Blackie: Injuries are Not an Excuse

[SwissBlade]

Ok so 'the Star' Blackie have twisted his words a little, but has stated that we that we can't make excuses (such as injuries) - we have to get on with it.

But wait up.... wasn't it our manager who used the injuries as the excuse previously. I agreed way back in Oct/ Nov that it was a valid excuse. But now I'm confused

Note to Blackie - I'm trying to keep backing you, I really am, I'm even using the club's lack of clarity as support for you, but come on pal, give me some consistency and give me some solid sound bites. I'll have Ollesendro, Fiery and Micalijo on my back for this one

 

[Houso]

I really can't be arsed anyway.

I've never had such a malaise when it comes to United

 

[judge]

he also said we will win the champions league ,ok ive twisted his words a little he actually said ots 12.06 on thursday but good excuse to join in the boring blackwell bashing

same with basset ,same with warnock ,same with robbo the only common denominator is that the fans of this club never like the manager

 

[JohnDenver]

same with basset ,same with warnock ,same with robbo the only common denominator is that the fans of this club never like the manager

All depends on who you listen to. In the Bassett days there were letters in the Green'un from people saying they won't return until we play better football. But then Bassett was totally loved-up with the fans during the end-of-season pitch invasions...

Nowadays the nay-sayers are harder to escape - they fill the airwaves and internet.

I prefer to gauge popular opinion by how many voice dissent at the games. Currently Blackwell is doing OK on that score, but it will get nasty if we lose to Wendy and Barnsley.

 

[WorkingtonBlade]

Blackwell can't really win with this one. He could deny that injuries have had an effect this season, but (as well as being blatantly untrue) this is selling his own abilities and that of the team a bit short. It suggests we couldn't have done any better without such a bad run of injuries, and few would argue that.

On the other hand, if he talks about injuries too much, people start to say he's focusing on that instead of on other failings, or that he's making excuses.

He's trying to draw a difficult line of giving explanations rather than excuses. It's a line you hear managers all over the country trying to tread every week, and Blackwell probably strikes a similar balance to most. Warnock seemed to have the attitude that he was prepared to risk accusations of making excuses in trying to create a siege mentality ("us against the world") within the club. He therefore almost invariably blamed defeats on referees, injuries, bad luck, and anything else going. I notice Mourinho seems to take a similar approach.

Personally, I'm happy to see a manager say so when he believes there are reasons for a poor result or run. I don't want a manager who just says 'we're awful and must do better' all the time. I think the effect on moral and unity in the team is difficult to recover from.

Blackwell's overall line can basically be summarised as "we've been affected by injuries this season, but we can't just put all the blame on that - we've got to concentrate on improving" I think that's fair, and it's the basic line most managers take. I don't have a problem with it.