What’s gone wrong?

[JoeySlats#13]

No emergency goalie coming in, so it's Rok all the way from now. Unless Barry makes a faster than expected recovery. More than happy with Rok, always seems solid and had a good weekend personally against Dundee.

[doug]

Difficult question to answer. I don’t think it’s one thing.

Listening to the interview with Fox with Pete Spencer he suggested that the players have stopped buying in to the way Fox wants them to play. That’s always a dangerous position to be in and can’t really be changed by personnel now the transfer deadline has passed. This is on Fox to fix.

Injuries. Once again we have been unlucky with some bad injuries to key players and that does make a huge difference, no matter how I think it can be used as an excuse. It is just a simple fact.

Recruitment. We’ve recruited an older side which you could argue that experience is key. Hodgman and Ellerby came in with great CV’s. Unfortunately they’ve generally turned out to be ‘has beens’ for me.

As a comparison, Belfast’s two two top points and goal scorers in the whole league are in their mid twenties towards the peak of their careers.

Goaltending. Barry came in unfit and if it wasn’t for Rok we would have been in deep trouble.

Steelers grit. It’s gone at the moment.

No plan B. Reminds me of Gerard Adams tenure. If Plan A wasn’t working we didn’t have a Plan B. I know Fox isn’t keen on the physical side of the game, but we don’t really have someone who can really mix it up to try and change the momentum of the game.

Over to Fox now to see if he can turn it round.

Didn't Steelers win the league under Adams? With one of the best ever win ratios?

[smbmetal]

Certainly did. Still didn’t have a Plan B imo though. Plan A worked quite well though that season.

Also lost a couple of finals as well if my memory serves me correctly. ‘Big game bottlers’ was one of the not so nice labels that team was named on here.

Would have loved to have seen more of Adams tenure, but we all know how that ended.

[doug]

Certainly did. Still didn’t have a Plan B imo though. Plan A worked quite well though that season.

Also lost a couple of finals as well if my memory serves me correctly. ‘Big game bottlers’ was one of the not so nice labels that team was named on here.

Would have loved to have seen more of Adams tenure, but we all know how that ended.

One of the reasons I no longer go to games!

[House_of_Steel]

The excuse at seasons end will be we’ve had terrible luck with injuries, Covid but so do all teams good teams find a way!

Where we’ve gone wrong:

1: We signed an unfit goaltender who was ageing and totally out of shape! where we went wrong was not cancelling his contract after the first few poor showings, totally unacceptable at any sort of professional level!

2: This is a consequence of the first point, we brought in Stojanovic who has performed very well and saved us a lot of embarrassment, however I maintain my original assessment of him that he’s a good backup/average tender at best no more at this level.

3: We lost Oleksuk Cons and Deluca all in quick succession. The players we brought in to replace them did not replace our overall predicted goal output.

Oleksuk= Sointu replaced a good face off centre for a winger.

Connelly= Polak this was probably our best change however Polaks style of play does not match the rink rat tenacity that Cons brings with the added bonus that he’s capable of scoring 25-30 goals a season. Lost about 5-10 goals in this change up.

Deluca= Traversa this was where we really went wrong, Westerling 2 was never gonna replace Delucas goal output this is where we needed to put our hand in the sky rocket and sign a goal scorer lost 15-20 goals from this change up.

4: We became too reliant on Vallerand! consequence of where it went wrong number 3: notice the knock on affect. It’s not any coincidence since he was injured that our form as been dire, a great forward and I hope we have him signed for next year.

5: Injuries: we’ve had more than our share all teams have them however we lost Danny before the season started and replaced him with university students still learning their trade.
We brought in Danny’s brother mid season to rectify this mistake which brings me to the overall age of our team it’s not young is it, the ability to rebound from knocks gets harder the older you get proven this season unfortunately to our dismay!

6: there’s been a few players this season that have performed below Par Armstrong, Hodgman, Ellerby, Davey Philips (Father Time caught up to him) this as been fine whilst we’ve had other players picking up the slack and carrying the team, but when the key players are out you need to rely on your secondary scorers and leaders unfortunately they haven’t stepped up for whatever reason.

The season hasn’t been a total disaster we have Mosey, Latal, Todd, who any team in the league would take fantastic additions. But given the circumstances that have faced us this season, we have ridden our luck for a vast majority of it.

[paul johnston]

The excuse at seasons end will be we’ve had terrible luck with injuries, Covid but so do all teams good teams find a way!

