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I'm losing faith in Kevin Bond. Are you?

I'm losing faith in Kevin Bond - Are you?


  • Total voters
    497
I must admit that I am increasingly concerned about Kevin Bond as he seems to be making some bizarre decisions:
  • Starting Liam Ridgewell one week and then the following week he's not deemed fit enough to even be on the bench and we have an untried U23 defender on there instead.
  • Not starting Stephen Humphrys at Coventry when he was our most in-form striker in pre-season
Added to this his weird delivery in media interviews mean I'm not sure he's cut out for the job.

HOWEVER, I do believe he's made some decent signings (Milligan, Shaughnessy, Ralph, Hamilton, Ndukwu) and I think the middle of August is too early to sack a manager you only appointed in the summer.

If we're still on single digit league points at the end of September though (11 league games into the season) then I think Ron might have a tricky decision to make.
 
The fans had every right to be ****ed off with Brown because he kept trying to whore himself out to any bigger club north of Watford, loyalty works both ways !!!

Brown was one of the best Managers we have had (I would put him top 3 behind Tilson and on par with Webb). OK he had his faults but the main reason some fans never liked him was due to the fact that he had never had any previous links to Southend.
 
Brown was one of the best Managers we have had (I would put him top 3 behind Tilson and on par with Webb). OK he had his faults but the main reason some fans never liked him was due to the fact that he had never had any previous links to Southend.
Absolute nonsense, we've had plenty of managers the fans have warmed to without any previous links to the club.
 
We stayed up last season because there were four teams unbelievably worse than ourselves. I really don’t see these changes he has made that others have seen. We still can’t defend, we still get bullied in midfield and to add to all that, we now look utterly clueless going forward. Whilst I agree that we have signed well.. on paper, he has a coach/manager just doesn’t fill me with any confidence what so ever. I’ve never hidden the fact that I didn’t want the bloke to get the job full time in the first place but was willing to see how it goes but yes, even after 3 games.. which by the way performances are getting worse each game.. I want him gone.

We stayed up because of Bond! We would have been relegated if he had not installed better training (team looked fitter) and changed tactics.
At the start of the season most of us felt that he deserved to be given a chance. By demanding he be sacked after 3 games is not giving the manager a chance imo.
 
Brown was one of the best Managers we have had (I would put him top 3 behind Tilson and on par with Webb). OK he had his faults but the main reason some fans never liked him was due to the fact that he had never had any previous links to Southend.
For their actually performances at the club, Behind Webb, Tilly , Fry and Smith for me (possibly Rowley too) , marginally in front of Sturrock , Fry drops out when taking his departure into consideration (was he the last Manager to Quit ? and who was the last one before that ? )
 
Absolute nonsense, we've had plenty of managers the fans have warmed to without any previous links to the club.

Lol who?
Wignall, Martin, Little, Fry, Thompson, Robson?
Possibly in the 1970’s but only one in recent History was Sturrock and not all fans liked him.

The only Managers the fans seemed to like were Newman (at start), Tilson, Webb, Taylor, Whelan and Powell all with Southend connections.
 
We stayed up because of Bond! We would have been relegated if he had not installed better training (team looked fitter) and changed tactics.
At the start of the season most of us felt that he deserved to be given a chance. By demanding he be sacked after 3 games is not giving the manager a chance imo.
Some of our worst performances were under Bond at the end of last season. Rochdale away sticks in the mind. Yep we got the win against Sunderland infront of the cameras shock the players turned up then when they really needed to. This season our first three games have been equally as bad as Rochdale away probably worse than that so we've actually got worse and he's already started publicly slating players. It looks like a car crash to me. Will give him credit in the fact the players he has signed don't look too bad but still we've got worse.. must be the tactics then?
 
We stayed up because of Bond! We would have been relegated if he had not installed better training (team looked fitter) and changed tactics.
At the start of the season most of us felt that he deserved to be given a chance. By demanding he be sacked after 3 games is not giving the manager a chance imo.

