The need for Darius Henderson and wingers.

When we played Crawley away, i thought that Henderson put in one of the worst performances i've seen from an O's player in recent years.

Henderson - Got plenty of stick from the away support for not winning a single header all match or even really putting himself about. A fella of his stature shouldn't be in the pockets of defenders.

I also wrote:

One statistic that you might come across is that we probably put in about 70-odd crosses. And we did. So why didn't we score? Because not one cross was put in with conviction. Not one from the by-line. NOT ONCE DID A WINGER OR FULL-BACK GET PAST THEIR LAST MAN AND PUT A CROSS IN. NOT ONCE. Every cross was from deep. Practically the half-way line.

So i  thought i'd look at Henderson's goals this season.

Not very surprisingly most of his goals come from a ball that has been whipped in and he's attacked it.

More surprisingly is that when Henderson is picked to start, we lump balls at him from deep. This makes him look clumsy, pedestrian and pretty useless. Like at Crawley.

It also smacks of a team that has run out of ideas and a coaching team with no actual idea. If i can figure it out why can't 'football' people.

Look at this clip of Darius Henderson scoring from the recent match against Crewe.

That's Marvin Bartley beating the last man and putting a cross in with conviction for Henderson to attack.

Now look at this clip of Darius Henderson scoring against Gillingham.

That's also Henderson attacking a cross-ball from Dagnall.

And again we've got Cuthbert beating the last man and whipping a ball in vs Swindon.

And a fine attacking header from Henderson.

Lovely ball in from McAnuff with pace at the back-post at Fleetwood.

Powerful header from Henderson.

There's a few others too where he hasn't powered in a header, but attacked the ball in front of him.

If i were in charge of the O's tomorrow i'd play with Dagnall and Henderson upfront, push McAnuff / Cox and Hedges / Batt right up the pitch trying to beat the last man and putting crosses in.

I'd also have Lloyd James in the middle trying to feed the ball into Dagnall's tireless running. Bartley can break up the play from the middle and drive forward if he gets the chance.

I'd go for consistency at the back with Clarke and Baudry in the middle, Cuthbert at right-back and Omozusi at left-back. They didn't do too bad for us in them positions last year.

Cisak in goal.

Though i fully expect another random selection from Liverani. He doesn't do himself any favours does he?

Going down.

'There's so much going wrong at Orient at the moment it's hard to pinpoint what the cause is' - That's how the saying goes.

But it's actually quite simple where to appoint the blame. Fabio Liverani.

Yeah you might harp on about how Slade brought in a few pensioners, dodgy keepers, engineered a move to Cardiff and f*cked us all up but that was something like 30 games ago. Liverani has had about 20 games to weigh up the squad and sort something out.

But he hasn't. What he has managed to do is coach the best parts out of arguably our best player (Cox), sent the only striker we have that can hold the ball out on loan to Stevenage (Lisbie) and probably the most cardinal sin to disrupt any harmony left in the camp, play loan players ahead of your own squad players.

By the way.. What has happened to Omozusi and Batt?

There's no tactics, no game plan, and when we do actually put in a performance it's more through luck than judgement. A broken clock is accurate twice a day.

The simple fact that we played the most form team in Barnsley off the park and have just spent 90 minutes playing in Crawley's half goes to show that the players we have are definitely of league one quality (at least), we just lack a decent manager and coaching team.

We've all said it this season. A decent manager would easily have this team in the play-offs. Other league one teams must look at ours in envy. Cox, Vincelot, McAnuff, Simpson, Dossena, Cuthbert, Lisbie, Dagnall. They would all walk into pretty much any other league one team.

Having said all that, my rant is borne out of frustration of today's match against Crawley.

Now Crawley are crap. Absolute dire. Not quite as bad as Yeovil and probably on par with Colchester. A similar level of players to Gillingham, Port Vale, Walsall, Oldham and Notts County. They also lack a decent manager, but have one who is better than ours in Dean Saunders just by his knowledge of sh1t Lower League English football. You can probably say the same about the other clubs too.

