Memo to Mr Brent and the board !

[moles40]

This could be a defining period for James Brent.

Last time we were relegated it was understandable. This time it won't be and the knock on effects could be very detrimental. Who knows how many (or few) will buy season tickets for League Two if it happens. I hope there is a contingency plan on place.

No matter how many times people say we won't go down, the reality is, we might. We're currently the worst team in the division and our current efforts aren't working. Either Adams needs to change things on the pitch or we need to change Adams.

Thing is ,he sets us to not to concede ,and try to nick a goal then defend the lead.

Yet we have one of the worst defensive records in this league.

And still he persists with the same tactic,every single game.

Is he really that clueless this season

 

[Ade the green]

Now we come to the nub of it, Ade. You say we are 'down and out' as we lie four points of lower mid table in November.

That's an unreasonably negative position by anyone's measure.

And being bottom is reason to be optimistic? Answer without talking about form, betcha can’t.

If you don't want to discuss 'form', I suppose there is the small matter of 86 points and promotion last season alongside home and away matches against Liverpool. Some other things Derek Adams has delivered.

That’s fine. Well done last season Adams. This season however in league 1 against better opposition.

I wondered this morning about Adams recruitment. In most cases he has stuck with the side that ended last season in League 2 so what was the point of recruiting anyone. Lameiras, Ainsworth, Ness (injured!) were all touted as being a progression in quality and yet Adams has steadfastly refused to try them for any period of time. Likewise but differently, Wylde! Adams knew what he was getting and what he could do so why get him in to ignore him.

Only Joel Grant has really been used more readily and then in place of Jervis mostly and I know which of those i’d prefer. ATS has got his chance due to Miller being suspended for a fair few games so why the reluctance with his new recruits?

 

[ivordewdney]

Think the clue is in the laughter directed at us due to his “deluded Derek “ comments after the Portsmouth game ! It was an appalling performance , negative ,clueless and soulless and typical of so many this season .
His deluded post match assessment and stubbornness speaks volumes for the underlying problem that will not change until he goes .

He is the Pulis and we are the West Brom of Div 1 , and we know how that developed over the years !!

 

[Ade the green]

How did Barnsley's form turn out for them a few years ago? relegation battle up until Christmas, in the playoffs by Easter, in the Championship by the May Bank Holidays.

What point are you trying to make? You'd rather us not increase our points per game average by month? Or that fans should pay no attention to the fact we win some games now and fight for hard fought draws as opposed to losing all the time with men sent off like in September?

The very fact that two different posters have made two different points about form shows it’s meaningless unless taken in hindsight. We have no way of knowing how it will change either for the better or for worse. What we do know which is a stand alone fact is that we are bottom and will still be in the relegation positions next week. How long we stay there is anyone’s guess and if we stay there at some point even the most vociferous defenders of Adams will have to concede he and his tactics and his recruitment are what lead us to relegation.

If we manage to pull away from the bottom 4 and do so by more than goal difference I will gladly apologies to all and sundry but I will still want a different manager to lead us forward.

You are talking about form like it is just a series of data.

I'm talking about form as evidence of differences on the pitch.

PL2 identifies the turning point after Fleetwood when the players held an inquest as to what was going wrong.

Shrewsbury were the visitors, and two gritty draws against decent opposition followed.

Immediately you could see Argyle were playing with focus, dedication and shape. Previously far more ordinary teams had been beating us.

After the draws came wins against Wimbledon, Grimsby, Bradford and Northampton, with a boring defeat to Portsmouth and a loss to Oxford after an unjust red card.

I personally think we are a lower bottom half quality side in this division and it won't be long before the table reflects that.

But there is no telling how long any improvement in form will last. That’s all i’m Saying. If it takes a turn for the worst we’ll be cut adrift so we need (if we are serious about safety) to improve vastly on the form we’ve shown and that is not looking likely. Turn loses into draws and draws into wins etc.

There’s a saying used a lot on here- “class is permanent and form is temporary”.

 

[Knibbsworth]

Well we had enough 'class' to get 86 points last season, and form since Shrewsbury has been top half, so perhaps the only 'temporary' part is the August and September form which saw us end with 5 points from our first 10 matches.

Not worth sacking the manager then is it?

 

[Ade the green]

Well we had enough 'class' to get 86 points last season, and form since Shrewsbury has been top half, so perhaps the only 'temporary' part is the August and September form which saw us end with 5 points from our first 10 matches.

Not worth sacking the manager then is it?

This shouldn’t even be an issue then as i’m sure you’d agree then that he should have been sacked weeks ago.

How many times. We’re in League 1 this season so regardless of what he achieved last, he hasn’t prepared us well enough for league 1. No striker, very little support anyway if we had one, ill discipline which was allowed to continue for too long, dull wasteful tactics and a very poor showing in the media regarding his and the team’s performances leading some to think he’s lost it.

When you reply, can you do me a favour and copy and paste this as i’m Only going to give you and the others the same answers to your same question.

I wanted him gone in pre-season BTW.

 

[Knibbsworth]

Well we had enough 'class' to get 86 points last season, and form since Shrewsbury has been top half, so perhaps the only 'temporary' part is the August and September form which saw us end with 5 points from our first 10 matches.

Not worth sacking the manager then is it?

This shouldn’t even be an issue then as i’m sure you’d agree then that he should have been sacked weeks ago.

How many times. We’re in League 1 this season so regardless of what he achieved last, he hasn’t prepared us well enough for league 1. No striker, very little support anyway if we had one, ill discipline which was allowed to continue for too long, dull wasteful tactics and a very poor showing in the media regarding his and the team’s performances leading some to think he’s lost it.

When you reply, can you do me a favour and copy and paste this as i’m Only going to give you and the others the same answers to your same question.

