Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-0 Hartlepool United

[danbowen]

Not a single one of our midfielders are good enough. Our management team clearly don’t know what they are doing currently and certainly don’t know their best team. Also incapable of dropping players who have been **** all season and can’t change formation. I don’t want 40 passes before we try and have a shot it allows the other team to get back their shape and become difficult to break down. We need pace on the wings and players who look to take the opposition on. We need some steal in the middle of the park. We need to be bold and brave and direct. Put the other team on the back foot.

I don’t see how people are still saying the current management should get this season. We are going backwards. We are worse now than we were last season. We shipped three goals to a team well below us last weekend. We can’t score against teams at this level anywhere near enough. If this management team weren’t southend legends we would have called for them to go a long time ago. Same as players like Bridge who is awful this season. This constant defence of staff and players is a huge reason we will never win anything and will be stuck at this level for a long time. Football is a ruthless business at times but we seem to be more like a pre school and want to just be nice to everyone.

 

[PIERS]

Please play 4 at the back. when the 3 subs came on I was almost hopeful for Bonne Pebble and the new lad up top. but. ohhh no.. we are ssooo boring..

 

[Liam AAS]

Three clean sheets in a row is good. Performances in the final third are bad.

Collin seems to have his mojo back
Midfield was far to spread out in this game to see the ball carried forward effectively.

Injuries, suspensions and constant chopping and changing of personnel in midfield and up front have had a serious impact on our ability to create and put away chances. We have had some good players seen their form fall off a cliff this season.

7 points off the playoffs isn't bad in Dec, still plenty of football left to play but we'll need much more of an attacking threat to climb the table. Defensive solidity is a welcome start, though.

Cannot believe some were booing when we didn't lose. Madness.

 

[Pak Power]

Hartlepool have drawn 9 times this season......just saying

 

[gatecrasher]

Moncur, Husin, KAF (I think was the trio) away at Solihull looked decent, don't think it's been tried since!

Probably too attacking...

 

[Strykr]

If he's going to insist on playing this way and formation, Imo with our current squad he has to try one holding, cav or morton, to support the defence and break things down, and coker and kaf pushing forward to support the strikers.

Id personally send moncur back, a failed experiment that could have worked but didnt. Husin ive always thought was way too inconsistent to warrant his place. Ive seen him excellent one week and dogshi t the next 3.

Its interesting to me just how much kev is so married to this 5 3 2 formation, and also how he constantly messes with the midfield when as a player, his greatest successes were with us when he was a constant first name on the sheet and the midfield around him were very consistent too, usually another attacming CM, and we utilised traditional pacy wingers as an outlet for the strikers.

Will his stubbornness be his downfall? Is it a case of simply missing out on his first targets and trying to make good on these 3rd or 4th choices?

 

[bluethroughandthrough]

3 years of recurring match report comments with consistent layers of excuses

What's in our control?
How we play

What's somewhat in our control?
Players we bring in and who plays match day

I can't see how things are going to change and see only tiny flickers of hope from time to time but nothing consistent and the same mistakes in decision making time and again - literally on auto repeat.

I've said before id absolutely hate to be a forward in this team or anyone with a attacking mentality.

As per my comment previously buying lots of strikers will unlikely make a difference unless your name is Stan collymore (he came into an equally turgid team and was so good he carried the entire team - remembering Steve brown was his strike partner who looked like a footballing imposter alongside him). Throwing cash at more strikers doesn't make sense.

We have creativity in this side but we don't use it. We also have good players - not the best but skilled and capable - but we don't utilise their strengths. Let's play our most skilled attacking player as a quasi defender for example. Moncur looks awful because he's playing in a formation that doesn't allow him to succeed. Bonne hasn't scored because hes a finisher not a creator. If we don't create CLEAR GOAL SCORING OPPORTUNITIES he won't score.

The flickers of hope have come from when we do play on the front foot and to our players strengths. Do that and average players will at least have the ability to be their best selves.

This is the stark reality. The siege mentality necessity has gone. We now have other aspirations and we should have a different mindset.

We don't have the leadership to do this

For me it's Maher out and probably all 3 of them.

We have a club which is amazing and he and all 3 of them will forever go down in history and deserve the accolades.

However at the end of the season at the latest we move on.

 

[* ORM *]

Got to love the predictable negativity on here. The problem is not the formation, not the defence and not the forward line (or the GK for that matter). The problem is also not ‘Maher’s crab tactics and substitutions’. Quite simply we are not good enough in midfield. Can we please AT LEAST give the management team the ability to strengthen unfettered for the first time in their tenure in the transfer window. Until then keep toys in prams.

 

[bluethroughandthrough]

Got to love the predictable negativity on here. The problem is not the formation, not the defence and not the forward line (or the GK for that matter). The problem is also not ‘Maher’s crab tactics and substitutions’. Quite simply we are not good enough in midfield. Can we please AT LEAST give the management team the ability to strengthen unfettered for the first time in their tenure in the transfer window. Until then keep toys in prams.

