This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict‘ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

It has been a very difficult start to the season for Barnsley and Markus Schopp and they suffered another setback on Wednesday with a 3-1 defeat against Nottingham Forest.

The result means that the Tykes have now managed to win just one of their opening ten Championship matches this season. That is a far cry from the excellent form that they were able to produce last season on route to finishing inside the play-off places.

Barnsley had taken the lead inside the opening 20 minutes against Nottingham Forest with Cauley Woodrow scoring just their seventh league goal of the campaign.

However, the Tykes were unable to contain an improved performance from Forest in the second period and ended up suffering their fourth league loss of the season.

So with Barnsley struggling to score and win matches, we asked our FLW writers whether Schopp should now be a manager under pressure…

Adam Jones

This man is on thin ice, to say the least.

Whether he should be sacked is a whole different ball game, but he should definitely be under a little bit of pressure after seeing Valerien Ismael get the most out of some of these players last term.

Getting play-offs again wasn't a realistic target and Ismael's rise up the table with the Tykes was something special, but they should be doing a bit better with much of their squad from last term remaining at Oakwell.

It was always going to be a difficult job to get the South Yorkshire outfit back into the top half of the Championship table after losing captain Alex Mowatt and instrumental loanee Daryl Dike - but they have been sub-par and Schopp needs to be accountable for that.

He should be given this weekend's game before the international break at home to Millwall, but if he loses this, then Barnsley's board have a big decision to make.

Failing to win their last eight games is a sackable record by today's standards and I never like to see a manager be fired too early on, but it will come to a point where his job will be untenable if this form continues over the next few games.

 

 

Marcus Alley

Definitely, one win from their opening ten is not up to the standard. Even more concerning than that the Tykes’ performances have not been of a side that will turn a corner soon.

The manager appears to be the problem, his ideas are not getting across. Yes, Alex Mowatt and Daryl Dike were big losses this summer but there is enough quality in the squad to at least be battling towards mid table.

If the result and performance is not improved for this weekend’s fixture then Barnsley should consider making a change in the international break. Ten games is sufficient time for Schopp to show what he can do and he has failed.

Billy Mulley

He is certainly entering dangerous territory at the moment.

However, Barnsley massively over-achieved to secure a play-off spot last season and that has raised expectation levels at Oakwell.

They do have excellent talent in the side, and by no means do I think that they should be operating where they are with the squad that they possess, but last season's success is perhaps making this season's start look worse than it actually is.

The concerning part for me is how easy all three Forest goals were yesterday, and that is something that Schopp needs to eradicate quickly.

Barnsley have struggled with injuries and other fitness concerns thus far this season, with their new arrivals struggling to become match fit.

Schopp has a difficult task on his hands, but I would not personally be thinking of sacking him just yet.