Each to their own. I still believe we were extremely lucky to have stayed up last season and with that Bond never deserved to get the job on a full time basis. This season so far, we’ve looked every bit as bad as we did last season and on Saturday, even more so. What’s changed? This bloke who kept us because he made us fitter, gave us a different way of playing and suddenly we go back to utter **** over the course of a summer which I agree, we bring in some good players. For me Bond just isn’t a manager, his career shouts as much. The longer we leave him in charge, the further we will be adrift from the rest and a harder job the new manager will have.
 
Lol who?
Wignall, Martin, Little, Fry, Thompson, Robson?
Possibly in the 1970’s but only one in recent History was Sturrock and not all fans liked him.

The only Managers the fans seemed to like were Newman (at start), Tilson, Webb, Taylor, Whelan and Powell all with Southend connections.
Fry was liked until he turned Judas and Webb never played for us. Dave Smith was also very popular and never played for us.
 
After the full-time whistle blew, Bond came out to speak to the press and he gave us his thoughts on the afternoon’s defeat.

On the defeat…

As you can imagine, I’m bitterly disappointed. The goals, as they do, absolutely killed us. I thought we were bright enough but we didn’t pass the ball as well or was patient enough with the ball as I would have liked us to have been. I thought we were as much in the game as Lincoln.

We didn’t hold the ball up as much as I would have liked to have done with two frontmen. I would have liked us to have played off of them, but the ball didn’t stick with them quite as much as I would have liked, but nonetheless, I felt no reason why we would have cause for concern.

We just needed to be a bit more patient in possession I felt and use the ball and then we concede a silly free-kick which we’d spoken and emphasised to the guys before the game about how important restarts are for Lincoln. They score an unmarked header from that, another free-kick two minutes after that and you’re dead, it’s killed us.

What you see is, we know that the next goal coming after half-time is going to be massively important, we make a mistake, 3-0 two minutes in and it just kills your confidence and what you see after that is a result of conceding bad goals.

On lessons learnt…

I don’t know that I’ve learnt any lessons really, other than we can’t afford to concede goals. This club has gone a long time without conceding [keeping a clean sheet] and until we stop conceding goals, you can’t win a football match. It’s debilitating from a confidence point of view because as soon as the first goal goes in you can see the lads going ‘here we go again’ and so it becomes very difficult.

I thought the boys had a really good, high energy performance the other night. We sat our stool out to the do the same thing again and I honestly didn’t think there was anything in the game before they scored the goal.

I thought it was an even game and I was thinking if we can get to half-time and focus on trying to be a bit more patient on the ball, work the ball side-to-side a little bit better, then we would create opportunities. You have to come in with a clean sheet, you can’t keep conceding goals and that’s killing us.

On the mood in the dressing room…

Everybody’s on the floor like you can imagine. Three goals from set-plays – we know that they’ve scored all their goals previous to that from restarts and we’re killing ourselves.

We’re aware of it and have emphasised that you need to have that mentality to not give away goals cheaply – you’re not going to win a game if you give away goals like that.

It’s all about bouncing back at the game on Tuesday and we just need to see a reaction from the guys. The starting point has to be not conceding goals.
 
After the full-time whistle blew, Bond came out to speak to the press and he gave us his thoughts on the afternoon’s defeat.

On the defeat…

As you can imagine, I’m bitterly disappointed. The goals, as they do, absolutely killed us. I thought we were bright enough but we didn’t pass the ball as well or was patient enough with the ball as I would have liked us to have been. I thought we were as much in the game as Lincoln.

We didn’t hold the ball up as much as I would have liked to have done with two frontmen. I would have liked us to have played off of them, but the ball didn’t stick with them quite as much as I would have liked, but nonetheless, I felt no reason why we would have cause for concern.

We just needed to be a bit more patient in possession I felt and use the ball and then we concede a silly free-kick which we’d spoken and emphasised to the guys before the game about how important restarts are for Lincoln. They score an unmarked header from that, another free-kick two minutes after that and you’re dead, it’s killed us.

What you see is, we know that the next goal coming after half-time is going to be massively important, we make a mistake, 3-0 two minutes in and it just kills your confidence and what you see after that is a result of conceding bad goals.

On lessons learnt…

I don’t know that I’ve learnt any lessons really, other than we can’t afford to concede goals. This club has gone a long time without conceding [keeping a clean sheet] and until we stop conceding goals, you can’t win a football match. It’s debilitating from a confidence point of view because as soon as the first goal goes in you can see the lads going ‘here we go again’ and so it becomes very difficult.

