Is Ling being found out?

[hector]

Probably get lots of stick for this but I don't really care but everytime I hear or read Ling's interviews he comes across like a local league manager who hasn't a clue.

Who shall we play up front?

Atieno or McPhee? Picks one and invariably substitutes him with the other. Let's face facts. Neither are good enough for League 2.

With the run of one win in nine following his winless half a year at Cambridge (who seem to be doing ok now) it does not really augur well because beyond the 1st XI there is nobody in the squad who is good enough to bring in, hence the hammerings for the reserves.

The year of 'consolidation' is a handy little smokescreen for a season that seems insipid, dull and possibly about to get a lot worse.

I wonder whether his regular criticisms of the players is going to engender a good team spirit.

For example: Robertson seems to be getting some stick from a section of fans for some reason yet last year he was one of our most consistent performers. I really do not think the left-side of central defence suits him. Is Saah incapable of playing there when he is supposed to be the more experienced of the pair.

I cannot really put my finger on what it is but I am not enjoying this season so far. I have a season-ticket so will continue to go but even with that I find myself not looking forward to saturday.

[Southampton Gull]

Fair enough to raise the question I suppose but what exactly do you or anyone else expect when it's well documented that this season is purely one of consolidation?

Until the new grandstand is built and paid for and attendances improve, we won;t see much more investment in the playing squad so I personally wouldn't lay the blame at Martin Lings door. I like the guy and I am realistic enough to realise that he can't do much more than go with what we already have. Lower the expectations as Buckle would say and it isn't as bad as some are making out.

[ferrarilover]

I agree with the principle Dave, and God knows I know that you;re trying to broadcast a message hidden behind a (think) veil of innocence, but I cannot agree that it isn't as bad as all that. Losing I can take. Drawing, I can take. But to lose or draw when we play the way we do is just soul destroying. I know we're on a budget, I know we're not going to set the world alight, but for fecks sake, can we please string two forward passes together?
So far this season, we have played one way. Bleedin' sideways and backwards, then sideways again, repeat 100 times, give it to Saah, let Saah hump it aimlessly forward, start all over again. What really grips my poo is that this division, generally, seems to be of a lower standard this year than last. We made Dagenham, Rotherham, Crawley, Shrewsbury and Cheltenham look like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, AC Milan and River Plate, yet each of them has gone on to their next X games and shipped goals for fun and scored none. Rotherham came to us, looked absolute class, haven't scored in 4 attempts since. Same with Cheltenham, they lost 3 straight after looking magic against us. And again with Dagenham, who thrashed us senseless in the first half at their place, have lost every match since.
I don't want us to win every week (well, I do, but you know what I mean), I just want us to be vaguely entertaining when we play and at the moment, we are anything but.

Is it time for Ling to go? No, absolutely not, that is crazy talk of the highest order, for so many reasons, but there will have to be a change in the way we play, and damn soon, otherwise the attendances which are already FAR too low, will dip even further until we are at the stage where just the 1200 or so season ticket holders pitch up, and even then only because they've already paid.

Matt.

[hector]

Fair enough to raise the question I suppose but what exactly do you or anyone else expect when it's well documented that this season is purely one of consolidation?

Until the new grandstand is built and paid for and attendances improve, we won;t see much more investment in the playing squad so I personally wouldn't lay the blame at Martin Lings door. I like the guy and I am realistic enough to realise that he can't do much more than go with what we already have. Lower the expectations as Buckle would say and it isn't as bad as some are making out.

This consolidation thing is nonsense. Just what on earth has the Grandstand got to do with our performances on the field? Rebuilding the Pop Stand didn't stop us reaching the play-offs in 94! Ling stated in the last programme that we are in the 'middle 8' of the league for budget, so I guess that sort of suggests mid-table but current form suggests something worse.

I am not suggesting Ling Out! or anything, but to be honest I would not be gutted if he did go either. A month ago I was thinking we were doing better than I thought we would - which was relegation struggle - but now I am wondering whether that is exactly what we face.

Interestingly enough Lee Mansell has not long ago tweeted that we need to get rid of the 'losing mentality' at the club. Something is not right when your skipper publicly states that, even if he is talking about the reserves.

[Robiberto22]

This is stupid ... we will be fine! when ling was appointed people were stating - "blue square anyone?" its silly! Hector my man - where do you expect us to be? really? WE ARE NOT DROPPING OUT OF THIS LEAGUE! no way and for me thats fine Lingy is proven imo and we can compete - i was there at bradford and for me - if we had bodin playing that day we would of got something - we need to be a bit more positive!!! we are better than a fair few in this league! COYG!!!!!!!!!

[stevegull]

As has already been said, we should be looking to consolidate this season and i think if we finished 14th in the table then it's good job Ling and push on further next campaign.

Ling is still learning about the squad and how to get the best out of each player and many seem to forget that quite a decent proportion of our squad was ripped out in the summer and Ling has had to piece together his image of the team on a smaller budget. We'll be fine this year, and i get fed up of the doom squad after any defeat.

Clearly we haven't been good the last few weeks, but every side goes through rough patches. Just a couple of weeks ago and fans were hailing Ling has the tactical genius with his inspired selection of manse going box-to-box and Oastler in at RB, just stick by the team in the bad spell and it will come good....

[Southampton Gull]

This consolidation thing is nonsense. Just what on earth has the Grandstand got to do with our performances on the field? Rebuilding the Pop Stand didn't stop us reaching the play-offs in 94! Ling stated in the last programme that we are in the 'middle 8' of the league for budget, so I guess that sort of suggests mid-table but current form suggests something worse.

