This time last year...

[Plymouth Gull]

...http://www.statto.com/football/stats/en ... 2012-03-17

How things change in 12 months!

[AustrianAndyGull]

I know, i've gone from 14 stone to 16!

[AustrianAndyGull]

The scariest thing is that Tai and McPhee aside who weren't good enough. We only lost 3 key players, Ellis, O'Kane and Olejnik and i reckon Downes has been nearly as effective as Ellis (plus goals that Ellis used to get too ) and Poke has been a more than able deputy for Bobby.

So just how have things gone so catastrophically wrong just with O'Kane missing? It's the same squad of players more or less.

Unbelievable.

[stevegull]

The scariest thing is that Tai and McPhee aside who weren't good enough. We only lost 3 key players, Ellis, O'Kane and Olejnik and i reckon Downes has been nearly as effective as Ellis (plus goals that Ellis used to get too ) and Poke has been a more than able deputy for Bobby.

So just how have things gone so catastrophically wrong just with O'Kane missing? It's the same squad of players more or less.

Unbelievable.

I completely agree. I've said for a while that the actual team we have should not be in this position in the league. If you lined every starting XI up and ordered it from best to worst I honestly think the quality of our team would have us somewhere mid-table. For some elusive reason however, we have been dropping like a stone!

Baffling.

[Plymouth Gull]

Nah it's just players like Mansell and Nicho peaked last year and this year they're really struggling.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Nah it's just players like Mansell and Nicho peaked last year and this year they're really struggling.

Agree Nick but baffling like Steve says, baffling why this wasn't seen and acted upon by dropping them and trying somebody else.

[Jeff]

The scariest thing is that Tai and McPhee aside who weren't good enough. We only lost 3 key players, Ellis, O'Kane and Olejnik and i reckon Downes has been nearly as effective as Ellis (plus goals that Ellis used to get too ) and Poke has been a more than able deputy for Bobby.

So just how have things gone so catastrophically wrong just with O'Kane missing? It's the same squad of players more or less.

Unbelievable.

Isn't that the point though - wheras most if not all the teams in the division have improved their playing squads, as they often do year on year, at best we have stood still. At worst we've got a little bit weaker than last year.

So having the same squad of players as last year isn't a reason we should be doing better, it's the very reason we're doing so badly. Things have moved forward but as a club on the field we haven't.

[AustrianAndyGull]

I see where you're coming from Jeff but there is no way that this squad of players should be where they are now. No way at all in my mind. Ok so we have a few duds but they have just been managed badly all season and now they have got used to losing and not giving a f*ck so the latter part of the season ( ie the part that has seen us decline so rapidly ) is in my mind due to lack of the right attitude, lack of application and the wrong approach by the players and all the off field problems has compounded this. There is no way Beattie / Jeffers or no Beattie /Jeffers that our squad is just 1 point better than Accringtons. It's a misnomer. We should have collected more points on the road up to this point which is purely Lings fault and now we would be safe but we aren't and it's just a basic lack of direction that the players have had all season that has led them to underperform also.

[Modgull]

You are all forgetting one other incredibly important factor - team (and of course, Club) morale.

I think the signs of a breakdown in team spirit were showing late on last season (perhaps because of the talk of some big money transfers for the stars) and this year the cracks have become chasms.

I first started worrying when Lingy started publicly criticising the crowd for negativity. Managers have to have a thick skin and the outbursts led me to think that there were already strains in the playing side of the Club.

Warning bells started ringing deafeningly by the time he disappeared without an adequate explanation.

If the players haven't been informed (or perhaps if they have) this could easily explain why an apparently competent side is now in free fall.

[brucie]

Nonsense - this years team is nowhere near as good as last years. Downes is a one hundred per center but is nowhere near as good as Ellis and we have nothing which is even half as good as O'Kane.
How an earth can you say that we should be halfway up the league. We look ten times worse than evey other team we play.

[brucie]

To blame our freefall on the manager disappearing with out a trace isn't an adequate excuse either

[hector]

That table does demonstrate how this season is perhaps a continuation of the decline that set in last March. We were 7 points clear of Crawley with 9 games left and we blew it.

[supergulls]

More stupid quotes
"Warning bells started ringing deafeningly by the time he disappeared without an adequate explanation"

The truth being
The club issued a statement on their website saying: "United manager Martin Ling is currently being treated for a debilitating illness.

"He is receiving specialist care and, while we are able to report that he is making some progress, it is anticipated that Martin will be away from work for several weeks.

It says all you need to know he was ill in hospital but now is making progress, what part of that statement is not an adequate explanation. In my book it says it all.

[cambgull]

To be fair supergulls, that was at least 4 games after he got taken ill.

[supergulls]

Yes I agree that the club put that statement out after a few games but he hardly went AWOL as described earlier. As I clearly recall the night of the Exeter match sky sports said " best wishes to Martin ling who is unable to be at the match tonight due to illness". So it was clear that on his first day of abcence he was away from work due to illness. Not as our friend states that he was away without an explanation. At the end of the day it's obvious the club knew he was ill but because they chose not to tell the world is hardly martins fault.