Baldock on Jokanovic

[LewishamBlade]

Interesting take.

“I've not got a bad word to say about him. He was really good, really professional and he obviously knows his stuff. He's a very well-respected manager. But I've been at Sheffield United for five seasons and I know what the fans expect. They like their good football, but they also like fast, aggressive football with pressing and physicality and we just came away from that and we lost our identity a little bit. Who knows, if he had persisted it may have been successful in the end."

Yep. That last sentence is key to me. He’s got a track record of getting teams promoted when he’s backed and trusted, and gives you incredible football to watch while doing it.

Shame our players are a bit too dim to play anything but 5 at the back. Was a chance to change the whole culture of the club for the future. But nooooo… KICK IT FORRARD!! GERRITINT BOX!!! WHAT THA PASSING IT RARNDT DEFENCE FUAR!! HAVE A BASTUD SHOT WILL THA!!

 

[BettingBlade]

Slav wasn’t the right fit at the time, not because he isnt a very good manager, but because he needed funds to build a squad. Funds that we simply dont have.

That is on the board, if they werent prepared to back Slav then they should have just given it Hecky. I cant believe how much money we wasted on hiring Slav then sacking him just to take us back to where we were at the end of last season.

For as long as I’ve watched United whenever we’ve tried to change the philosophy its lasted less than a season and we’ve reverted back to type.

If anything, this season has proved more than ever that we have a squad full to the brim of round pegs round hole footballers and in fairness to Hecky, he is severely limited to what he can do to change the shape of a game if plan a is failing because of this.

 

[Bladesman]

Interesting take.

“I've not got a bad word to say about him. He was really good, really professional and he obviously knows his stuff. He's a very well-respected manager. But I've been at Sheffield United for five seasons and I know what the fans expect. They like their good football, but they also like fast, aggressive football with pressing and physicality and we just came away from that and we lost our identity a little bit. Who knows, if he had persisted it may have been successful in the end."

Yep. That last sentence is key to me. He’s got a track record of getting teams promoted when he’s backed and trusted, and gives you incredible football to watch while doing it.

Shame our players are a bit too dim to play anything but 5 at the back. Was a chance to change the whole culture of the club for the future. But nooooo… KICK IT FORRARD!! GERRITINT BOX!!! WHAT THA PASSING IT RARNDT DEFENCE FUAR!! HAVE A BASTUD SHOT WILL THA!!

Slav needed the players to adapt the formation and we couldn't get him those players. So we had to go back as before in end.

 

[Balham]

We had a squad built by Wilder over the course of 8 transfer windows which ended up tailored specifically to the needs of a 3-5-2 / 3-4-1-2 formation. Allied to that were the significant contracts given to aging players whose worth in that system is greater than their worth in other systems.

In short, we have:

• no centre halves comfortable in a two
• no central midfielders who can play a box-to-box role in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1
• no wingers, with the possible exception of Jayden Bogle who could play right of an attacking three

It'll take another 2-3 transfer windows to give us the flexibility to pay a back four rather than the back 3/5 we have at the moment, unless we take the nuclear option and sell Baldock and Egan.

 

[LewishamBlade]

We had a squad built by Wilder over the course of 8 transfer windows which ended up tailored specifically to the needs of a 3-5-2 / 3-4-1-2 formation. Allied to that were the significant contracts given to aging players whose worth in that system is greater than their worth in other systems.

In short, we have:

• no centre halves comfortable in a two
• no central midfielders who can play a box-to-box role in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1
• no wingers, with the possible exception of Jayden Bogle who could play right of an attacking three

It'll take another 2-3 transfer windows to give us the flexibility to pay a back four rather than the back 3/5 we have at the moment, unless we take the nuclear option and sell Baldock and Egan.

I agree, which makes it mental to give a manager like that one transfer window, no?

 

[Bladesman]

I agree, which makes it mental to give a manager like that one transfer window, no?

As soon as we missed out on the wingers during the transfer window the writing was on the wall that he would struggle.

 

[knowsnowt]

Interesting take.

