Huge Day for David Weir

[Harry's Game]

Today IMO is the most important day yet in David Weir's short managerial career, after three defeats on the spin we come up against a team in even worse form than us, no manager and seeming heading for relegation.

This should be a chance to pick up points and silence some of the critics, on the other hand a loss and we will probably be hearing the first (serious) calls for the managers head.

THe new regime have said they are behind Weir but we all know that sort of statement is about as water tight as a German dam after the bouncing bomb has had a go at it.

I am going for a Two Nil win... And we had better win....

 

[SwissBlade]

Tricky place where we can often struggle. With our form and theirs I can see a 0-0 or a defeat for us. Hate to say it but we've not acted this week to even bring in a short term quick fix striker

 

[Flakey]

Crisis ............................. Wot Crisis.

The only damage a defeat will do today is to the players confidence, but confidence is always only a game away.

This is still a team which is learning how to play differently........... Football.

If you want a team to pick up a few points then perhaps we should revert to kick and run.

If I can see a team that is starting to show real signs of playing, I don't care if by Christmas we are bottom of the league.

I thought most of us agreed that this would be a season of getting things right, shame that the faint-hearted are already crapping themselves

 

[SotonBlade]

Never easy against teams that have just lost their gaffer!

 

[Harry's Game]

Crisis ............................. Wot Crisis.

The only damage a defeat will do today is to the players confidence, but confidence is always only a game away.

This is still a team which is learning how to play differently........... Football.

If you want a team to pick up a few points then perhaps we should revert to kick and run.

If I can see a team that is starting to show real signs of playing, I don't care if by Christmas we are bottom of the league.

I thought most of us agreed that this would be a season of getting things right, shame that the faint-hearted are already crapping themselves

A season of "getting things right" means finishing mid table whilst building a side to challenge for promotion next season, not getting relegated to the fourth division.

If you don't care if we are bottom at Christmas then you are living on a different planet, 90% of teams who are bottom of the league at Christmas go down.

 

[Kenilworth]

If we are still bottom by Christmas we will be heading out of this division. That's for sure.
It won't get that far - not for a club this size. Something will have has to give, whether that is a compromise on style (until the playing staff can be changed wholesale) or the squad is tweaked sufficiently with the 2-3 loans we can bring in to make the system work.

I don't expect to see much change over the next 3 games given the 93 day rule for loans.
It will be the same group proving the definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result).
I fully expect a 0-0 today without us troubling their goalkeeper much if at all. The post match comments will be full of the positive platitudes of: we can take a point as we have stopped the sequence of defeats, it was always going to be a difficult place to come after they changed their manager, an away point is something we can build on, at least we are not bottom of the league, a clean sheet away from home is great (yeah, Carlisle only scored 2 goals this season).

Expect more pain, frustration and ridicule before anything improves.
I cannot see any flicker of improvement until there are major changes to the playing staff.

.

 

[Flakey]

A season of "getting things right" means finishing mid table whilst building a side to challenge for promotion next season, not getting relegated to the fourth division.

If you don't care if we are bottom at Christmas then you are living on a different planet, 90% of teams who are bottom of the league at Christmas go down.

I disagree, it wouldn't be the first time that a team in the bottom 4 at Christmas, has made the play-offs.

It seems to me that a lot of fans are entering panic mode and are just making things worse by slagging off both the players and manager.

 

[Kev Gee]

I disagree, it wouldn't be the first time that a team in the bottom 4 at Christmas, has made the play-offs.

It seems to me that a lot of fans are entering panic mode and are just making things worse by slagging off both the players and manager.

Were good at Play Offs aint we?
I believe this season should be wrote off now to stop any excitement of promotion. But i dont expect Weir to still be at the club if we are around the bottom 5 after xmas.

 

[Pinchy]

Tricky place where we can often struggle. With our form and theirs I can see a 0-0 or a defeat for us. Hate to say it but we've not acted this week to even bring in a short term quick fix striker

I suspect we're after 'loan followed by permanent' deals (Clarke and Wilson would transform our fortunes instantly). If so, it makes sense to wait until we're within the 93 days. We only have to play two more matches, including today, I think.

 

[Darren]

I disagree, it wouldn't be the first time that a team in the bottom 4 at Christmas, has made the play-offs.

It seems to me that a lot of fans are entering panic mode and are just making things worse by slagging off both the players and manager.

To be fair Weir's start has plumbed the depths only reached in the starts to the managerial careers of Jimmy Sirrel and Micky Adams - and at least they had the excuse that they were playing in the top two divisions and inherited struggling sides. Weir inherited a side that had reached the play offs and was playing in the 3rd division. He also had a massive amount of optimism and good will following his appointment. Given that, there is a strong case to be made that he has had the worst start of any manager in SUFC's history.

