Who/what is to blame?

[Libertine]

For me I chose our abysmal home form (8 wins all season) and ownership dysfunction. But there were multiple reasons why we ended up outside looking in at the end of the 2013-2014 season...

[kwik-silva]

Is player performance, and home record not effectively the same thing?

[Libertine]

No, not really. Because they often times did not perform well on the road in games where we should have got results. Home games are much different animals than away ones and, imo, should be treated differently and differentiated...

[genome]

Why can we only choose two?

It was a mixture of ownership, player performance, home record and injuries. And some might argue you can throw Adkins into that as well. All of those things contributed. Ownership is probably top, but out of the other ones I can't really pick a second, they were equally to blame.

[USA_Loyal_Royal]

ownership and injuries is what i went with. AZ promising money then disappearing and leaving us in the shitter. then the ridiculous string of injuries that led us to have wingers play in the middle of the pitch, players out of position, etc.

[Libertine]

Why can we only choose two?

It was a mixture of ownership, player performance, home record and injuries. And some might argue you can throw Adkins into that as well. All of those things contributed. Ownership is probably top, but out of the other ones I can't really pick a second, they were equally to blame.

Fair enough. I was looking to get the pulse of what we thought were the most important reasons. If you can only pick one clear cut reason that is understandable.

[kwik-silva]

No, not really. Because they often times did not perform well on the road in games where we should have got results. Home games are much different animals than away ones and, imo, should be treated differently and differentiated...

That's fair enough

I honestly don't see how ownership can be the main reason why this season didn't go as well as planned when we dropped points to Barnsley, Yeovil, Millwall etc. None of that was the ownership situation, and if we'd picked up points where we should have, in those cases, we would have been comfortably in the play-offs.

[Libertine]

No, not really. Because they often times did not perform well on the road in games where we should have got results. Home games are much different animals than away ones and, imo, should be treated differently and differentiated...

That's fair enough

I honestly don't see how ownership can be the main reason why this season didn't go as well as planned when we dropped points to Barnsley, Yeovil, Millwall etc. None of that was the ownership situation, and if we'd picked up points where we should have, in those cases, we would have been comfortably in the play-offs.

Well when we headed into the January window with massive injury problems, not one player was brought in, and we ended up playing multiple injured players down the stretch out of necessity a good case can be made that ownership was a problem.

[genome]

The reason we dropped those points was because the players were in inconsistent form due to suffering with injuries because we didn't have the resources available to make the squad big enough or have enough quality in reserve to grind out wins and I've now realised this is probably the longest run-on sentence ever written so I'm going to stop now OK I'm done.

[Libertine]

The reason we dropped those points was because the players were in inconsistent form due to suffering with injuries because we didn't have the resources available to make the squad big enough or have enough quality in reserve to grind out wins and I've now realised this is probably the longest run-on sentence ever written so I'm going to stop now OK I'm done.

That is a very impressive run-on sentence. I could have not done better myself (and I am often guilty of doing the same thing).

But I get the point you are making. The were many reasons and they were very interconnected. I still say if we had won 12-14 of our home games and had the squad depth to deal with the injuries we would have made the play-offs at a minimum.

[kwik-silva]

No, not really. Because they often times did not perform well on the road in games where we should have got results. Home games are much different animals than away ones and, imo, should be treated differently and differentiated...

That's fair enough

I honestly don't see how ownership can be the main reason why this season didn't go as well as planned when we dropped points to Barnsley, Yeovil, Millwall etc. None of that was the ownership situation, and if we'd picked up points where we should have, in those cases, we would have been comfortably in the play-offs.

Well when we headed into the January window with massive injury problem, not one player was brought in, and we ended up playing multiple injured players down the stretch out of necessity a good case can be made that ownership was a problem.

Again true and fair enough, but:

October: Barnsley draw, Millwall draw
November: Sheff Wed loss
December: Bournemouth loss (at the time)

All before those particular problems. I guess you could make the argument that they should have brought in more during summer, after promising as such.

The reason we dropped those points was because the players were in inconsistent form due to suffering with injuries because we didn't have the resources available to make the squad big enough or have enough quality in reserve to grind out wins and I've now realised this is probably the longest run-on sentence ever written so I'm going to stop now OK I'm done.

I understand that, but - in my mind - any team we put out should beat an eight man Yeovil, or pretty much any team in the bottom six whatever the situation.

[P!ssed Off]

No, not really. Because they often times did not perform well on the road in games where we should have got results. Home games are much different animals than away ones and, imo, should be treated differently and differentiated...

That's fair enough

I honestly don't see how ownership can be the main reason why this season didn't go as well as planned when we dropped points to Barnsley, Yeovil, Millwall etc. None of that was the ownership situation, and if we'd picked up points where we should have, in those cases, we would have been comfortably in the play-offs.

Well when we headed into the January window with massive injury problem, not one player was brought in, and we ended up playing multiple injured players down the stretch out of necessity a good case can be made that ownership was a problem.

kwik silva is correct.
We've just produced a good display against Burnley with Williams, Guthrie, Karacan and Bridge all out injured.
So we can't very well put forward injuries as the reason why we dropped points against the shit teams.

