relatively quick forward you're going to fancy your chances of catching either Waterfall or Pollock on the hop and do them for pace.  That, again just for me, is about creating other options when playing it out from the back.   That might be the fullbacks going wide/deep to create an angle, it could be a midfielder dropping real deep to create another angle.  The most pointless thing in the world is the goalkeeper playing it out to a centre-back when he has no angles to work with.  His options there are a) hoof it or b) try and take a  quicker and more mobile striker on.  Option a is pointless as you might as well get your 'keeper to do that in the first place and remove any risk.  Option b is just really risky.

It's not just about the defence messing about and buggering up.  It's the whole system isn't working (at the minute).  The team aren't offering the angles and options which leaves the centre backs very vulnerable.  It also seems to me that there's a lack of communication throughout.  

I can't help but think a lot of it is down to the constant changes in the starting eleven.  You get used to playing with certain players and over time you compliment each other with your styles and you'll adapt.  We've not had a settled side, especially in midfield, all season so it's no wonder they don't know who is playing with who or where they're standing.  I fully understand that the nature of this season means it fast and furious.  But even in a 'normal' season you would be faced with 3 games in 8 days at various points, you wouldn't change your side for the midweek game and then revert back to the original side for the final game would you?   If we've genuinely got players in the squad who can't handle Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday then they shouldn't be in our squad, that's the harsh reality.  

Yes, we will need to freshen things up at various points of the season and people will need resting.  But we need a settled side otherwise we're not going to get anywhere at all.  Holloway needs to pick his best XI, stick with it and tweak it as needed, be it to freshen tired legs or subtly depending on what we're up against.  I've never liked the idea of changing your system because what's in front of you.  It's too much on the back foot.  Go at teams and let them worry about you rather than the other way round.

For Saturday itself, I only watched it and actually thought we looked half decent.  Two bad mistakes at the end aside, which are significant to say the least, we were the best side and knocked it about really nicely.  We do lack a cutting edge up front but I can't help think that, again, that's down to a lack of understanding between whoever is selected.  

Negativity?  I think the biggest concern at the minute is the general apathy rather than negativity.  For sure it's because games are different when watching on a TV screen but I'm personally struggling to get too excited or upset over any results or games at the minute.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Do you know what depresses me the most? It's the people who utter sanctimonious crap as an apology for our continued inability to put together a decent football team. Yes, times are difficult but they're no more difficult for Grimsby Town than any other lower league club. Why can't we aspire to be better than we have been for the last 17 years?

Because there are loads of sycophantic Fenty supporters on here,well very soon they will be the only ones following Town,