Before i tear the team apart i'll exclude Cisak the keeper because he didn't touch the ball all game and the defence for pretty much the same reason. Also Marvin Bartley who actually drove the team forward today which is something that has been lacking since Dawson went to Barnsley. For the record Bartley in my opinion played very well. I expect him to not make the bench next week and probably next appear as a sub for the last two games as part of our Italian's masterplan.

Josh Wright - I wrote a blog earlier this season about the central midfield. This is just an extension of that. Yep the boy can pass and he can definitely keep things ticking over, but who is he passing to? If you have no movement he'll look like a crab just going side to side.We all slaughtered Jack Price and Lundstram in the same way. Lloyd James too in his first season at the O's. He'll only be as good s those around him. So when we smash teams he'll look great, when we get dominated he'll look crap.

Dean Cox - He don't even look 10% of the player he can be. Whatever they're coaching him or telling him what to do, it's not working. Cox is regarded as one of the best in this division, not just once, but regularly, by numerous people. Yeah we know he's a sulking little sod and you probably lose a bit of something having him in your team, but you gain a lot more. The point with Cox is that if you ain't playing him, sell him.

O'Neill & Hedges - Pair of them didn't look interested. And this griped me a lot. We're dropping two of our own players to play this loanee pair. Slade used to get stick for not playing loanees over 'own' players, but if you want the squad pulling together get your own players in. The pair of them constantly shirked tackles and didn't give it the full 100% because this relegation battle doesn't matter to them. Omozusi would fly in, Batt gives it his all, McAnuff has started to pull his finger out.

Dagnall - He gave it his all as ever and it's no surprise that when Bartley broke forward, Wright could pull more strings, Dagnall had more space to run into and we were creating chances in the first half.

Henderson - Got plenty of stick from the away support for not winning a single header all match or even really putting himself about. A fella of his stature shouldn't be in the pockets of defenders.

Subs - Throw a hat over Mooney, Simpson and McAnuff. None of them had any impact, the subs were made at the wrong time and for the most part it all got baffling when Bartley went off. Mooney was playing in central midfield and Cuthbert had a spell as a striker.

Yep. Fabio is throwing shit up the wall to see what sticks.

Statistics - They can lie. Yep we dominate the game, had loads of the ball, double the attempts of target, loads of running, blah, blah.. and all that nonsense. One statistic that you might come across is that we probably put in about 70-odd crosses. And we did. So why didn't we score? Because not one cross was put in with conviction. Not one from the by-line. NOT ONCE DID A WINGER OR FULL-BACK GET PAST THEIR LAST MAN AND PUT A CROSS IN. NOT ONCE. Every cross was from deep. Practically the half-way line. In fairness to Henderson, who took the brunt of the criticism, what the funk can he do with a ball that's dollied into him from the half-way line? He wants a winger to beat a man and smash one across the face of goal. So i do feel a bit sorry for him.

My last rant is about that poxy corner-kick routine: Two players run over to take the corner, Wright taps it to Hedges who taps it back. Wright passes it back to O'Neill who's nearly back on the halfway line, who plops a floater into the box. I kid you not, it didn't work the first time, it didn't work the 18th time, i probably ain't gonna work all night. I don't knowwhats worse, the fact we perservered with it, or Crawley couldn't work it out. Or could they work it out and they just let us faff about with it.

Rant over. Decent players, but sent out with no tactics, gameplan, shape, co-ordination or insight into who they're playing against.

Management failure. Sack the Italian management and get a proven British manager in. Holloway would be ideal, Steven Pressley. Basically anyone who can speak English, knows the players, can get a message across and motivate them for the last 9 matches. We've got the players, just no leadership.

12 Key questions for Fabio Liverani at the LOSC Meet the Manager Evening

Seeing as I've not been able to beg, steal, nor borrow a ticket for tomorrow nights shenanigans, instead I've compiled a list of questions that I'd like to hear answered.

If anyone going tomorrow would want to ask any of these questions, can provide Fabio's answer, or can write a report for this blog I'd be very much grateful to you.

