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How do you assess Sol’s start at the hall

Makes no difference what manager we have!!!!! If we had pep Guardiola and jose Mourinho combined they still couldn't get a tune out of this lot! Crap players! Not sols team! Theres been a cancer at the club since the end of Powells reign! Its spread and until we release this lot we are f....d!!.

I think Sol has been handed a difficult legacy but if he is to succeed he must show a willingness to adapt when things are not working. Playing five at the back seems to mean Southend's midfield is often outnumbered and outgunned. At the same time, while it is impossible to eliminate mistakes from the game, you can minimise the opportunities for these to occur by encouraging your defenders to clear the ball from the danger areas in a direct fashion rather than insisting on playing out from the back in intricate passing triangles that run the risk of losing possession and hence conceding goals.
 
For Bond read Campbell. Just the same blind insistence on tiptapping about at the back inviting pressure at the very start of the game. I don't blame Taylor at all. Ok it was a mistake but he should never have been put under such pressure in the first minute of the game where there were several chances for others to clear the ball before his mistake. That's a team playing to rigid instructions in the most inappropriate circumstances and that is down to Campbell. Oh for a manager who understands and is experienced in how to win games in L1.
 
Campbell stuck his neck on the line for us. He’s taken on the worst squad of footballers in a horribly long time and could potentially kill his managerial career before it’s really got going. There’s still a couple of Brown players here, there’s Chris Powell’s crocks still here and there’s Kevin Bond’s **** houses still here

Sol hasn’t signed a single player here yet and I’m genuinely seeing people wanting him out. You can’t judge him until he’s been able to bring his own players in and January is such a short crappy window you really have to wait until the summer f
 
This is a similar position to Ipswich last season in the championship. Paul Lambert joined around the same time as Sol joined Blues this season and was unable to keep them up even with a January window.

We all hope that we will turn a corner on the next game but in reality a large majority are not good enough whatever formation they play.

Sol must be thinking wtf have I done joining this club.

We are dog ****e sprinkled occasionally with a bit of glitter.
 
"...by encouraging your defenders to clear the ball from the danger areas in a direct fashion rather than insisting on playing out from the back in intricate passing triangles that run the risk of losing possession and hence conceding goals."

...as demonstrated after 52 seconds! If it's obvious to 5,000 fans...
 
Campbell stuck his neck on the line for us. He’s taken on the worst squad of footballers in a horribly long time and could potentially kill his managerial career before it’s really got going. There’s still a couple of Brown players here, there’s Chris Powell’s crocks still here and there’s Kevin Bond’s **** houses still here

Sol hasn’t signed a single player here yet and I’m genuinely seeing people wanting him out. You can’t judge him until he’s been able to bring his own players in and January is such a short crappy window you really have to wait until the summer f

My frustration is that we seem to have gone downhill on chances created , in order to get out of this we need to be playing in oppositions half and testing their back line - not only are we awful at the back we are looking just as bad up front which is where on paper lies our strength
 
For me the buck stops with Ron. He was swayed by public opinion and appointed Powell when he sacked Brown despite the fact that Powell had no real track record. When that didn’t work he had his head turned by Rednapp . After Brown he should have looked for a grizzled lower league manager who knew the ropes at this level. As a very astute wheeler dealer he seems to lack sound judgment these days when choosing managers. Fingers crossed he has got it right this time but I am not holding my breath.
 
Another dispiriting result but for 15 minutes before they broke to score their third and fourth goals we actually looked like a football team and built some pressure in the final third. We even created chances that might have gone in and on another day could have changed the game. The team played so much better when Hutchinson and Goodship came on with both actively looking for the ball, moving it on on quickly and looking to go forwards rather than backwards and side to side. Surely both must be in the starting 11 for our next game.
 
I’m not judging Sol yet. I like him. But surely his tactics have to change. You wouldn’t get Guardiola’s City team to start hoofing it up the pitch, likewise you don’t get a bunch of lower league players with confidence shot to pieces to play an intelligent, patient passing game .. you go back to basics. Surely?? I do admire his cojones if he thinks he’ll turn it round. On yesterday’s evidence we are down.
 
As an afterthought Ron should stick to financial gymnastics and appoint a football man to run that side of things.
 