“I've not got a bad word to say about him. He was really good, really professional and he obviously knows his stuff. He's a very well-respected manager. But I've been at Sheffield United for five seasons and I know what the fans expect. They like their good football, but they also like fast, aggressive football with pressing and physicality and we just came away from that and we lost our identity a little bit. Who knows, if he had persisted it may have been successful in the end."

Yep. That last sentence is key to me. He’s got a track record of getting teams promoted when he’s backed and trusted, and gives you incredible football to watch while doing it.

Shame our players are a bit too dim to play anything but 5 at the back. Was a chance to change the whole culture of the club for the future. But nooooo… KICK IT FORRARD!! GERRITINT BOX!!! WHAT THA PASSING IT RARNDT DEFENCE FUAR!! HAVE A BASTUD SHOT WILL THA!!

Slagging the players and the fans.
Awesome mate.

 

[Balham]

I agree, which makes it mental to give a manager like that one transfer window, no?

One transfer window with no funds and "not for sale" signs on the players you'd want to sell raise funds to evolve the squad (Egan and Baldock). I get the release clause price on Berge and I get the sale of Ramsdale - at £24/30m we raised about 50% of what other relegated sides have recently which means we're solvent this season.

We should have sold Egan for £7-12m depending on interest, using some of that income to sign Rob Atkinson (moved to Bristol City for £1-£1.5m in the summer and would have solved the LCB problem) and Levi Colwill on loan. Centre backs sorted, flexibility to play a back 4 gained.

 

[JackSUFC]

Jokanovic is a good manager with a good track record. I was excited by his appointment but it soon became clear it was the wrong fit for all parties.

If he was going to succeed here, he needed significant backing that he was never going to get. The players looked uncomfortable playing his style and he didn’t appear to ever know his best team. A lack of pre-season and poor summer transfer window didn’t help.

Not sure if it’s his natural demeanour but he seemed unhappy with us from the start. Probably realised what he’d taken on.

 

[LewishamBlade]

One transfer window with no funds and "not for sale" signs on the players you'd want to sell raise funds to evolve the squad (Egan and Baldock). I get the release clause price on Berge and I get the sale of Ramsdale - at £24/30m we raised about 50% of what other relegated sides have recently which means we're solvent this season.

We should have sold Egan for £7-12m depending on interest, using some of that income to sign Rob Atkinson (moved to Bristol City for £1-£1.5m in the summer and would have solved the LCB problem) and Levi Colwill on loan. Centre backs sorted, flexibility to play a back 4 gained.

There’s plenty of good centre halves in League 1 we could’ve had and still could this season, there’s still some good ones. Rob Dickie would’ve been ideal for us, we’ll see him tomorrow but probably at right back because their right back is injured.

It annoys me every time I think what might’ve been, what a wasted opportunity.

 

[knowsnowt]

And?

Some of our players aren’t capable of playing any other way and look lost if they’re not told how to play for 90 mins with instructions.
We do have some absolute thick cunt fans. Lots of them.

Problem?

No real need for me to reply.
Youve laid it out so well there.

 

[Captain2]

Square peg in round hole, an appointment that was destined to fail and did!
Like a manager to show a bit of passion, Slav never did.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Interesting take.

“I've not got a bad word to say about him. He was really good, really professional and he obviously knows his stuff. He's a very well-respected manager. But I've been at Sheffield United for five seasons and I know what the fans expect. They like their good football, but they also like fast, aggressive football with pressing and physicality and we just came away from that and we lost our identity a little bit. Who knows, if he had persisted it may have been successful in the end."

Yep. That last sentence is key to me. He’s got a track record of getting teams promoted when he’s backed and trusted, and gives you incredible football to watch while doing it.

Shame our players are a bit too dim to play anything but 5 at the back. Was a chance to change the whole culture of the club for the future. But nooooo… KICK IT FORRARD!! GERRITINT BOX!!! WHAT THA PASSING IT RARNDT DEFENCE FUAR!! HAVE A BASTUD SHOT WILL THA!!

