The worst spell in recent history and the patterns within it.

These are the results from February 14th 2016 to today

Liverpool at home= 6-0 loss (it was 2-0 at halftime)
Stoke away= 2-1 loss (it was 0-0 at halftime)
Everton at home= 3-1 loss (it was 2-0 at halftime)
Man City away= 4-0 loss (it was 0-0 at halftime)
Spurs at home= 2-0 loss (it was 1-0 at halftime, conceded goal in first half stoppage time)
Swansea away= 1-0 loss (it was 0-0 at halftime)
Chelsea at home= 4-0 loss (it was 2-0 at halftime, conceded goal in first half stoppage time)
Bournemouth at home= 2-1 loss (it was 1-0 at halftime Bournemouth, conceded goal in first half stoppage time)
Man Utd away= 1-0 loss (it was 0-0 at halftime)
Southampton at home= 4-2 loss (it was 2-1 to saints at halftime)
Watford away= 3-2 loss (it was 1-1 at halftime, conceded goal in first half stoppage time and we conceded two goals in stoppage time at the end)
Newcastle at home= 0-0 draw
Arsenal away= 4-0 loss (it was 1-0 at halftime)
Sheff Wed away= 1-0 loss (it was 0-0 at half time and we conceded in the last five minutes)
Luton away= 3-1 loss (it was 1-1 at halftime)
Rotherham at home= 3-0 win (2-0 at halftime)
Huddersfield at home= 1-1 draw (it was 1-0 to Villa at halftime and we conceded a goal in the last five minutes)
Derby away= 0-0 draw
Bristol City away= 3-1 loss (it was 1-0 to Villa at halftime)

Played- 19
won= 1
Draw= 3
Lost= 15
Scored= 13
Conceded= 44
Failed to score= 10 games
Clean sheet= 3

And out of those forty-four goals we let in THIRTY-ONE came after halftime. It also reveals a massive problem scoring goals as we've scored way less than a goal a game and also our struggles scoring goals in the first half are clear, with only seven goals coming in this run in the first half. Also it shows a total lack of bottle when we keep letting in goals late in the first half and late in the second half.

In the current squad these are the players that remains through this whole run.

Grealish
Ayew
Gestede
Westwood
Hutton
Agbonlahor
Lescott
Richards
Bacuna
Bunn
Kozak
Cissokho

Those in black have either played every game this season or have made an appearance. Amavi has only played twice so I won't lump him in with the others but this does beg the question, are these players simply too damaged to put our trust in? It cannot be a coincidence that the same thing has continue to happen time and time again with those players on the pitch. Okore was also part of that list but thankfully he's p/ssed off now. It's also worth noting that our attacking players have largely remained the same throughout this whole run, with only Mccormack added to the striking options and no other wingers/attacking midfielders involved so again is it a coincidence that we're not scoring enough?

The bottom line is if you still have a core group of players who done so badly last season how can you really expect things to change? Yes we can make an argument for Grealish being a young lad who's developing well or Gestede being proven in the championship but personally I honestly think we need to get rid of as many on this list as possible before they totally destroy our chances of promotion. Ayew, Bacuna, Westwood and Cissokho are starting game after game and that's virtually half the side. We need to be ruthless now if we want to save this club from slipping further into a dark hole.

We knew it was gonna be tough to turn this around, I believe we are on the way but its so hard to take time an time again, we need wins and when we start I think we will hit a streak and start getting somewhere.

We are 4/5 players away from having the best squad in this league by a mile and we realistically need another window to get where we need to be.

Everybody had us to go down again, we were that bad. Patience is a virtue, we need that now, I trust the management team and especially the chairman, he will not let them fail, no way.

Jack did not play many games last season,he will be class, get rid of the rest, I am sick of having to watch Westwood Bacuna play, last season was the worst midfield I have seen

villajk wrote:Jack did not play many games last season,he will be class, get rid of the rest, I am sick of having to watch Westwood Bacuna play, last season was the worst midfield I have seen

I think the amount of alcohol in Jack's blood last year made him immune from the rot!

Westwood is a cancer though, cut him out!

If we keep losing the confidence of those players will keep getting worse as they are now generally losing to worse teams than they were losing to last year.

Crikey! What stats! Brilliant work.

And you can be sure that every manager in whatever league we're in knows that we're either unfit/mentally fragile/ready to get back on the coach by 60 mins.

If I was on RDM's coaching staff I'd get a bastard Sergeant Major down to BMH, play 120 minute training matches and anyone who skives off gets an absolute bollocking from Sarg.

Come game-day, they'll be ready for a 90 minute game and with the Sergeant Major sat in the dug-out, they won't dare fuck up.

Being serious though, this shows that we either have to really sort our shit out on various fronts for the 2nd half OR we need at least a 2 goal cushion by halftime. But we really shouldn't be needing a healthy lead knowing that the next 45 mins will likely see a massive balls up.

If there was ever a club in need of some heavy duty therapy, this club is it.

Of the bolded players you listed:
Grealish - offers little defensively.
Ayew - head drops troo easily.
Gestede - offers little defensively except coming back for corners.
Westwood - just too soft.
Hutton - out of position far far too often.
Agbonlahor - finished so who cares.
Lescott - will never play for us again.
Richards - hopefully he'll be gone too.
Bacuna - improving and not too bad defensively.
Bunn - needs to come in to relieve Gollini (stop sniggering....you know what I mean)
Kozak - offers nothing anywhere on the pitch ever.
Cissokho - Suspect.

So it really is little wonder that we can't hold on to a game.

In a 4-4-2, we could play a midfield of Bacuna, Tish, Beard and Amavi. I can't see that folding like a Tony Xia suit but it also has very little creativity so we might plug the leaks but we ain't gonna be scoring much. Maybe we need to look at a 4-3-2-1? McGrath knows.

Cracking post though @AstonThriller

DelboyVilla wrote:

villajk wrote:Jack did not play many games last season,he will be class, get rid of the rest, I am sick of having to watch Westwood Bacuna play, last season was the worst midfield I have seen

I think the amount of alcohol in Jack's blood last year made him immune from the rot!

Westwood is a cancer though, cut him out!

I think that's a little harsh. He tried his best (which isn't great) and he's not really a defensive player as he's not rapid and he's not hard. He's also not a creative player. But I do think he gives his best efforts.

Cancer is the likes of Gabby and Lescott who can't be arsed to put in a shift when it's their own club and when they're getting top dollar. Now to me, THAT needs to be cut out (and they have been).

Westwood is just a back-up for Tish and Jedi. He shouldn't be getting on the starting sheet any more unless there's issues with the other two.

Another stat to look at in the OP is that we've not been losing on NINE of those nineteen games at half-time. So clearly the second half collapses are just ingrained into the teams psyche right now and it's hard to know what can change it other than changing the whole team.

Did you notice your new ranking?

Conferdence, fitness, teamwork,all needs to be worked on.
Yesterday 5 minutes of bad defending we lost the game.
Bristol, Derby and most of the championship understand how we play, all out attack first half, then sit back.we need to mix it up.
I do believe we need to get rid of some players.
Management and fitness needs to step up get this team playing for 90 minutes.

Trotters wrote:Did you notice your new ranking?

LOL wow cheers Trotters!!, honoured...