| Some (hopefully) objective thoughts 14:20 - Jan 18 with 912 views | OxfordTH_1981 |
Taking a step back from the carcass of last night, I have tried to think fairly about the current position. Clearly, there are a lot of unhappy people - but is sacking MM and regarding the current position as a crisis actually a reasonable view?
We are currently mid table, and are likely to end up mid-table. Not good enough, sure, but equally hardly a disaster - given that in past seasons we have been in the bottom four. The football is often average to poor, but equally at times there have been goals and we have (in Dozzell and Lawrence) some exciting players. We are not in a relegation fight and there are a number of teams below us who have played worse this season. MM has sold many of his best players - Cresswell, Mings, Murphy to name a few - and has not had any real freedom to replace them. That is not his fault - it is the owner's choice.
That choice is no doubt influenced by the fact that Evans is already subsidising out of his own pocket the club's deficit of about £6m a season, and in the past got badly burnt by PJ and Keane in terms of wasting millions on players with the consequence of almost getting the club relegated. In MM's first season, he saved us from relegation. Then in the last two seasons we got to the semis of the play offs and last season came 7th. This is better than any of the previous managers managed to do - all of whom had significantly more money to spend. It is also consistent with a manager who - in the past, admittedly - had some success: taking up Sunderland and Wolves from this very division, and managing at a World Cup.
That was then, this is now, of course, and although no one complained when the same tactics produced nearly 30 goals for Murphy, at present MM is not helped by his cautious tactics and preference for playing predictable football and formations - and a number of his signings simply haven't worked out.
More fundamentally, he is also not helped at all by the club's senior management: we never see Evans, and the fans can't relate to him, or understand his aims, hopes and ambitions as I am sure many could do with Sheepshanks. We get occasional sound bites from a line up of puppet mouthpieces - think Clegg, Milne and co - but none of them communicate effectively, or seem to understand the fans' frustrations: that 15 years is too long to have been in this division and we want more than blue paint on the turnstiles, and hollow platitudes about blindly supporting the manager, whatever.
My point is that the evidence shows that MM is probably a reasonably competent manager at this level - as his record shows. The fans' frustrations are aimed at him - but whoever was appointed would struggle under the current management. Magilton, Keane and PJ all had more money, but fared less well than MM at Town. Criticising the manager repeatedly at matches undermines him further in front of the players, and booing players is counter-productive. The real issue in my view is Evans and the culture at the club. Unless and until that is changed, and he starts to communicate with the fans properly and genuinely, and makes money available for the club to compete seriously, any change in manager at the moment is akin to re-arranging deckchairs on the Titanic.
[Post edited 18 Jan 2017 14:25]
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| Some (hopefully) objective thoughts on 14:21 - Jan 18 with 891 views | MaySixth |
Good post.
Lawrence is not our player and never will be |  |
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| Some (hopefully) objective thoughts on 14:23 - Jan 18 with 880 views | OxfordTH_1981 |
| Some (hopefully) objective thoughts on 14:21 - Jan 18 by MaySixth |
Good post.
Lawrence is not our player and never will be |
Thanks.
I appreciate that Lawrence is on loan but that wasn't my point: my point was that, as things stand, we have some half-decent players who are playing for our team.
You're right that we will never retain him. | | | |
| Whilst I generally agree with the sentiment.... on 14:30 - Jan 18 with 855 views | Bloots |
....and am totally with you on what the source of our "issues" are, we can't forget that MM has set the team up wrongly on many occasions and on many similar occasions the players have played like a total bunch of dickwads.
It's a combination of issues, but MM is not necessarily the biggest one.
IMHO. |  |
| TWTD Leadership Group/Elite Level Supporter/Anti-Bullying Crusader |
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| Some (hopefully) objective thoughts on 15:02 - Jan 18 with 822 views | CaptMickMills |
Issue is McCarthy and the style of football played during most of 2016. I accept we are not going to be a great team but we can try and play entertaining football and to develop youngsters. If we did that I would accept likelihood that we might be inconsistent. Where Mick lost me was the number of post match interviews where he said we played well when we blatantly did not. Regardless of resources there is a choice of how you try and play. To get outplayed twice by a non league side with far less budget/resources is ridiculous. Mick does not learn and is stubborn and keeps making the same mistakes e.g. picking Skuse and Douglas together (anyone can see this does not work as no energy in midfield and this is backed up by the stats). | | | |
| Some (hopefully) objective thoughts on 15:14 - Jan 18 with 780 views | Randall |
Mick is the longest serving manager in the Championship. He took over when we were dead and buried, spent no money, sold all our best players and we have finished 14th, 9th, 6th and 7th.
Either ME now puts up some money and lets Mick spend it or he doesn't. I don't see how sacking Mick helps anything - playing "attractive" football in League One is all well and good, but who is to say that we would ever get out of it again?! | | | |
| Some (hopefully) objective thoughts on 17:58 - Jan 18 with 692 views | OxfordTH_1981 |
| Some (hopefully) objective thoughts on 15:02 - Jan 18 by CaptMickMills |
Issue is McCarthy and the style of football played during most of 2016. I accept we are not going to be a great team but we can try and play entertaining football and to develop youngsters. If we did that I would accept likelihood that we might be inconsistent. Where Mick lost me was the number of post match interviews where he said we played well when we blatantly did not. Regardless of resources there is a choice of how you try and play. To get outplayed twice by a non league side with far less budget/resources is ridiculous. Mick does not learn and is stubborn and keeps making the same mistakes e.g. picking Skuse and Douglas together (anyone can see this does not work as no energy in midfield and this is backed up by the stats). |
No one was complaining about his style of play in 2014/15 when we were at one point near the top of the table and Murphy was scoring for fun. The same fans who criticise it now were at the time saying how direct and physical and competitive it was and how good to see it from a Town side that in the past had been too soft.
The point is that MM has had to dismantle that side and has been made to sell his best players. Therefore, on balance, it is not surprising that the results have got worse. If we played attractive football, as we did under PJ, I doubt we would fare any better. | | | |
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