Fair point that. A lot of talk about systems and the rest, but I've seen umpteen balls been played into the box from both sides and through the middle in almost every game, and apart from Rusyn, they have been to easily marked forwards on their heels instead of their toes. We have signed a lot of good younguns, especially the British contingent, but a blind man knows and knew we needed some help at DM and CF. Models are fine, and this appointment will show if ours us working as well as we hoped it would. Hopefully, as being too dogmatic rarely works in business. The biggest tree will break if it doesn't bend.
FFS Mowbray had lost a bit of sparkle and tactically was heading down a blind alley, KLD and KS made a decision based on tactics and form. Bernie Slaven's opinion means nothing to me and should mean even less to our support, have the club been right to remove TM only time will tell and if I am honest @Bob the Mackem seems to have an agenda against KS. I don't know either personally but have seen posts from Bob telling supporters how nobody knows how much and how well SD and CM did for the club which makes me very wary of his opinion on anybody. Lets wait and see what happens with the new appointment and see if they can find a system that works and can get a tune out of our strikers and lets not re-write history by looking for mistakes in recruitment that if I am honest think was very good in the Summer and I still expect a strong second half of the season. HWTL OaU
It's incredible how some people can become so fixated with minor things that can be easily rectified ... ... while entirely missing the big picture. And blaming the way we've recently played on Speakman while simultaneously pointing out all the mistakes Mowbray has made. KLD and KS want the best for the club, of course they do, and all the endless advice on what they should be doing might make people feel better but it'll change nothing. Don't even mention Slaven
You keep saying that mate, but what does flex actually mean ... ... it's a serious question, I've no idea.
I hope that’s the case but I can’t see it now. Monday appointment and in the stands Tuesday is my guess.
I do not understand people who are against the model. Look at where we were 4 years ago. How many people who are questioning the model were at Bristol Rovers away the game before the covid shutdown? Because I was. That was a club without direction, without accountability, without talent, without any form of plan. We have made progression every year under KLD and Speakman. Considering the mass dysfunction they were left with by the previous owners i'd say that's pretty good. 4 years ago yesterday we lost 1-0 away at Gillingham with a squad that lacked talent and ambition and a manager in Parkinson who is the worst i've seen at this club. Today, we are looking for a new, ambitious coach who we hope will take us to the premier league with our squad of multiple £10mill+ talents who have been recruited and developed by the club. It's not just the first team this model has improved. KLD and Speakman walked into a club with an academy team which had been torn to shreds by the previous owners in their desperation firesale and had barely won a game in 2 years. We had to bring in stop gap players for the u23s for christ sake. We are only just recovering from the destruction to the academy caused by the previous owners and we have some wonderful talent emerging now due to the hard work being put in by the club. Look at the way we deal with transfers, every signing seems to be exciting, unlike how I felt while we were announcing the likes of Joel Lynch and Callum McFadzean. We have only just started selling players, the Stewart sale looks better and better every day. The selling players part I understand why people are concerned about it but every club sells to improve and as long as we do that we will be ok. Selling players allows you to evolve as a team and the higher the fee you receive the more you can reinvest. Gone are the days of our owner panic signing a striker who didn't want to come that the coach didn't want with money he didn't have all because he personally messed up negotiations with our in form striker and let him leave to pay off a debt. Look at the head coach situation under the current ownership and model. The Johnson appointment helped to gradually change the play style but was sacked at the correct time despite outsiders saying it was the wrong move. The Neil appointment was outstanding, exactly what we needed in them few months at the end of the season, but him walking out because he had no power and doing a bad job at Stoke where he has all the power proves KLD/Speakman were right to not cave to his demands despite being under so much pressure from the fanbase to do so. Replacing him with Mowbray was another great decision, steadied the ship and laid some great groundwork for the future but has also been let go at the correct time despite pelters from outsiders, so I think they deserve some trust in the decision to sack Mowbray and with the next appointment. I guess what i'm trying to say is that some of the fanbase need to get some perspective of where we have came from in such a short space of time. Are KLD and Speakman perfect? No, they have and will continue to make mistakes but I think they deserve more trust and respect from certain sections of the fanbase considering where they have taken the club after what they walked into. Sorry for the long post i'm just pissed off at some of the stuff I have seen recently and this morning.
Excellent post. The thing is, the 'model' isn't actually that unusual. It's fairly common practice in other countries. Clubs like Ajax and Barcelona have been operating systems like this for decades. The only slightly unusual element is the focus on youth. But even that has been done successfully elsewhere. People just question what they're unfamiliar with.
Not sure if it's because I'm tired or I'm just not understanding but this mornings posts are getting me confused. We sacked the coach because we had been found out, but the model needs amending because its too rigid and coaches will struggle That's my summary of what I've read in the last page or so. Which if I've understood correctly appears to contradict itself? Or have I missed something?
It think there are comments both sides and I have been saying that on here for a while. Dack was only brought in to try and keep Mowbray happy. However, it is clear we do need a little more experience/established players to help in certain areas.
More established players bought who are first team ready. Ideally with British experience. That's our best buys to date for me. Others have not been as good.
I’ve said it before and I know it never goes down well but I still think the biggest threat to our success, under this model at least, is the lack of understanding and patience amongst a sizeable proportion of our fanbase. Tye backlash against Speakman and KLD for getting rid of a very likeable but hugely limited head coach is just bizarre to me. Utterly tremendous post. I honestly find it unfathomable that so many have such a distrust and/or dislike of KLD. It’s so unwarranted.
I'm old school and was brought up on 4-4-2, taking the man out with the ball and hate to see what footballs become at times when watching the premier league. I'm not adverse with what the club is trying to do regarding bringing young players in but ideally for me I would like to see a spine of more experienced players ie centre half alongside Ballard, Evans (if he wasn't injured) sitting in midfield and a striker in the middle and have the young ones doing the running
I’m perhaps in a minority but I don’t agree with that. We’ve experience now through the core of the side - Patterson, Ballard, O’Nien, Neil, Roberts, Clarke. No one was calling for more experience when we went on our cracking run at the end of the season (after Batth was injured) to secure the playoffs. We need some tactical discipline and direction from the technical area. That’ll largely negate any lack of experience there is. Hopefully we’ll get it from the next appointment.
