Brian Clough quote "Players lose you games, not tactics. There's so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes”. Perhaps managers are more motivational, but you need players who can be motivated (and have the talent) and with the money that's come into the game that's harder to do.
He is just an alright manager. He isn't good, but he isn't terrible. I wouldn't want a new owner giving him lots of money. I'd love the owner to bring in someone like Dean Smith from Brentford, back him and build something for the long term. Would I sack Adkins right now? No it's pointless just somehow add more money to the asking price for the club. Does Adkins have a good squad? No. But is he getting the most out of them? No. Grosicki, Bowen, Martin, Campbell and Dicko are all decent players at this level and have proven it before but going forward we have no plan or cohesion. That's why I don't see him as a good manager as he isn't getting the best out of anyone bar maybe Marshall!
I don't know where it comes from. Every manager when asked about tactics or formations gives a dismissive response along the lines of Cloughie's, if not as forthrightly. Yet so many people are convinced that these magical formations are the main key to success. Football managers are smart people, and their thought process is clearly a lot more advanced than "4-4-2 good, 4-5-1 bad". It's interesting to read a well considered tactical insight from fellow fans, but when they just complain that the formation isn't the same one that works best on FIFA, it's nothing more than a tired and meaningless cliché. You could look on the board of any struggling club and see the same identical criticisms aimed at the manager. They're always "tactically inept" and of course have "no plan B".
just check sheff utds forum during their 3-0 humping to boro i did i saw wilder has took us as far as he can wilder doesn't know his best team he needs replacing we look utter **** hes picking the wrong players but now they are joint top of the championship managers in football are primarily man managing you need your players to fully back you and believe in everything you do once doubt from a player sets in that's when bad results happen in a consecutive fashion, generally, that's if you have good players you can make micro changes such as pushing a player into a certain position when defending/attacking or having more midfielders to balance the play but football is such a fluid game that, in reality 90% of it is down to the players one guy is drawn towards the ball leaving a winger free etc for me its mostly psychological, you can make a player believe he is the best and adkins wouldn't be that man make him believe he will have an awesome game you can direct a player to push here and there, to mark a certain guy but you can't stop a mistake or a player being out of position allowing an opposition free space or a goal keeper ****ing up or a forward ****ing a shot up or a cross, or a 30 yard screamer or your defense ****ing up a corner, no matter how much your practice it's the ****ing players on the pitch you need mentally intelligent players also the best players are not only better at playing football but better at reading the game we have **** players, a bunch of misfits it's like the settings for the mighty ducks movie a midfield of batty or henriksen? or stewart? like that is a terribly **** midfield at this level, henriksen is an attacker, batty is a new guy and stewart is close to simon walton levels. last season we had larsson and meyler, two vastly experienced guys, one who played in a world cup quarter final, we didn't replace them like come on? dicko who had a massive injury and was never the same, a glorified adebola and a guy that last had a good scoring record at the same club 10 years ago even though campbell is one of our best players, but he ain't going to score many the best managers are always the ones with the best teams right? let's see guardiola at city or at a barnsley it's far far easier to manage players that have massive ability than it is to manage a rag tag bunch of players that are at city its not nfl, where tactics are much more important people say we are playing negatively the only thing he hasn't tried is milkonvic and groskici together or two forwards but then beneath them there is no quality, no steel we need a fresh start with new owners. this is only going to get worse at the moment we are ****, the championship is a much tougher league than it was 10 or 5 years ago the one thing we are lacking is home form since adkins came in though, it's shocking replacing adkins will do nothing, we need new owners and a freshstart sunderland got what we needed this summer.
Not having a squad where you can cover injuries in positions has been one of our recent problems and that's just the result of the lack of spending. Players also don't always have the talent or confidence to be able to play in a different position than they are used to.
I wonder if he's been told to play Stewart. Once he came on against Leeds it was game over. He was trying hard enough, but he is not a midfielder. Didn't Liverpool say he was a full back. Why not try him there in the cup
There's so much speculation on why he plays Stewart but it's because there's no bastard else. Seems like people don't want to believe it. We've literally got four central midfielders at the club. When Irvine and Batty are injured there is absolutely no choice. Whoever is the manager they will have to play Henriksen and Stewart when the other two are injured. Adkins can see Stewart is ****. We all can. When he was asked about Stewart's performance a couple of weeks ago all he said was how good Dan Batty has been; nothing in support of Stewart whatsoever. We don't need to go looking for conspiracies here, there just isn't anyone else available.
I think it's pointless sacking anyone at the moment. Yes, I think Adkins hasn't been great at times, but who really is going to get anything out of this sack of ****e? There is the usual underlying problem, and that is, until we get rid of the ****tards, we'll never actually achieve anything again. And as from day one, I don't think they are ever going to go away until they have managed to **** us over completely. If we could get rid of them, then I would target Gerrard, he has been super impressive considering that is his first job as a manager. Not that I'm saying for a minute he would come to us.
I agree, they are all decent at this level (although unfortunately FC's best years seem well past). But a) he can't play all of them at once, and b) more importantly, it's what's behind them that's the bigger problem. And that's NOT Adkin's fault. He wanted it addressing during the transfer window, but Enob (and maybe Darnborough?) didn't. Having said that, I still maintain that Adkins would be better off using 1 or even 2 of his defenders in CM roles than playing MH out of position and relying so heavily on the young lad Batty (who has anyway been injured).
That’s complete and utter bollocks for a start! The Clough era was hugely different to the Football played by athletes we see nowadays.
If only Cloughie was still with us so you could inform of how little he knew about the game compared to yourself.
The game has totally changed since Clough was managing though , even Alex Ferguson said how difficult it was dealing with multi-milionaire players towards the end of his career
Is that relevant to his quote about people being obsessed with tactics despite not really understanding them?
Sorry .. but anyone who places trust in a bloke like Henriksen.. makes him captain .. couples him alongside Stewart .. sees that catastrophe unfolding before his eyes .. and does fk all to stem it .. by either shuffling the limted pack or changing a system that is doing absolutely nothing .. needs to walk. He is blinded by the so called positive shyte he spouts .. i do believe he spouts it that often he actually believes it ffs. Would you trust him with money in January ?
You're absolutely right. I wouldn't claim to have a deep understanding of tactics. Leave it to the managers I say, and if they fail when allowed to sign their own players and make their own decisions without interference then that is the time to get rid.
