[Dexy]

Bilic needs backing

We’re crying out forr some strength in key positions

Yes we are , but the same old problems appeared tonight .
Bilics needs to have a look at himself before chucking money all over.

[Albionic]

i think he stays with the same side (basically) for Luton, if (god help us) that goes badly it has to be wholesale changes ASAP

[TheJacko2000]

i think he stays with the same side (basically) for Luton, if (god help us) that goes badly it has to be wholesale changes ASAP

Papering over the cracks against the worst team in the division at home? Not for me. Changes must come now.

[Albionic]

Papering over the cracks against the worst team in the division at home? Not for me. Changes must come now.

He clearly thinks he knows who the best players are, why would he play what he thinks are not the best players in such a critical match ?

not saying he is correct, but .....

[timdon]

Pretty much all of us agree that Johnstone, Bartley, Livermore and HRK should all be dropped immediately. In all 4 cases, their form has plummeted to such an extent that we are virtually playing with 7 players. The acid test for Bilic is whether or not he has the vision and bottle to do what needs to be done. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect the only one to be replaced for Luton will be HRK.

[zippyandbungle]

NO ridiculous question. Unbelievable.

It’s really not

[frazzle]

Pretty much all of us agree that Johnstone, Bartley, Livermore and HRK should all be dropped immediately. In all 4 cases, their form has plummeted to such an extent that we are virtually playing with 7 players. The acid test for Bilic is whether or not he has the vision and bottle to do what needs to be done. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect the only one to be replaced for Luton will be HRK.

Keep Bartley in the starting line up. Hegazi has been hopeless.

[zippyandbungle]

No way Bilic should be sacked but tthere's bad form and there's falling off a cliff. He shouldn't be safe if he cannot get us back on track. Squad weaknesses are coming home to roost and Bilic needs a plan B to get some results quickly as his plan A is not working. The board need to really back him too with some quality and characters who will be needed if we're stand any chance of finishing top two or even top six the way we're playing. Lots of work to do and fast!

Shouldn’t be sacked but shouldn’t be safe .....I’d say he is in trouble right now...and more than himself he’s put the club at risk because why would good players want to join us at the moment?
Orsic and co must be looking thinking hang on....maybe these guys won’t get up
We had a huge gap, we could have been as good as up by now.....and got quality in
Billic must be accountable

[frazzle]

The disappointment I have is that Bilic doesn’t seem to have reacted to the dip in form. No fresh faces really, and absolutely no change to tactics to give both the squad and the opposition something new to think about.

We are desperately missing the left side of Gibbs and Diangana as it has such a big impact on the rest of the team.

[colinmax]

One superb move with Phillips getting to the by line and Kov should have scored but that was the sum total of dangerous moves.
We played some pleasant possession football in the first half but O'Shea wasted two centres and a shooting chance and even with good centres who was going to score?
It is not fair to criticise O'Shea on just this one performance but he reminds me of Dawson who was a decent CB but not a wing back.
 it is a worry that we have extended Kanu's contract when we clearly need a good fast striker in his position.

[Adder]

Something wrong with the mentality. Austin doing the showboat waving players over to celebrate after slotting the penalty to draw level (glad not many joined him). He should have gone straight back to the half way line and urged the team to keep/get some momentum.

Townsend should have started or at least come on half way through, he has a quality delivery in him, which I'm afraid Ferguson doesn't have at least for now.

[alex1]

One superb move with Phillips getting to the by line and Kov should have scored but that was the sum total of dangerous moves.
We played some pleasant possession football in the first half but O'Shea wasted two centres and a shooting chance and even with good centres who was going to score?
It is not fair to criticise O'Shea on just this one performance but he reminds me of Dawson who was a decent CB but not a wing back.
 it is a worry that we have extended Kanu's contract when we clearly need a good fast striker in his position.

I think you'll find we had more attempts on goal than Cardiff. However, our shooting and final ball in were abysmal.  Cardiff won it on basically their only 2 goal attempts. I can't remember any other shots from them. Agree that HRK is usually a liability. He's the furthest man forward but I can't remember him getting one shot away. Phiilips and Edwards created a fair amount of danger but their crosses are not consistent.  The problem for Billic now is that with key men unavailable, he hasn't got many alternatives. Barry and Brunt did ok v W Ham, but they are too slow to do the legwork in a high intensity game.

[paulosull]

Have given Sam some leeway but have to admit he was terrible tonight and needs dropping. Has to hold on to ball with their first goal but was shocked with the amount of the goal he left open for second and wrong footed to boot.