I am not suggesting Ling Out! or anything, but to be honest I would not be gutted if he did go either. A month ago I was thinking we were doing better than I thought we would - which was relegation struggle - but now I am wondering whether that is exactly what we face.

Interestingly enough Lee Mansell has not long ago tweeted that we need to get rid of the 'losing mentality' at the club. Something is not right when your skipper publicly states that, even if he is talking about the reserves.

If you can't see why then you're an even bigger idiot than the underlined sentence makes you appear. It has EVERYTHING to do with it. If we didn't have the grandstand to fund and build then we could have factored in larger attendances which would have increased the playing budget and allowed the manager to sign better quality players than he was able to. Previous seasons have absolutely no bearing on what is happening this season.

Current form is exactly that, if we're still showing that kind of form in three months time then I might begin to worry, now isn't that time.

[AlexGulls]

Dont get me wrong I like Ling. I think he;s a good bloke. And an honest one. BUT being at Bradford on Saturday we had nothing at front and were shaky at the back and couldnt even compete with them when they had ten men I cant remember us having serious chance on there goal in the entire game apart from Stevens having a shot just abit over the bar. It was like watching the team the year we went down it was very concerning.

As said I like Ling but he does baffle me sometimes. He gets his post match views spot on in my opinion and I tend to agree with alot of what he says. The thing that frustrates me is he says the things that are going wrong but never sorts them out for the next game. We keep with the same formation that doesnt work week in week out. Surely it doesnt take a genius to work out that its not suited to the players we have and needs changing? I'm not calling for Lings head not even close to it. I just think he needs to stop talking and try and get things right on the pitch which at the minite are far from acceptable.

[Robiberto22]

lingy will need time - as above posts have stated the last 5 or 5 results have been dissapointing but for me we can cause problems in this league and we should be more positive - no way we are dropping this year and imo we will improve thru time with lingy at the helm

[Scott Brehaut]

In the league - played 12, won 3, lost 3. The rest have been draws....doesn't look like relegation fodder to me.

Little money = few players coming in....we need to rely on the loan system to help us out. We were unfortunate that we lost Bodin at the weekend to international duty - lets see how we get on this weekend.
Read back even a couple of weeks and most on here were singing Lings praises - really I do wonder whether we have the ficklest fans in the league at times!!

[Robiberto22]

well said scott!

[A J]

Is Ling being found out? Well up the road they are beyond this point already: "Taxi for Buckle".

http://www.brfcforum.co.uk/index.php?/t ... or-buckle/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Never been so mystified by a managers team selection, tactics and substitutions"......"He falls out with a new squad member every other day". Well we did warn you!

At least in Ling we have an honest manager who tells it like it is. He has a huge respect from all of the playing staff, so lets get right behind him! The players seem determined to turn this around, its silly mistakes and individual errors that have cost us mainly this season. There is great potential in this team moving forward, we just need some positive results at the moment to ease any increasing tension.

[Southampton Gull]

At least in Ling we have an honest manager who tells it like it is. He has a huge respect from all of the playing staff, so lets get right behind him! The players seem determined to turn this around, its silly mistakes and individual errors that have cost us mainly this season. There is great potential in this team moving forward, we just need some positive results at the moment to ease any increasing tension.

Exactly how I see it. The ones who can't see it now, probably never will.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Don't agree i'm afraid. Ling has brought in McPhee (proven to be not up to it at this level), Saah ( one defensive blunder after another, bad positioning and poor communication), Atieno ( exactly ), Howe ( holds the ball up and chips in with the occasional penalty when given ), Morris ( good reputation but shown nothing ) and given a new deal to Stevens who has done nothing in the previous 5 years to warrant it. On the plus side he has brought in Bodin ( who without we would be screwed ) and Olejnik ( who is Austrian so obviously has ability haha, seriously, Olejnik is Lings only true great aquisition ). In addition to this he constantly overlooks Ellis who IMO is our best defender. Agree that simply chucking Ellis in may not solve our defensive issues but it sure as hell can't make them worse. He constantly overlooks Macklin in favour of Stevens who never delivers ( he did ok at Bradford as it happens but ultimatly still never delivered). His gameplan appears to be if we go a goal down, just chuck people on, if we don't go a goal down then i won't know what to do. We let goals in every game and don't score enough. You work it out. If Bodin doesn't extend for the remainder of the season then we have a huge problem.

[SuperNickyWroe]

Don't agree i'm afraid. Ling has brought in McPhee (proven to be not up to it at this level), Saah ( one defensive blunder after another, bad positioning and poor communication), Atieno ( exactly ), Howe ( holds the ball up and chips in with the occasional penalty when given ), Morris ( good reputation but shown nothing ) and given a new deal to Stevens who has done nothing in the previous 5 years to warrant it. On the plus side he has brought in Bodin ( who without we would be screwed ) and Olejnik ( who is Austrian so obviously has ability haha, seriously, Olejnik is Lings only true great aquisition ). In addition to this he constantly overlooks Ellis who IMO is our best defender. Agree that simply chucking Ellis in may not solve our defensive issues but it sure as hell can't make them worse. He constantly overlooks Macklin in favour of Stevens who never delivers ( he did ok at Bradford as it happens but ultimatly still never delivered). His gameplan appears to be if we go a goal down, just chuck people on, if we don't go a goal down then i won't know what to do. We let goals in every game and don't score enough. You work it out. If Bodin doesn't extend for the remainder of the season then we have a huge problem.

ah, everything in the gardens rosy then............