Must say that up until very recently I would have backed Alex Neil to turn our situation around and get us out of the mire, but now I´m not quite so sure. His publicly criticising of the players recently seems a risky course to take, and has so far had little result. I´m not saying he´s not justified, but surely any dressing down of the players has to take place behind closed doors, where they also get a chance to air their views. I´m not suggesting he should call them world class, when quite obviously they´re not, but outwardly he has to back the players, or he´s going to get even less out of them than he is now. Certainly his post-match comments recently suggest that he has lost a bit of confidence in them, as do his frequent team selection changes, and I can see the next few weeks being a real test of his man-management skills if he is going to get this one back on track.
I´ve always liked the way that he´s spoken, and he´s always come across very well in the media, seems to me, but during this run of defeats, as well as becoming understandably irritable, he doesn´t really seem to have any clear plan of escape - just keep on doing what we are doing, only do it a bit better, somehow that does seem awfully inadequate.
I´m not suggesting anything as radical as a change of manager, because, as others have said, if the worst comes to the worst and we don´t hang on this year, then Neil would seem to be easily our best chance of an immediate return, but I do just sense a bit of a sea change in the manager/players relationship, that hasn´t been there before.
Be interesting to see if the players can/will respond, because respond they certainly have to, or we can begin to wave goodbye to another Premier League journey, before we´ve got out of first gear.
I´ve always liked the way that he´s spoken, and he´s always come across very well in the media, seems to me, but during this run of defeats, as well as becoming understandably irritable, he doesn´t really seem to have any clear plan of escape - just keep on doing what we are doing, only do it a bit better, somehow that does seem awfully inadequate.
I´m not suggesting anything as radical as a change of manager, because, as others have said, if the worst comes to the worst and we don´t hang on this year, then Neil would seem to be easily our best chance of an immediate return, but I do just sense a bit of a sea change in the manager/players relationship, that hasn´t been there before.
Be interesting to see if the players can/will respond, because respond they certainly have to, or we can begin to wave goodbye to another Premier League journey, before we´ve got out of first gear.
