I hadn’t clocked that Sadler had displaced Harry because others (McEntee) had offered more flexibility and versatility. An awful mistake. Harry has had an outstanding season and has been the pivot for the defence. To compromise and disrupt the defence to accommodate McEntee, on his return to fitness, just didn’t make sense. Crazy. Sadler has broken the golden rule of playing your very best players in their very best position. He has disrupted the team as a cohesive unit.
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That refers to Sadler’s explanation of his decision to leave Williams off the bench, not out of the first eleven.
Sadler no longer rates Williams as a central defender as highly as the alternatives, and is leaving him off the bench in favour of players who could offer more options if needed.
Why not just play both?
McEntee has been fine over the last few weeks.
Last few games we’ve struggled to handle teams with big strikers, Aaron Pressley at Barrow, Jayden Stockley/Lorent Tolaj at Port Vale and Omar Bugiel at Wimbledon.
Harry would have dealt with all four of them.
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Williams was a huge reason why we were top of the league, what mentalist would drop him?
He had to stick to basics yet he tried to get clever, week after week.
I was thinking back to the start of the season when Adomah was introduced into games. He literally took the piss out of teams, because he had the ball to his feet and was allowed to play.
We went from that to Adomah chasing defenders around at the age of 37… yes he’s 37 ffs Sadler
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He’s simply not playing because he rejected a contract offer, this manager puts his team ego before the team.
Williams has his head elsewhere.
DD on paper is the best defender but has not played for most the season.
Dave, although very poor, has more game time.
McEntee is the better option.
Allen taking corners on one side, ok, Jellis the other side, awful (why stick with it?) another managerial failing.
Most opposition playing away have one striker, we have 3 central defenders to cope with him, therefore losing a midfield player causing us to be a man down in the centre of the pitch.
Stirk offers very little side stepping across the centre circle following the ball.
We need a manager with footballing tactical knowledge, not an old player, physio etc.
Donny win tomorrow and we are 4th.
I can’t see another win with this squad and team morale
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Sacking O’Driscol was one of the rare things the Bonser babes got right post 2007.
His situation was a bit different though. O’Dismal was going to squander someone else’s good work and had no credit in the bank. Sadler is effing up his own good work, so has some credit.
I just hope the club truly appreciate what a blow messing this up would be to supporters. I can’t speak for others, but for me it would be the worst experience in 25 years following the club.
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Based on what? People are believing whatever rumours they want on this, rather than it being another baffling selection choice.
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We have 4 very winnable games left. 3 wins would most likely see us get automatic promotion.
At this point, does anyone still believe we will get them with Sadler in charge? I don’t think there is a chance. Take a look how we are playing, we don’t even look like winning. Saturday’s performance sums it all up. It was there on a plate for us with other results and we offered nothing. Never looked like getting a result from the first kick. Remind me which team was meant to be on the beach.
No guarantee we will win the games with a different manager but I’d give us more chance. They aren’t difficult games and someone who can see what is in front of them may have a chance. There is always a chance that some of Sadler’s buddies would down tools, but for the board to just sit on their hands and give up this opportunity is wrong in my opinion.
I’m sure we could find a good manager who would take this opportunity for the remaining games. Let’s face it, Sadler shouldn’t be here next season anyway. Disgraceful run of results, that any manager would get the boot for.
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45 years for me, and nothing else will come close to the heartbreak if we don’t do this.
We needed this promotion, regardless of what comes after it. We have waited far too long to have something to celebrate.
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What if he has, he’s still under contract and I’m sure he would love to gain promotion with his team mates.
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Spot on!
I think @Thanatos summed it up perfectly yesterday for where I’m still at
Yep. Trent is leaving for Real Madrid this summer. Will still be winning a title with Liverpool though before he goes.
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Not in my opinion. He was certainly off the pace on Saturday.
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I don’t have that feeling, although obviously I hope we do.
I think the last sentence is understating things a bit. It would be the worst feeling I have had in 45 years following Walsall. I just can’t get my head around it. We had to be the worst team in the league or close to it for over 2 months to blow this. Good old Walsall eh?
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It’s fine to say @Thanatos was right. He understands the game. Simple really !
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We have a squad of players more than good enough to get promotion. But successful teams thrive on momentum and confidence. We lost all momentum months ago and their confidence is shot to pieces. Back at the start of this appalling run I posted that I thought that Ben Boycott should sit down and tell Sadler to stop making these damn fool selection and tactical decisions, get us back on track or he’s out on his ear. I was shot down by many for presuming to know better than our wise and gifted manager. Boycott should do exactly this asap.
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I’ve seen us relegated several times, and that’s horrible, but this would be so much worse! After each relegation comes hope that’ll we’ll bounce back, and we usually have, if not instantly, within a year or two, but if we end up screwing this up it extinguishes any hope - there’s no way we come back stronger next season, the only way is down!
So sick of this god awful league, and so sick of having to answer questions on what’s gone wrong, after telling anyone who’d listen how amazing we were, and how proud I was that my little club were being absolutely bloody brilliant for once.
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Exactly, relegation is hard to take but often you know it’s coming from weeks away. However this has been a slow and painful implosion that has really knocked me. I do not think I will ever forget the misery of the Vale match, knowing that we had finally been knocked off top spot … by them !
How have we gone from being ‘the best L2 side ever’, dreaming of 100 points, to this pathetic excuse for a team. Rudderless, hoof balling, bottle jobs !
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