Fortunately the Echo site is so poorly constructed that I'm never tempted to visit. Which is just as well.
He's not the primary cause looking at the bigger picture, but there's no doubt that any other manager in the league would have more points with this squad. As someone rightly said earlier, if we stay up it will be very much in spite of him rather than because of him.
I think where he has failed the most is overestimating the attacking threat of about nearly half of the teams in the league of lesser quality (except West Brom!) and underestimating ours We have kept to an organised defensive structure with 2 defensive midfielders constantly protecting the back four against these teams and that has stunted our offensive spontaneity and our attacks generally are slow and laboured and it has cost us some vital wins this season. This could be down to his lack of experience in the PL and he might be less cautious against these teams in the future, but we also could well not be playing them for a while!
Which may or may not the be case. But if it is, then again I come back to comment yesterday about lack of leadership. Why don't we have players turning around to him, and filling in that gap in his experience? Telling him that we can be less cautious, rather than just accepting a potential lack of experience. Or why didn't Eric Black do that, when he was around? Or Dave Watson? Personally I just think it's nature. And we don't have anyone strong enough in the squad to challenge it. (And it hardly helps that we've sold our last two captains in the past 14 past months.)
Yeah, I'm not convinced of that. I'm not saying he's the manager I would want given the choice, but he is imo nowhere near as poor as most of our fans seem to think. He's been making the most of a poor hand, learning on the job; and most importantly, the players are still playing for him.
More importantly, why don't we have players taking charge on the pitch? Why are there no leaders telling their team mates what to do?
This is the nub of the problem in my view. Once they cross that white line they are responsible for missed tackles, poor passing and deciding where to be on the pitch. Yes the manager picks the team, we may not like the line up but the urgency and passion in the players has to come from them. Sorry but enough is enough, past players have really shown that even with less talent passion and commitment make a real difference. We’re not short of skill or experience, we are short of players with a mature adult approach to the current situation.
I do think that the Manager instructs them on where they should be positionally within the formation, they do appear to be too rigid and uniform in this respect, it would be nice to see some more quicker passing and movement going forward sometimes. I agree that the players have to step up and be a bit braver on the ball as well.
A captain, a leader, is the number one most important thing for us to sign in the summer in my view. Even more than a Mane replacement. And regardless of what division we're in. It makes sense for such a player to be a CB, given our deficiency there, but it's not essential. Naturally they do they need to be a sufficient ability though. Terry is a leader, but I would never urge us to sign him. (Ideally we should have multiple leaders out there, but just the one would be a start).
Absolutely, but also let's not forget that this is a young team. The team on Saturday had an average age of just over 25, (nobody over 30) and there aren't any grizzled old pros out there to lead the troops. From what I see each week, the nearest we have is Tadic, who at least tries to organise the front half of the team during set pieces, etc.
