Robins (19 Viewers)

[San Francisco]

It's irrelevant, if we're struggling at Christmas including the end of last season you're looking at 30-35 games of poor form.

Robins has a job for life according to some on here.

 

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[HuckerbyDublinWhelan]

It’s worth noting that throughout his career Robins has struggled when he’s in a relatively stable position.
He did well at Rotherham with a 17 point deduction and lots of issues and it’s well known how well he’s done here.

he failed at Scunthorpe and Huddersfield. Is it possible that robins is a fire fighter who gets by creating a siege mentality and dragging out the talent from limited players?

 

[Sky Blue Goblin]

The man dragged us through the leagues with some of the most neglectful owners doing their best to scupper him, all the way. Playoff final and a FA cup semi the last two years. Bet he'd be delighted that renowned bed wetter Matt Smith gives him until Christmas

Love mark and don’t want him going anywhere but we’re not the same club we were seven years ago. He can’t just have unlimited credit. He deserves a statue when all is said and done but while he’s in the job he needs to be held to the expectations of it.

 

[Hincha]

People mocked him but Mcsheffrey said over the summer that he hopes the new assistants are up to it as it wasn’t great when he played under Robins at Scunthorpe…

Robins success has been tied to Adi until this point

 

[The Philosopher]

People can be concerned. Let's face it he had no idea today

It makes you wonder how much of an impact AV leaving has had. The team spirit and drive (particularly in latter part of games where we used to be so strong) seems to have gone.

I think robins has also been let down by the recruitment by not adequately recruiting properly in midfield

Yes. It’s all well and good trying to buy the next Gyok money making machine, but 5/6 multi million pound attackers in 16 months can’t work. You can only play so many to put in the shop window. Hamer not replaced. COH on a free was madness. Surely a big signing in fee to extend would have sorted without creating animosity with the rest of the team about weekly wages

I would say my bigger worry is Doug King’s transfer policy and the supporting staff. Robins is really not where our focus should be.

See above. Trying to treat players as individual hedge funds to invest and the capitalise on shows he’s a businessman not a football man.

 

[AiS86]

I don't get why people think it's so easy to just buy who you want. We clearly tried for centre mids and failed. We don't have control over that. I'd rather we play the long game and get players we actually want and not panic buy for the sake of it. We're four games in, it's just another slow start. Once Sheaf is back we'll be fine and can then try again in Jan.

 

[fernandopartridge]

It makes you wonder how much of an impact AV leaving has had. The team spirit and drive (particularly in latter part of games where we used to be so strong) seems to have gone.



Yes. It’s all well and good trying to buy the next Gyok money making machine, but 5/6 multi million pound attackers in 16 months can’t work. You can only play so many to put in the shop window. Hamer not replaced. COH on a free was madness. Surely a big signing in fee to extend would have sorted without creating animosity with the rest of the team about weekly wages



See above. Trying to treat players as individual hedge funds to invest and the capitalise on shows he’s a businessman not a football man.

We won in the 96th minute the other week and again got a late equaliser at Bristol City, not sure Adi is much to do with it. It's personnel on the pitch. O'Hare is the one we are missing.

 

[Speedie's Head]

Robins isn't under pressure - yet, but the spotlight will on him soon enough if they don't improve after the break. The question is whether he has the team to support him quickly enough

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

Expectations have to be changed due to the lack of reinforcement in midfield.
I would expect us to be around 8th-12th this season, anything less is an underperformance and anything above is an overperformance.

Pretty disappointing still when you consider the money spent that we've failed to address key areas once again. Whoever is leading the recruitment has failed.

 

[Matt smith]

Expectations have to be changed due to the lack of reinforcement in midfield.
I would expect us to be around 8th-12th this season, anything less is an underperformance and anything above is an overperformance.

Pretty disappointing still when you consider the money spent that we've failed to address key areas once again. Whoever is leading the recruitment has failed.

Enthusiasm sucked out of the fan base

 

[Deity]

We won in the 96th minute the other week and again got a late equaliser at Bristol City, not sure Adi is much to do with it. It's personnel on the pitch. O'Hare is the one we are missing.

He’s barely played for 2 seasons so it’s not COH we are missing ….