Questions for Fabio:

1. As someone with no experience of British football, League One or Leyton Orient in particular. Why do you feel you were appointed Manager of Leyton Orient Football Club?
2. 90% of our squad has played at a level higher than League One. Why do you feel that you have struggled to get the team to perform?
3. Looking at your current statistics, Orient will finish the season with 48 points. In 11 of the last 12 seasons that sum of points will get you relegated. Have you plans for Orient in League Two for next season or do you expect to be fired if we are relegated?
4. Other new managers at similar clubs in League One have been the catalyst for better results, notably Mark Robins at Scunthorpe and Justin Edinburgh at Gillingham, this hasn't happened for you at Orient. Why do you think that this is? 
5. Can you elaborate on the scouting network in place now that Kevin Dearden has left the club?
6. What is the future transfer policy of Leyton Orient?
7. Who do you think is the best player in League One and also League Two, aside from any Orient player?
8. Will you be instructed to select the winner of the Agon Channel reality TV show based on Leyton Orient? What is your view on the calibre of contestants? Do you agree that picking a TV contestant will upset the harmony of the squad?
9. What role does Kevin Nugent have?
10. Is it correct that Rob Gagliardi, our goalkeeping coach, has never played higher than amateur football?
11. If so, will we be appointing a higher-level of goalkeeping coach as all 4 of our current goalies have played professional league football and one is a current international?
12. What is your preferred formation and style of play?

Central Midfield. Someone? Anyone?

Last year it was so simple.

Romain Vincelot ran around bossing the centre-circle, Lloyd James laying balls into Mooney's feet, Lisbie's chest or out to the wings where Cox and Odubajo were always available.

When we needed to be stronger Bartley could come in and harass teams and Lundstram more than adequately filled Lloyd James' boots when he was tiring towards the end of the season.

So how can all four players, who were superstars last season, now look like they've never kicked a ball in their life? Quite simply, tactics. Or a lack of them. This year we have no tactical plan due to having a fraud masquerading as manager.

John Lundstram
He looked good last year because he could spray the ball around knowing where Cox and Odubajo would run to. Why did they know where to run to? Because their supporting full-backs would create space for them. When they made their run, they in turn would create space for the strikers. And then we would score goals.

This year he looks rubbish and looks like he couldn't pass wind. He hasn't become a bad player overnight. We just have no tactics.

Has just been sent back to his parent club.

Jack Price
When at Orient earlier this year he moved the ball from side-to-side aimlessly. Fans were split on him being a half-decent kid, or more league two fodder.

He's gone back to playing at Wolves in the Championship were he can pass the ball wide to Henry or Sako and now looks a world-beater.

Josh Wright
Pretty much the same mould as Price, much maligned for not passing the ball forward, but who to? The players aren't being instructed to make certain runs, or hit certain areas. Some fans can see this, some think Wright is a pretty-boy who should be playing Conference level at the highest.

Simply put, he hasn't anyone to offload the ball to.

Romain Vincelot
The ever industrious Frenchman just doesn't stop running. This year he looks like a headless chicken, last year he had purpose. That's right, it's down to tactics again and certain areas to attack and defend.

How do we solve this?
We appoint a real manager, a tactically aware one, one that knows the players, can communicate with the  players and has a general idea of what he's doing.

How Leyton Orient fell from top to bottom

25th May 2014 - Chris Dagnall misses the spot-kick that promotes Rotherham to the Championship after a nail-biting thriller of a League One Play-Off Final.

7th February 2015 - Yeovil Town beat relegation rivals Crawley Town, to send the same O's team (minus Odubajo) to the bottom of League One.

Let that sink in for a moment. The EXACT same team that performed heroics and re-wrote the record books last season, have just hit rock-bottom.

A lot has happened in 37 weeks (258 Days to be precise). Pretty much all of it can be blamed on Francesco Becchetti's new regime. Allow me to explain over the course of this lengthy blog entry.

First off, the one thing that can't be blamed on the new regime is that Moses Odubajo was sold to last-seasons rivals Brentford. That was down to Hearn / Matchroom / Slade. For the record i think a million pound was an absolute steal for Brentford and if he had to go, the form he was in, I'd have thought upward of £2.5m would have been realistic.

Secondly, Barry Hearn seems to have found an owner that is willing to pump money into the cause. How he's gone about it we'll discuss, but nobody can say he hasn't thrown money at it.

There are currently two schools of thought about the plight of the O's:

1. It's clearly all down to the players. They've now failed under four managers.
2. The way the club is run is in such a state nobody really understands what's going on anymore.

