Heckingbottom/Wilder

[originaltrueblade]

Always have to preface my views on managers by saying:

I thought Weir would come good.
I thought Adkins was a fantastic appointment.
I thought Wilder was one of the worst choices we'd ever made.
I thought Jokanovic would play exciting football and, at worst, be entertaining.
My track record of managerial predictions has been god awful.

With that said, I didn't want Heckingbottom and I still have my doubts. While it's not easy to turn a team around when they've been shot of confidence for over a season he has inherited a squad that was backed to waltz this division. In terms of managerial decisions so far...not sure he's had to do much. He's gone back to a system the players knew and he's got them to care less about possession and more about the tempo. It's working a charm but it's mostly back to what we were doing under Wilder with the exception of crossing it earlier. He hasn't made any signings yet to judge him on aside from Goode on loan and a reserve keeper. Again, that's not a mark against him but it's not one for him either.

Results wise, no one could realistically have asked for better from any manager. Entertainment wise, we've had a couple of scruffy games but the football we're playing is, to me at least, exciting to watch. We're creating chances and the quality of some of our goals of late has been outrageous - we're scoring teams goals again, we're hitting teams hard by winning the ball high up the pitch, we're getting it into the box quickly and with purpose. Can't fault him at all on that front.

So I might be the worst type of cynic for saying that I don't know if he's done much yet other than revert to a system another manager laid out the groundwork for. There'll be a lot of questions depending on how this season pans out and when we have a turnover of players in the Summer and he has to start building his own squad.

What I will say is that so far he's absolutely smashed expectations where it counts. The results have been phenomenal and he's got me looking forward to every game again. That last part being the big one for me. I'm alright with Championship football so long as we're a team that wants to play this way.

Comparing him to Wilder, I don't think that fair yet. Wilder put together a side of his own players. He brought in the likes of JOC, Fleck, Moore and so on to get us up. We haven't seen Heckingbottom put his own squad together. In terms of system, Heckingbottom is doing a bit of a copycat job. There's his own hallmarks (the early crossing, shooting more from range) but it's not the same as bringing in a new system entirely with innovative roles like attacking centre halves.

I don't know where Heckingbottom will take us. For now I'll just praise him in saying he's bought himself time and a lot of good faith from people like me who had written him off. Hopefully I can add him to list of awful predictions I've made.

Too long a read gave up halfway and went fishing

 

[Bennyand the Blades]

Hecky's got to be the right choice really.
He's managed before,
He's been training the youngster to play the Wilder way, so he'll know which one's are ready for a first team chance and which are not.
And if we are building for the future he should also know quite a bit about who would be worth taking a punt on that are playing in other teams second string .
Yes their is a lot of similarity to last time with Blackwell..

 

[bonobo]

It's too early to compare. But, I think it would be a simple, but reasonable contrast to see Wilder as a manager whose virtue is to get the best of players and Heckingbottom, one whom improves them.

 

[Agreasychipbutty]

As many have said, it's far too early to realistically compare, but for what we've seen so far in this recent fantastic run the key thing hecky has brough back is the holy grail "passion", and it's really what's conviced me that he's a very good apointment (albeit very lucky on the boards part imo but that's another story). For me hecky has brought back the feeling of a team co-operating as part of a system to be greater than the sum of it's parts. Yes we spunked a shit load of money since wilder dragged us out of league 1 and through the championship, but looking at our best 11 now the majority are still those "overperforming" championship players, and hecky has got them going again. Personally I prefer his 3-4-3, more attacking, early balls into the box style of play which is very remincent of the wilderball that got us to the prem. Only time will tell if his tactics will work consistently against the top clubs of the championship (It's far too early to talk even hypothetically about the prem) and if he keeps it up for a few seasons we will see if he has a good eye for transfers, to my mind being part of the U23s for so long will give him a good eye for unlockable talent but who knows. For now I'm just glad to have a great man manager whos got the team spirit up, got us playing nice attacking football and has me genuinely looking forward to every game. I've missed the feeling that we can beat anyone on our day, and for me it's back (at least for now).

UTB

 

[PokerBlade]

Too long a read gave up halfway and went fishing

I'm very sorry if my post didn't live up to your high expectations. Please forward any and all inquiries to my customer service department for a full refund.

 

[originaltrueblade]

I'm very sorry if my post didn't live up to your high expectations. Please forward any and all inquiries to my customer service department for a full refund.

I will send you some of the fish I caught…bit smelly know though

 

[guancheblade]

I think Hecky is more hands on in the training. I can’t recall seeing Wilder say much or get involved with keep ball etc during the training videos we see.

But we never got bombarded with training videos including Wilder so you're just completely guessing. Maybe he was just as hands on or even more so. Club never showed us so we will never know.