Luke Williams

[Ells]

I'm not shutting up from a fucking wrestling gif.

[theakston2k]

As an aside, I'm starting to get seriously fed up with what i consider to be a poisonous fan base at the club

I can stand poor results here and there but things like that FB group I cannot.  For them to be up in arms that the club stopped people live streaming games  - which is absolutely illegal - and encouraging other people to be equally up in arms is disgusting and I'm starting to feel embarrassed that I associate myself, although loosely, with people like this. 

This. The worst thing about the club is a element of our fan base!

[horlock07]

Nathan Thompson fucked up again at the back for their goal. Can Luke Williams really be blamed for that? Can he be blamed for Branco's clumsiness for the first?

Yeah because Thompson is 'one of our own' and thus blameless.

[horlock07]

This is my biggest gripe with our system, we're a good season away from being in one of Europe's top 5 divisions - attendance wise - surely we can find room for one CB between 26 and 32 years old and one other in either a CM or CF role with the necessary know-how to get through games like last night when it is obvious what we're doing wrong.

I believe Power is doing what he feels best for the club, he's not going to make money unless he does, but successful teams breed bigger transfer deals, we reaped that off the back of our last play off season but we got very lucky that season in terms of our goals against column. 

We could really do with an age appropriate Darren Ward or in an absolutely ideal world an Ian Culverhouse to talk our promising younger players through the game.  It just makes sense to allow for this in our setup to allow said younger players to get out there and do what they're good at in order for us to either move up a division or for them to at least be worth a decent fee individually.

As an aside, I'm starting to get seriously fed up with what i consider to be a poisonous fan base at the club, this may be my last season of a reasonable attendance rate as I'm looking to extend my 6 winter months in France to full time as I'm seriously looking into buying a bar in the Alps which would require a 12 month commitment. 

What upsets me is that I might not care about not being active anymore, the last 12 years I've been away from November onward I've missed going hugely but the last couple of months have been horrible. 

I can stand poor results here and there but things like that FB group I cannot.  For them to be up in arms that the club stopped people live streaming games  - which is absolutely illegal - and encouraging other people to be equally up in arms is disgusting and I'm starting to feel embarrassed that I associate myself, although loosely, with people like this. 

Agree with all that but.....

Don't know what Power has to invest to get us over the line into the Championship but there are no guarantees with such investment and he may think its not worth the risk, especially if we do get promoted he will just be battered by the fan base for making a profit and get accused of being a crook more vociferously by all and sundry.

[horlock07]

I can't get this vision out of my head of you riding round on a unicycle blowing a party streamer whilst writing these posts Reg

It's not just me then

[Batch]

surely we can find room for one CB between 26 and 32 years old

Branco IS 26, disappointing that he's the elder statesman.

I can stand poor results here and there but things like that FB group I cannot.  For them to be up in arms that the club stopped people live streaming games 

Seriously? I steer clear of that group, they were lucky not to be chucked out. Might have to re-join to troll.
--
There is bound to be a negativity around the same shit happening when it happens against our local rivals in the the space of a couple of weeks. Anyone thinking this wouldn't be the same from the fans at almost every other club is a bit special themselves (not at you KT)

[chalkies_shorts]

Agree with all that but.....

Don't know what Power has to invest to get us over the line into the Championship but there are no guarantees with such investment and he may think its not worth the risk, especially if we do get promoted he will just be battered by the fan base for making a profit and get accused of being a crook more vociferously by all and sundry.

I'm not that interested in the Championship. I'm not that interested in Power. The fact I'm not interested in Power is progress itself. It is right, however, that he comes under scrutiny - but in the right way. I don't like every thing he does and he's his own worst enemy when it comes to people adding 2+2 and making 67 or possibly 4.
All I want is a team that competes and doesn't self destruct. If we lose I want it to be by better teams playing decent football, not by our continual ineptitude at the back. We are so predictable and downright stupid. Bury played solid banks of 4, Rovers went 3 up. Both opposition managers done a job on us tactically and we did a job on ourselves with our gross, perpetual incompetence. Neither team will be anywhere near the top at the end.
Luke Williams may be a great coach but I haven't seen much evidence of it. I've seen even less ability as a manager. Its nowhere near time to press the button but it is time to sort the defence out and I agree about Thompson. that goal Tuesday really sums up where we're at.  No doubt on Saturday we'll have other examples and some more Tuesday.   

[Quagmire]

I doubt teams even scout us any more, no need when we have been exactly the same for close to 3 seasons.