I thought the boys had a really good, high energy performance the other night. We sat our stool out to the do the same thing again and I honestly didn’t think there was anything in the game before they scored the goal.

I thought it was an even game and I was thinking if we can get to half-time and focus on trying to be a bit more patient on the ball, work the ball side-to-side a little bit better, then we would create opportunities. You have to come in with a clean sheet, you can’t keep conceding goals and that’s killing us.

On the mood in the dressing room…

Everybody’s on the floor like you can imagine. Three goals from set-plays – we know that they’ve scored all their goals previous to that from restarts and we’re killing ourselves.

We’re aware of it and have emphasised that you need to have that mentality to not give away goals cheaply – you’re not going to win a game if you give away goals like that.

It’s all about bouncing back at the game on Tuesday and we just need to see a reaction from the guys. The starting point has to be not conceding goals.
Best we play about 7 at the back then Kev
 
After the full-time whistle blew, Bond came out to speak to the press and he gave us his thoughts on the afternoon’s defeat.

On the defeat…

As you can imagine, I’m bitterly disappointed. The goals, as they do, absolutely killed us. I thought we were bright enough but we didn’t pass the ball as well or was patient enough with the ball as I would have liked us to have been. I thought we were as much in the game as Lincoln.

We didn’t hold the ball up as much as I would have liked to have done with two frontmen. I would have liked us to have played off of them, but the ball didn’t stick with them quite as much as I would have liked, but nonetheless, I felt no reason why we would have cause for concern.

We just needed to be a bit more patient in possession I felt and use the ball and then we concede a silly free-kick which we’d spoken and emphasised to the guys before the game about how important restarts are for Lincoln. They score an unmarked header from that, another free-kick two minutes after that and you’re dead, it’s killed us.

What you see is, we know that the next goal coming after half-time is going to be massively important, we make a mistake, 3-0 two minutes in and it just kills your confidence and what you see after that is a result of conceding bad goals.

On lessons learnt…

I don’t know that I’ve learnt any lessons really, other than we can’t afford to concede goals. This club has gone a long time without conceding [keeping a clean sheet] and until we stop conceding goals, you can’t win a football match. It’s debilitating from a confidence point of view because as soon as the first goal goes in you can see the lads going ‘here we go again’ and so it becomes very difficult.

I thought the boys had a really good, high energy performance the other night. We sat our stool out to the do the same thing again and I honestly didn’t think there was anything in the game before they scored the goal.

I thought it was an even game and I was thinking if we can get to half-time and focus on trying to be a bit more patient on the ball, work the ball side-to-side a little bit better, then we would create opportunities. You have to come in with a clean sheet, you can’t keep conceding goals and that’s killing us.

On the mood in the dressing room…

Everybody’s on the floor like you can imagine. Three goals from set-plays – we know that they’ve scored all their goals previous to that from restarts and we’re killing ourselves.

We’re aware of it and have emphasised that you need to have that mentality to not give away goals cheaply – you’re not going to win a game if you give away goals like that.

It’s all about bouncing back at the game on Tuesday and we just need to see a reaction from the guys. The starting point has to be not conceding goals.

I think that's everything we are doing wrong. No pace in attack, passing side to side gives the other team time to organise at the back and we end up just losing possession
 
From that last sentence I expect to see 4-5-1 or 5-4-1 to start the game Tuesday
 
Dick Bate got 8 league games at the start of 87/88 before the chop -0 wins 2 draws and 6 successive defeats.

Arthur Rowley survived 6 games without a win at the start of 70/71 - 2 draws 4 defeats.

Eddie Perry started his career with no wins in 7 in 1956/57 - 3 draws and 4 defeats - we ended up 7th at the end of the season.

Bond will get at least another 3 games .....
 
I think that's everything we are doing wrong. No pace in attack, passing side to side gives the other team time to organise at the back and we end up just losing possession

I don’t agree with that....it’s the fact we aren’t doing it well that’s the problem....but moving the ball from side to side is exactly what teams need to do.....the difficult thing is to try and move the ball quicker than they can adjust, and to exploit the gaps when they appear from either doing that or by the opposition getting tired or lazy in their defending.....

