Shrewsbury are pissed

And they in turn destroyed him for it and left a Club in chaos, that's not the way to run a Club with animosity in the dressing room and open revolt, why is this so difficult for you to see? Or is it just your permanent argumentative streak raising its boring, tedious head again?

 

I think you’ll find Brian Clough enjoyed quite a distinguished career and Leeds United were alright for another 25 years as well. There are a lot of things wrong with the set up at Town and Hurst has shortcomings but his passion and anger at the third rate performances of some players are not even in the Top 100.

 

Not sure I really understand much of the 'arguments' in this thread.. but this little nugget is one that I felt compelled to reply to..

You really think that Press Conferences are a "massive part" of how a club is run? It is an important element for sure as is any communication, particularly in the modern world we live in.. but I would counter that by saying that 'Massive parts' of a manager's jobs are taking up by the work on the training ground, in and around the staff and on match days and if these are taken care of, then press conference becomes such a minor part of a manager's role.

If we judge managers on their press conferences then we are in far greater trouble than I thought... and if wanted entertaining Pressers then someone like Holloway should have been appointed.. Or failing that Micky Flannagan or Russell Howard could do it and throw in the odd joke.

 

We can argue specifics all day long regarding Paul Hurst's short and failed tenure here. Ultimately though, it was the results and tactical naivety that let Hurst down. I think it's widely accepted that there was some unhappiness behind the scenes regarding Paul Hurst's management style, the perceived arrogance of Doig, and the fact Hurst attempted to change too much, too soon. That certainly affected the results and I think Hurst underestimated the difficulty of the Championship. A more measured, open-minded, and collaborative approach would have benefited Hurst and arguably endeared him more to the players and the club staff. A wiser transfer strategy would have ensured we brought in players with experience of the Championship, as well as the lower-league signings that some supporters were asking for last season. We have been left with an unbalanced squad short on quality and lacking Championship experience in areas. The lack of firepower going forward, and the relative failures of Jackson and Harrison (although the latter has been injured for a while) to score consistently has been a particular concern. The fact that Freddie Sears is now our main striker, who was widely seen as our third or fourth choice striker last season, does not fill me with confidence going into the festive period where games come thick and fast.

I agree that some the comments Hurst made to the media were too open, too honest, and did not seem to help endear him to the squad, particularly among the more senior members of the squad, but I think his transfer policy, constant changing of the team and formation, and his general over-confidence and emphasis on change were bigger factors in his failure here.

 

Results yes, but what led to the lack of results? I didn't like the tactics but Lambert has persisted with the same.

I think it just boils down to a lack of quality and a lack of a winning mentality. Football is all about the finest margins - look at the game Sunday, a few inches either side of the post are the difference between England being 'Same old England' relegated or semi-finalists and heroes. These margins are decided by a combination of quality and mentality. Against Reading we had enough quality but didn't have the mentality to keep defending adequately and seeing the game out. We were not undone by a moment of great skill. Against the stronger sides we don't have the quality to compete.

I think those are the two key factors and everything else is a given at any club at this level.

 

The main factors that led to our lack of results, in my opinion, were the constant chopping and changing of the starting eleven and formation, the naive recruitment strategy that has led to glaring squad deficiencies and a weaker squad than this time last season, and a manager who arguably underestimated the division and went the wrong way stamping his authority on the squad and the club staff. It was the right decision to sack Mick and it was arguably the right decision to go for a successful lower league manager, but Hurst was the wrong fit. I have sympathy for him in that he was hardly a great squad when he came through the door and was hit by several departures, but his incomings have not been good enough.

Lambert has gone about things in a completely different way, in my opinion, by keeping with the same starting line up in consecutive games, encouraging the team to actually play a high pressing game we didn’t see under Hurst, and soliciting the advice of respected, experienced former Ipswich Town coaches and players.

 

We were not changing it around all that much until further into the season, I think that was desperation. In fact I very much wanted it to be changed after the first game or two and it didn't happen.

