When I saw Johnson return from his summer vacation looking somewhat overfed and comfortable I started to have doubts as to whether he had enough character to organise and motivate the players. It looked good for a while then the 3,4,5,6 against defeats made it clear to me he had to go. Those defeats, regardless of the Burton and Charlton defeats, were unforgivable.
I remember someone summed him up early doors very accurately as a "Snake Oil Salesman". The man was a complete charlatan imo.
If you don't mind me saying, I think that's a tad harsh. He had us playing some seriously good football but left us wide open at the back. I wasn't really a fan of the philosophy speak but you can't please everybody. I'm more than happy with Alex Neil and I feel he's a better fit for the club and he's slowly getting us playing decent football but helping it tight at the back
We are creating chances, but our finishing is letting us down. Against Lincoln, for example, we missed a hatful. A lot of us have been saying all season that we need someone who can set the defence up right and he's done that with the same personnel. In my opinion, if he'd been brought in in November, when we had the other major blip, we'd be knocking on the door for automatic promotion now. I'm very encouraged by the start he has made and hope he's given time to finish the job, even if we don't go up.
It’s very early days but I like the bloke, think he’s got enough about him to do well here. I’d love him to take us up, especially this season. In the home game against Fleetwood when we were behind at the break, you just got the feeling he’d change it straight away and we’d turn it around. I haven’t had that confidence in previous managers…
Agree with all of that but if we are almost guaranteed a goal when they do then they can all pile forward for me
Spot on. But off the top of my head, Bruce was the last bloke to be given more than two seasons, and he was an inveterate chopper and changer anyway. Wonder why we are where we are!?
In the last 10 years we have had 12 managers (excluding caretakers). Of those only Ross, Moyes and O'Neil had a full season. Allardyce can be taken out of the mix because he left for England, but all others have been appointed then sacked quickly. Either we constantly appoint bad managers, or we are becoming unmanageable. At some point good managers wont look twice at us because we will be bad for the CV.
The old Cloughton adage you start A Cloughie adage 'You start winning by not losing...ie clean sheets are crucial Ask Frank Lampard, struggled to organise his team defensively at Chavski now at the 2nd Liverpool team.
Lampard is extremely lucky to get the jobs he has. I watchee him at Derby and he was very naieve tactically. That team was promotion worthy but I felt he held them back. He did better than I thought at Chelsea to be fair, but he is showing himself lacking at Everton. Benitez wouldnt have them down there. Rooney at Derby is doing a much better job than Lampard did in my opinion. He is really tactically good when I have watched them and for such a paper thin squad and team he has worked wonders. I would confidently suggest Rooney will be a top level coach whereas Lampard wont be.
It sounds you are like me, surprised that Rooney is proving a good manager. I had him down as a thick granny shagger, but he is, as you say using his meagre resources well. Future Everton manager...
He is, but that is just in his personal life. He has been involved in football for most of his life and he doesn’t need to be involved in the financial business side of things. Therefore he is doing the only thing he knows and, fortunately, it appears that he is reasonably good at it.
He has got us playing with more confidence and made us hard to beat. I think we've only conceded 2 goals in the last eight matches, which is very impressive. I really believe that if we had him at the start of the season, we would be in one of the automatic positions and going up. Can he get us promoted via the playoffs? I think he can
Probably his most impressive interview today. Admitted he got it wrong, but had the balls to change it. Johnson would be ****ing himself dry about "goal balls" and "Sharks" or some ****. So happy we have a proper manager after so many duds
He's down to earth, no nonsense, bloke. I liked Lee Johnson but I think he over complicated things. Parky was dire. Liked Ross. Liked Coleman, he was on a hiding to nothing. Grayson, bless him. I think Alex Neil could be just what we need.