 

[HuckerbyDublinWhelan]

Expectations have to be changed due to the lack of reinforcement in midfield.
I would expect us to be around 8th-12th this season, anything less is an underperformance and anything above is an overperformance.

Pretty disappointing still when you consider the money spent that we've failed to address key areas once again. Whoever is leading the recruitment has failed.

We’re in the top 3 spenders in both the last 2 seasons. Anything under top 6 is underperformance

 

[Seamus1]

Problem is we're playing with

MvE - Lati - Binks - Bidwell
Torp - Rudoni - Eccles

MvE is the only one that is consistently good, the two centre backs are ranked 3 & 4 out of the 4 we have, bidwell has regressed.

With the utmost respect to you, I certainly enjoy reading what you post, but then surely the question must be asked of why he is not playing the 2 better central defenders?

I have gone on and on until I’m blue in the bloody face, but why oh why are we persisting with a player who has a total of ONE clean sheet in the league in thirteen months of being here?? Why did we spaff a couple of million on him?

Is it coincidence that Bidwell’s form has dipped playing alongside him? It has been mentioned numerous times that Binks goes wandering up the field or across, as a result Bidwell comes more central to partially cover the gap vacated, creating space on the outside/blindside

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

We’re in the top 3 spenders in both the last 2 seasons. Anything under top 6 is underperformance

Based on the money spent, yes

Based on the squad we've assembled with that money, no

 

[steve cooper]

It makes me wonder how much we are missing Viveash

 

[Cally Fedora]

Seriously, the reactionary stuff on this thread is unbelievable. Robins is light years ahead of anything we’ve had in the last 2-3 decades. The same conversations were happening last year as Wright and Simms settled. We’ve signed proven players this year who just need a few games. There should be zero panic.

 

[HuckerbyDublinWhelan]

Based on the money spent, yes

Based on the squad we've assembled with that money, no

That’s what the management teams lives and dies by.

the squad has been assembled to the management’s specification. The targets don’t change

 

[MalcSB]

All of this is on Doug king, we are fucking crying out for midfielders yet he fucking sells one on deadline day it’s laughable…….and unfortunately robins will end up paying the price for kings bullshit.
Also the 15 coaches that have come in are awful, we miss adi and Dennis massively.

It sounds as if there was little choice: Palmer wanted to go.

 

[Liquid Gold]

With the utmost respect to you, I certainly enjoy reading what you post, but then surely the question must be asked of why he is not playing the 2 better central defenders?

I have gone on and on until I’m blue in the bloody face, but why oh why are we persisting with a player who has a total of ONE clean sheet in the league in thirteen months of being here?? Why did we spaff a couple of million on him?

Is it coincidence that Bidwell’s form has dipped playing alongside him? It has been mentioned numerous times that Binks goes wandering up the field or across, as a result Bidwell comes more central to partially cover the gap vacated, creating space on the outside/blindside

I don't know the answer but if it was me I'd be getting Thomas and Kitching ready to go all international break.

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

That’s what the management teams lives and dies by.

the squad has been assembled to the management’s specification. The targets don’t change

I'm not sure Robins has as much influence on the recruitment as he used to.

If he does, then yea he will need to take the responsibility for that and us being short in key areas.

 

[MalcSB]

We have multiple coaches now yet there is little evidence of any benefit from all that input where it matters - on the pitch on match-days. Too many cooks?

 

[HuckerbyDublinWhelan]

I'm not sure Robins has as much influence on the recruitment as he used to.

If he does, then yea he will need to take the responsibility for that and us being short in key areas.

Of course Robins has influence - he’s got to manage the team.

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

We won in the 96th minute the other week and again got a late equaliser at Bristol City, not sure Adi is much to do with it. It's personnel on the pitch. O'Hare is the one we are missing.

Strongly disagree. The 20m Sheaf played v Oxford was our most positive and in control we’ve looked. Without him, Torp and Eccles are struggle to progress the ball through midfield and winning it back.

Greg Downes put it accurately when he said Cov were lethargic and predictable. We won’t get the most out of the forwards if we can’t get the ball to them in dangerous areas.

 

[hinckley cov]

We won in the 96th minute the other week and again got a late equaliser at Bristol City, not sure Adi is much to do with it. It's personnel on the pitch. O'Hare is the one we are missing.

