JoeP Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 17 minutes ago, deyres42 said: Just cut to the chase and sack him now, save yourself the bother. Friendlies mean nothing and there's two weeks to go. I'm sure Mellon's going to put a side together over the next two weeks that'll have a different version of what we've seen of Lundstram and Conlon in games that matter and a side that can get the best out of Norwood. That will mean completely changing the system from last season. He knows what good looks like. Definitely..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP1960 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 5 minutes ago, JoeP said: Friendlies mean nothing and there's two weeks to go. I'm sure Mellon's going to put a side together over the next two weeks that'll have a different version of what we've seen of Lundstram and Conlon in games that matter and a side that can get the best out of Norwood. That will mean completely changing the system from last season. He knows what good looks like. Definitely..... I guess you didnt go to the Radcliffe game? Alarm bells rang for me as actually they had some better quality and fitter players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 1 minute ago, BP1960 said: I guess you didnt go to the Radcliffe game? Alarm bells rang for me as actually they had some better quality and fitter players. I didn't go. The post was slightly tongue in cheek... I'm not panicking. I still maintain friendlies mean Sweet FA, but would add that I would be asking questions as early as Braintree if we don't win and win well. Said it with Unsworth before the Southend away and saying it with Mellon now. Neither had shown anything by this point in their Latics career to suggest we should wait for it to turn. Hit the ground running. While Braintree is "only one game into the season", it's plenty of games into him putting his mark on the squad. He's had most of last season and the summer to sort us out now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarddog73 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 What worries me is we've got gradually worse each time I've seen us pre season, we played with more desire after a week long, three session a day training camp in Scotland and a long slog home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deyres42 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 7 minutes ago, yarddog73 said: What worries me is we've got gradually worse each time I've seen us pre season, we played with more desire after a week long, three session a day training camp in Scotland and a long slog home. You couldn't wait for the season to start a week ago Faz... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronoafc Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 For the first 20 minutes I thought we knocked it about well and created a couple of very good chances. After that however it was so bad. That 2nd half was actually worrying. It was shite. The decision to renew Fondop is baffling and nothing short of a disgrace. He is absolutely atrocious. Why are we pratting about resigning crap? I’ve seen people say the strikers aren’t the problem and it’s entirely the midfields fault, it’s not. Fondop is genuinely atrocious. Reid is annonymous and just prances round. Their runs are poor, their movement is poor, neither can hold the ball up and Fondop can’t finish. It’s not good enough. Conlon looks sharp at times but him and Lundstram drop so deep it leaves huge gaps all over the pitch. Lundstram frustrates the shite out of me. We need a new striker badly, maybe 2 if Reid is also off. We also are desperate for an attacking/creative midfielder but not a shitty trialist. Where are we finding these lads? Unless we sign 2-3 game changers we look like a team who will finish 10th at best. Did anyone else notice Hobson taking years to pass it out wide to Ogle or Khan? He needs to book up. Positives we do look quite solid overall. Jez is worth a proper look i.e a few starts. His end product was poor but at least he wants to try and attack. He looks decent. Manny Monthe looks a player and half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP1960 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 15 minutes ago, yarddog73 said: What worries me is we've got gradually worse each time I've seen us pre season, we played with more desire after a week long, three session a day training camp in Scotland and a long slog home. I saw players do more chasing in the warmup than during the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summerdeep Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 I don't like Mellon's attitude to these pre-season games at all. I read quotes from him in The Oldham Times to the effect that they were just glorified training sessions, and I've seen similar references on here. I remember that Brian Clough took the Watney Cup very seriously. This was a somewhat gimmicky pre-season tournament that ran for a few years in the early 1970s - His Derby side won it, and not too long afterwards were League Champions. The successful Hungarian international side in the 1950s used to play warm up games against factory sides: they put out full strength teams and the emphatic victories they recorded were apparently great for morale and for getting them into a winning groove. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 6 minutes ago, aaronoafc said: The decision to renew Fondop is baffling and nothing short of a disgrace. He is absolutely atrocious. Why are we pratting about resigning crap? Fondop earned his contract based on how he's played last season. Not on the friendlies we've played this pre-season. All about opinions, but he deserved the contract in mine... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP1960 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 (edited) 22 minutes ago, aaronoafc said: For the first 20 minutes I thought we knocked it about well and created a couple of very good chances. After that however it was so bad. That 2nd half was actually worrying. It was shite. The decision to renew Fondop is baffling and nothing short of a disgrace. He is absolutely atrocious. Why are we pratting about resigning crap? I’ve seen people say the strikers aren’t the problem and it’s entirely the midfields fault, it’s not. Fondop is genuinely atrocious. Reid is annonymous and just prances round. Their runs are poor, their movement is poor, neither can hold the ball up and Fondop can’t finish. It’s not good enough. Conlon looks sharp at times but him and Lundstram drop so deep it leaves huge gaps all over the pitch. Lundstram frustrates the shite out of me. We need a new striker badly, maybe 2 if Reid is also off. We also are desperate for an attacking/creative midfielder but not a shitty trialist. Where are we finding these lads? Unless we sign 2-3 game changers we look like a team who will finish 10th at best. Did anyone else notice Hobson taking years to pass it out wide to Ogle or Khan? He needs to book up. Positives we do look quite solid overall. Jez is worth a proper look i.e a few starts. His end product was poor but at least he wants to try and attack. He looks decent. Manny Monthe looks a player and half. Yes, Ogle was often in space and shouting for Hobson to pass the ball to him, but all he did was turn back. Lundstam, Conlon and Charsley did exactly the same, it's no wonder goals are scarce even against part time teams. Hobson, Charsley and Lundstram wouldn't start against Braintree from what I've seen, they are holding the team back from playing attacking football. The striker situation is alarming. Edited July 27 by BP1960 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronoafc Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 3 minutes ago, JoeP said: Fondop earned his contract based on how he's played last