Pope an idiot?

[WalterJ]

Seen Popes article in The Sentinel? Notts County have 6 great players and could win 7 matches on the trot! What a load of tosh and probably defeatist talk by one who is supposed to be one of our saviours. Notts probably worse than us and they haven’t won 7 matches all season. He is a complete **** on that score. Said before current players shouldn’t be writing in the Sentinel he should try and concentrate on himself and getting the best out of the players around him. He has too much say in what happens at Vale. Stop him writing, get him playing and give Brown the captaincy! Appreciate what he has done over the years but Pope ball isn’t working anymore and hasn’t done for awhile, what’s more it’s boring to see and counter productive.

[Jacob_123]

Not an idiot just getting his excuses in early.

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

Weak arsed column blaming anything but the application of the players which is the real problem. A couple of weeks ago he said he was against protests as they could affect the team, he references the disallowed goal but then doesn’t reference how awful the team was last week or the sitters he’s missed in recent weeks.

 

The players are a joke (Brown aside) and it’s no wonder they are getting away with murder if the captain and chief team picker comes out with this bilge.

[PV1973]

Here we go with the same old same old deflecting spam on yet another thread..... It’s all the players fault for being crap (except brown) and every single one hasn’t applied themselves. That I don’t buy at all.

 

We’ve been hamstrung from day one with a lack of creativity and everyone knows it. We were all saying it before the season even kicked off. Furthermore that wasn’t helped by the manager panicking after 2 games and deciding to go defensive or chop and change and play people out of position in the majority of games until he left. Throw in the fact that our only hopes of creating and scoring in Pope, Monty, Worrall, Miller and Whitfield haven’t performed for whatever reason or found form then we were knackered. Add the lack of game time for the loan players up front and it was a disaster.

 

We all know the squad assembled wasn’t good enough in an attacking sense and so it’s proved to be the case and yet again we’ve struggled for goals. That’s not the entire squads fault. The blame for all that lies at the feet of the manager and chairman. It’s like having a bunch of brickies to come and build your house, but the sparkies and decorators who can add the finishing touches to make it look good haven’t turned up, so the brickies have to finish the job on their own and try to make the best of it, but they just aren’t good enough at it.

[TJHValiant]

Pope has a wild ego that isn’t justified in his ability. His greatest achievement is being decent in the third division.

 

Notts County have had a dreadful season and have a team composed of has beens.

 

The majority of the division with capable players have would be thinking they would be there for the taking.

[MBE]

Spot on PVFC1973

[Paul6754]

Most important word in Pope's article is "Could".

 

I don't buy this Popeball stuff. Both Aspin and Askey have said they want the players to play the ball out from the back more and along the ground more and sometimes they do. However, the players lack confidence especially when they go a goal down, and resort to playing long balls to Tom Pope or sometimes aimlessly forward especially when the pitches are bobbly or the conditions are poor/windy.

 

Confidence is everything in football.

[PV1973]

Most important word in Pope's article is "Could".

 

I don't buy this Popeball stuff. Both Aspin and Askey have said they want the players to play the ball out from the back more and along the ground more and sometimes they do. However, the players lack confidence especially when they go a goal down, and resort to playing long balls to Tom Pope or sometimes aimlessly forward especially when the pitches are bobbly or the conditions are poor/windy.

 

Confidence is everything in football.

The lack of movement in the side in front of the defense is frightening. Next time you go watch what happens when one of the defenders gets the ball. They have little option but to hit Pope when other players are hiding and not showing for the ball.

 

Pope has a wild ego that isn’t justified in his ability. His greatest achievement is being decent in the third division.

You don't think thats an achievement? Me and millions of others would love the chance to be that good to make it as a pro footballer in any league and make a living from the game. Very few people are actually good enough to make it and theres no shame in making it as a lower league professional footballer whatsoever.

[Paul6754]

The lack of movement in the side in front of the defense is frightening. Next time you go watch what happens when one of the defenders gets the ball. They have little option but to hit Pope when other players are hiding and not showing for the ball.

 

Yep, see it much of the time and IMHO much of it is down to lack/loss of confidence. If a team is playing well or 2 or 3 up everyone wants the ball, when a team is struggling and not playing well not many people want it and players treat the ball like a hot potato and launch it forward.

[Andyregs]

The lack of movement in the side in front of the defense is frightening. Next time you go watch what happens when one of the defenders gets the ball. They have little option but to hit Pope when other players are hiding and not showing for the ball.

 

 

 

We’ve had that problem for years, even with more mobile players.

[valiant steve]

Pope and Brown are the two best players in our team by a mile and the only ones genuinely good enough to play at this level with any consistency.

 

Can't blame him for increasing his income by writing this column. The problem is that he's got to think of something to write every week so sometimes it will be a load of rubbish, as is the case this week.

 

In some respects, it's good that our club captain gets the column space in the Sentinel. Being a current player and captain brings a great responsibility and I agree that it's probably best if current players do their talking on the pitch.

[TJHValiant]

The lack of movement in the side in front of the defense is frightening. Next time you go watch what happens when one of the defenders gets the ball. They have little option but to hit Pope when other players are hiding and not showing for the ball.

 

 

You don't think thats an achievement? Me and millions of others would love the chance to be that good to make it as a pro footballer in any league and make a living from the game. Very few people are actually good enough to make it and theres no shame in making it as a lower league professional footballer whatsoever.

 

It’s good but in the context of who he is, does not warrant him getting Newspaper columns or club legend status.

 

We have many many players who did well for us at 2nd tier level.

 

I grew up wanting to emulate the likes of Naylor, Guppy, Ainsworth, Mark Grew etc. Nobody ever grew up aspiring to be a 4th division footballer.

 

Even Pope would have dreamt to being a top tier star.

[valiant_593]

Most important word in Pope's article is "Could".

 

I don't buy this Popeball stuff. Both Aspin and Askey have said they want the players to play the ball out from the back more and along the ground more and sometimes they do. However, the players lack confidence especially when they go a goal down, and resort to playing long balls to Tom Pope or sometimes aimlessly forward especially when the pitches are bobbly or the conditions are poor/windy.

 

Confidence is everything in football.

 

How can you not get popeball? It’s all we have done all season. It certainly ain’t a lack of confidence. As soon as the defenders get the ball they look up and aim for pope.

[jockyboy]

How can you not get popeball? It’s all we have done all season. It certainly ain’t a lack of confidence. As soon as the defenders get the ball they look up and aim for pope.

 

It is lack of confidence

When your confidence is sky high you want the ball, express yourself

When confidence is below zero all you want to do is get rid as soon as possible

easiest way is to hoof it forward

[Upfromnowhere]

Particularly coming from the skipper his comments are either said, or meant tongue in cheek or quite frankly are totally absurd, and if he really felt like that then surely we are capable of going on a similar run, even though the odds on that happening are way above my calculations!

Sounds like (as was always likely) Tom will be leading the line again today, but especially with his 'alleged' influence, what I find the interesting bit could be (particularly if this allegation holds water) is which player(s) will he be 'advising' Askey he wants playing next to him!

 

Go on skipper, take your pick, one (or two) from either, Miller, Whitfield or Harris. If it was about the team I think I will have the first two, but if I am going to continue being the saviour, then sod it, it's only NC, I'll play up front on my own!

 

Am sure we all have our own ideas who we would like to see up front, but frankly as long as we win, I don't really give a hoot, but do just hope Tom will be better today at scoring than he is in analyzing the opposition!