In his latest internal video interview Jol explains the last two poor performances and touches on the next two matches. As he says, most of it are excuses and in themself not acceptable. However, everything seems to resolve around the non-availablty of Bryan and that is definitely not acceptable - it smacks of no Plan B and everything being done 'on a wing and prayer'. See what you make of it - [video=youtube;-Uww5tUw0h8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-Uww5tUw0h8[/video] Regardless of which players are available, one very simple tactic would avoid an awful lot of the current problems - close players down; do not continually back off.
In an article in the Argus Ad verbatum "1 victory in the last 10 matches is not good enough. We could find ourselves in a religation battle,the team must pick up points over this festive period. He as i have said in a previous post is part of this crisis,its no good distancing himself from it. Gossip in sports papers is what it says gossip,but all we seem to read in column after column is who or what c/foward we are interested in BENT 8M Open your eyes man .this ~ ducking visaster ~ is because we have no solid defense.
you guys have more then happily heaped praise on him when the team was doing well, he doesn't just become a bad manager or the problem overnight. It's just a bad run. nothing more.
You fail to understand that we are all behind Jol, and certainly are not calling for his head. It is a bad run, a very bad run, but what supporters would be delighted when their team has only won one out of the last ten games? Jol certainly is culpable for some of the problems we are going through, some not, but we are by no means at the point where we are not willing to let him amend for his errors.
Bruich Welcome to the FFC forum,we hope you enjoy the debatable articles written, and your contributions are more than welcome. As the aforementioned articles states we are not calling for Jols head,but accepts the fact that tactics and player selection,have contributed to this recent decline,and if not addressed in the Jan window could have serious consequences.
I'm with Bruich76. While others here also make good points about needing to find different ways of playing when key men are out, there's not a single word of Bruich's post that I disagree with.
Part of the problem was losing your two most important players late in the transfer window. Had Dembele and Dempsey stayed, I imagine you'd be up there with the 4-5 teams battling out for 4th place. Every time I watch Dembele play, I'm upset Fergie didn't throw money at your club to sign him up!
The lack of ability is the problem at the moment. Jol wants the players to play a certain way and they are simply not good enough to do what he wants. So who is to blame ? When we reached the Europa League final, we did so because Roy managed to get the very best out of his players. We did not have the greatest individual players but collectively, playing to their individual strengths we achieved great things. I have the upmost respect for Jol because he has had to do what he can with the players he has. He has had to try and achieve success but has had alot of his long term plans ruined by our best ball players moving on. Bruick is spot on when he says this is just a bad run, we will improve our squad in january and get back to where we were, winning games and looking dangerous going forward. As for a ' plan B ', I don not many teams in the premiership that have a plan B. Coaches do not get much time between matches to train tactics as it is, it is mostly recovery work from the gmes and getting ready for next one, to introduce a plan B requires a lot of time in training. Keep the faith COYW
Plan B does not have to be significantly different from plan A. Just sift players based on their skills to different positions... Also try new things when the recipe keeps failing. Baird and Sidwell in the midfield has failed the last 3-4 games. Try Kasami or one of the youngsters? As it has been said: insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That's how I feel! The faith is there but the others do not stand still...
Totally agree...try something else...1 win in 11 suggests there is a huge problem. Sidwell and Baird against Swansea....deary me. They love keeping ball and we can't unless we make 5 passes sideways and backwards then to Schwarzer who may duff his kick like he did many times yesterday. Its not good enough. We need a big shake up.
Against Swansea I'd love nothing more than for Stockdale to come in for Schwarzer, Briggs come in for Riise, Frei come in for Dejagah and Kasami in for Sidwell/Baird. But I could put my life savings on the fact that it would never happen. Jol has favorites, such as MS, JAR and DB and won't drop them under any circumstances. How does Jol know the likes of Stockdale, Briggs and Kasami aren't up to the task if he never gives them a chance in the team? If they come in and are just as awful, then fair enough, but to not even give them a go and stick with the players who have helped us to one win in 11 is shocking.
We need to get something sorted here. We have to sort the centre of midfield. At present we have Baird and Sidders. Kara can play in there but he is no better than Baird or Sidders and is no where near fit enough to play there for 90 mins. He marks space and not players, so if we want players to close the oppo down then he cannot play there. Diarra is not yet fit enough to play. That leaves Kasami. Ther reason Kasami has not played is that he lacks the ability to hold his position. When deployed on the right he comes inside to the centre and even ends up on the left. When played he the middle he goes everywhere not doing his role in the team. He is likie watching a young lad play football, always wants to be where the ball is. This is fine if we play him just off the striker. A replacement for either Baird or Sidders, no way, we are enough trouble as it is, put him in there and we will be in even more problems. The reason why Jol continues with Baird and Sidders is because there NO other options. He cannot improve on those 2 and that is why we are struggling. The only other option is Simon Davies but he will not be back until early new year.
Jol is only the problem insofar as he did not tie up his replacements in enough time in August. You can see from the players targeted (Boateng, Palacios etc.) and the free transfers picked up (Karagounis, Tavares) that Jol was just as aware as anyone where the problem lies. Whether it was Jol's fault, Ali Mac's fault or the result of us getting screwed by other clubs/agents (such as Boateng's transfer collapsing), the end result is we do not have other options than Baird and Sidwell. January is crucial for us because Jol can finally get some replacements in. I don't have too many worries about Jol not addressing the issue. Once we get some more talent in the middle of the park I think the improvement will come from everywhere else as well. Afterthought: I agree with everything frogman27 said there. EDIT: As for Jol's interviews, I don't think him coming out and saying "Sidwell and Baird aren't good enough and I need to sign replacements in January" would really help anyone. He is playing for time somewhat until next month; we all know it and throwing our current players under the bus won't help.
Who'd be a football manager eh! Jol hasn't become a bad manager overnight. He is still a very good coach/manager. Personally, I don't think I've seen so many players out of form at the same time in a very long while. Just need a win against Swansea, boost the confidence, get out of the rut we're in and then get a couple of excellent replacements. The other thing is not to forget everyone was singing Bairdhino and Sidwell's praises in games against Arsenal and Chelsea etc. To keep a consistant level throughout a whole season is very difficult. Last season I even remember a few of us lambasting Murphy for playing poorly. Now all of a sudden we miss him terribly! It's all about form, they are still quality players.
I think we saw Jol's plan B yesterday, it's "route 1 to Rodallega and then see what develops from there" and for the first half an hour it worked well (until Berbatov got tired). I agree with Berbatov's shirt: we need to keep calm. There were moments yesterday when the entire team was running around like a headless George Co-hen. It was good to see Ruiz back but the lack of Diarra worries me much more than a lack of Ruiz. The only time the midfield calmed down was when Karagounis came on, and started stringing some passes together. I think we could all do with remembering: we were in a similar (actually worse) situation at this point in the Hughes regime and it all turned out alright in the end. Also Jol really earns his salt in a transfer window which is only 3 days away. He knows better than any of us where the problems are and he will resolve them. Keep calm and trust in the chickens.
