What is the problem at the moment?

[double d]

If you had to pinpoint 1 specific thing at the moment, what would it be? Or is it a culmination of things coming together where one is not worse then the other? Or is it something else?

[double d]

I think it's been pretty much covered in all the other threads to be honest.

Thanks for adding something. What do you think it is?

[windermereROYAL]

You think too much.

[TiagoIlori]

There isn’t a problem that can be singled out, club is well and truly oxf*rd

[double d]

You think too much.

Just interested to know the thoughts. What do you think, Royal fan from Windermere?

[Snowflake Royal]

Confidence.

Losing saps confidence and energy, makes players indecisive, cautious and negative, losing becomes a habit, it changes the way players move and play so they make more mistakes. And once you're in the cycle it's hard to get out. And not many of our players really seem particularly strong mentally.

[windermereROYAL]

You think too much.

Just interested to know the thoughts. What do you think, Royal fan from Windermere?

Windermere road actually. there`s a whole lot of faults. it`s hard to pinpoint one. many people have different ideas. but its the lack of specialist players in different areas that seems to a main grumbling point.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Think we might’ve met once Windermere.....at a funeral of a neighbour a few years ago maybe?

Windermere Road was once the Wembley of roads in the 1970’s.......11 a sides, test matches on the corner, fights with Stavvie/Barnsdale, (bicycle) speedway, tennis...knock down ginger.....scrumping after midnight.

Like Wembleys twin towers, nothing much remains...sad really.....bit like the depleted and run-down look of our professional football club right now

[Berry]

I've come to the conclusion from watching the last 3 games that Stam is either very clever or very stupid...I'm getting really bored of the whole boring situation to be honest

[King Cnut]

The footballs gone beyond boring. Surprised they got 14000 in last match.

[Kitsondinho]

We’re not as good as we (the team/ management, not the fans.....plenty of people felt we were over-rated last season) think we are. Plus we over-achieved massively last season and I think that has made Stam and the team rather complacent.

[AthleticoSpizz]

again.......whilst we are dicking around in our own half, the oppositions defence are reorganising.

Simple as that.

Organised opposition defence=no goals=sh1tstorm all round.

[CountryRoyal]

As with any disaster, it is not usually the fault of one single factor, but the culmination of lots of issues surfacing and problems, both simultaneously and gradually, coalescing together.

The way I see it the "problem" at the moment is that we are not getting results. Why?

A huge onus is put upon a style of play that we intend to play, one which theoretically should be very successful. Keep the ball the opposition can't score. Whether it is due to poor coaching, management or players lacking the technical ability to implement it - or more likely a combination of all three, we are witnessing a team meandering through games desperately struggling to carry out what they are told to do, or perhaps even think they are supposed to. It is fairly clear there are times in games when an instruction has lead to a player's indecisiveness and caused him to go against footballing instinct - turn around and pass back as opposed to take a man on out of fear of losing the ball.

Last season the style of play was, for the most part, the same. It had the novelty and advantage of being relatively new and therefore other teams struggled to play against it. Even after they had done their homework they still struggled. Our good finish in the league was a combination of this and a strong spine to the team, not to mention a little bit of luck on the way. This season has been nothing short of an utter joke. We had no pre-season of note, lost the spine that was successful for us (Kermorgant 19 goals, Williams, Al-Habsi 16 clean sheets) and the recruitment was questionable to say the least.

On a game to game basis it's hard to pick up consistent positive results when you can't pick a consistent team. Injuries have hampered us which is in itself a problem and little to do with luck. How much of these are injuries because of poor conditioning or training? It is somewhat speculative to suggest that players may well play to injuries because they don't want to play, i'm not saying that its the case, but its happened before.

The manager has never endeared himself to the fans, has constantly created and fueled a disconnect between the staff and fans by creating an "us versus them" culture, consistently defending his stance whilst dismissing the wants and desires of the people who pay their wages, not usually in an understanding manner. Whilst not necessarily a discord inducing failure, it exacerbates a previously existing negative sentiment around the ground and makes it hard to garner support when needed.

I think the biggest single factor however is that Ian Royal has started going to games again.

[alfie9]

Obviously it's a combination of factors. If I could've selected multiple answers it would've been

1. Jaap's unwillingness to change- I think it's fair to say that absolutely nothing will prompt him to change the team's playing style, it's a case of the sunk cost fallacy, he's spent so long trying to cultivate the possession game that changing the style would render the last 18 months a waste of time

2. Tactics- self explanatory

3. Losing key players- AAH, Williams, Obita, Kermorgant in pre-season and at the start of the season all big losses, we failed to replace them (Mannone is adequate but doesn't win us points every week like Ali)

4. Ron and Brian T- Recruitment over the summer was terrible, we didn't prioritize key positions and still managed to waste millions. It left us with a bloated, unbalanced squad that is surely leading to disharmony behind the scenes.

5. Loss of confidence- from the players and possibly the management as well

... in no particular order

[ILoveMoonPig]

In my opinion, any tactic that depends almost soully on not conceding the first goal, is going to struggle in the championship.

Most of the teams in this division are fairly evenly matched and tend to be attack heavy, you're almost guaranteed to concede at least a goal a game.

In past years, we've compensated for this by scoring enough goals to cover our backs. But not so much under Stam.

How often does Stam, in his interviews, say: "we conceded the first goal and that made it hard for us"? In this division, you nearly always concede goals, you need to be able to score and that's where we're struggling.

I would be completely behind Stam if he came out on the radio and just said "our tactics aren't working, first thing on Monday, we'll look at changing it up". I don't realistically see this happening.