Gareth Ainsworth

[ZENITH R]

I loved watching him play for the R's. His 'up and at 'em style', with some thunder bolt goals made watching him exciting.

BUT ...

Being a good footballer and being a good football manager/ coach are very different things.

I believe Gareth should go, and I think he will next week for the following reasons ...

Football is a results business. Since arriving in February we have played: 27 games, won 5, drawn 4, lost 18. We have scored 9 goals and conceded 50 picking up 19 points along the way and losing our one game in the League cup. That is sacking material.

Home form? One home win since he arrived. That's 1 in 13.

Discipline, or lack of it, in 27 games we have picked up 63 yellow cards and 2 reds. There have only been 2 games where we didn't pick up any cards. Many of them for silly, stupid things like shirt pulling. Often giving away free kicks in dangerous areas of the pitch as a result. Last night, Jimmy Dunne made 2 school boy errors. This is the sort of thing the manager should be stamping out.

Tactics - last night they seemed to be, frustrate the opposition and stop them playing. They were working until we hit the self destruct button. But, we won't win anything playing like that, and it will be awful to watch. At 1-0 we had no plan B, we never seem to have a plan B with Gareth.

We create little and therefore don't score many goals. We don't defend as a unit and therefore concede lots of goals.

Motivation, there is little or no sign of that. Unlike many I thought well done Gareth for trying something a bit different with the Hakka. But, that stays in house. It turned into an embarrassment and a massive own goal, having the opposite to the desired effect for the players.

Chris Willock up until he got injured was our best player. A match winner. Now, he struggles for game time and is anonymous when he does get on. He clearly doesn't buy into whatever Gareth Ainsworth is selling, and I don't think he is the only one.

Set pieces ... woeful! Repetitive crap. It's almost like - if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Well, there are 10 outfield players, they are all being well paid, time to try something new.

Ainsworth talks every week about things are about to improve, but they don't. There isn't the slightest glimmer of optimism for the die hard fan, or even those with a passing interest.

Can he turn it round? Clearly not.


And finally ...

Sir Alex Ferguson (love him or hate him) was the most successful manager in English football. What would Alex do? What would he be saying to Jimmy Dunne after his stupidity last night? Or to Kenneth Paal for making a needless and reckless challenge in the penalty area?


I will be there on Saturday, and in Rotherham the following week. I will enjoy the social aspects, and meet up with friends and family, but I expect nothing from the team, or the manager. Leicester are head and shoulders the best team in this division I think they will pull our pants down and give us a spanking, and Gareth will be powerless to prevent or stop it.

[Rbee]

Of course Gareth has to go but it's still going to take a miracle for the next manager to get a proper tune from our unbalanced squad.

All managers make seemingly bizzare decisions, how long was Seny at the club before we decided to give him a game?

[Wegerle]

But a new manager will still only have a League 1/2 squad at his disposal. If we are not able to strengthen our squad in January with at least 4 or 5 good players we are going down whoever the manager will be.

[ZENITH R]

But a new manager will still only have a League 1/2 squad at his disposal. If we are not able to strengthen our squad in January with at least 4 or 5 good players we are going down whoever the manager will be.

I disagree. Most of the players have played successfully at this level or higher over a number of years. What is missing is a structure, game plan and tactics to bring the best out of them.

Begovic
Cannon
Dunne
Cook
Colback
Paal
Field
Willock
Chair
Dykes
Smyth

backed up by:

Armstrong Archer Clarke-Salter Dozzell Duke-McKenna Kakay Adomah Larkache Fox

That team should be good enough to comfortably avoid relegation. I do admit the squad is paper thin, as once you get beyond that we have next to nothing. So, some experienced older heads, including someone to score a few goals in January is a must.

[Rbee]

If the club had money to spend we would have brought back Chris Martin for sure in August who incidentally scored last night.

I wouldn't have Dunne in my team even before last night's shenanigans.

I do agree that we have the ability in the squad to be doing a little better than we are at the moment but I am still not sure if it's enough to avoid the big drop when you factor in the home form, players character, disciplinary and injury records.

[UxbridgeR]

How many more "experienced older heads" can we possibly need ?

We've already brought in Begovic, Cook, Colback and Fox, all now 30+, and most of the rest of that squad currently getting game time is in their mid-20s and beyond. Cook and Fox are injured, and Colback looks as if he's thoroughly fed up with life at LR already.