Personally I'm 100% behind the latter theory and with a couple of shrewd appointments (more about why this won't happen later..) this team could easily be competing in the play-offs (not now though because it's too late).

How it all went wrong:

Appointing a  Sporting Director.

This was an absolutely nonsense position to create that made no sense when it happened and still doesn't now. Nobody really understands why Mauro Milanese was brought in and what he actually added to the club.

It basically undermined Russell Slade's position and ultimately made it untenable for him to carry on as Manager.

Milanese has now been relieved of all his positions at the O's. Probably because he acted as an agent and a Sporting Director in some of the transfer deals.

Giving the players a pay-rise / signings players on a fortune.

By all accounts the first thing that the new regime arranged was to increase all contracts at the club by 20-25% after last season heroics and to spend big.

Step forward Jay Simpson, Darius Henderson & Jobi McAnuff. If rumour is to be believed their combined salary is £20k a week. Are they good players? Yes they are. Did they want to play for Russell Slade? Yes they did. Are they now lumbered at a club in turmoil? Yes they are.

Giving Russell Slade an ultimatum / then sacking him / then refusing to let him go / etc.

Did Russell engineer a move away from the O's? Probably. Would you blame him? No. If your new employees who from the offset didn't want you in charge gave you an escape clause would you take it? Yes you would.

The bottom line is that Russell Slade was the best manager we've had in 30 years, is highly regarded in the game, was voted manager of the year last season, had the contacts when strings needed to be pulled and as a League One club, was about as good a manager as we could have asked for. He remains the most successful of a four 'managers' we've had this season.

Waving goodbye to Matt Porter.

Hugely knowledgeable ex-CEO of Leyton Orient should have been given the chance to ease the new owners into it. As it turns out he was thrown out the club after 86 days of the new regime.

Nothing wrong with having your own people in, just let the old people help out with the transition.

Things as simple as paying the Sky TV bill that hadn't been paid the other day or when the players salaries had been missed. The signing off of employment contracts. The approval of the referral cheques. The minutes from the fans forum. The list is endless.

New CEO & Sporting Director talking to fans on the train.

It's not the brightest of things to be doing. Spilling the beans to fans before and after matches, telling them about future plans. These things should be kept in-house.

Appointing Kevin Nugent as Caretaker, then Manager, then Coach, then Interim, then sacking him.

Nobody will ever know why Nugent claimed that he was the manager, but Milanese was telling people on trains he was the caretaker, then it all got changed round again and Nuge claimed he wasn't the manager but would be soon. Then he finally emerged as Interim Manager. Nobody seems to have known what happened and ultimately it was all a load of bull because as soon as Russell Slade left, Mauro Milanese was picking the team. How do i know this? Because after Russell Slade left, the dressing room was lost to the new owners and all the structure previously put in place had collapsed.

Sacking Nugent and replacing him Mauro Milanese as Manager.

Another nonsense managerial appointment as Milanese was out of his depth, nobody liked him, nobody really understood him and nobody wanted him there.

Believe it or not, the O's currently have a strong team with some loud voices in it. They can spot a fraud a mile away, just like any of us can in our own field of business. They knew what Milanese was able to bring to the table. They didn't play for him when Nugent was the stooge, they weren't going to play for him now.

Sacking Milanese and not replacing him adequately.

This was it. This was when the owners could've made something happen. All they had to do was appoint someone with Football League experience. Someone who the players could believe in. They didn't. They replaced him with Fabio Liverani who had previously managed youth teams in Italy.

The appointment of Liverani was the final nail in the coffin and has relegated us. The short of it being, he has no experience in this league, no contacts in the UK, no kudos with the players and can't even seem to rouse them in the slightest.

Basically the players don't understand him or are even attempting to make it work. They sense another fraud and i agree with them. Speaking through an interpreter everything gets lost in translation. Whether its a rollocking or something tactical it all just gets lost.

All 3 managerial appointments have been poor.

Nugent, Milanese, Liverani. I'd even argue that you could call them Managers. None of them have or have had the pedigree for the job in hand.