The difference in player ability between the top half and the bottom 6 or 7 teams is absolutely huge.
Someone recently called me arrogant for suggesting that our 4th and 5th choice CMs were as good as Doncaster's 1st and 2nd choice CMs. Well they are.

[P!ssed Off]

I understand that, but - in my mind - any team we put out should beat an eight man Yeovil, or pretty much any team in the bottom six whatever the situation.

Too right.
The Yeovil squad that came to the Madejski this season was possibly the weakest team we've encountered in a league fixture for 5 or so years.
And that was with 11 of them on the pitch!

[genome]

It's funny how you tend to dwell on very specific moments in the season when you miss out by such a fine margin. I don't think you can just boil it down to one game. Anton fcks off, we have no money to ensure the squad is good enough to cover any eventuality, we get a shit run of injuries which affects the team's rhythm and we drop points.

[P!ssed Off]

Make no mistake it has been a failure of a season.
Looking at the predictions (of neutrals) at the start of the season you'd have to say Reading and Bolton have been the Championship's top 2 underachievers.

A large number of factors are to blame for our failure this season. Only a fool would tell you that it was any one or two things.

Players have underperformed.
Manager has underperformed.
Injuries have taken their toll.
Owner has been a dick.
If your definition of a supporter is "tell the players how oxf*rd perfect they are even when they're clearly shit" then I, along with quite a few other fans have underperformed.

[P!ssed Off]

ownership and injuries is what i went with. AZ promising money then disappearing and leaving us in the shitter. then the ridiculous string of injuries that led us to have wingers play in the middle of the pitch, players out of position, etc.

Were we forced to play 2 wingers in CM though?

Bournemouth away: Played McAnuff and Obita in CM.
It did not work, their combined performance was pure, unadulterated rubbish. People said "It's not Nige's fault". Critics pointed out Jake Taylor (a CM) was fit and ready to play. People brushed this off with "But Jake Taylor is shit".

Well now look, Jake Taylor is clearly not as shit as many people thought is he?
Criminally underused this season, by a team with constant CM injuries.
Nigel Adkins picks the team, and Taylor wasn't even supposed to be on the bench against Bournemouth until Guthrie got injured in the warm up.

Nobody forced Adkins to place McAnuff above Taylor in the CM pecking order did they?

I see a lot of people have graciously admitted they were wrong in writing Jake Taylor off as shit. Well it's too late now, isn't it?
CM crisis all season and we had a decent young CM sat on the bench, or the reserves.
A league season of 4140 minutes and Jake Taylor was given all of 168 minutes to impress...

[Libertine]

That's fair enough

I honestly don't see how ownership can be the main reason why this season didn't go as well as planned when we dropped points to Barnsley, Yeovil, Millwall etc. None of that was the ownership situation, and if we'd picked up points where we should have, in those cases, we would have been comfortably in the play-offs.

Well when we headed into the January window with massive injury problem, not one player was brought in, and we ended up playing multiple injured players down the stretch out of necessity a good case can be made that ownership was a problem.

kwik silva is correct.
We've just produced a good display against Burnley with Williams, Guthrie, Karacan and Bridge all out injured.
So we can't very well put forward injuries as the reason why we dropped points against the shit teams.

The difference in player ability between the top half and the bottom 6 or 7 teams is absolutely huge.
Someone recently called me arrogant for suggesting that our 4th and 5th choice CMs were as good as Doncaster's 1st and 2nd choice CMs. Well they are.

Yep, and a good case can be made that the player performance can be pointed to as a reason why. At the end of the day, after 46 games, a team usually ends up where they deserve to be. On paper we had one of the strongest squads in this league coming into the season, unfortunately for us they play the games on grass, not paper. And we ended up not being better, when paired head-to-head, with teams in the bottom 6 or 7.

[Libertine]

And for the sake of clarity on my position...while I included Nigel Adkins and the fans as possible choices I don't feel either deserve much blame, if any, for us missing out on a top 6 finish. But I did want to include those two options for people who perhaps might disagree.

[Pepe the Horseman]

ownership and injuries is what i went with. AZ promising money then disappearing and leaving us in the shitter. then the ridiculous string of injuries that led us to have wingers play in the middle of the pitch, players out of position, etc.

Were we forced to play 2 wingers in CM though?

Bournemouth away: Played McAnuff and Obita in CM.
It did not work, their combined performance was pure, unadulterated rubbish. People said "It's not Nige's fault". Critics pointed out Jake Taylor (a CM) was fit and ready to play. People brushed this off with "But Jake Taylor is shit".

Well now look, Jake Taylor is clearly not as shit as many people thought is he?
Criminally underused this season, by a team with constant CM injuries.
Nigel Adkins picks the team, and Taylor wasn't even supposed to be on the bench against Bournemouth until Guthrie got injured in the warm up.

Nobody forced Adkins to place McAnuff above Taylor in the CM pecking order did they?

I see a lot of people have graciously admitted they were wrong in writing Jake Taylor off as shit. Well it's too late now, isn't it?
CM crisis all season and we had a decent young CM sat on the bench, or the reserves.
A league season of 4140 minutes and Jake Taylor was given all of 168 minutes to impress...

Hasn't Taylor been playing on the right?

[Silver Fox]

Nigel Adkins