I wanted him gone in pre-season BTW.

Form is temporary, class is permanent, like you say.

The greens are staying up.

If you wanted a promotion winning manager gone in the summer, it says more about your prejudices than the manager's ability to keep the club up.

 

[Biggs]

Whatever anyone's opinion on Adams, I'm glad we have a board that doesn't panic and is loyal to whoever the manager is. You can say most clubs would have sacked Adams earlier this season, but I'm glad we've not given in to that particular trend.

If and when we do survive this season, it will be a bigger achievement for DA than promotion. Because turning it round after a catastrophic run of results is a far greater test of managerial skill than walking into a club and everything going well.

Clearly, Adams is at least partly at fault for that run of results, mainly through poor recruitment in my view. But mistakes happen and can't be punishable with a dismissal. It's about how he learns from those mistakes that is key, and we're seeing us get in touch with lower mid-table with a transfer window not too far away.

 

[Greenskin]

Think the clue is in the laughter directed at us due to his “deluded Derek “ comments after the Portsmouth game ! It was an appalling performance , negative ,clueless and soulless and typical of so many this season .
His deluded post match assessment and stubbornness speaks volumes for the underlying problem that will not change until he goes .

He is the Pulis and we are the West Brom of Div 1 , and we know how that developed over the years !!

It "developed over the years" that Pulis got Gillingham promoted, saved Argyle from relegation, got Stoke promoted and attained their highest league positions for many years while reaching an FA cup final and playing in Europe, saved Palace spectacularly from relegation and subsequently guided them to their highest ever PL position and had a couple of very decent seasons in the premier league at WBA prior to this one.

Apart from that, his career has been a load of crap.

 

[Tony Flags]

Well today PASOTI is an interesting read, partly because we lost, partly because of the performance, partly because of Derek saying we were the better team, and partly because we are all frustrated.

There seems to be a mix of;

1) We're doomed - we are bottom of league no other factors count
2) We're probably doomed - we are improving but not enough to make the difference
3) We're probably doomed and I don't like the way we are trying to get out of this
4) We're not doomed - we've turned the corner with no fact or support
5) We're not doomed - we've turned the corner with bizarre stat
6) We're not doomed - here is a random fact of another team that was an exception not the rule
7) We're doomed if we change Derek, keep Derek and we'll make the promised land in a few years

The important bit for me when deciding if we stick with Derek is what does the league table look like if we only take into account goals after the 73rd minute, but before the 86th minute, when it is not raining. That is the important stat, excluding mid-week games obviously.

 

[Ave IT]

How did Barnsley's form turn out for them a few years ago? relegation battle up until Christmas, in the playoffs by Easter, in the Championship by the May Bank Holidays.

What point are you trying to make? You'd rather us not increase our points per game average by month? Or that fans should pay no attention to the fact we win some games now and fight for hard fought draws as opposed to losing all the time with men sent off like in September?

The very fact that two different posters have made two different points about form shows it’s meaningless unless taken in hindsight. We have no way of knowing how it will change either for the better or for worse. What we do know which is a stand alone fact is that we are bottom and will still be in the relegation positions next week. How long we stay there is anyone’s guess and if we stay there at some point even the most vociferous defenders of Adams will have to concede he and his tactics and his recruitment are what lead us to relegation.

If we manage to pull away from the bottom 4 and do so by more than goal difference I will gladly apologies to all and sundry but I will still want a different manager to lead us forward.

You are talking about form like it is just a series of data.

I'm talking about form as evidence of differences on the pitch.

PL2 identifies the turning point after Fleetwood when the players held an inquest as to what was going wrong.

Shrewsbury were the visitors, and two gritty draws against decent opposition followed.

Immediately you could see Argyle were playing with focus, dedication and shape. Previously far more ordinary teams had been beating us.

After the draws came wins against Wimbledon, Grimsby, Bradford and Northampton, with a boring defeat to Portsmouth and a loss to Oxford after an unjust red card.

I personally think we are a lower bottom half quality side in this division and it won't be long before the table reflects that.

Since the Fleetwood game our results have been....... DDWDWLWL
That's 12 points from eight games - or an average of 1.5 points per game that would see us comfortably survive if maintained for the rest of the season (we needed 1.35 per game after Fleetwood so we're still ahead of schedule).
#ALONGWAYTOGO

 

[oddball]

since the beginning of the season we have accumulated 17points from 20 games which if maintained for the rest of the season would give Argyle 39points,and probable relegation....wonderful things figures..,

 

[NorfolkGreen]

Does a chart exist which shows our points gap to safety over the course of the season?

Let’s ignore the first 3 weeks of the season as that is when points are meaningless.

All these stats are easily researched in back issues of The Football League Paper.

27 Aug 2 points above the bottom 4
03 Sep 1 point above bottom 4
10 Sep 1 point above bottom 4
17 Sep 2 points from safety
24 Sep 2 points from safety
01 Oct 5 points from safety
08 Oct 5 points from safety
15 Oct 7 points from safety
22 Oct 3 points from safety
29 Oct 5 points from safety
05 Nov FA Cup week
12 Nov 2 points from safety
19 Nov 5 points from safety
26 Nov 4 points from safety

For me and I do appreciate it may be just me, this is the most important set of information . It shows our difference from safety and over the course of the season looks reasonably static, which is worrying and doesn’t include goal difference which I guess has been consistently 4-5 worse than the team in 20th.

 

[metroace]

But at least we haven't lost touch with safety (yet).

 

[NorfolkGreen]

But at least we haven't lost touch with safety (yet).

Absolutely and that is a positive and gives us hope, although I could be in sight of the shore and still drown, it’s going to be a nail biter this season.