!Don't think any Blade will disagree with you over the technical side of him but
Professional? I'm not so sure.
He inherited a squad put together to play 3/5 at the back.Like you I like quality football with the players who are equipt to play that way.That squad wasn't without drafting in a fair few players with more technical ability.Not only short of players to play his way! We had almost a none existent pre season,no real warm up games to bed a new way of playing.
The penny didn't drop until we were a third way through the season his last 2 games won us 4 points, reverting to a familiar way of playing!
The prince when he got the job did say " we will continue to play 3/5 at the back " that must have annoyed the prince .
For me he committed professional suicide and if not sacked could possibly have taken us down.
Brian Robson situation all over again,if you remember ( he did have money to buy players ) Blackwell came in and almost took us into the play offs.
History repeating itself hopefully with a better end than that one.
Come on Blades!!!

 

[SwissBlade]

Interesting take.

“I've not got a bad word to say about him. He was really good, really professional and he obviously knows his stuff. He's a very well-respected manager. But I've been at Sheffield United for five seasons and I know what the fans expect. They like their good football, but they also like fast, aggressive football with pressing and physicality and we just came away from that and we lost our identity a little bit. Who knows, if he had persisted it may have been successful in the end."

Yep. That last sentence is key to me. He’s got a track record of getting teams promoted when he’s backed and trusted, and gives you incredible football to watch while doing it.

Shame our players are a bit too dim to play anything but 5 at the back. Was a chance to change the whole culture of the club for the future. But nooooo… KICK IT FORRARD!! GERRITINT BOX!!! WHAT THA PASSING IT RARNDT DEFENCE FUAR!! HAVE A BASTUD SHOT WILL THA!!

If you take a simplistic view, then sure, you can find a way to blame someone to suit the story you want to tell. And that’s very nice, but it wasn’t as simple as our fans want a type of football and nothing else. Or that the players were too dim to play another way.

However, that would also ignore many factors.

The fans on the whole were begrudgingly accepting of what Slav was trying to do. We knew that it was going to take time to bring the players in to suit his style.

The players were all suited to our style of play, overlapping centre halves bombing on was our Wilder identity and you could argue that Slav should’ve started with this style rather than changing too much too soon. The players aren’t too dim, but for many reasons they’re not ideally suited to play the flat back four that Slav wanted. Just like we didn’t have the winters in the club to play that way too.

The owners didn’t buy into the Slav way. They didn’t move the players on that definitely didn’t work for him. They should’ve been trading players in and out all summer to make it work. They didn’t.

I think the biggest failing from the owners was that they thought they knew what they were doing, thought it would be easy and their only thought was anti-wilder. They overlooked Hecky and went with Slav.

Slav, as others have said is a good manager at this level and with the right backing would’ve changed the way we viewed the game. Bud he didn’t get any of that.

The key thing in that Baldock quote is not the last sentence, but the way he gets the current expectation levels of the fans, because the owners don’t or didn’t get it.

 

[CPB]

Slavisa is a good manager especially at this level but without the tools he was going to struggle.
He's not used to playing the way this squad has been set up for, and wanted to do it his way.
Towards the end of his tenure you could see he was reverting us back to 3-5-2 because he didn't have the players at his disposal and the performances weren't coming.
He also wanted to make more signings in January whereas the board did not want this.

His main issue was that he was never allowed any wingers or wide attacking players aside from MGW.
The squad was and still is largely set up to play with wingbacks. I have no doubt that the players are capable of playing differently and in back fours and the like.
But it was clear SJ wanted more in midfield in terms of signings.

Had SJ been given this then maybe we would have seen him succeed. I would think eventually he would line up with 4 at the back, 3 in the middle and 3 forwards or 1 striker two wingers. Thing is you can't also just rely on 1 winger for each side you need back up.

This is why we saw Brewster and McGoldrick play wider than you'd expect.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

That system wasn't going to work with this squad.

