| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts 13:25 - Feb 15 with 2496 views | Asa |
I really think people have incredibly short memories about where we were as a football club not long ago. We were pathetic under Hurst and relegated without a whimper with very few players looking like they were cut out for a promotion contender, getting results for a while under Lambert whilst not looking any better than some very poor sides, before dropping like a stone. Then Cook had to come in and rightly strip out the dross but had us being embarrassed by the likes of Barrow.
McKenna is clearly an exceptional coach who I am sure will go on to have quite a career. Every metric of late suggests we are possibly the best side in the division aside from turning draws into wins. It's mid February and we have lost just 4 league games. That takes some doing. Promotion is the aim of course, but equally we've largely performed at automatic promotion pace and yet been 6-10 points off it because of two other superb teams we can have no control over.
We look a tweak or two away from being phenomenal. It's disappointing that McKenna hasn't yet figured out what to do to change things, but he's 36, this is his first job. What do this small percentage of fans want? To rip up all the progress for some proven type (Lambert - promoted as League 1 Champions, Cook - promoted as League One Champions, Hurst - defeated in the playoff final after just missing out on League One promotion) to come in for a 1 in 4 chance of getting through the playoffs?
Yes. It's bloody annoying. But if we were sat 4th in the table now, with the results mixed up a bit that would mark a reasonable performance at nearly 2 points per game after 31 matches. Buying quality players and spending money doesn't mean we have a right to walk the league. You do expect us to be up there though. Which we are. 4 wins in 15 is awful. But 2 defeats in 15 is great. Those 9 draws have been games we controlled, we were a couple of deflected goals, better finishes or bad refereeing away from another 6-8 points where we are a win away from top spot. It's concerning, but not the disaster it's made out to be.
Sunderland went 5th last night. 5 years in this division. They were no better last year than we are now. We've just given Burnley two hard games and look, as someone else said, a Championship side playing Premier League football. That may not get us out of League 1 but given it's McKenna's first full year, I'm more than happy to believe that in a few years we will be in the Championship and doing very nicely. As much as it hurts right now.
The players really need to step up now. All this talk of rotation but who has made themselves undroppable? Chaplin and Ladapo have been anonymous in some games and great in others. Burns has delivered big moments and nothing more. Evans was superb and then looked poor after coming back from injury. Humphreys is a kid. He has exceeded expectations but was poor last night. Davis was incredible for 3 months but has dropped right off.
None of the players are doing themselves favours. Edmundson, Wolf, Burgess, JD - none of them have given McKenna any reason to stick with them. Clarke was superb on his debut but has been poor since. McKenna doesn't set them up to let Hanlon or Wildschut waltz through them or fail to convert one of 20-30 chances.
As for the fans, last night was odd. Great numbers but it was completely flat from the fans from the off and about 20 minutes in all you could hear was moaning at the players. Yes they haven't given us much to sing about but last night was a really weird vibe where we didn't lift them, they didn't lift us and 80% of people just trudged out deflated at the end. 15% stayed to clap and 5% shouted abuse at the players.
I got back at 3.20am, having failed to enjoy anything at all about yesterday really but it is what it is. For every Oxford defeat there's a 4-1 win at Wycombe. For every crap Cambridge performance, there's coming away from Burnley proud of the group.
Let's not lose sight of the progress. In this day and age people expect short term results, As someone else posted the other day, City took 4 years to win the league after having billions pumped in.
No doubt the frustration is because for 20 years it's been rubbish. Again to mention a TWTD comment, even the one year we got in the playoffs we did so by another team losing having thrown away top spot and lost to the scum. Even our success is a bloody failure.
But that isn't on Gamechanger or McKenna. We've made huge progress from Charlton and Barrow and we are so close to being an exceptional side. We have every chance of picking up some decent points over the next 4 and having the fans behind the players may not help, but having us all on the backs of McKenna, Morsy or whoever is the next person to blame isn't going to help either.
It's frustrating that we've blown such a decent position, but we've got 15 games to play for and Aluko is right. Teams have gone up from far worse positions. If we don't go up this season then I honestly believe we have every chance of doing so next season.
Yours, Blue Tinted Specs! [Post edited 15 Feb 2023 13:36]
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| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 13:31 - Feb 15 with 2414 views | mrfixit426 |
Good stuff. |  | | |
| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 13:45 - Feb 15 with 2339 views | exeterblue10 |
Well said. | | | |
| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 13:50 - Feb 15 with 2310 views | nshearman1 |
Great post, sound and sensible. McKenna does need a result on Saturday though! | | | |
| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 14:02 - Feb 15 with 2275 views | WeirdFishes |
4:45 I got back, thanks to the thousands of diversions and fog.
I absolutely back McKenna but I do think it’s okay to be very unhappy about the current situation. Personally I don’t buy into the ‘we were bad for 4 years before this year’ discourse purely because we were massively underachieving in those years anyway.
I hope he changes things up a bit because the way we’re playing at the moment just isn’t working, we’re too slow and predictable and play like we’re already 3-0 up just seeing the game out. Without this I genuinely do worry about even making the top 6 which would be a huge huge failure considering where we were and the money put into the squad, yes money doesn’t guarantee success but certain levels of expectation come with it.
If Wycombe win their game in hand it’s just 4 points to 7th and we have 3 very tough away games in Bolton, Barnsley and Derby where we could easily drop 9 points.
We need to start turning draws into win ASAP. I absolutely think McKenna and the players have the ability to do this but it needs to happen now. |  |
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| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 14:07 - Feb 15 with 2208 views | FrimleyBlue |
Whilst I appreciate your position.
