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McCarthy: No Complaints About Style When We Were in the Top Six
Friday, 22nd Apr 2016 06:00

Boss Mick McCarthy says there were no complaints about his side’s style of play while Town were in the top six with the Blues manager feeling it’s results which have fuelled recent criticism, which in any case he believes may be being overstated.

“I think there’s a lot made of the criticism,” McCarthy said. “I’m not quite sure there’s that much criticism going round at me or the players. I might be being naive about that.

“I actually don’t seek to read it, I don’t seek to listen to it and I don’t seek to watch it. People will come and tell me and then I come in here [to see the media] and someone will say, ‘There’s a lot of criticism…’.

“I didn’t get that feel on Tuesday night. I get that people want to come and watch the team win, they want to see the team play well and we’ve not done either of those for a while, to be quite honest.

“I can’t affect what people say or think once it’s after the event. All I can do to affect it is getting the team to play well and win games.

“And, do you know what, over three and a half, nearly four years, I’ve done that particularly well.”

Regarding criticism of the eighth-placed Blues’ style of play, he added: “Do you think the MK Dons play a nice attractive game of football? Do you think Charlton play a nice attractive game of football?


“What about Bolton when we played up there? They’d all swap positions with me just sat here, let me tell you.

“I’m not being smug about that, that’s my approach to it. I’d love to play better but at the end of it I doubt very much that [owner] Marcus [Evans] would like me to be playing a wonderful brand of football and we get relegated, or anybody else for that matter.

“And it’s only just up until the Bolton game, I didn’t hear any complaints when we in the top six, not one complaint about how we were playing.

“So it’s results that determine people’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction and, of course, we’ve not been winning, but we’ve not been playing well, and that is a recipe for disaster, isn’t it? But there are a few that would swap.

“Fulham would swap our position, Leeds I guess would swap our position, Wolverhampton, all who have invested [more and are below us]. Sometimes it’s ‘Be careful what you wish for’.”

McCarthy believes his side, even if they haven’t reached the play-offs this season - they're currently eight points off the top six - have still punched above their weight.

“We had a really good chance, but if you analyse the league, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Hull, Brighton, Derby, Cardiff, they were in the Premier League two years ago,” he continued.

“So, there’s six of them. Sheffield Wednesday, they bought Gary Hooper, Aiden McGeady they’ve loaned.

“We’re eighth behind them. I reckon there are a few that have [spent a lot more than us below us]. We shouldn’t really be there in terms [of that].

“I’m still disappointed, I still think we had a real chance of getting in the top six and I’m not making any excuses for it, we’ve not been good over the last six weeks and certainly since the Bolton game.

“But there’s also a lot to be proud of as well and to think, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what, the lads in there are great’, and we could be at the other end and we’d be a lot worse, wouldn’t it?

“Some of the teams who have come here and think they’re better, better players, a better way of playing, better this, better that and we’re going to finish above them.

“It’s just a bit dull unfortunately now so everything’s wrong now, everything’s wrong. But it’s not.”

The Blues face leaders Boro at the Riverside on Saturday and McCarthy hopes Town can emulate their success in 2016/17.

“We would like to be where they are next season but that again is going to prove to be difficult if it’s Aston Villa, Newcastle, Sunderland or Norwich who come down with 100 million quid to spend,” he added.

“That’s going to make life difficult, depending on what players they keep and what they invest in the summer.

“But whatever we do, we’ll do our best to be competitive against anybody who we play against.”


Photo: Action Images



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fallyblue added 06:07 - Apr 22
A poor performance can be tolerated if you get a win, but not when you loose. There is no excuse not to at least try and play decent football. You are a lazy coach with old fashioned tactics.
14

KuqiCoup added 06:12 - Apr 22
Yes there were Mick. Plenty of complaints.

But you can put up with it when we are winning. We cannot accept it when we are not winning or scoring goals.

Yet another excuse and pop at the fans designed to mask his own shortcomings.
20

dugoutdave added 06:26 - Apr 22
Lost all credibility now . May be better just to walk away. Having very thinly disguised pops at the supporters is demeaning to those who pay not insignificant sums of money to go to PR. Regretably these days to many its more out of habit than enjoyment. Thanks very much but move on please.
16

NSL added 06:43 - Apr 22
Master of pointing out the bleeding obvious Mick, now tell us what exactly have we got to be cheerful about this season?!!!! No one was complaining when we won the European Cup in 82 either........
7

KuqiCoup added 06:46 - Apr 22
Most of us tolerate boring jobs on the basis what we get in return provides for our families.

If we did the same job for absolutely no reward we would leave simple as.

Doing something we love for free is the same as watching an enjoyable ITFC performance that ends in a defeat which we can accept.

Boring football and abysmal results cannot be tolerated you old bore.

I left Blackburn before Murphy got his second. I was that bored. We were in or around the play offs. But I still left. To put it into context I was still sat there when Norwich scored their fifth. I've never left early before this season.
19

NSL added 06:47 - Apr 22
And another thing, your making comparisons with sheff wed about bringing in Hooper, well you bought in Pitman and had the Championships top scorer, Freddie Sears, McGoldrick and Barneybon your books - the best strike force in the division you said!!! Hooper is no more than a half decent Championship striker but is playing in a system which actually works. You tool.
16

Garv added 06:50 - Apr 22
How wrong you are Mick.
18

Mick_Mills_Tache added 06:55 - Apr 22
Yet another pop at fans...who does that remind you of? Stinks of Roy Keane to me..