To do that you need brave midfield players to try and unlock the door....(we have them but we crucify them each time they get it wrong) and you need forwards in form who make good movement and punish mistakes...(we have them but they aren’t in form)
 
I don’t agree with that....it’s the fact we aren’t doing it well that’s the problem....but moving the ball from side to side is exactly what teams need to do.....the difficult thing is to try and move the ball quicker than they can adjust, and to exploit the gaps when they appear from either doing that or by the opposition getting tired or lazy in their defending.....

To do that you need brave midfield players to try and unlock the door....(we have them but we crucify them each time they get it wrong) and you need forwards in form who make good movement and punish mistakes...(we have them but they aren’t in form)
The forwards are moving but the ball keeps going sideways or backwards, soul destroying for attackers. Why do you think Cox keeps dropping deeper as the game goes on ? He just wants the ball.
 
I don’t agree with that....it’s the fact we aren’t doing it well that’s the problem....but moving the ball from side to side is exactly what teams need to do.....the difficult thing is to try and move the ball quicker than they can adjust, and to exploit the gaps when they appear from either doing that or by the opposition getting tired or lazy in their defending.....

To do that you need brave midfield players to try and unlock the door....(we have them but we crucify them each time they get it wrong) and you need forwards in form who make good movement and punish mistakes...(we have them but they aren’t in form)
I don't think our players are good enough on the ball for what he wants. From what we have been showing so far it's backwards or sideways passing with no attacking threat whatsoever then we are losing possession and conceding goals. It's not working and we are getting run all over. It needs to change.
 
I don’t agree with that....it’s the fact we aren’t doing it well that’s the problem....but moving the ball from side to side is exactly what teams need to do.....the difficult thing is to try and move the ball quicker than they can adjust, and to exploit the gaps when they appear from either doing that or by the opposition getting tired or lazy in their defending.....

To do that you need brave midfield players to try and unlock the door....(we have them but we crucify them each time they get it wrong) and you need forwards in form who make good movement and punish mistakes...(we have them but they aren’t in form)

Against Blackpool, I thought we were toothless going forward. The reason being, that our attack was always slow & ponderous.

We’d get the ball into the channels, hold it up, pass it inside, return it outside, then inevitably pass back to defence, who would then start the move off again.

That kind of system is ok if you’re a team capable of retaining possession, for prolonged periods, and then being able to unlock a defence out of nothing. Unfortunately, Southend aren’t one of those teams.

We’re seriously lacking a creative threat from the midfield. I don’t mind the idea of going from side-to-side, but at some point, the ball has to go forward. And that’s where we’re lacking at the moment. So much so, that Cox is having to drop deeper, and try to do that role, aswell as perform his own role of being a striker.

Milligan was brought in to link the defence and the midfield. Well, now we need someone to link that midfield to the strikers. Someone who can play a killer final ball.

There’s a lot of hype around this kid from Man U, but as yet we don’t know if he’s the answer. Mantom & Mac are shell’s of their former selves, Hutch looks very promising, but isn’t at League One level yet. Ndukwu hasn’t been entrusted with a starting role, and Barratt is nowhere near returning.

Persisting with a system that doesn’t suit the players you have, would seem to be pretty daft. However, if that’s what Bond wants to do, then he must use his best players for that. In this sense, I can’t see how he can play anything other than a diamond midfield, with Cox at the point (behind Goodship & Humphrys) with Milligan anchoring it.
 
Are the players "playing safe" or, "under instruction"...
Safe - side to side and backwards with the ball, retaining possession, thus not doing anything wrong - avoiding heckling from the supporters (fear of becoming the next scapegoat)...or,

Under instruction; as above but awaiting to unlock the opposition ?

At Coventry it was massively frustrating that we didn't start to play until we went a goal down
 
We can’t keep losing managers due to players not having it their own way. The players need to get behind the manager and his ideas, buy into Bonds ideas and get on with it. We blamed brown, we blamed Powell, we need continuity. The players may not like the system but it’s far too early for any judgement. Some of these players were here when our last two managers were sacked and it sounds like they’re happy to get rid of the third. They need to have a good look at themselves.
 
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