[baggieboyfred]

what a pathetic shambles that was not only did we fail to create anything worthwhile but we also gave them their goals, build up play slow and ponderous , starting to understand why Brentford sold us RS he is so laid back and casual that its quite surprising he does not fall asleep on the pitch he really needs to up the tempo both in his speed of thought and his speed of ball distribution, sadly am having to revise my thoughts on our situation , at the turn of the year I posted that we would get auto promoted no probs , sadly it looks at the moment we are going to have a battle making the play offs, the likes of SJ , JL, AH amongst others need replacing in the side, to be honest at the moment the senior pairing of Brunty and Barry look a better bet than JL and RS  in the middle should stick with naughty word for Luton game put Furlong , Ojayi back in defence and CA back up front

[albion59]

Why is it ridiculous?! I'd argue its ridiculous to think the bloke is safe and sturdy in the job!? Why did Moore get destroyed and his run of form wasn't as bad as this yet Billic gets a free pass? That is what's ridiculous

Its ridiculous because you can't keep sacking the Manager! Without Diangana and Pierera we have got the same s!@t players that got  Darren Moore the sack we hired him to do a job know let him do it and get players in he wants. Since Clarke we have had Mel Irwin Pulis Moore and Pardew as permanent managers we also had Downing Megson and Shan + another whose name escapes me for one game as caretaker manager's that's 9 Managers in 12 years including Bilic! It's about time the club backed a manager not sack him.

[Aussie Baggie]

Here is part of what Slav had to say after the match:

"It's simply not good enough at the moment. Told the guys we need to look at each other, not as soon as possible - but now, to what get back what we had. We don't have it in the moment. We can't say we were unlucky for seven games, can't blame anybody but us. We have to get it back. Simple as that. We weren't good enough.

"I can't be any harder, I spoke quite long in the dressing room. We need it back, we need the team back. We have to get back on winning track, first of all stop conceding goals."

If all this is true, then he's lost the dressing room simple as that.  It is obvious they are not listening to him otherwise there would be more effort and better results.

[beechyboy90]

 Poor again. We havent played well since that Swansea game since then lady luck has well and truly deserted us.

Constantly changing the wrong players. Townsend looked confident totally bombed. The "cup team" have played well yet not getting chance in the league.

Thrown away our best campaign start for 100 years 14 points clear of third now it's down to 2 and we cant buy a in we dont score and we give stupid goals away.

Goalie couldn't catch a cold he's shocking. Hegazi and bartley have been all over the place. Since ajayi lost form and partnership has broken we look even worse than before. Sawyers not doing it. Phillip's neither. Livermore and HRK have had their respective purple patches.

Insanity is doing the same things over again and expecting different results. Our spine is awful

[tuamigos]

Keep Bartley in the starting line up. Hegazi has been hopeless.

Bartley has been good all season playing on the left, Hegazi comes in and takes that slot, Bartley looks pooh.
Ferguson? can't see what he's doing in the starting 11, he's looking for a move, head not right.
Johnstone, I can't believe he's still our starting keeper. Bond needs to come in NOW.
We're missing our two best/most creative players so that isn't helping.
At the moment this team looks bang average at best.

[colinmax]

In the first half we played some good possession football but it was of the variety you expect when you are a goal up and only five minutes to go.
The whole point of football is to score more goals than your opponents but I could see little evidence of who was going to create the chances and who would convert them if made.

[WBAinDEVON]

at least i am on my best prediction run ever. 2-2 the luton game

[Droitwich Baggie]

If we hadn't had such a good start of the season, this is relegation form.
Slaven has to stop picking the "untouchables" and go on effort and merit.
Kanu, Livermore and Johnstone should be dropped immediately.

[baggiejohn]

Here is part of what Slav had to say after the match:

"It's simply not good enough at the moment. Told the guys we need to look at each other, not as soon as possible - but now, to what get back what we had. We don't have it in the moment. We can't say we were unlucky for seven games, can't blame anybody but us. We have to get it back. Simple as that. We weren't good enough.

"I can't be any harder, I spoke quite long in the dressing room. We need it back, we need the team back. We have to get back on winning track, first of all stop conceding goals."

If all this is true, then he's lost the dressing room simple as that.  It is obvious they are not listening to him otherwise there would be more effort and better results.

We didn't lose last night due to lack of effort, we lost because a) we can't score goals & b) we made stupid mistakes.
I don't think Bilic has lost the dressing room, the team has lost self confidence, & we've got 3 key players missing.
Saturday's game against Luton, will be a toughie as well, they're fighting for their lives & won last night, but a scrappy win for us would do team confidence the world of good.

[Fritzl Palace]

We wouldn't have gone to West Ham and beat their first team 1-0 if he had lost the players...

Look for the real reasons and you will see the common denominator as being the fact that we had no Johnstone, Bartley, Livermore or HRK. If he keeps picking those four then he will begin to lose my support I'm afraid, and I am a massive fan of his.

[boinging_along]

I will repeat what I said before, with HRK as our main striker we will ALWAYS struggle if we don't have an absolutely outstanding attacking midfield behind him.  That's what's happened, how many minutes since Swansea have Periera and Diangana played?  Without those two our forward line is too weak to worry the defence.  And with our defence gifting goals away we are always going to struggle.

I still insist Livermore was the best player on the pitch for us last night - slightly edging out Frov.  He was constantly looking for the ball, rarely gave it away, and broke up plenty of attacks.  I'm not sure what people expect of him.  Compare that to Edwards who constantly tripped over the ball, or Phillips who seems to have forgotten how to cross, or Krov who rarely wins the balls and struggles to stay on his feet.

[Hull Baggie]

at least i am on my best prediction run ever. 2-2 the luton game

Interesting use of the word "best" there Devon, you predicted that we'd lose 2-0 to Cardiff and draw 2-2 with Stoke, both of which were wrong.