In bald stats, the worst first 6 games of SUFC managers are as follows (3 points for a win assumed in each case for ease of comparism):

1. Adams P6 W0 D2 L4 F4 A12 pts 2
2. Sirrel P6 W0 D2 L4 F7 A13 pts 2
3. Weir P6 W1 D1 L4 F5 A11 pts 4
4. Mercer P6 W1 D1 L4 F7 A12 pts 4
5. Kendall P6 W0 D5 L1 F6 A7 pts 5
6. Haslam P6 W2 Do L4 F9 A11 pts 6

Even Peters and Heath started off better than Weir (even though some might say Peters and Lee would have been better managers).

Weir may indeed turn it around. I hope he does. But the signs do not look good. Adams, Sirrel and Mercer all presided over relegations in their first season and Haslam managed it in his second. Kendall may look the exception, but he only lost one game in his first 6 and he beat Arsenal in the cup in the midst of those games rather than losing to Burton Albion.

 

[oldblade]

To be fair Weir's start has plumbed the depths only reached in the starts to the managerial careers of Jimmy Sirrel and Micky Adams - and at least they had the excuse that they were playing in the top two divisions and inherited struggling sides. Weir inherited a side that had reached the play offs and was playing in the 3rd division. He also had a massive amount of optimism and good will following his appointment. Given that, there is a strong case to be made that he has had the worst start of any manager in SUFC's history.

In bald stats, the worst first 6 games of SUFC managers are as follows (3 points for a win assumed in each case for ease of comparism):

1. Adams P6 W0 D2 L4 F4 A12 pts 2
2. Sirrel P6 W0 D2 L4 F7 A13 pts 2
3. Weir P6 W1 D1 L4 F5 A11 pts 4
4. Mercer P6 W1 D1 L4 F7 A12 pts 4
5. Kendall P6 W0 D5 L1 F6 A7 pts 5
6. Haslam P6 W2 Do L4 F9 A11 pts 6

Even Peters and Heath started off better than Weir (even though some might say Peters and Lee would have been better managers).

Weir may indeed turn it around. I hope he does. But the signs do not look good. Adams, Sirrel and Mercer all presided over relegations in their first season and Haslam managed it in his second. Kendall may look the exception, but he only lost one game in his first 6 and he beat Arsenal in the cup in the midst of those games rather than losing to Burton Albion.

And we were playing quite well during those early games under Kendall. I think the one defeat during those 6 games was at Luton, and most reporters said we should have won.

 

[Superblades]

If I can see a team that is starting to show real signs of playing, I don't care if by Christmas we are bottom of the league.

I think you're on your own on that one!

 

[Darren]

And we were playing quite well during those early games under Kendall. I think the one defeat during those 6 games was at Luton, and most reporters said we should have won.

Yep. Kendall's first 6 league games were:

16/12/95 Ipswich A D1-1
23/12/95 Stoke A D2-2
26/12/95 Bimingham H D1-1
13/1/96 Tranmere A D1-1
20/1/96 Watford H D1-1
31/1/96 Luton A L0-1

After that our record to the end of the season was P19 W11 D6 L2 pts 39 - automatic promotion form.

 

[Silent Blade]

I think you're on your own on that one!

No, Pinchy is another one!

 

[oldblade]

Crisis ............................. Wot Crisis.

The only damage a defeat will do today is to the players confidence, but confidence is always only a game away.

This is still a team which is learning how to play differently........... Football.

If you want a team to pick up a few points then perhaps we should revert to kick and run.

If I can see a team that is starting to show real signs of playing, I don't care if by Christmas we are bottom of the league.

I thought most of us agreed that this would be a season of getting things right, shame that the faint-hearted are already crapping themselves

I think all of us would like to see us playing good football, but not at all cost. Relegation to the fourth division (or indeed fighting against relegation all season) is too high a price to pay. We either have to modify the way we play or buy a new team, or do a combination of the two.

 

[Lampiao]

Defeat today would be bad - defeat next week a disaster! We then follow that with an away at Wolves - on form shown last week we can easily do that. The passing style I have seen so far is very predictable, slow and has no end product - I am immensely disappointed.

 

[Lampiao]

I like Weirs comments on BBC Radio Sheffield - "It's been a seamless transition to get the boys playing the way we want them to. We're a long way from the finished article but we've made good strides and we're going in the right direction"

It's hardly been seamless and the only direction at moment is downwards

 

[Revolution]

And we were playing quite well during those early games under Kendall. I think the one defeat during those 6 games was at Luton, and most reporters said we should have won.

We deserved all we got at Luton, as we passed, passed and passed all night and never took the trouble to actually have a shot on goal, but we were more penetrative in other games and there were definitely positive signs, which are almost non-existent now.

 

[BladeFisher]

Crisis ............................. Wot Crisis.

The only damage a defeat will do today is to the players confidence, but confidence is always only a game away.

This is still a team which is learning how to play differently........... Football.

If you want a team to pick up a few points then perhaps we should revert to kick and run.

If I can see a team that is starting to show real signs of playing, I don't care if by Christmas we are bottom of the league.

I thought most of us agreed that this would be a season of getting things right, shame that the faint-hearted are already crapping themselves

I don't think a trip to League 2 is a price worth paying.

 

[shorehamview]

Hopefully it's the day he gets the sack.