When I was asked to write this article, I talked to my friend Mike about what to write. He said to write ‘Appalling’. And end it there.

While my sentiments aren’t as strong as his, he has a point. The form has collapsed since the end of August, as the other League Two teams have found us out.

As the final whistle blew around Broadfield Stadium at around 4.50pm on Saturday afternoon, the atmosphere among the Orient faithful was harsh and aggressive.

Arguments blared around the away terrace and the Orient management team clashed in the tunnel with the Crawley team, a dramatic difference from just over a month ago when Orient sat top of the league, having won every game in August. I remain unconvinced with Ian Hendon, and here’s why.

The biggest problem for me with Hendon is his stubbornness. I appreciate, as many do, a manager sticking to his guns but Hendon has taken it too far.

You just need to look at what my fellow fans have written in the previous fan’s views, James Mealing writing in September that ‘I believe that it is now time for Hendon to vary his strategy’ because opposition teams have worked us out.

Has Hendon changed things? No. We still play the diamond formation. Even when we were winning in August, many of our wins came from a change of formation with Stevenage and Newport County being major examples, and more recently against Notts County we didn’t score our second goal until Blair Turgott came on and we switched to a 4-4-2.

Another concern is Hendon’s game management. He’s too safe. A prime example of this is against Carlisle and after we went behind, Turgott was being prepared. We equalised immediately and Turgott was told to sit down, only to come on immediately after we went behind again. Why does Hendon only change things when we are losing? Hendon plays it too safe, if he felt the performance required a change, why did we need to be losing in order for him to make them?

A major concern is the squad depth. On Saturday, when Alan Dunne was sent off, Orient were left in trouble. The bench only had one other defender, Frazer Shaw, and Hendon was forced to play Bradley Pritchard at right-back for a period.

Hendon had said during the summer that he liked smaller squads, mainly because they are easier to manage, which he is probably correct about, but it does leave us with a problem. Forty six games is a long season, and we will inevitably pick up injuries and suspensions, and we all saw the problems Orient suffered when Paul McCallum suffered his knee injury.

We could definitely have done with a few more players, even if they were just squad players, in order to give our squad a little bit of breathing room. Maybe it's time for Hendon to utilise the loan window a little bit more.

Finally, I think the Jobi McAnuff situation is ridiculous. If the rumours going around are true, this is less of a criticism of Hendon but more so the upper management at Orient. Either way, the Jobi situation has dominated the Orient press for the last couple months, to the point where Hendon has become sick of getting asked about it. But questions do need to be asked.

Why is he being frozen out? McAnuff is a talented player, who captained Reading in the Premier League just three seasons ago. He spent all summer playing for his country, competing against the likes of Leo Messi and Sergio Aguero in the Confederations Cup before helping his country’s shock run to the Gold Cup final in America.

He is obviously still a player of immense quality and he would play a key part of the team this year, and even if you don’t rate him he would be, at the very least, good cover in a small squad. I think I’d understand more if the club were more open regarding the reasons for his exclusions. I personally don’t understand why he is being excluded.

In this article, I have given Hendon a fair share of criticism, so I feel it's only right to praise him in the areas where he deserves praise. His transfers have been spot on so far. He inherited a squad that was a mess, and losing a lot of players, and he has brought stability and a squad with a massive degree of team spirit.

Personally, I have been impressed with the likes of Connor Essam and Sean Clohessy, the signing of Alex Cisak was a massive coup and I cannot speak highly enough of Jack Payne, who I think is a brilliant player and has started very strongly. We only sit five points off the top of the league, once we become more clinical and take our chances, we could easily find ourselves competing at the top.

Is Ian Hendon the right man to take Orient to the next level? As it stands, he hasn’t done enough to convince me he is. There are issues and cracks in the squad and recent performances have failed to impress, pretending otherwise is silly. But can he take us forward? If he starts to address the blatant issues in the team then maybe.