The correct appointment would've been a Mark Robins or similar. Or if we are pushing the boat out, Brian McDermott or Neil Warnock to get us out this mess. The players would recognise these types as respected football people and play for them.

Unfortunately for us, the names mentioned above would probably speak to Russell Slade or the current crop of players beforehand who would warn them away.

Backroom Staff.

The entire backroom staff have been replaced except for Nugent who is now paid a fair whack to not really do much by all accounts.

Since Kevin Dearden has left, the scouting network has collapsed to such an extent that we haven't even been scouting our next opposition. This is particularly amateur and is almost single-handedly to blame for the recent deluge of set-pieces we've conceded from. All down to the fact that we have nobody out there scouting for us.

The new physio literally isn't a physio. He isn't qualified. Apparently this is getting grief from the authorities. Another extremely amateur mistake.

The new Goalkeeping coach doubles as the translator for Liverani in interviews, but more telling the highest level that he has played is amateur football. Which equates to an amateur ex-goalkeeper is training our two senior 'keepers and also our promising England U-18 starlet.

We've also appointed a fantastically titled 'First Team Liaison Manager' if anyone can help with that please let me know.

Transfers.

As has been mentioned above, as we now have no scouting network and a manager with no contacts in the British game, the only people we're able to sign are either desperate for a club (out of contract like Josh Wright, Plasmati), returning from injury (Neal Eardley, Jack Price), or young and inexperienced (Lundstram, Hedges).

All those mentioned above are regularly debated about who was responsible for signing each of them. That speaks volumes in itself.

Let's not even talk about Baudry training with Peterborough for a week, then told to come back, then told he's going out on loan, then not being for sale at any price. Poor sod.

Ask yourself if you'd join Orient at the moment. A manager you can't understand and a whole heap of backroom staff that don't really do much or know what they're doing.

Dossena.

Earns £20k a week. Nobody has admitted to signing him. According to newspaper reports, we didn't even scout him, he just sort of turned up and we started paying him. Hasn't been seen for a while.

The First Team.

Whilst i don't think they've covered themselves in glory of late, i find it hard to put the blame at their door. As a defender you're told to mark a certain man, hold a high line, drop back, play offside.. Or a forward is told to run into certain spaces, put someone on their weaker-foot, etc. Even midfielders are given instructions about playing deep, pushing up, hit the wings, go long.. but if we're not scouting any teams, the management haven't this information to give and we're getting picked off. Week after week. And the management don't know how to counter it. It is so obvious that we've not done any research on teams.

Injuries.

In my opinion, half of our injured players aren't injured at all, they're just swinging the lead and hoping for a transfer ASAP, to try and rid themselves of the bad management they've ended up with.

We've all had crap jobs, where we've wanted to leave. Amazingly 258 days after being at Wembley, being at the O's is a crap job.

A British manager, one that understands the psyche, could sort this out immediately.

Who's responsible for the transfers? #lofc

If rumours are to be believed we're going to sign Larnell Cole tomorrow.

Now before I carry on, I've got nothing against this fella at all and wouldn't know him if I walked past him in the street. I genuinely hope he turns out to be a massive success for us and goes on to captain England.

But what worries me is WHY we are signing him, and more importantly WHO is signing him?

So who is the lad and what does he do? Born in Manchester he was at United from 2009,  played his way through the youth setup and then followed Rene Meulensteen to Fulham at the start of 2014. Since then he's had three games at MK Dons on loan last season. All i can gather about the former child superstar is that he can play in central midfield, right-wing or right-back.

And at that point i'll stop and take some air in. Because now i'm confused.

Since Liverani has been here we've signed Josh Wright permanently and then bizarrely brought in John Lundstram on loan who seems to have replaced permanent signing Wright. They were brought in, we assume, to play alongside Romain Vincelot. We also have Marvin Bartley and Harry Lee on the books from the old regime. Pritchard is a central midfield work horse. 

Two weeks ago we brought in Ryan Hedges to play on the right-wing, and by all accounts he actually looks decent, but has been dropped in favour of an out-of-position Bradley Pritchard. We also have Shaun Batt, who by his own admission isn't injured and is a right-winger. And don't forget McAnuff if he ever gets himself fit enough.