season. Not on the friendlies we've played this pre-season. All about opinions, but he deserved the contract in mine... I just think if we’re serious about promotion we need much, much better. Even as a backup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronoafc Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 3 minutes ago, BP1960 said: Yes, Ogle was often in space and shouting for Hobson to pass the ball to him, but all he did was turn back. Lundstam, Conlon and Charsley did exactly the same, it's no wonder goals are scarce even against part time teams. Hobson, Charlesworth and Lundstram wouldn't start against Braintree from what I've seen, they are holding the team back from playing attacking football. The striker situation is alarming. Agree BP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monty Burns Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 pissboil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarddog73 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 32 minutes ago, Summerdeep said: I don't like Mellon's attitude to these pre-season games at all. I read quotes from him in The Oldham Times to the effect that they were just glorified training sessions, and I've seen similar references on here. I remember that Brian Clough took the Watney Cup very seriously. This was a somewhat gimmicky pre-season tournament that ran for a few years in the early 1970s - His Derby side won it, and not too long afterwards were League Champions. The successful Hungarian international side in the 1950s used to play warm up games against factory sides: they put out full strength teams and the emphatic victories they recorded were apparently great for morale and for getting them into a winning groove. Chesterfield did similar last season, saying that we've now been beat by three semi professional teams in preseason and scored one goal in 270 minutes of football, we struggled last season for goals yet don't really seem to have addressed the problems. Where are the wingers?, that lad today Senior was an actual embarrassment, his only noteworthy involvement today nearly got him sent off. Once again Uchegbulam showed a bit of pace but there's no end product, we just dont have a goal in us, Conlon, Chersley and Lundstrum are so deep they are never going to chip in and we know the defence score very few. I'm not sure whose recruiting for us but it looks to me that it's just not good enough. Mellon says he knows what good looks like and this is his team now, someone needs to ask him whether we are good or not because it's hard to see it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 https://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/news/2024/july/27/mellon-after-radcliffe-friendly/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarddog73 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 5 minutes ago, JoeP said: https://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/news/2024/july/27/mellon-after-radcliffe-friendly/ Awful attitude to pre season that, one win in his last 16 games he's managed should have him a little more concerned. Norwood and Garner weeks away and Kay has done an hamstring is not really the news we needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronoafc Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 Watching Mellons interview is a concern itself, he seems visually frustrated. Kay with a hamstring injury so he won’t feature for a few week. Norwood and Garner still weeks away. Mellon says it, we need more up top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 15 minutes ago, yarddog73 said: Awful attitude to pre season that, one win in his last 16 games he's managed should have him a little more concerned. Norwood and Garner weeks away and Kay has done an hamstring is not really the news we needed. It seems to be awful tactics too, i.e no different to last season What isn't working about it all? We've moved out Unsworth and his staff and players, brought in Mellon with his staff and players and everything still seems to be almost identical! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarddog73 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 11 minutes ago, aaronoafc said: Watching Mellons interview is a concern itself, he seems visually frustrated. Kay with a hamstring injury so he won’t feature for a few week. Norwood and Garner still weeks away. Mellon says it, we need more up top. He's frustrated because that today was like a throwback to the back end of last season, let's hope it's a blip and he can get us back on track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlemoor Lad Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 Get Matt Smith in as soon as possible We have a crisis on our hands Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oafcmb Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 2 weeks until the season starts and we still need half a team. When will be the first "They need to gel" shouts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronoafc Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 If we don’t hit the ground running he’ll be a gonner. I don’t want that either, I cba starting again again again. He needs a bit of help though now imo, we need to spend a bit to bring in 2-3 quality players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarddog73 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 (edited) 19 minutes ago, JoeP said: It seems to be awful tactics too, i.e no different to last season What isn't working about it all? We've moved out Unsworth and his staff and players, brought in Mellon with his staff and players and everything still seems to be almost identical! He did say they tried something new today but it clearly didn't work with the two up top and as a consequence we surrendered the midfield to a team of part time footballers which in itself was embarrassing, he probably should have gone to a back four earlier as they had the extra body in the centre of the park but the options from the bench are piss poor so he's somewhat restricted. What frustrated me most was our players insistence to turn in and to play it back to the centrehalfs all afternoon long, Lundstrum to be fair tried to drive us forward at times but Conlon and Charsley didn't have a forward pass in them and preferred to play pitta patta nothing football in our own half, it's crap and soul destroying, to be fair to Reid he made the odd decent run on the last man but no one had the vision to even see it. Problem we have now with pre season running out fast is whoever comes in will need time which we just don't have, I'm afraid to say it but recruitment again looks to have been an absolute crock of shit, that trialist today sums up the state of our recruitment. And finally if he thinks we looked better with Uchegbulam on then we truly are fucked, there's no end product with that lad, we should be signing so much better players like Kanu and Sinclair, certainly not the players Rochdale are not really arsed they lose. Edited July 27 by yarddog73 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longtimeblue Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 (edited) Means fuck all. We might end up being shit but it's not because we've been shit in friendlies. Edited July 27 by longtimeblue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Sinnott Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 2 hours ago, yarddog73 said: What worries me is we've got gradually worse each time I've seen us pre season, we played with more desire after a week long, three session a day training camp in Scotland and a long slog home. Pal, we were champions elect a week ago cos we passed the ball a few times against the mighty Lincoln... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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