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Has the champagne from the manager of the month award gone to Buckles head?

Ever since he received the magnum and went on his trip to Old Trafford he has tinkered with formations as if he was Sir Alex Ferguson.

He has received media attention, but it is always dangerous to believe your own publicity Paul.

And particularly so with the absence of Mark Ellis and the continuing poor form of the un-droppable Nicky Woeful. The haul of 2 points out of twelve is reminiscent of far too much of last season.

Perhaps he was better off with the less alcoholic fizz from the TFF presentation made by Joe Barlow.

Back to basics methinks....whilst continuing the search for a decent striker and a creative midfielder.

Rumours elsewhere say we are bringing in another striker...I just wish he would hurry up!

could not agree more, we need back to 4 4 2 and fast.........

bucks has never realised that footballs a simple game.

thats the problem.

Simple football, 4-4-2, drop Wroe, win games, done!

Can't disagree with any of that. I should also offer my own apologies, because since i offered Bucks plenty of praise in my previous blog, it's all gone pear-shaped. It does look for all the world as if we've started 'believing the hype'. Be that the manager or the players or both. We've had the focus of some media attention this season, and i'm afraid it appears to have gone to our collective heads. We have a manager that seems desperate to make the most of his moment in the sun, by trying all kinds of fancy things, when initially it was a simple system that had paid dividends. And on the pitch we suddenly have players that have forgotten that without hard work, we'll get nothing. I think before the next game, we need to add a dash of reality to the proceedings. We're a reasonable League 2 side, and over-complicating things isn't destined to pay dividends. Get back to a simple system and put a proper shift in in terms of work- rate, and things will come good again. As for the captain - that arm-band really is weighing him down. He's getting worse as every game goes by. Give someone else the responsibility, because when we needed a leader yesterday, he was missing again.

You maybe right about the captain's armband but based on the alternatives we would miss Wroe. By the way he wasn't the worst central midefielder for us yesterday.

Lloyder5 wrote:You maybe right about the captain's armband but based on the alternatives we would miss Wroe. By the way he wasn't the worst central midefielder for us yesterday.

I don't personally think we have the options in midfield to be able to consider dropping him. But he should never be captain, because he simply isn't a leader.

Right, we are going through a bad spell at the moment, dont get on the players, manager or clubs back and see them through this bad patch. The manager of the month is not a curse, its a case of over confidence, which I agree with what some people are saying. Hopefully Bucks will see that 4-5-1 doesnt work and at least we have a game upcoming on tuesday to get things back on track. We will get through it and I wouldn't be surprised to see a striker arriving soon.

Keep the faith

BlueYellow wrote:Right, we are going through a bad spell at the moment, dont get on the players, manager or clubs back and see them through this bad patch. The manager of the month is not a curse, its a case of over confidence, which I agree with what some people are saying. Hopefully Bucks will see that 4-5-1 doesnt work and at least we have a game upcoming on tuesday to get things back on track. We will get through it and I wouldn't be surprised to see a striker arriving soon.

Keep the faith

I wonder if the Accrington game ought to have been enough to realise that the 4-5-1 isn't an effective attacking formation? And perhaps the Stevenage game could have confirmed that for him?

We appeared to start 4-4-2 yesterday, created 3 decent chances in the first 10 minutes, fell behind to a sucker punch and then decided to resort to 4-5-1. It's unecessarily cautious.

Lloyder5 wrote:You maybe right about the captain's armband but based on the alternatives we would miss Wroe. By the way he wasn't the worst central midefielder for us yesterday.

I don't know if you are sleeping with Nicky's daughter or somesuch, but you fevered defence of useless Nicky Wroe is getting beyond a joke.

I'm going to say this slowly so you can understand.

E u n a n O ' K a n e.

Matt.

Fonda wrote: I don't personally think we have the options in midfield to be able to consider dropping him. But he should never be captain, because he simply isn't a leader.

Shane,

You're normally so sensible, what has caused this blip of lunacy?

EUNAN O' KANE!

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote: I don't know if you are sleeping with Nicky's daughter or somesuch, but you fevered defence of useless Nicky Wroe is getting beyond a joke.

I'm going to say this slowly so you can understand.

E u n a n O ' K a n e.

Matt.

You can say it as slowly as you like. I'm a great believer in the quality of Eunan O'Kane. But if he was played in centre-midfield, we'd be over-run every week. In this division, the centre of the pitch is a battle ground, and with the best will in the world, he's doesn't have the physicality to stand up to it.

However Shane, Nicky Wroe gives away the ball almost every time he touches it. Eunan keeps the ball so well and can find a yellow shirt with a pass. Wroe is hopeless, utterly, utterly hopeless and he needs to be left out to force the armband to go to Pickles and to give us more quality in the midfield. There simply is no place on the pitch for a weak link and NW is that weak link.

Matt.

I don't disagree with how poor Wroe has been. Or indeed how good O'Kane is. I'm just not convinced one is the natural sucessor to the other. I actually think Lathrope is the more natural selection if Wroe was to ever actually get (justifiably) dropped. I'm just not convinced Manse is strong enough to do all the defensive work on his own, and with Eunan alongside him, he'd pretty much have to.