It's a shame. I like Ross as a man. But the team seems to reflect his quiet, thoughtful approach. There's no fire in the belly. Maybe we haven't got the players to play a fast high pressing game. But, christ, being outplayed by Lincoln City! I haven't a clue who should replace him, but scraping wins isn't good enough and we need someone who can send the team out better motivated.
I recall my feelings when I watched the lads warming up at the Oxford game , and compared their lack of vigour and energy with that of the opposition. I was not impressed and worried about the likely result of the match. Sure enough, we were lucky and could and probably should have lost 3 nil. They looked unprofessional and unguided. I am increasingly worried about the direction we are heading … losing to the likes of Lincoln and only luckily drawing with Bolton is a sure sign we have lost our way.
Below is a quote from Jack Ross towards Neal Cooper. It says a lot about him. I wonder if his current players have the same feeling. "maybe the manager thinks I have let him down but that's nothing compared with how I feel about him".
It’s his systems I can’t undestand, the whole 3 at the back debacle, now 4-5-1. I watched Brighton on MOTD and the 4-4-2 system I think would suit our squad. Two holding midfielders with the wide players pushed ahead on the wings, giving 4 attacking players on the break. We should be trying to blow teams away, and with some confidence this team can do that. I’d rather throw caution to the wind and win 4-3 than try and scrape a 1-0 win and more often than not get a draw. I think a new manager will come in and implement something similar. Creating loads of chances which will breed confidence. At the minute, our strikers get 1 or 2 opportunities to score and they aren’t of that quality. Give them 6 or 7 attempts and they’ll get a goal.
I feel that we have now reached the point where the takeover is impacting on the team. My take is the players have accepted that Ross will be leaving when the takeover goes through. Whilst I wouldn't say that they are just going through the motions I would say that they are only operating at 90%. As in all things if you don't give it 100% your chances of success are diminished. I also feel that Ross has accepted that he will be leaving and is in a similar boat. Not a good recipe for success.
Sounded like just the man for us when he was appointed. Despite inheriting a chaotic squad, he ended up with a squad that should have achieved automatic promotion last year. The quality of football has been poor and we struggle to dominate matches. Gave him the benefit of the doubt for last season, but performances have been woeful this season, Ipswich and Peterborough games were bad enough, but to be outplayed by a makeshift Bolton was the final straw for me. Even if he gets us up, probably via the play offs, I would struggle to be optimistic in the Championship with Ross in charge. Yesterday’s performance and result have simply confirmed my opinion that we need a change.
Week in week out its the complete lack of team work that slaps you in the face. No idea what they do in training but we don't defend as a team, attack as a team or press the ball as a team. Players are constantly isolated no support, no options 11 individual players making it up as they go along. He needs to go but the replacement is crucial. Having seen player recruitment recently Not sure I trust the current setup to get it right. This takeover needs to see a complete overhaul of the footballing side of the club
So who is out there to replace him? SAFC has a very poor record when it comes to managers and a lot of reputations have been broken. What talented aspiring manager would risk it now? I think the takeover talks have unsettled everyone and it needs to be resolved quickly
Something is wrong, and a few have been saying something very similar to @ Hudson for a long while now on 606. Pre-season set the alarm bells ringing, that the mistakes obvious from the previous seasons Wembley visits, was that Ross was tactically clueless and could not think on his feet. His starting elevens are fine generally, but his substitutions are consistently woeful. I actually liked Ross and clung on to the fact that an intelligent man would learn from his mistakes and slowly improve on them but sadly this is not happening. The chopping and changing in the limited pre season games, highlighted the uncertainty, but I put this down to getting the players fit rather than any tactical ineptitude. From the players available at the start of the season I also thought a 3/5/2 was the formation to stick with. but It was abandoned after 45 torrid minutes when no one looked like they had heard about 3/5/2 in their lives and Hume who I do rate, was the obvious scapegoat. As De Bock is now. Along with Hume, who I still rate, I was hoping that by now we would have a young fit and hungry team based on that which Robbie Stockdale had mouldied in the academy, and showed what they could do in his one game as caretaker manager, and the first doubts I had on Ross came when Stockdale being shown the door and Ball retained Just how many of these decisions are Ross's responsibility I dont know and only he could answer, but i dnnt expect he will. If he goes which is likely sooner or later progress is not guaranteed unless the structure is addressed, whether the horse before the cart or visa versa we cant go on like this.
No more experiments for me... we can’t afford to take punts on up and coming managers. We need to get out of this league... I know he’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I would go with Pulis for a couple of years with someone in mind to take over thereafter and Pulis becomes DoF... his knowledge would be immense
Interesting that apparently Chris Hughton turned down an approach from Stoke City , it makes it difficult to think he would contemplate coming to SAFC as we are An EFL1 club , in life shy bairns get nowt so a discreet enquiry would not be amiss I would think . Watched Brighton take Spurs apart yesterday and most of the team were made up of Hughton's players and it was in stark contrast to what we have seen this season , up until now I have been in the pro Ross camp but I think it is now time to react - the International break has probably came at the right time to assess where we are as a club irrespective of the takeover . Let's hope the takeover is concluded sooner rather than later because I sense things are starting to drift on the pitch due to the uncertainty .
said it last season, we scraped most wins because the opposition were not finishing chances against us rather than us outplaying anyone...take maja's goals out and at the very least we would have had even more draws. onto the start of this season, and the self same signs were there with the added 'bonus' of no established/experienced left or right backs which more or less left 3-5-2 as the only formation we could try, it failed as we all expected it to. had we seen ANY improvement, direction, change of style i am fairly sure we would all be happy to persist with ross after our manager merry go round of recent years, as it is we even seem to be going backwards and that is something i never thought possible...i still think that the current squad is more than good enough to get us promoted but they need direction and fast. EDIT: just read the above post and i would add hughton at the top of my wish list as well, with the takeover hopefully happening i am sure any manager would look at the potential spending power he would have.
Confusing as it is, we have shown the qualities highlighted in your first paragraph, in the cup games but not the league where we have been abysmal, have you any thoughts here as I am at a lost to explain it. Apologies for the highlighted bits just my way of attempting clarity, not meant to be anything else as I agree with all the points you make. Nice avatar .
I'll be honest when he arrived I was thinking "who?". Then I watched the press conference, read the interviews and looked online and found his YouTube channel, and I thought "great! A young manager with progressive ideas who knows what's he's talking about and wants to play a pressing game and win by outscoring the opposition". His first competitive match at the SOL against Charlton and we struggled first half but were completely different in the second. I then saw an interview afterwards and he said: "we were surprised at how Charlton set up specifically against us, so we changed things at half time to and you saw the results". I have to admit I was impressed by his confidence, calmness and tactical ability, but to be honest after the first few months it's been a groundhog day of set up and tactics. Something's happened to make him incredibly risk averse and he can't get out of it. The gamble hasn't paid off in any sense at all. The fact that he won't even "back himself" by reverting to his attacking ethos speaks volumes to me. For whatever reason he's unable to stop the slide and therefore totally out of his depth.
Bally presided over some very listless performances during his times in charge. The humiliating flogging by nufc showed he doesnt have a clue how to coach, organize or motivate a first team squad. In short..no thank you. Ditto keane