This is not a "slight bump" as you put it. The football under Alex Neil has been awful for ages and there's no sign of it improving. The results early season flattered to deceive, it was more about the opposition playing badly than us being on top of our game.
Plus the fact that of our eight wins, seven (7!) have come against the teams occupying the bottom seven spots in the division
I know little about the intrinsic workings of Burnley but it could be that Dyche was able to maintain team spirit, camaraderie and that run-through-walls-for-the-shirt mentality which has been absent at Carrow Road for ages now. Inspiration, motivation, passion etc are crucial - and absent in our current set up.
I do see your point RBF, but unless there's a MASSIVE change in tactics and at least some changes to the starting 11, then i REALLY feel AN's tenure as our manager should come to an end. As ILD and other posters who choose to witness the woeful displays at CR (under 21s/under 23s excepted!!) something HAS to change and sooner rather than later, as I am hearing rumblings of discontent amongst the fans around me and I'm not the only one considering relinquishing my season ticket!!!
I agree with you, but that ´run through the walls for the shirt´ attitude comes as much from the players themselves, as it does from anything the manager can instigate. If they´re not prepared to put in a shift, which they don´t look as if they are at the moment, then whoever is steering the ship, will not find it easy going.
This from the BBC website: So, when Alex Neil gets the bullet, as Strachan surely now must from Scotland, Delia can have her cherished 'continuity' - if not in personnel, in management ineptness at least
The buck stops with the manager...it's his job to motivate! If his players won't respond then he needs to decide to either drop them or sell them. He keeps picking the same players and tactics, so he's not doing anything different. Those of us who watch every week bear testament to that!
He may be an unsung hero a lot of the time, but the last few weeks have shown how desperately we miss Howson. Though, with a squad of our calibre, it shouldn't all be about one player. [P.S. Where's Vadis when you need him? ]
It always seems to be the same, a player is injured or unavailable, he then turns into our saviour. "It'll improve when ____returns"! Let's not forget Howson was and has been part of the squad that have produced some of the awful performances! Team game first and foremost, we have enough midfielders to fill that spot.
Jerome spends roughly 70+minutes of each game as the only player in the opposition half! Isolated or what? Width only comes from Olsson and Pinto, when fit, who by doing so invite pressure on the rest of our invariably stretched and under pressure defence. Get fit soon, Pinto, Howson and Jarvis
I think it may well be around Xmas before we see Jarvis and Howson!!! When we do have the ball in the opponents' half - a lot of the fans around me are urging some of our other players to 'get in the box', but they seem almost reluctant to do so and so when a ball comes in, there's rarely anyone there to at least make contact with the ball to try and score
So it seems whatever negativity Hughton left behind in the Carra dressing room (his Brighton outfit don't suffer from it now) has been inherited - and added to by AN
We saw the same thing with Holt under Hughton, he just gave up in the end, I'm surprised Jerome hasn't!
I've got to say I really admire Jerome's work ethic, to continuly working so hard with so little support really says a lot about his character
Exactly! - and exactly the point I was making at #685. Work ethic is all about the players, and very little about the manager, it wouldn´t do any good him charging up and down the touchline putting in tackles here there and everywhere, so, until that changes.........
A good manager selects players with heart over price tag/reputation . To reward players for poor displays by playing them again is a flaw .
