Brendan v Sousa

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Stumpy said:
We think he did well under Sousa, but did we really?

We finished 7th, but a point of the play-offs after winning only 3 games in our last 13.

We had one of the best defences in the Championship, conceding 37 goals with 24 clean sheets.

Conversely we had the worst attack, scoring the fewest goals in the league - 40

We failed to score in 18 games.

Its easy to report with hindsight but at the time, our strikers included Dobbie, Pintado, Kuqi, Bauza, Trundle (on loan) and Beattie; a record signing and Sousa's biggest flop, we ALL thought we had enough up front didn't we? and we ALL thought we had a shot at the play offs.

So what happened? We missed out on a play off birth by 1 solitary point.

To cover his arse, late in the season, Sousa turned to the press to blame everyone around him for his failures. To state the bloody obvious he cited that a seven-match win less run 'could' have been avoided had the squad been strengthened. This from the manager who turned our backs to goal, restricting our attacking play, brought our centre forward into the defence, poor Pintado defended our area so much he might as well have wore a number 5 on his back.

Don't forget too that Sousa brought us Jordi Lopez <doh> and Craig 'its gone again' Beattie, loaned out who we considered at the time to be our best striker, Dobbie, to a club who eventually took by 1 point our play off place. Also he caused the departure of the heart of our club, Leon.

Imho, Sousa's legacy, finishing 7th, our highest ever position, was achieved despite him not because of him. Imo his restrictive style held us back and cost us more than it gained. Our then squad oozed flare and attacking talent but was forced to play an alien negative game severely cropping their ability to attack, score goals and win points. Sousa lucked out.

I think the board saw his style was stifling and decided not to invest in it. They also saw, because we ALL did, that Sousa was using us as a stepping stone. Imo, they put the best interests of the club first and didn't waste money on a manager who had no feeling for our club or our footballing philosophy. All Sousa wanted was to use us to bolster his CV to maximising his career options. I feel his tenor held us back and it could be said it cost us an early opportunity at a shot at the premiership.
Just how I see it.
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There's is just so much utter s**t there I don't know where to begin ...

So let's get the record straight. Sousa had never heard of Beattie ... he was the Board's signing not Sousa's.

Sousa started the season with a projected -23 goal difference - last season's goals minus the goals from Scotland, Gomez and Bodde - who were no longer available - a total of 40 goals lost. A -23 goal difference is a guarantee of relegation. So we started the season so deep in the s**t it was a miracle we didn't drop.

Sousa turned a sieve of a defense into something you could barely fart through. He somehow dealt with our Achilles heel, which was anything crossed into the box, because neither Monk, nor Williams, no DeVries had half a clue on how to defend a cross. Beattie didn't get the nickname "sick note" by accident - he was never available. Kuqi was something of a last gasp retread - and not a Sousa selection - he was all that was available in January. Dobbie was out of shape, carried an attitude and didn't shine at all and Pintado was, poor bastard, asked to do everything, which he did to the best of his ability - don't forget he came to us from a L3 club in Spain (or possibly worse).

I was at the Doncaster match at the end of the season. Sousa pulled every tactical maneuver in the book to try and get the result we needed to make the playoffs. We were thwarted by our lack of finishing power up front and .... Trundle's infamous hand ball in the last couple of minutes.

So if you didn't care for the style of football we had to play to finish 7th versus bottom OK, that's your opinion. But you don't have to twist history to s**t on a guy that came here with no back room staff of his own - Martinez walked off with everybody when he went to Wigan - and did the best with what he inherited and a total lack of support form our illustrious board. Sousa performed a minor miracle - a very technically competent coach who got the most he could from the resources at his disposal.
 
Yankee_Jack said:
There's is just so much utter s**t there I don't know where to begin ...

So let's get the record straight. Sousa had never heard of Beattie ... he was the Board's signing not Sousa's.

Sousa started the season with a projected -23 goal difference - last season's goals minus the goals from Scotland, Gomez and Bodde - who were no longer available - a total of 40 goals lost. A -23 goal difference is a guarantee of relegation. So we started the season so deep in the s**t it was a miracle we didn't drop.

Sousa turned a sieve of a defense into something you could barely fart through. He somehow dealt with our Achilles heel, which was anything crossed into the box, because neither Monk, nor Williams, no DeVries had half a clue on how to defend a cross. Beattie didn't get the nickname "sick note" by accident - he was never available. Kuqi was something of a last gasp retread - and not a Sousa selection - he was all that was available in January. Dobbie was out of shape, carried an attitude and didn't shine at all and Pintado was, poor bastard, asked to do everything, which he did to the best of his ability - don't forget he came to us from a L3 club in Spain (or possibly worse).

I was at the Doncaster match at the end of the season. Sousa pulled every tactical maneuver in the book to try and get the result we needed to make the playoffs. We were thwarted by our lack of finishing power up front and .... Trundle's infamous hand ball in the last couple of minutes.

So if you didn't care for the style of football we had to play to finish 7th versus bottom OK, that's your opinion. But you don't have to twist history to s**t on a guy that came here with no back room staff of his own - Martinez walked off with everybody when he went to Wigan - and did the best with what he inherited and a total lack of support form our illustrious board. Sousa performed a minor miracle - a very technically competent coach who got the most he could from the resources at his disposal.
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:emoticon-0148-yes::emoticon-0148-yes::emoticon-0148-yes::emoticon-0148-yes:
 
And I would further add in support of Sousa (see post #22) .... he also had to deal with Monk-Back-Stabbing Version 1.0. Needless to say, despite this, he still managed to work a miracle on Monk et al at the back - so he couldn't have been that bad a guy now could he.
 
Your original Sousa love in post accepted, your entitled to try I suppose but.......

.......then you go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like its Mooooooonks Fauuuuult......

You know the tune yankee <ok>
 
The irony is, put Monks attacking style with Sousa's defensive tactical nous and it's the perfect set up, but then we'd win all the time and this forum would be boring :D
 
plastic said:
Or put Laudrup's defensive discipline with Sousa's attacking style. Or did QPR already do that?
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plastic said:
Or put Laudrup's defensive discipline with Sousa's attacking style. Or did QPR already do that?
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GM 2014 15 +2 ------ 7 played
GM 2013 14 +6 -----14 played
ML 2013 14 -6 ------24 played
ML 2012 13 -4 ------ 38 played
BR 2011 12 -7 ------ 38 played
BR 2010 11 +27 ---- 38 played
PS 2009 10 -3 ------ 38 played
RM 2008 09 +13 ---- 38 played



PS after Leicester

Videoton +39 ---- 30 played
Tel Aviv +40 ---- 26 played
(left out part seasons)

Basel +7 ---- 8 played

Sousa stacks up quite well when he has a decent forward or two.
 
Bob the slob said:
GM 2014 15 +2 ------ 7 played
GM 2013 14 +6 -----14 played
ML 2013 14 -6 ------24 played
ML 2012 13 -4 ------ 38 played
BR 2011 12 -7 ------ 38 played
BR 2010 11 +27 ---- 38 played
PS 2009 10 -3 ------ 38 played
RM 2008 09 +13 ---- 38 played



PS after Leicester

Videoton +39 ---- 30 played
Tel Aviv +40 ---- 26 played
(left out part seasons)

Basel +7 ---- 8 played

Sousa stacks up quite well when he has a decent forward or two.
Click to expand...

It would be interesting to see what his goal difference would have been if you factor the goals of someone like Sinclair from the following season <ok>
 
Sinclair almost single handedly got us up imo. He is listed on Wiki as still being a Man City player. Thought he'd moved on.
 
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