[horlock07]

I'm not that interested in the Championship. I'm not that interested in Power. The fact I'm not interested in Power is progress itself. It is right, however, that he comes under scrutiny - but in the right way. I don't like every thing he does and he's his own worst enemy when it comes to people adding 2+2 and making 67 or possibly 4.
All I want is a team that competes and doesn't self destruct. If we lose I want it to be by better teams playing decent football, not by our continual ineptitude at the back. We are so predictable and downright stupid. Bury played solid banks of 4, Rovers went 3 up. Both opposition managers done a job on us tactically and we did a job on ourselves with our gross, perpetual incompetence. Neither team will be anywhere near the top at the end.
Luke Williams may be a great coach but I haven't seen much evidence of it. I've seen even less ability as a manager. Its nowhere near time to press the button but it is time to sort the defence out and I agree about Thompson. that goal Tuesday really sums up where we're at.  No doubt on Saturday we'll have other examples and some more Tuesday.   

Therein lies the problem, we play rigidly to a system, not the abilities of our players. Since way beyond Williams we have played tippy tappy out from the back with defenders who don't have the passing ability to play it, just because John Stones could potentially play our system does not mean a level 3 player can, if they could consistently they would be playing at a higher level than we are (hence why Kasim and Thompson are still here, great in patches but consistently no, I used to watch northern league a lot and Lancaster City had players who once a season could put national players to shame but the rest of the time were mediocre hence the level they settled at).

Its easy, put pressure on defenders who are not that comfortable on the ball and they will make mistakes and give it away, even if your strikers just do it for the first 10 minutes of the game it will always be on their mind and lead to errors, add to that certain midfielders apparent inability to concentrate for an entire game and give the ball away and its hardly surprising we lose it a lot, add in limited pace to recover and we are knackered - easy to read and not rocket science to counter tactically as managers have realised.

[Flashheart]

It's not the system. An 8th place and our highest finish in 15(?) years is testament to that. Lingy made it work also.

[horlock07]

It's not the system. An 8th place and our highest finish in 15(?) years is testament to that. Lingy made it work also.

It is the system if you don't have the players with the ability to play it!

[sonicyouth]

It's not the system. An 8th place and our highest finish in 15(?) years is testament to that. Lingy made it work also.

It's the rigidity of the system and seeming refusal to evolve said system that is the issue, not necessarily the system itself.

We have steadily declined since first adopting the so-called tippy tappy system and problems such as defensive frailties have always been there, we've just been more dominant in the past due to our quality in midfield/attack that we haven't come under so much pressure at the back.

Teams have us figured out, they know our weaknesses and how easy they are to exploit. We stubbornly refuse to respond and sometimes it works, more often it does not.

Personally I think one of our biggest problems this season is that the squad just doesn't seem right, it's a disparate bunch of mismatched players who never look like they understand one another. There are no partnerships and we are overly reliant on a spine containing two incredibly inconsistent players in Thompson and Kasim. In the games I've seen we've lacked energy and desire yet have been stupid and indisciplined.

We need a change and I'd dearly love to see Power react for once.

[JoeMezz]

It's not the system. An 8th place and our highest finish in 15(?) years is testament to that. Lingy made it work also.

The system has lead us to ship goals (2+ average a season) - very rarely do teams who win stuff/are promoted do they ship goals as frequently as we do.
One of the biggest ways Lingy made it work was by playing 4 at the back.

[Reg Smeeton]

Luke Williams may be a great coach but I haven't seen much evidence of it. I've seen even less ability as a manager. Its nowhere near time to press the button but it is time to sort the defence out and I agree about Thompson. that goal Tuesday really sums up where we're at.  No doubt on Saturday we'll have other examples and some more Tuesday.   

How long do you give an inexperienced manager to sort things out?

For me, Tuesday night was the bottom line....more or less everything was in our favour, lovely playing conditions, modest opposition not backed by the turn out they might have had, save for Doughty our full squad as stands for the season. Further a decent start, something we've not managed yet, but that was about as good as it got.

Power needs to accept his punt hasn't worked out...and make a change asap and get in a proper manager. We can't afford to let it drift, it was doing that in 05/06, when Kingy lost 6 in a row that we never recovered from. That 6 in a row is the worst run of consecutive league defeats any STFC manager has managed, tells us that Luke is half way there....

[horlock07]

How long do you give an inexperienced manager to sort things out?

For me, Tuesday night was the bottom line....more or less everything was in our favour, lovely playing conditions, modest opposition not backed by the turn out they might have had, save for Doughty our full squad as stands for the season. Further a decent start, something we've not managed yet, but that was about as good as it got.

Power needs to accept his punt hasn't worked out...and make a change asap and get in a proper manager. We can't afford to let it drift, it was doing that in 05/06, when Kingy lost 6 in a row that we never recovered from. That 6 in a row is the worst run of consecutive league defeats any STFC manager has managed, tells us that Luke is half way there....

Is JSW not in the squad then? 

So in a roundabout convoluted way are you saying after a run of three defeats WILLIAMS OUT - I think we have our first panic button pressed?