Come on ptc you know jwm can never explain things, i just cant believe that warky has been upset by a comment that doubts mm a little!! Oh wait......
If it wasn't for Mick's tactical changes at Half Time against Blackpool we would have lost that game instead of winning it. Mick reverted to the same positive tactics yesterday but we unfortunatley lost! To say that Mick is incapable of making positive changes is just a bit silly... Thats all I'm saying. Perhaps you would prefer to go back to the halcyon days of Paul Jewell when we tried to play overly attacking football but got tonked more often than not because we were too open! It is painfully obvious that we are lacking 4 or 5 quality players and until ME gets his cheque book and starts making some serious investment in the Transfer Market, we will continue to be an average mid table side. Mick is doing the best with what he has got and you cant blame him for Murphy missing a couple of sitters yesterday!
True and I think we were all pleased and surprised he made those changes at Blackpool, it gave us all a big lift but he then reverts back to type. To suggest I said he isn't capable of making positive changes is just silly as clearly he makes some positive changes just not enough nor does he have a go enough, surely you can see that, you don't need to defend Mick for every bit of criticism. Do you think Mick has any weaknesses or is he the messiah?? Because I think he should take more risks and be a bit more expansive doesn't mean I want us to go the other way, proper fullbacks would be nice and proper wingers, rather than 4CBs 3CMs and 1 I'm not sure wht he is (Anderson). It wasn't painfully obvious at the start of the season for you that we were lacking 4/5 quality players, I thought you thought Mick had brought in some quality players over the summer, now conveniently we lack quality players and it's not Micks fault it's ME's. Although I do agree with you on that, we're lacking at least 4/5 quality players but more so we lack variation. Mick seems to like the same type of player, players with a bit of skill and the ability to change a game or are slightly more attack minded seem to get frozen out (JET, Martin, Taylor, Hewitt, Wordsworth) in favour of grafters But in all seriousness, Mick is doing a decent job particularly with the players we have but by the same token he bought in those players and yes were tight which played a part but they're all similar type players they're generally all Mick type players, they're grafters who will put in a shift but won't do anything unpredictable. Like I said I think Mick is doing a good job here and the season has gone as expected really but I just find Mick so frustrating because I think with a little more risk and flair he could achieve alot more in the long run.
When we have a team full of quality players then yes we can afford to take risks but the obvious fact is that we currently do not have such a team! Mick is here for the long haul and it will take time to build a team. He saved us from disaster last season and now we are very much in the recovery stage. ME now has to step up to the plate and back Mick in the next couple of transfer windows because the personnel that we have are limited. We are not getting tonked week after week like we were under Keane and PJ which is a good thing! As to the players being "Frozen Out" Taylor has been out with a serious injury and is only now coming back to peak fitness, Hewitt is clearly not ready yet for the rigours of this league and Wordsworth is not good enough at this level period! Martin! Need I say any more as to his abilities! And JET imo just did not show enough to warrant being here! At the end of the day you can put lipstick on a PIG but it is still a PIG! Without some serious investment in this team we will remain where we are or worse. You can only get so much out of a limited bunch of players at your disposal and Mick has worked wonders with the bunch he has inherited. A top 10 finish this year will be a remarkable achievement BUT if Evans actually took a risk and actually backed Mick with some money then who knows what we could end up achieving!
Oh and just to add that we clearly miss Richard Stearman but as we could not or more to the point would not splash the cash on buying him this tells you all you need to know about ME and his lack of ambition!
You're right with what you say but it's a pretty ambigious answer to the point made. Do you not think Mick has been slow to change things in matches alot this season and in alot of matches we sit back rather than grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck and taking it to the opposition? When Jim took over before ME came in he used to take risks, it was great we had a team put together on a shoestring yet no matter who were the opposition we went out to try and dominate them and play an attacking/risk taking brand off football, particularly that unbeaten record at home watching town that season was a real delight, when ME came in Jim reverted to worrying about stopping the opposition playing rather than just trying to play our own game and he wasn't good at it. What I'm trying to say is you can take risks no matter what squad you've got, maybe with a few more quality players Mick might do that a bit more but I doubt he will because it's just how he is and it's what he's done at previous clubs, it's not in his DNA. And the thing is yes we have limited players but again it's what Mick does, he gets the best out of limited players but often the thing which frustrates me is he's the one who usually buys them in the first place, why can't he buy and work with more talented players, with a bit of creativity and flair, I'm sure he could!!! You're right about those players but the one's who he's replaced them with IMO are generally more limited, is Chambers really doing a better job than Hewitt could do at RB, I doubt it, chuck the lad in. Is Mings more ready for first team football than Hewitt, I don't think so, from what I've seen Hewitt has far superior potential. Are Anderson and Edwards doing better jobs on the RW than JET or Martin did, no, we all got frustrated by JET and Martin but at least in a match they looked like they could do something, I forget half the time that Edwards and Anderson are playing, they just do alot of running around and when on the ball they don't really play with much purpose. What i'm saying is Mick clearly prefers a certain type of player, for example he seems happy for Mings to come in yet the same can't be said for Hewitt, who IMO has been more impressive. I agree a top 10 finish will be a good acheivement this season but IMO that doesn't take away the frustration. But it's basically his squad now, the team which started yesterday were all his signings bar Smith and Chambers!! And I'm actually pleased with how we're running the club atm, a bit more investment would be nice but it seems we're being sensible now and investing in the academy and making sure our wages etc are in order.
