It's better to pretend every player is brilliant in the press and deal with things internally. Good on Lambert for getting that.
Hurst was way too honest and told too much to the media. I thought to myself quite a few times listening to his pre/post match that he was just saying too much about things that didn't need airing in public. I also thought that Lambert sounded a bit like Mick but still realised that this how it should be when it comes to man management, something Hurst was accused of lacking. It is all bullshit and cliched but it's how you keep things behind closed doors.
There is a big difference between keeping your cards close to your chest and the kind of condescending drivel that Lambert was spouting on Saturday. If Lambert keeps this up without addressing the issues then, as others have put it, we shall sleep walk into League One. We need to see a bit of fight, passion and aggression, not this nonsense.
No - we don't Hampy. We need things kept internal - it keeps the players onside. Don't get me wrong, I'd RATHER hear X Y Z - however the players wouldn't and their the ones under contract. If a manager comes in stating X Y Z and slating a player for a poor performance it's not how I'd like it handled.
You don’t need to slate players to talk about areas that need to improve and general performance. If that performance was excellent to Paul Lambert he doesn’t have very high expectations or any imagination and we’ve had it.
I'll try and have a listen to the presser mate - but if Lambert's basically over doing it / it's the kind of thing I as a fan like to hear. I must confess to that.
It's a complete fantasy, keeps using words like brilliant and excellent. And the save from our effort on target straight down the throat of Gallagher was 'world class'. With the best will in the world we can all see the positives - the effort levels and the tempo was better in spells, a couple of performances, but we were vulnerable at the back and barely had any shots. We only managed to score from a dodgy pen. Something positive somewhere between the reality and the fantasy would have been better!
I found it condescending horse**** (to borrow a phrase) and it insults our intelligence and the players. I think we can give them a bit more credit for being able to tell the difference between having smoke blown up their bums and receiving justified criticism.
We must remember that the boys are on the floor with their confidence shot, maybe building them up is more effective than knocking them down, Lambert knows or will know soon who is valuable to the side and who isn't and also which players are needed to turn this lousy situation around, hes an experienced man so I hope he knows what hes doing.
Yes, the last thing the players need at the moment is any negativity from Lambert, especially after 1 game and to the media! He’s obviously taking the positive approach, which is probably what they need right now.
There are all sorts of characters in the dressing room who will respond in different ways, and I guess where big al and I are coming from is that with these types of comments he will have already lost credibility with and raised doubts in the minds of some of them.
Politically I'm definitely more snowflake than gammon but leading and winning requires a bit more than just being nice to everyone. IF you believe the players have it in them to win matches at this level then it's up to them to show it, it's their careers and jobs and income on the line much more than Lambert's. IF you don't then the wrapping the poor pathetic players in cotton wool is a justifiable response, but you shouldn't be the manager. New manager bounce, hitting the ground running, starting as you mean to go on - it's not happened - but it's only week one.
As the late Brian Clough said many years ago, " some players you need to put your arm round and some you have to kick up the backside and it's part of my job as manager to know who needs what". He wasn't daft was he.
I'm sure right now most of them just want to succeed and be helped and told what they need to do to improve. Some interesting comments from Butcher today, he felt players were pushed so hard for fitness that they would take a breather when they actually had the ball. Could well be something in that.
Lambert is doing everything right so far. He's praising the players, making it clear that mistakes are his fault and taking pressure off the lads and has also decided to meet with Town greats. He knows he's worked at Norwich and is doing what he can to make it obvious that he is our manager now. Well done
I would love to know what was discussed today. I hope they were discussing ways to put things in place for the long term as well as the current squad. The Town legends can all more or less see what we can see so it was a masterstroke from Lambert to get their input.
I see we have appointed a decent looking goalkeeping coach, which begs the question, did one leave with Hurst? Do we have someone coaching the strikers?