For everyone who keeps saying we looked better when we were 2,3,4 down. The Other team stop playing and are happy to let us play. This is NOT a positive sign. We are toothless!!!!! our attacks are aimless, we literally do not know what to do with the ball, zero movement.

Sorry I’m fed up
 
I’ll having a proper opinion on Sol this time next year. He can’t have the blame put on him because he has a bunch of gutless pathetic excuse for footballers to pick from. I think once he’s had Jan to start the clear out and hopefully bring in a couple. Then a full summer with them to clear out the rot (couldn’t care less if he got rid of all of them) and bring in his own players.

I have only been to the Ipswich game since Sol has been in charge and I thought we weren’t too bad. If we can not concede and get a goal first I think we might push on. The heads just massively drop after conceding then it’s an upward battle from there. What happened to the prolific Cox? He couldn’t hit a donkeys arse with a banjo at the moment. If that’s the case drop him! Play Goodship, Acquah or Rush. I’d like to see him take more risks up front and change the formation to something a little different. We are desperate for a couple of wingers.

Anyway he can only perform as well as the **** he has been given, and he has a massive pile of ****e to pick from.

If and it’s a massive IF he saves us from relegation he becomes one of the greatest managers in our history.
 
I am already sick of hearing we can't blame Sol! Sure he took on a woeful, pathetic and gutless squad of players but did he not know that? None of us expected miracles from that shower of s#!t we call a team but for me yesterday was atrocious and if his idea of playing out from the back is the way to turn us around then my gut feeling of Uncle Ron swooning over a big name is unfortunately coming to fruition. We all now don't talk about if we will win or draw but if we can keep the defeat to 3 or less, when and how did that ever become acceptable?
 
Much as I'd like to think we could stay up, I can't see it happening (but please prove me wrong.....) so am resigned to it. None of this is of SC's making and he must have known what he was letting himself in for after doing his homework on the current players prior to joining. RM's probably got a lot invested in this new management team and probably expects - and is hoping - of a swift return to L1 should the drop happen. As has been mentioned earlier, it'll like as not take a minimum of two transfer windows to ship out what he considers the dead wood and bring in loan players initially (in that first window) to stabilise the team with a view to more permanent signings when money will hopefully become available in the second window when some contracts are up. This may even extend to a third window but I reckon he'll have a handle well and truly on it by then.

Short term, I've a horrible feeling things are going to get a lot worse before they get better but am prepared to back SC and his coaching team unreservedly and maybe re-assess in twelve months. Hopefully certain area's of fans won't hound him out because they haven't the patience or the wherewithal to realise this is a mid- to long-term process with some hurt to endure along the way.....
 
Good points Kevin, I am not turning on Sol I honestly don't think Pep or Klopp could get a tune out of our woeful squad but yesterday was his tactics, style and setup and unfortunately the naivety of playing out from the back, having most of the possession in our own half is very very poor. As supporters we can all see it and why it's a large part of why we are in this position so why oh why are we still playing this way and until that at least changes I will continue to have my doubts and live in fear of how we can only get worse. I really genuinely hope I am wrong and feel 2 years ago SC would have been a wonderful appointment but this is now and I just don't feel it.
 
You need a bit of pragmatism to survive in the lower divisions. You need to know what it takes to get points on the board and how to relate to and maximise however poor a hand you have been dealt. Waddock seemed to get this and his 5 points from 8 games, although nowhere near good enough, seemed to reflect that. Campbell, like Bond, seems inflexibly welded to a philosophy that is doomed to failure at this level, and on past evidence, his pride or stubbornness, call it what you will, will not permit him to recognise you need to bend to the reality of the situation and put aside lofty precepts. Mix it up, get nasty, keep the other side guessing. Training ground perfection counts for nothing a minute into the game when you present the opposition with a gift.
 
L - Southend 1-7 Doncaster for completeness (New manager bounce!)
L - Southend 1-3 Ipswich
L - Sunderland 1-0 Southend
L - Portsmouth 4-1 Southend
L - Dover 1-0 Southend FA Cup
W - Southend 3-1 Wimbeldon Trophy thing
L - Southend 0-4 Oxford

P7 W1 D0 L6 F4 A23 Pts 0 GD -19.
 
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