It amuses me that some still think Darren is capable, or will for that matter, change anything. We are 14 games into the season now and nothing has changed in the slightest; if anything, the defending looks even more chaotic now that when he first introduced the nonsensical 5-3-2 system for us, the only difference between last night and any other week is that Derby actually had the ability to kill us off with their sustained dominance.
Look at our games this season and there are only really a couple that I can see where we have looked like a 'good' team, which is how we should be looking most weeks against inferior opposition.
Bolton (h) - We were awful and beaten accordingly
Forest (a) - Utterly dreadful display, but they failed to capitalise on their dominance
Norwich (a) - We outscored them, with Rhodes in particular missing a couple of gilt edged chances
QPR (h) - Awful first 45 minutes before our attacking players came to the fore
Boro (a) - We offered absolutely nothing
Stoke (h) - Our best performance this season in my eyes, but still ended up getting lucky with them missing a penalty that could have changed the course of the game
Blues (a) - We were absolutely awful and lucky to come away with a point
Bristol City (h) - They should have been 3-0 up before we fashioned our first chance
Milwall (h) - Our most comfortable game in terms of them offering little up front, but look at how average their players are
Preston (a) - Abject display with us managing to outscore them as we did at Norwich with a similar performance.
Sheff Wed (a) - Should have been dead and buried before Barnes magic saved us
Reading (h) - One of the worst first half displays you will ever see before their keeper came and missed a cross to get us back into a game we should have been dead and buried in yet again
Wigan (a) - Terrible performance in which we created absolutely nothing
Derby (h) - Not much more to be said
We have performed awfully. In short, Barnes and Gayle, as well as Phillips to a lesser extent, have dug us out of many a hole this season. The coaching staff are doing absolutely nothing to improve us and are far out of their depth. We have, as we did with Silva a few years back when we retained Pulis, missed the perfect opportunity to bring in a young coach who knows this level and has performed way above his pay grade at Brentford who was keen to take the job and instead have a bloke in charge who, I'm sorry, but you have to admit, is thick as two short planks, you only have to watch his interview post match last night to see that, alongside a bloke who is trying to implement the system used with Belgium and their far superior players with defenders who cannot pass a pub. Failing to bring in a right back in the summer, failing to bolster the centre of midfield because Darren clearly read Jacko waxing lyrical on here and felt that Brunt was going to be the Championship equivalent of Pirlo....so so many mistakes made already.
We are what, fourth in the league currently? And I am full of so much discontent it is untrue. Even when we went on a winning run, I remained on here head above the parapet predicting what was going to come based on our performances and here we are. Our defensive record is utterly lamentable and I have no faith that the only man who has the power to alter things will be able to come up with any answers.
Disgruntled.
Good post, and I agree with much that you say. I did not want Darren to be appointed, but I understand why he was, because ,
(a) The people running the club thought that he had done a good job , and that supporters would have been upset if he had not been given his chance. We this one would not have been,
(b) Secondly Darren was the cheap option, and would take the job without making any demands for a large transfer budget.
It is all about preserving as much money as possible for the owner, and hoping for the best.
Darren is not cut out to manage this club and is certainly not good enough to do so.
His insistence on playing this back three and expecting them to play out is ludicrous, and we have all had enough of it.
Frankly, for me, promotion back to a premier league where we would have not the slightest chance of competing, is not the priority.
We need a bright young manager, able to harness the best of our young players , and complement with other good young players from other sources, to play an attractive style of football, and properly compete at this level.
The retention of the old guard who have let us down time and time again seems to be another of Darren's traits, and his refusal to give our youngsters game time is cowardly.
Does he really think we are stupid enough to believe that even our inexperienced youngsters could possibly perform any worse than the likes of Mears, Bartley, Brunt, and HRK ?
I suspect that we will see a long drawn out wait for the inevitable dismissal.