We could have persevered and persevered, but ultimately we don't have the tools to play with 4 at the back. We dominated the ball in a lot of games, at times we looked quite impressive going forward (even if it did lack cutting edge).
But when you're starting at a handicap of -1 every game it's really difficult to pick up enough points to mount a proper challenge.

Slav should have been more flexible, realised the above sooner and adapted. I'm pretty sure his style of play could have been tweaked for a 3 man defence.

 

[Harry's Game]

Slavs sides have always depended on players with pace to be successful, we didn’t have any and there was no more money to go and get any.

It looks more and more like the appointment of Slav was a con to sell season tickets last summer and we discarded him as soon as it was polite to do so.

If we had had the money Bournemouth have had to spend I think Slav could have made a success of his time here over the next few seasons but that was never going to be the case.

 

[MobileBlade]

Surely a good manager if you haven't got the players to play the way you wish to play you adapt to suit the strengths you have got. Not try to make something work when it blatently is not. I was pleased with Slav when we got him but it was clear after a handful of games he needed to change his own tactics to suit what we had got.

 

[Broomhall Blade]

Interesting take.

“I've not got a bad word to say about him. He was really good, really professional and he obviously knows his stuff. He's a very well-respected manager. But I've been at Sheffield United for five seasons and I know what the fans expect. They like their good football, but they also like fast, aggressive football with pressing and physicality and we just came away from that and we lost our identity a little bit. Who knows, if he had persisted it may have been successful in the end."

Yep. That last sentence is key to me. He’s got a track record of getting teams promoted when he’s backed and trusted, and gives you incredible football to watch while doing it.

Shame our players are a bit too dim to play anything but 5 at the back. Was a chance to change the whole culture of the club for the future. But nooooo… KICK IT FORRARD!! GERRITINT BOX!!! WHAT THA PASSING IT RARNDT DEFENCE FUAR!! HAVE A BASTUD SHOT WILL THA!!

Excellent post.
You forgot one thing
our fans couldn't understand him.

 

[Ravoblades]

Can't argue with most of what's been written, one question however why waste the money we did on Olsen when he had a top class GJK under his nose.

 

[brownblade]

I feel like I've gone back in time 5 months.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Think Baldock needs to concentrate on his own game before commenting on the performance of others.

 

[LewishamBlade]

Think Baldock needs to concentrate on his own game before commenting on the performance of others.

I agree he’s not been great but I don’t see what he’s said that’s wrong?

 

[LewishamBlade]

Surely a good manager if you haven't got the players to play the way you wish to play you adapt to suit the strengths you have got. Not try to make something work when it blatently is not. I was pleased with Slav when we got him but it was clear after a handful of games he needed to change his own tactics to suit what we had got.

Not necessarily. Look at City’s first season under Guardiola. They were poor and finished what, 4th? No cups. Rubbish for their expectations.

 

[LewishamBlade]

Reoccurring theme people saying he ‘should have adapted’ - why?

Do you see Guardiola and Klopp changing the way they play?

 

[Hillsboro Blade]

Patience has never been a virtue with United fans. Not a criticism, just a fact. I would have been happy with Slav staying, you could tell it was a two season job to change the style. But with the present board being as tight as a ducks arse he was never going to get the funds to change the style and personel.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Yes - to be fair he just needed 3 transfer windows -

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

You remind me of a stamp collector but one who fucking hates stamps.

 

[LewishamBlade]

You remind me of a stamp collector but one who fucking hates stamps.

Or a football fan who likes good football rather than trying to go with the same old tired, stalling methods?

You do know, you can have an opinion don’t you? Try it some time

 

[Swannyblade]

Shame our players are a bit too dim to play anything but 5 at the back. Was a chance to change the whole culture of the club for the future. But nooooo… KICK IT FORRARD!! GERRITINT BOX!!! WHAT THA PASSING IT RARNDT DEFENCE FUAR!! HAVE A BASTUD SHOT WILL THA!!

Is that the same simple 5 at the back system that was lauded by the footballing world for its innovation and led us from the bottom of League 1 to 9th in the Premier League? It's no wonder everyone else has copied else has copied it and achieved similar results...real basic stuff