About a week ago we added Neal Eardley to the squad, an out-and-out right-sided player who was playing in the Premiership for Blackpool at right-back a couple of seasons ago. He's also more than comfortable at wing-back or right-wing at this level of football. Eardley has since played once and was then dropped for Omozusi who he'd been brought in to replace the previous week. Prior to all that Scott Cuthbert played an entire season at right-back. Bradley Pritchard and Matt Baudry can also play at there.

So we're bringing in an inexperienced young player to play in positions that we already have covered by other loan players at the expense of leaving our own more experienced players out the team?

So who's responsible for this transfer?

I think we've all read the documents that allege Liverani, Milanese and Becchetti all sign their own friends or words to that effect.

Or maybe this signing has been arranged by our chief scout, Gianluca Romano.

Who is also an agent according to his Twitter Biography and the FIFA list of Italian agents.

Which according to the grapevine, being a Chief Scout and a Football Agent isn't good practice.

We need to talk about Dean Cox

Dean Cox should leave Leyton Orient. Pains me to say it, but he doesn't deserve what we've turned into with our numerous managers and non-existent game plans.

When pint-sized Cox signed for the O's on the 2nd June 2010, nobody would've imagined the impact that he would have had on the club over the next 4 years.

Consistently rated as one of the best players outside the Championship, scoring 40-odd goals in 200-odd games from midfield and that's not to mention his phenomenal assist ratio. One season in particular creating more assists than any other player in Europe (including Messrs Ronaldo, Messi, et al).

From the moment he walked through the doors at Brisbane Road he has been the model-professional who has lived and breathed the club in everything he does. Committing himself to the community projects, befriending the youth players coming through and always being open and honest with the supporters on social media and in person.

The only place i haven't seen him at Brisbane Road is in the supporters club with the fans and i can forgive him that because why would you stick around your place of work after your job has been done?

It's also fair to say that the right-footed left-winger formed one of the most potent attacking forces that I've ever seen at Brisbane Road in my 30-odd years of supporting. I don't think we'll ever forget the 2013/2014 season. Cox, Mooney, Lisbie and Odubajo will still be on the tips of our tongues for years to come.

Dean Cox cared for the O's. And so did this group of players. Nobody in that stadium deserved promotion more than Dean Cox.

So why do I want Cox to leave? I want him to prove himself in the Championship. I want him to go to his boyhood club, or link up with Slade again at Cardiff, basically i want him to do better than what we can offer him. He deserves it.

He owes nothing to this club of ours. We've had more than our tuppence from him and he would go to any club with my blessing. And i believe all Orient supporters feel the same way.

I don't want him to stagnate in this stinking cess-pit of a TV show and Italian-reality contest that Orient have become.

Where would he go?

The rumour-mill is rife that Cox is leaving in January. Having moved 'home' to Haywards Heath, the smart money would be on Brighton, where he served his apprenticeship. Or potentially Crawley (who have bid for him previously) to link up with his mate Jimmy Smith. It'd be gutting to think that a move to Crawley would be more appealing than Orient, but when you're being messed around by no-mark Italians anything is a possibility.

Of course we also need to think about the special relationship he has with Russell Slade at Cardiff. Slade understood Cox, knew what made him tick and built a lot of our play around him. I'm not too sure what Cardiff need in terms of personnel at the moment but Cox is a class act and gives his all. That's worth a lot more than a bundle of talent and a shitty attitude (read Ravel Morrison).

What does he bring to the team?

What sets Cox apart from most at this level is his control of the ball. Smash a ball to him at point-blank range and he'll control it. In an instant. Fizz a ball out to him. Instant control. In my opinion he reads the flight of a ball as good as anyone in the game.

Throw in the ability to kick both footed and you'll find that that is what his game is based around. He might not have the pace to burn like Odubajo did, and will very rarely go round the outside of a full-back on a jinking run, but his control and both-footed ability gains him that extra yard needed to create the number of assists he does.

Add in the loyalty and the tenacious winning mentality that he has and you can see why he's been a big-hit at Brisbane Road.

Good luck to you Dean. If you stay, you stay. And we'll all think you're crazy. If you go.. Good luck to you. You've earned it. We'll never forget your efforts and above all else. We know you cared.