I think four of the incomings are doing well (Pennington, Chalobah, Edwards, Roberts), a few have not worked out (Nsiala, Graham, Walters) and the rest may have something to offer still (Donacien, Jackson, Nolan, Harrison, Edun). I have a feeling in my gut that Jackson is going to keep working hard and hit some form. Getting Edwards and Roberts alone for the money we've actually spent is not a bad return. But still there is an inherent lack of quality in the squad.

The stuff about stamping authority, that's a fault of the structure of the club and it's what Evans encourages his managers to do.

The only thing I have seen done differently is moving the ball a bit quicker.

 

We named the same starting line-up once in Hurst's time in charge. How are you supposed to build consistency and encourage players to take risks when you're constantly chopping and changing? In his 15 games in charge, we played 4-2-3-1, 4-5-1, 4-3-3, 3-5-2, and 4-1-4-1 at varying times and only had one win to show for it. To me, that's changing it around a lot and having next to nothing to show for it.

I think you're being far too generous for a club that are five points adrift at the bottom of the table and with only one win in 17 games. I've only seen Roberts play twice, so I think it's far too early to judge him as 'doing well' over the course of the season. I think Pennington is the most consistent of the batch, and I hope he isn't the one sacrificed for an incoming centre-back in January, because he's been far better than both Chambers and Nsiala. Edwards is currently a success (although he frustratingly blows hot and cold), and I think Chalobah has been fairly average. The rest have to be considered as failures right now. We're bottom of the league, not many players have stood out for me at all over the course of the season.

I mostly agree that Evans should have provided the necessary support structure and arguably hired a Director of Football for a more cohesive transfer and footballing policy. Particularly as Hurst was not a very experienced manager at this level. That still does not excuse Hurst's divisive attitude, poor transfer record, and his ability to alienate players.

Then I recommend watching our games a little more closely! We actually take the game to opponents and dominate for much longer periods than what we did under Hurst. We actually press the opposition, which we didn't really do under Hurst. Granted it's only been two games, and against two of the weaker teams in this division, and that we cannot keep those levels up over 90 minutes, but I think there are several notable improvements already made to the club. I still don't think it's enough for us to avoid the drop, as I feel we don't have the players, we don't have the owner to reinvigorate the club, and our festive fixture list is looking fairly daunting.

 

We are getting further forward but that’s because of the tempo. We were always trying to, but we got bogged down and made it too easy for the opposition to intercept and get behind us because our play was too slow.

In terms of changes, it’s very rare to name the same starting XI in successive matches these days. It’s not an indicator of anything. You would expect a bit of experimentation with a new side and it wasn’t anything extreme in terms of changes in the early part of the season. For the most part we played the frustrating 4-5-1 as is so well documented. But Lambert is persisting with that now.

 

And that is a fairly significant change, no? We are a lot sharper, a lot more proactive, and get at teams more. Under Hurst, we were often under the cosh and looked uncomfortable with the ball at feet towards the latter half of his short reign. Frequently, the best periods of our play under Hurst would be when we were two goals down and the opposition were more content to sit back.

 

We have only seen this vs Reading and Preston so far. We certainly looked a match for some top sides under Hurst and at other times were woeful against terrible ones so it's far too early to say there's been any improvement for me. Would have expected to pick up more than two points against Millwall, Preston and Reading.

 

This is a concern of mine too, in that while I believe I have seen noticeable and welcome improvement over the past two games, these matches have been against easy teams on paper. For the record, I don't think we would have picked up more points in those fixtures if we had given Hurst an additional few games, because I think it was clear he had no idea how to make the most out of the squad and we had suffered a few defeats against the supposed 'weaker teams' in this division via the likes of Rotherham, Hull, and Sheffield Wednesday, as well as the goal-less draw against 10-men Bolton.

The upcoming match against West Brom will provide a more accurate barometer of how far this team potentially have come under Lambert's few weeks here. Would be nice to get a win in front of the TV cameras, we mention it frequently on here but does anybody have an actual stat showing our winless run? It must be approaching 20 odd games now.

 

If we take the QPR, Leeds and Millwall games out of the equation when there was a bad atmosphere and everything was up in the air, I think we improved steadily and I think Lambert's work is a continuation of that improvement. But he is saying now that there won't be a lot of activity in January so that is probably the nail in the coffin.