I'm sure there were moans and groans about the style of play last season when we were in the top 6. It's just easier to stomach when you have a striker having a freak season scoring some cracking goals and you're gaining 3 points. Not played well for the last six weeks? Try 12-16 weeks. Since 01/01/2016 we've only taken 22/63 points and been comprehensively outplayed by a team two divisions below us, twice. You've lost the majority of fans and you're very naive or just completely ignorant to the criticism.

Foxtrot Oscar now Mick. Had enough of reading/watching your boring and self righteous interviews.
21

Mick_Mills_Tache added 06:57 - Apr 22
Also, somehow, I think the football has actually got worse than last season. We seemed to mix it up a bit more last season and it wasn't all just launching it 50ft into the air and completely bypassing anybody within 20 yards of the centre circle.
16

Stato added 07:01 - Apr 22
This just isn't true Mick. There have been plenty of us complaining for a while and some of us have been complaining since season 2. You did great in that first season and who cares how scruffy it was because it was a moral boost to see us start climbing the table. But since then the style of football has not developed and at Portman Road most of us want to see entertaining football with attacking flair. Keep the turgid nil nil draws for away trips to the league leaders and only the half wits will complain. But when we have sides from the bottom sux come to Portman Road it leaves many of us furious to see 2 defensive midfielders in the line up and only one player up front what was that all about. Thanks for what you did in season 1 but your now telling us to expect more boredom at Portman Road next season too and most of us now want to gamble on a change of manager.
31

joepublic added 07:04 - Apr 22
I am so sick of being told "be careful what you wish for". Talked down to while paying to watch utter dross is making me feel so, so sad about the state of our great club.
Still nothing from the board while the distance between Manager and fans grows.
Sort it out ME!
21

Len_Brennan added 07:18 - Apr 22
Mick needs to go back & scan through the archives. From January last year in particular there has been consistent criticism of player selection, lack of a right back & his defensive midfield set up. There has been other criticism also (eg Bart v Gerks), but he is not just naive, he is plain wrong to suggest there hasn't been sustained questioning of him/his tactics before Christmas.
17

DurhamTownFan added 07:29 - Apr 22
I'm sorry, but there were. Check my past blogs on this site. Even when we won games we never looked dominant in them. Best example for me was wolves away this time last year: took the lead, could have knocked them out of the race but sat back and crpped ourselves for 60 minutes.

Here he is actually acknowledging that we play awful football and again refusing to change. MM out
18

therein61 added 07:30 - Apr 22
What an arrogant man you are Mick, I among many others questioned the selection of an unbalanced back 4 that was leaking goals coupled with negative tactics in midfield as you played your favourites from the off!!! we have been an accident waiting to happen since August and now we have crashed big time, and all down to you.
19

notleyblue added 07:55 - Apr 22
Already making excuses for poor performances next season.
16

DurhamTownFan added 08:00 - Apr 22
Feels a bit like the rocky bit at the end of a relationship. You walk away now amicably and you'll always be loved and probably missed at some point with a lot of 'oh what might have beens' from many fans. But if you stick around and produce the same rubbish for another year, it will get ugly and could end very badly.
24

prebsa added 08:16 - Apr 22
You are being smug Mick, you are sitting there rubbing your hands together at your new contract, people have been criticizing for years so dont give us that cr@p.

Hate reading what you have to say it is just p1ssing me off! Constantly having a pop at fans because you know for a fact that your team and tactics are not good enough!

Foxtrot Oscar out of our club!
18

trncbluearmy added 08:17 - Apr 22
So wrong on so many counts

Please go
15

essexboy added 08:25 - Apr 22
Get your facts right MM.we have been complaining since the end of last year about the sale of play,boring,dull,dire tactics,need I say more.!! 😡😡
18

blue75 added 08:38 - Apr 22
There were complaints when you were appointed then you were needed now you're not. Time to find the next George Burley.
14

burnhamboy added 08:39 - Apr 22
Oh Mick, you have to acknowledge that this season has been a disappointment, both results and performance. Although we do probably have one of the smaller squad budgets in the league I wouldn't mind betting your one of the best paid managers in this league? Maybe that is why you are prepared to accept what Evans gives you in respect of a budget? I personally think you are now at a crossroads, either you demand a bigger budget to improve the squad or you walk away with you head held high, if not I guess you are just hanging around for the pay cheque as no one in their right mind thinks this current squad will get us promoted next season
8

Currie10 added 08:52 - Apr 22
And people fall for the bait, hook line and sinker...... Well played.
3

cornishblu added 08:57 - Apr 22
I never hear....thats the trouble Mick....you have never listened to others opinion.
You only have to see others opinion now as attendances drop the gaps in the stands and of course the drop in revenue......Cornish contingent at both playoff games last year but spoke about whilst it would be good to go up our style of play would mean we got annihilated if we went up...aston villa this year would have looked like Real Madrid compared to us. this style got us out of trouble but it will get us nowhere further....and as it has been the same for the last three years teams know us inside out.... and we now see that teams below us who need to fight are actually better at scrapping than qwe are thus the poor results against them ...wake up Mick....and start to listen
9

vanmunt added 08:57 - Apr 22
Sorry for the language but what an a**hole.
10

sidtheswan added 08:59 - Apr 22
Yawn! Foxtrot Oscar ! Your comments are as boring as your tactics!
11


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