I couldn’t agree more, o’hare was a little terrier in the middle and unfortunately none of our present midfield have any fight in them.

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

I couldn’t agree more, o’hare was a little terrier in the middle and unfortunately none of our present midfield have any fight in them.

That’s unfair on Rudoni, he looks good in that 10 role, but it is just Eccles and Torp (then Allen) who just look markedly off the pace.

It was the same last season when Sheaf was out for the games in Feb/March - when we had COH.

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

Of course Robins has influence - he’s got to manage the team.

Sorry didn't realise you were an itk, Robin's has implied several times his input on transfers is less than it used to be.
I'm sure if it was up to only him he would have utilised the loan market more to cover certain areas of the pitch.

 

[Cally Fedora]

O’Hare wasn’t a terrier. He barely played for 18 months. Remarkable how he and Palmer have suddenly turned into Messi and Ronaldo now they’ve left. Palmer was an ineffectual faffer and O’Hare was better but rarely a factor.

 

[HuckerbyDublinWhelan]

Sorry didn't realise you were an itk, Robin's has implied several times his input on transfers is less than it used to be.
I'm sure if it was up to only him he would have utilised the loan market more to cover certain areas of the pitch.

Never said his influence wasn’t reduced - but if you honestly think they’ve just thrown 40m worth of players at him without him knowing you’re really naive.

ultimately it’s his job as head coach to get the best of out of the players he’s got. It’s his tactics which have us playing this slow possession game which he’s been trying for 3/4 years now at the start of every season. It’s not worked previously and it’s not working now.

the mental gymnastics on here at times absolve Robins of any blame is astounding.

I’ll look at it around the 10 game mark. But performance-wise we’re following the same pattern we have the last 3 years. Only this year robins hasn’t got the pitch or a dug up training ground to blame

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

O’Hare wasn’t a terrier. He barely played for 18 months. Remarkable how he and Palmer have suddenly turned into Messi and Ronaldo now they’ve left. Palmer was an ineffectual faffer and O’Hare was better but rarely a factor.

The missing ingredient is clearly Sheaf. Even then, I remember having plenty of discussion last season about missing Hamer and apparently Eccles and Torp were good enough to step up. In fact, in preseason Allen was good enough.

There was a complete denial of how off the pace our midfield was in preseason and I hope that MR and his recruitment team saw that in preseason. Yet, I’m not sure whist is worst: either we knew we needed a CM and chose not to get one, or that we felt Torp, Eccles, Sheaf and Allen was enough.

There’s still time to turn things around but the midfield and defensive performances this season have been depressing already. Made all the more worse because we’re packed with talented forwards.

 

[Tommo1993]

I say this desperately, DESPERATELY, fucking screaming in your face. Rudoni is not a 10.

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

He looked dreadful in the 10 role. He looked like a defensive midfielder trying to figure out what to do. Zero creativity, just won a few tackles.

It’s hard to be creative when you don’t have control of midfield. Norwich weren’t great today, there were times they would make riskier passes to strikers through defensive lines. We are too cautious and will only pass out wide and by the time those wid r players have the ball, the opposition is set.

 

[pusbccfc]

O’Hare wasn’t a terrier. He barely played for 18 months. Remarkable how he and Palmer have suddenly turned into Messi and Ronaldo now they’ve left. Palmer was an ineffectual faffer and O’Hare was better but rarely a factor.

O'Hare pressed high. He's doing the same for Sheffield United.

He's a big miss.

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

I say this desperately, DESPERATELY, fucking screaming in your face. Rudoni is not a 10.

We played about 30-35 minutes playing 4-2-4. The root cause of our issues is that Eccles and Torp partnership. Allen being a distant 2nd place tells you everything you need to know about the quality in that midfield unit.

 

[Skyblue Bangkok]

We used to play lovely little triangles in and around their box. Now we just get aimless crosses in.

We have Watford , Swansea , Leeds Blackburn and Middlesboro can't see us winning any of those and time for someone else to have a go if that happens.

 

[Martw]

Fuck sake lads it's 4 games into the season! Robins has done more for this club than pretty much anyone in history I think he deserves miles more runway than 4 games.

I don’t think anybody doubts this to be fair but in 6 games played this season we’ve played well in 1. He can and ought to be questioned as to why we are consistently poor this season