A win would be nice Friday but it would be a drop in the ocean.

Was the last time we won in front of the cameras the Arsenal game? Certainly feels like a very long time!

 

I think our last win in front of the cameras (and I'm even counting the midweek televised matches this season) was the 1-0 win over Charlton when Noel Hunt scored in the injury time. 29th November 2014, so almost four years to the day, can we finally get all three points in a live televised match?

 

I can go one better.. away at MK Dons 12th December 2015. Town won two out of three consecutive Sky matches, the other victory also against Charlton with the defeat against Boro.

 

Beat me to it Yorkie....
Before those three games, we'd lost/drawn the previous 8, and since those three, we've gone 11 games without a win.
Not a bad ratio, 2 wins out of 21....
So, this Friday will be almost three years since our last win live on TV

 

Bart's come out and discussed how he was dropped and some thoughts on Hurst. Those widespread rumours about off the field unhappiness look pretty on the money. Bart dropped an hour and half before the Norwich match with no explanation and no heads up, Hurst just read out the teamsheet and ignored Bart. Didn't even let Gerken know. Hurst then blanks Bart. Seems there was also something in Bart's early poor form, and I'm guessing it's to do with the lack of goalkeeping coaching. Disgraceful management.

https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/bartosz-bialkowski-on-paul-hurst-and-paul-lambert-1-5788936

 

I never agreed with dropping Bart, but you can't say it hampered the performance that day. Again, I don't read anything into this. Players have come out and said similar things about Pep and famously Fabio Capello did exactly the same thing before the USA game.

I've heard so many times that players are disappointed not to get a phone call from top managers - usually international call ups because players get dropped in club football all the time.

Is the manager supposed to pull someone into his office every time he drops a player? Reading out the team sheet is a perfectly valid way to naming your XI.

Win and everyone is happy, lose and people dish the dirt.

 

Quite a few rumours from reliable posters doing the rounds on TWTD about Paul Hurst and his coaching team at Town. I'd take it with a pinch of salt, but considering what we know about their regime and from comments from disgruntled players, none of these stories shock me and indeed I think some of these stories show how slow this club is to adapt. I thought I'd collate what I've heard from the reliable sources below, as I'm finding it quite interesting what's allegedly gone on behind closed doors:

• At the very first Ipswich Town team meeting, Paul Hurst came out and said the players 'were no better than what I had at Shrewsbury'.
• When Hurst and Doig saw how much Bart was earning and realised he was the highest paid player at the club, they made frequent references to Bart's wages whenever he made a mistake in training or sometimes when a player scored against him.
• Every week, as part of the sport science regime, players were photographed in their pants and were analysed for any changes to their 'body form'. One player objected against this, as he was uncomfortable being photographed in his pants, and so Hurst and Doig ignored that player for five weeks.
• Doig would challenge players to fights during training, if he perceived standards were slipping, and once got involved in a 'face to face shouting match' with Chambers.

I don't know if they come across as out-of-their-depth lower league managers, such as points one, two, or four implies, or if they're genuinely different personalities to what the players are used to and their intentions were good. I don't see anything wrong with point three, particularly as I imagine most Premier League clubs do something similar. Blanking the player for five weeks is a bit much though. Point two could come across as quite mean, but if it was made in jest and Bart didn't react, maybe they thought it was 'acceptable banter' and I hate using that phrase. As for point four, obviously being angry and threatening violence isn't a great look for an assistant manager, but I think there must have been a lot of frustration from the coaching side that Championship players were not adapting to the style of play that Shrewsbury presumably managed much quicker.

 

Nuggets I’m a bit disappointed in you posting this.

First of all whoever is leaking this stuff has no place criticising others for their conduct or ‘team building’ skills.

Secondly, this stuff goes on everywhere all the time, even at the very top clubs. It only becomes an issue if you lose, but it’s not the cause of anything.

Thirdly, if the coaches are having a dig it’s a step forward from Mick’s ‘holiday camp’ mentatility. If they’re used to this no wonder their noses are out of joint when something a bit tougher comes along.