Where we’ve gone wrong:

1: We signed an unfit goaltender who was ageing and totally out of shape! where we went wrong was not cancelling his contract after the first few poor showings, totally unacceptable at any sort of professional level!

2: This is a consequence of the first point, we brought in Stojanovic who has performed very well and saved us a lot of embarrassment, however I maintain my original assessment of him that he’s a good backup/average tender at best no more at this level.

3: We lost Oleksuk Cons and Deluca all in quick succession. The players we brought in to replace them did not replace our overall predicted goal output.

Oleksuk= Sointu replaced a good face off centre for a winger.

Connelly= Polak this was probably our best change however Polaks style of play does not match the rink rat tenacity that Cons brings with the added bonus that he’s capable of scoring 25-30 goals a season. Lost about 5-10 goals in this change up.

Deluca= Traversa this was where we really went wrong, Westerling 2 was never gonna replace Delucas goal output this is where we needed to put our hand in the sky rocket and sign a goal scorer lost 15-20 goals from this change up.

4: We became too reliant on Vallerand! consequence of where it went wrong number 3: notice the knock on affect. It’s not any coincidence since he was injured that our form as been dire, a great forward and I hope we have him signed for next year.

5: Injuries: we’ve had more than our share all teams have them however we lost Danny before the season started and replaced him with university students still learning their trade.
We brought in Danny’s brother mid season to rectify this mistake which brings me to the overall age of our team it’s not young is it, the ability to rebound from knocks gets harder the older you get proven this season unfortunately to our dismay!

6: there’s been a few players this season that have performed below Par Armstrong, Hodgman, Ellerby, Davey Philips (Father Time caught up to him) this as been fine whilst we’ve had other players picking up the slack and carrying the team, but when the key players are out you need to rely on your secondary scorers and leaders unfortunately they haven’t stepped up for whatever reason.

The season hasn’t been a total disaster we have Mosey, Latal, Todd, who any team in the league would take fantastic additions. But given the circumstances that have faced us this season, we have ridden our luck for a vast majority of it.

Agree with all this, although I would add before their loss for whatever reason, Conns and Deluca had been underachieving too.
Overall long injuries and below expected form for retained and new players has been a big issue.
Fox seems to have a only play one way identity, and signs players to play that way. So if that doesn't work, we don't really have any different options to take.
I think we had similar issues with running out of steam/I juries in the last almost full season and even in the streaming elite series we galloped out of the gates then faded.

The nettie situation, and the two big name signings being under par in the two seasons under Fox has been a strange one.
First Kantor/Duba, St Pierre and Bettauer.
Then Brust/Rok who has been pretty decent overall, Hodgman and Ellerby.

I do think will be interesting what he plans next year. The recruitment of older players from Europe playing his fast skating (where has this disappeared to) non physical style doesn't look to have the legs/ability to get us over the line to win the league .
He needs to mix up the style and age of players for me.

[Jayboy]

I think maybe that type of fight was never in this team @paul johnston we really don't have the personnel to put up to much of a physical game, our game was built on speed and skill, quick transition from defence through the neutral zone and when it worked it worked fantastically well.
But since we lost most of our speed and to some extent our skill too, teams have worked out, that heavy fore check while attacking and slowing us down and keeping us on the outside while moving forward basically nullify 's 80% of our game..

Jayboy

I think maybe this belongs here also..

[Jayboy]

I think tonights performance proves, that the team has what it takes, performing like that on a regular basis is what we need.. Considering the two Dundee games, the 2nd game in Belfast proves consistency is what's need more than everything..

Jayboy

[Robert Mansell]

I could go on and on but by the looks of it the club will probably finish third in the league this season after all.the hoopla of how good they are.

Is that a success or a failure ?

[Jayboy]

Speaking of what's gone wrong and not wanting to start a new thread...Sorry @Bryan but the panthers have just been hammered for 16 goals this weekend! by Coventry!!!
What's gone wrong there? We might be collectively saying that its Belfast's to lose but at least it's still within our own hands to win something this season and we have been there or thereabouts.. but spare a thought for the Panthers Fans (dont spare too much)

Now before I here you all shout Kerlin was in the nets, I know this but what coach lets a kid stay in a game for 10 goals while they had at the very least an experienced netminder in Dan green on the bench... I though playing your brit backup normally galvanised the players to defend much deeper and better on such occasions..
Will Kerlin doesn't deserve that.. we are inconsistent at the moment, but Panthers are pants...