I think we miss Stearman although I don't think he was ever the long term solution to our RB problem at the end of the day he was still IMO a CB doing a job at RB. I'd much rather see Mick give Hewitt a chance, I mean has Chambers actually done any better at RB? He certainly doesn't offer as much going forwards plus it broke up the very successful partnership he had with Smith. When Hewitt comes back from his loan it'd be great to see Mick give him a chance,I get the feeling that because he likes to attack a little more he's more cautious to chuck him in.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz jwm Same old excuses and as ptc pointed out, you thought messiah mick had brought in quality but now.......... Once again, you move the goalposts to make it look like you was right. At least i will occasionally admit i was wrong like the RK saga, which i was massively wrong on!!
Just because we lose a game does not mean that everything is wrong at the club or that the players are not good enough........also when we win it does not mean everything is rosy....we need some perspective and be realistic you don't go from relegation fodder to a championship winning side in a season unless you throw millions at it and i for one think it means more to build a team rather than buying one wholesale.
Very true, what me and others are a little concerned about though is 1 win in 6, in a season full of un-mick defensive fragility.
So how do you account for the fact that we still have a positive GD and have only lost one game by 2 clear goals! Yes stats can tell you anything you want to hear but a little perspective and looking at the bigger picture would actually help!
Knew you'd pick me up on that when I posted. What I meant was all the points lost from winning positions. Reading - Lost all 3 Leeds - Lost all 3 Birmingham - Lost 2 Derby - Lost 2 Sheffield Wednesday - Lost 2 Barnsley - Lost 2 Leicester - Lost 3 Thats 17 points lost from winning position. It's meant I've lost the confidence that I had last season that if we score we would probably win.
Exactly....The Foxes are not joint top by chance, as much as I felt we did throw away a point yesterday, both goals coming from breakaways with us gifting possession on the edge of their box, some do need to put it all into perspective, I include Warky in that, you are moaning that ME needs to spend some dough but to be fair to him he has spent Millions with our last two managers only to see us move backwards. He has made MM work without a bank roll and I for one can see we are making progress, although it is clearly not fast enough for some...!
Come on mate £20k spent on just one player in the Summer with the rest being freebies is exactly why we are where we are in the league. I am not the one moaning like a bitch about it as we are exactly where I thought we would be! Its all very well playing attacking football but you need the quality players in order to do it well and unfortunately we dont have enough of them! There are some on TWTD that want Mick out FFS! Oh and to say that ME has spent a lot of money with his previous managers should have nothing to do with Mick in this situation! It was Evans who appointed the duds in the first place and now we have a decent manager ME has got to back him with some cash NOW! Otherwise we will have many more seasons in this league if we are lucky!
Haven't we said since the the end of last season ME needs to open the cheque book. Mick worked a nigh on miracle and we wanted to see some new faces. No denying MM has done well with freebies and 20k spent but we need to push on,cement a top 10 place and beyond if possible. But 2 things. 1) I said earlier in thread we're not an attractive proposition anymore and 2) we don't want to bring in so many players we turn into a shambles that doesn't gel.
We spent nothing other then a couple of quid to sign Dean Hammond and he cost very little Sven like Roy Keane and Paul Jewell just signed players and tried to throw a team together Nigel Pearson recruits players that fit in with the team and have the right qualities for the club. Things take time doing things when you trying to build but you need to be patient. Look how we ended last season with 2 wins out of 17. Now have won 15 out of 19 MM is very simaliar to Nigel in the way he builds teams so you need to be patient and back him. Spending money isnt the answer as both of us have seen over the years
Loosing to Leicester is no shame at all, I'm not really complaining about the result or where we are in the league, midtable finish would be fine this season, it's just sometimes how we go about it, slightly negative tactics, no risks, too slow to change when the game clearly has turned against us, playing more defensive/solid players over ones with a bit of guile when we clearly need more of a balance to the team, Micks stubbornness.
This is true but in your case PF you spent a shed load of money in previous seasons and have kept the nucleus of that squad together! We have to build from close to scratch after wasting a fortune on ageing premiership has beens! Keane and Jewell between them have ruined our club and it will take a few seasons for Mick to build this team into anything like challenging for promotion! I am prepared to be patient but there are a fair few of my fellow supporters who are not!
