what is going on at the gate,this squad looks like it can do something special this season. Absolute buzzing after watching our boys destroy the Stokies. Well done Lee I'm down of the fence and enjoying your style of football. Long may it continue.
How much Iam enjoying seeing the LJ haters at last realising what us "DO GOODERS" have been telling you all along, the he is "CLUELESS" remarks & "USELESS DWARF" was never called for, we have a coach & coaching staff, plus MA & of course the great man Sir Steve Lansdown to thank...our team is doing us proud. But please, when we lose a couple of games & we will, dont start all the crap again. #JohnsonIn
And there is a degree here of posters being proven right. The tombola formations, tactics were wrong and more time should be spent on emphasising the simple v complex . The talk of dna was a nonsense when players are bought and selected who do not fit the project. The two above have been addressed and the team improves. It does make supporters who pointed the above out and predicted it super coaches as it is basic football and logical common sense, or those who think a record run of defeats, massive spending and near relegation were part of a long term plan devised by a Coach with guru like qualities again super coaches. Football is a game of emotion. It should be for fans. It is a passion. It is not like cricket. I try to be respectful in regards Mr Johnson, but I would defend those who were moved by their own emotions and passion to go further when faced and witnessing the performances of last season. The Leeds game away was the worst, or oddest coaching performance I have seen since the 70's. Mr Johnson appears to have changed, the team has progressed, that is reason for optimism not gloating. Last season similar occurred and the wheels came of spectacularly!
I do not think it is fair to say you have come off the fence, more like put the ladder up to climb on to the top of it! I think in our darkest hour there was probably 4/5 of us that never gave up hope, or chastised the management. Now, 2 swallows do not a summer make, but some do arrive early as they are keen.... the season has 38 games (114 pts ) to go and like the weather it is likely to be changeable, I think my new target will be 65 points, based not so much on our results to come but on those we have picked up on. another 13 defeats would be the most I would expect, and providing we don't draw more than another 14 or more match's we should be OK. EARLY DAYS AND ANOTHER BREAK COMING UP ........
Sounds reasonable that - hopefully we can exceed even those improved targets and be in with a shout of the playoffs.
I understand your POV, but if things turn again, you're putting yourself in the crosshairs. In a sense, particularly in today's climate, all managers are doomed to fail (i.e. be sacked), and it's simply a matter of how long they stave it off for, so someone negative could theoretically say: 'See, I was right all along - he's useless' about any manager at any club, provided they waited long enough. If LJ can achieve notable success (would probably require promotion for that to be widely agreed to be the case), then he would be a bit of an example, because it would fly in the face of the now accepted 'truth', that the solution to an arresting drop in results is to replace the manager. In LJ's case, he endured such a run of poor results that realistically, he would have been fired at any other club (this reasoning was used as criticism against SL too), yet results improved towards the end of the season and at the beginning of this one also. I personally don't believe that he himself radically changed his approach so much that he was mostly responsible for the turnaround; I think small changes and partial responsibility. The point I'm getting at is that, whilst a manager has a large input to a teams' success, I think perhaps fans place slightly too much emphasis on it, which is to say, less responsibility probably ought to be placed on them when things are bad and less credit given when things are good. More-so than supporting LJ, the thing that I've been more concerned with standing up for is the strategy of the club as a whole, which I think makes sense and I agree with. Redeveloping the stadium was a no-brainer after the Ashton Vale fiasco, so that's hardly controversial, but the transfer strategy and seeking stability/continuity in the management (which does cover LJ) has been criticised more. When things were bad, critics would often say that what we needed to do was 'sign experienced Championship players', as the current crop weren't good enough, whereas the club's strategy regarding signings is largely built on signing young players on their way up (with the odd free signing thrown in). It's easy to agree with the club's approach in usual circumstances, but fans are impatient - they want success immediately and see spending large sums on often short-term solutions as the easiest way to achieve it, and it's when times are tough and the club has stuck by it's convictions in the face of this criticism, that it's most in need of defending. Standing by LJ must've been a much tougher proposition for the club and even I turned to a 'LJ-out' fan last season - my thinking being: 'It's fine to stand by a manager for the benefit of the long term if they're the right guy, but if they're not, you're just tying yourself to a lame horse'. This will remain a concern, but I think I've learned a lesson and am only likely to completely turn against him again if I see evidence of a clear lack of will to attempt to make changes (arguably, SC's downfall) i.e. turn out the same team, in the same formation game after game, despite losing & playing poorly, or, if he loses the trust of a significant portion of the dressing room (no manager, however talented, can succeed if the players aren't mostly on his side, case in point, Clough at Leeds Utd).
↑ "Without a Eufa licence you cannot be. I am not far off" Maybe, but you're a long way off from spelling UEFA correctly Clifton.
Well even the Gods like Clough would not be able to able to achieve that ... Was thinking playing a settled side in a settled shape so wrong? Was it wrong to suggest that the likes of Joe Bryan would benefit from this? Was it wrong to suggest that signing and selecting players (Tomlin) who are not going to fit high lines and high presses cannot work wrong? The point made was that fans can have valid views including those who use (I do not) words like clueless and dwarf. Some of those people were vehement In their view, while reactionary they were also right - The changes they were posting about brought improvement.
To be fair, in this case, Tomlin performed very well in a free role when on loan, and his signing was greeted as positive by almost everyone associated to the club. There's rarely a case of a 'sure thing' in football, but it seemed a low-risk signing at the time. His signing wasn't a complete and utter disaster, just underwhelming and most weren't that sad to see him go. If you can dig up a post of yours from the time we signed him, suggesting he wouldn't fit our system, then I'd be mightily impressed at your foresight. Or maybe you felt that our style changed between his loan spell and last season, which I personally don't think was the case. I think he was given a lot of freedom and many chances, but ultimately didn't perform well enough/produce enough to justify his inclusion, and that's more on him than anyone else.
Or maybe you felt that our style changed between his loan spell and last season, which I personally don't think was the case. And it was the case. City moved away from defensive midfielders holding to allow Tomlin to be Tomlin to all sorts. Tomlin in the left midfield experiment led to constant overloads v Joe Bryan who could not cover the space left. Nonsense stuff. Its there in my posts which defended Tomlin for being lazy, bad attitude etc ... You want yards and legs and tempo and pressing units don't buy a Tomlin who physically cannot do it. Not his game, wrong err dna .. Big mistake.
Fair doos. Can't say I remember well enough how often Tomlin played on the left or in his favoured position or wherever - you're probably right that we've developed a more high-pressure approach and yes, Tomlin isn't a player that would spring to mind to prosper in that setup. How much that draws criticism for signing him, or praise for selling him I don't know, but it's hard to argue that we're not a better outfit now. Good point though.