It was KM himself who said we need to ignore anything that's happened in the past.
It's only about the here and now.
So doing just that. He started well..now he's struggling and the footballs starting to look bad as well as not winning.. that's just how it is at the moment.
Hopefully he will sort it out. He has to. Otherwise he won't have the job. But for now it's up to him to sort it. |  |
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| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 14:10 - Feb 15 with 2165 views | clive_baker |
| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 14:02 - Feb 15 by WeirdFishes |
4:45 I got back, thanks to the thousands of diversions and fog.
I absolutely back McKenna but I do think it’s okay to be very unhappy about the current situation. Personally I don’t buy into the ‘we were bad for 4 years before this year’ discourse purely because we were massively underachieving in those years anyway.
I hope he changes things up a bit because the way we’re playing at the moment just isn’t working, we’re too slow and predictable and play like we’re already 3-0 up just seeing the game out. Without this I genuinely do worry about even making the top 6 which would be a huge huge failure considering where we were and the money put into the squad, yes money doesn’t guarantee success but certain levels of expectation come with it.
If Wycombe win their game in hand it’s just 4 points to 7th and we have 3 very tough away games in Bolton, Barnsley and Derby where we could easily drop 9 points.
We need to start turning draws into win ASAP. I absolutely think McKenna and the players have the ability to do this but it needs to happen now. |
Agree with this entirely. I like KM's plan A, it's a sustainable, longer term approach and he's encouraging all the right behavior. I do feel like there's a reluctance to recognise when we need to be more direct at times, last night being a prime example. Ladapo and Hirst could've had half an hour bullying them, drop some balls into their box and see how they handle it. A fragile side, lost 5 on the bounce and didn't seem to have a huge amount about them defensively.
As for the diversions, I found myself grateful for my sat nav last night as I was driving through yet another high street of a town I had never heard of at 1am. |  |
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| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 14:12 - Feb 15 with 2139 views | BiGDonnie |
Great post. Utterly embarrassing people calling for a change in manager. |  |
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| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 14:14 - Feb 15 with 2121 views | chicoazul |
I’m sorry but in what way is it clear McK is an exceptional coach. Please provide examples. We have almost the exact same problems as Man U had when he was there. [Post edited 15 Feb 2023 14:16]
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| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 14:59 - Feb 15 with 1947 views | Radlett_blue |
| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 14:14 - Feb 15 by chicoazul |
I’m sorry but in what way is it clear McK is an exceptional coach. Please provide examples. We have almost the exact same problems as Man U had when he was there. [Post edited 15 Feb 2023 14:16]
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McKenna is almost certainly a good coach. But it's not unreasonable to ask if he's the man to get Town's hugely expensive squad promoted. While there is no guarantee that a new man will do better, if Town continue to show mid table form for the rest of the season, why should we think that McKenna's Town will do better next season? This season's recent failings aren't down to lack of quality players. |  |
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| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 19:04 - Feb 15 with 1626 views | gringoblue |
| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 14:14 - Feb 15 by chicoazul |
I’m sorry but in what way is it clear McK is an exceptional coach. Please provide examples. We have almost the exact same problems as Man U had when he was there. [Post edited 15 Feb 2023 14:16]
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I won't pretend to have watched loads of Man Utd games while McKenna was there, but I'm intrigued as to what you think the same problems are. From what I recall they were initially an excellent counter attacking team under OGS, then tried to play more on the front foot but because Maguire is slow for a PL centre half the gap between Def / Mid / Att was too big and they were also absolutely terrible at pressing teams high up the pitch - bringing Ronaldo in also didn't help this because he doesn't press effectively. Also their goalkeeper was (and still is) really poor at the sweeper keeper role. |  | | |
| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 20:04 - Feb 15 with 1501 views | TractorWood |
Well done for travelling and lots of what you say is fair.
I don't think there is much evidence that KMcK is clearly an exceptional coach. Yet. He might earn that in the next two months. |  |
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| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 20:33 - Feb 15 with 1416 views | tractorshark |
Totally agree with the OP.
For those who have suggested McKenna should or could go whether it be now or at the end of the season, I would ask two questions.
1) How confident are you that we will appoint someone better?
2) How confident are you that McKenna won't be a roaring success with someone else?
The first one is harder to answer but our track record doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
The second one is the issue for me. Give McKenna time and I am confident he will get it right. Sack him at the first signs of trouble and you may live to regret that decision.
For me, whether we're promoted or not, the curve is finally heading in the right direction and he deserves another season. | | | |
| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 21:42 - Feb 15 with 1281 views | Asa |
| Post Bristol Rovers thoughts on 20:04 - Feb 15 by TractorWood |
Well done for travelling and lots of what you say is fair.
I don't think there is much evidence that KMcK is clearly an exceptional coach. Yet. He might earn that in the next two months. |
I think the very fact he was Assistant Manager at Manchester United, one of the biggest clubs in the world, and working under possibly the most successful manager ever / of recent times in Mourinho, has to qualify him as exceptional. If you aren't an exceptional coach you aren't assistant at one of the top teams in world football.
You don't last that long with Ronaldo, Pogba, Fernandes etc if you're not very, very good. So I don't doubt his ability to coach players to a high level.
Added to that, he came to Town when we couldn't string two passes together and when we were in utter chaos and immediately changed style to an attractive one which had us hit promotion form from the off.
He cannot be an exceptional manager yet. Not even close. But given his pedigree I think it's fair to suggest he is a top coach. This is echoed by almost all of the players who have sung his praises for the way he trains, sets his teams up, explains things. [Post edited 15 Feb 2023 21:54]
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