A striker has to be the priority, and if we can stretch to spending more, some pace and energy would be very welcome.

[Wegerle]

But a new manager will still only have a League 1/2 squad at his disposal. If we are not able to strengthen our squad in January with at least 4 or 5 good players we are going down whoever the manager will be.

I disagree. Most of the players have played successfully at this level or higher over a number of years. What is missing is a structure, game plan and tactics to bring the best out of them.

Begovic
Cannon
Dunne
Cook
Colback
Paal
Field
Willock
Chair
Dykes
Smyth

backed up by:

Armstrong Archer Clarke-Salter Dozzell Duke-McKenna Kakay Adomah Larkache Fox

That team should be good enough to comfortably avoid relegation. I do admit the squad is paper thin, as once you get beyond that we have next to nothing. So, some experienced older heads, including someone to score a few goals in January is a must.

I agree that a more tactical nous manager might brighten things up a little bit but I am far from impressed with the list of names you have just listed. When I read these names I fully understand why we are where we are. Some have been better but are over the hill, others never really made the Championship grade and a few others might become reasonable Championship players but need a better team around them to be able to grow.

[ZENITH R]

But a new manager will still only have a League 1/2 squad at his disposal. If we are not able to strengthen our squad in January with at least 4 or 5 good players we are going down whoever the manager will be.

I disagree. Most of the players have played successfully at this level or higher over a number of years. What is missing is a structure, game plan and tactics to bring the best out of them.

Begovic
Cannon
Dunne
Cook
Colback
Paal
Field
Willock
Chair
Dykes
Smyth

backed up by:

Armstrong Archer Clarke-Salter Dozzell Duke-McKenna Kakay Adomah Larkache Fox

That team should be good enough to comfortably avoid relegation. I do admit the squad is paper thin, as once you get beyond that we have next to nothing. So, some experienced older heads, including someone to score a few goals in January is a must.

I agree that a more tactical nous manager might brighten things up a little bit but I am far from impressed with the list of names you have just listed. When I read these names I fully understand why we are where we are. Some have been better but are over the hill, others never really made the Championship grade and a few others might become reasonable Championship players but need a better team around them to be able to grow.

All we need to do is find 3 teams worse than us, not challenge for promotion.

[beaglebum]

Don't you feel that it's almost crying out for Beale to return?

Despite being the most hated man at Loftus Rd last year, I reckon most fans would now forgive him if he can get us winning and playing again like last season.

Give him a contract until the end of the season and see if he can repair the dansge he caused.

[Montag]

NO. I think very few fans would forgive him. It would be a terrible mistake. The man is a scorpion. As George Bush once tried to say "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." This is a job for our best manager of the last 25 or more years: step forward Neil Warnock. That's if he can forgive the way this club have treated him.

[Nw6ranger]

Any half decent players that we got have stagnated or gone backwards. Nobody has progressed. Even our league 2 standard players are getting worse.
We should have kept MW on for another year.
Also, I do not understand why all the opponent players run faster than our lot.

[Trojan]

Perhaps GA could totally change tactics and start games on the front foot instead of setting us up not to lose.

[redinjun]

Listening to Gareth’s post match interview it sounded like reality was starting to set in, eventually.

I’m with Zenith, at different times most of these players have looked pretty good and surely the managers job it to get high level consistency out of them by creating a structure they buy into. At their confident best Willock and Chair can be top draw at this level. Hindsight is 20-20 but I’m not surprised they’ve regressed under Critchley and Gareth.

Beale is an interesting theme, I note the dramatic language around his ‘betrayal’ and I get the sense we’d rather get relegated than give him a go, seems like a biting off your nose mentality. And while Rowatt and Eustace are free we’d be mental to not be currently tapping them up, not that I would blame them giving us a wide berth.

[ZENITH R]

Any half decent players that we got have stagnated or gone backwards. Nobody has progressed. Even our league 2 standard players are getting worse.
We should have kept MW on for another year.
Also, I do not understand why all the opponent players run faster than our lot.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but MW had taken as far as he was ever going to. The end of his time as manager saw a terrible run of form. I think the decision to appoint Beale was bold and forward thinking by the club. Unfortunately, we all know what happened there. However, no one could have foreseen that when he was appointed.

[Trojan]

Remember when John Gregory came in? He didn’t sit back and pray for a lucky knock down, he started on the front foot and tried to attack, this in my opinion is what we should be doing. At least if we do get relegated we did it fighting and trying to win games.