Haven't we done that?
They decide who we keep, buy and play and how they play.
Kaf. Miley. Morton. Moncur. Husin. Coker. Mooney. Wes.
I can't see your logic when it defies factual proof.
They decide playing 2-3-4 players in midfield. They decide the make up, the mentality and approach. They decide how we transition and the style between defence and attack.
Of course the players make a difference so agree with you there but who are brought in, who plays and how they play makes a massive difference.

With this in mind, the management team are also responsible for the choice of player which also negates your logic.

Agree to disagree I think.

 

[smudgster]

Was it me, but I thought the floodlights were very dim yesterday. Summed up the match I suppose.

 

[Hampshire Shrimp]

Got to love the predictable negativity on here. The problem is not the formation, not the defence and not the forward line (or the GK for that matter). The problem is also not ‘Maher’s crab tactics and substitutions’. Quite simply we are not good enough in midfield. Can we please AT LEAST give the management team the ability to strengthen unfettered for the first time in their tenure in the transfer window. Until then keep toys in prams.

So why go out and buy a striker? I know that he was a target and made available, but we need to bring in a creative playmaker in midfield? Do we give this current coaching team more time, more money to get in who they want? The post match reports, give or take a couple of matches, Eastleigh and Charlton, could be cut and pasted because it`s the same things happening over and over again? People have the right to as you say " throw their toys out of their prams" watching the dire football Maher, crab ball is dishing out most weeks? We see it, players not preforming, not putting a shift in, but you know what Maher keeps picking them? Too much loyalty on here, yes last season they done very well, but I`d say we are in a better situation now with a bigger squad to select from. How long do we give them?

 

[wiggy]

To not play KAF over the very out of form Husin is enough grounds to say Maher is taking us nowhere.
As soon as he gets the ball he spins and then goes forward to start an attack…..bought him here and like Jack Wood is on the ‘ will never get much chance’ to shine step, god Maher has his boring favourites.
He now has a squad more than capable of going up the League in anyone else’s hands but yet again he has no idea how to set up with in form, forward thinking personnel…..got to go after yesterday’s pathetic offering!

 

[* ORM *]

So why go out and buy a striker? I know that he was a target and made available, but we need to bring in a creative playmaker in midfield? Do we give this current coaching team more time, more money to get in who they want? The post match reports, give or take a couple of matches, Eastleigh and Charlton, could be cut and pasted because it`s the same things happening over and over again? People have the right to as you say " throw their toys out of their prams" watching the dire football Maher, crab ball is dishing out most weeks? We see it, players not preforming, not putting a shift in, but you know what Maher keeps picking them? Too much loyalty on here, yes last season they done very well, but I`d say we are in a better situation now with a bigger squad to select from. How long do we give them?

I’d like to think because the midfield target(s) are FL players and therefore we need to wait a couple of weeks

 

[bluethroughandthrough]

Got to love the predictable negativity on here. The problem is not the formation, not the defence and not the forward line (or the GK for that matter). The problem is also not ‘Maher’s crab tactics and substitutions’. Quite simply we are not good enough in midfield. Can we please AT LEAST give the management team the ability to strengthen unfettered for the first time in their tenure in the transfer window. Until then keep toys in prams.

Oh and one more thing.
It's not negative.
I pay good money to watch my team play and I do it because I a) love the game of football 2) am loyal to my team and my team only and 3) I want to be entertained.
This is called realism.. ROI... Expectation.

So to the case in point i really don't see how buying new midfielders will make a difference.
Remember everyone was going potty at having an attacking midfield player like moncur come in. That's gone well hasn't it?
Maybe you have blind loyalty which I respect.
I have a more realistic pragmatic view.

 

[It'sGrimUpNorth]

We're still crying out for some pace and creativity in midfield, a proper target man up front as well as a defensive brute/ leader at the back.

And possibly a manager with more positive tactics?

 

[It'sGrimUpNorth]

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, we will not get out of this league with Maher in charge.

It’s certainly looking that way. But be careful not to upset the Maher worshipers.

 

[NZamba Legend]

It is the attacking midfielders that are our main weakness. Bridge has been poor and Moncur has been poor. Powell and Fonguck are gone.We are very shorthanded in this position and the two players we do have are in dire form. Regardless of formation we need some incisiveness and creativity from midfield.

 

[Shrimper4lifeCBS]

Even if they wanted to remove the management team I doubt they could afford it. I hope Kev turns this all around but only time will tell.

COSU have only themselves to blame for giving new 3 year deals!!!

We all knew that Mahers management style was going to mirror how he played, sideways/backwards/safe!!

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

I am sure you will want to read this ....

 

[Hampshire Shrimp]

COSU have only themselves to blame for giving new 3 year deals!!!

We all knew that Mahers management style was going to mirror how he played, sideways/backwards/safe!!

If we allow them to buy new players under this management team, and it continues to be dire, we will be stuck with them for a while. COSU have a big decision to make, IMHO? Do they stick and allow them time?
Or use some money to pay them off and let someone else come in and reset ready for next season? The fact that over 50% in the poll want him to stay, that`s loyalty for you, however the football is dire!? Crowds will dwindle at this rate and style of crab football. Time will tell, but I know what I would like to happen.