If we stil had blackwell

[davidpinder]

Do you think we would be bottom 3 and virtually down?? it pains me to say it and i wasn't a blackwell fan but i think we would be at least mid table. I am not saying he shouldn't have been sacked but looking at things now, and who put in charge we may have well left him in charge, the football hasn't changed much but the results and heart has.

 

[super_pig]

probably not.. but we'd have gone down next year instead

 

[muttsnuts]

probably not.. but we'd have gone down next year instead

Would you happen to know the lottery numbers for tomorrow night as well please?

 

[super_pig]

based upon his previous history with leeds and luton i'd say that was a fair comment actually

 

[sheffielder]

Due to Blackwell's inability to sign players who can stay fit (Henderson, France, Jordan etc it was just a matter of time. The team was just held together by loans while he blew the majority of money on just a few players.

 

[DronnieBlade]

It is a conundrum this one.

The biggest part of me says we are well rid of KB and that we must look in to the reasons why he has not had as much as a sniff of a job opportunity in 8 long months when there have been plentiful opportunities out there to be had.

Unfortunately, in my eyes Adams is little more than a Blackwell mark II and has similar, antiquated views on how to set out a football team.

Football has evolved and is evolving. We have stood still and thus, in effect, have gone backwards.

Case in point, Mr Warnock - for a long time regarded as the hoofmeister general. Neil is now older, wiser and has in no uncertain terms "seen the light". So has Ian Holloway.

A seed change is required at our club, and quickly IMHO.

UTB.

 

[super_pig]

when blackwell took over my mate who is a leeds fan said 'he'll do well at first until he gets his own signings in who he will fall out with on a regular basis and then you'll go all defensive so that you don't lose with 'his' players.. the team will get individually worse past every transfer window and the overall performance will suffer until the fans will have had enough of him and he will leave, leaving you a pile of dross... did i mention the injury list?'.. he was the same one who texted me from australlia 'collins.. ffs!'

 

[DronnieBlade]

when blackwell took over my mate who is a leeds fan said 'he'll do well at first until he gets his own signings in who he will fall out with on a regular basis and then you'll go all defensive so that you don't lose with 'his' players.. the team will get individually worse past every transfer window and the overall performance will suffer until the fans will have had enough of him and he will leave, leaving you a pile of dross... did i mention the injury list?'.. he was the same one who texted me from australlia 'collins.. ffs!'

And that really is the top and bottom of it.

 

[SteelCity Blade]

No. I reckon we wouldnt be in the bottom three. Not because KB is a much better manager than the others we've had (I'm not saying he's worse either), just because we would have had more stability and kept the same team together. We would have been bottom half I expect, but with continuity we would have probably accumulated enough points to have the situation safely in our hands by now.

Having said all that, its retrospective. At the time I thought it was the right decision made too late. In one sense I was wrong, but when you look at where we are now I was spot on in regard to the latter (the fact that it came too late) because it put a fracture right through our season that we havent been able to repair.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

No. I reckon we wouldnt be in the bottom three. Not because KB is a much better manager than the others we've had

Would Adams or Speed have got a draw away at Cardiff, while playing with ten men for an hour?

 

[broomhillblade]

Unfortunately, in my eyes Adams is little more than a Blackwell mark II and has similar, antiquated views on how to set out a football team.

Unless my memory is playing tricks, KB favoured a 4-5-1 line up. Adams favours 4-3-3

 

[Grecian2000]

There's a good reason why you'll never see that question on Mastermind (unless thay have Mastermind in the parallel universe where that question can actually be answered of course). Who would the presenter be though, Norman Wisdom or Bernard Manning?

 

[beechblade]

Would Adams or Speed have got a draw away at Cardiff, while playing with ten men for an hour?

Impossible to say! Would Blackwell have beat a Forest team that gets it men behind the ball. On previous outings he has failed to. The same game situation never happens twice, it maybe a similar type of situation but there will always be some element that will change.

I can't say whether we'd be better off, as Steel said there would have been more stability but would Blackwell have made the signings of Reid like Speed did or Riise and Lowry like Adams has, we could have possibly seen more signings like Collins, Doyle, after all he brought in Britton, he failed to the job of being midfield maestro, and Nosworthy that barring the odd game has been at the forefront of the worst defensive errors ever, and he also brought in Simmo, who despite a decent loan spell at the end of last year, this year he has cost us far more points than he has saved us. He's also the manager who failed to get in a permanent CB in alongside Morgan or Bartley for this season, especially when we had the injury crisis of last season, you'd have thought he'd have learnt from his previous mistakes. But he never did. (However I can't be sure if he tried to or not or if moves were blocked by our board.)

 

[Muttley]

I don't believe Blackwell would have done much better. The funds available would have been very similar, our best assets still sold on. However, we may well have been spared Collins.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Would Adams or Speed have got a draw away at Cardiff, while playing with ten men for an hour?

I can't say whether we'd be better off, as Steel said there would have been more stability but would Blackwell have made the signings of Reid like Speed did or Riise and Lowry like Adams has, we could have possibly seen more signings like Collins, Doyle, after all he brought in Britton, he failed to the job of being midfield maestro, and Nosworthy that barring the odd game has been at the forefront of the worst defensive errors ever, and he also brought in Simmo, who despite a decent loan spell at the end of last year, this year he has cost us far more points than he has saved us. He's also the manager who failed to get in a permanent CB in alongside Morgan or Bartley for this season, especially when we had the injury crisis of last season, you'd have thought he'd have learnt from his previous mistakes. But he never did. (However I can't be sure if he tried to or not or if moves were blocked by our board.)

Blackwell started the season with Bartley and Morgan as first choice centre backs, with Ertl, Lowton and Nosworthy as other options. I'm not sure how he can be criticised for failing to have sufficient cover at Centre Back.

Britton only played twice for Blackwell, who employed him in a creative, attacking role from where he laid on Evans goal against Cardiff. I don't see how he can be blamed for him failing when Speed played him in front of the back four. Simonsen and Creswell both played their best football for us under Blackwell. Maybe he knew how to get the best out of them?

We all agree that there were obvious gaps in the squad left by Blackwell but there were still 14 days left in the transfer window when he was sacked. He wasn't even given the chance to fill the gaps he's now being blamed for.

 

[Pinchy]

It is a conundrum this one.

The biggest part of me says we are well rid of KB and that we must look in to the reasons why he has not had as much as a sniff of a job opportunity in 8 long months when there have been plentiful opportunities out there to be had.

Unfortunately, in my eyes Adams is little more than a Blackwell mark II and has similar, antiquated views on how to set out a football team.

Football has evolved and is evolving. We have stood still and thus, in effect, have gone backwards.

Case in point, Mr Warnock - for a long time regarded as the hoofmeister general. Neil is now older, wiser and has in no uncertain terms "seen the light". So has Ian Holloway.

A seed change is required at our club, and quickly IMHO.

UTB.

Very well put.

Just one [polite] alteration: The profound transformation that is certainly, as you say, required is a 'sea - change' -

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

Wm. Shakespeare
The Tempest [How very appropriate]

 

[Ted Danson]

It is a conundrum this one.

The biggest part of me says we are well rid of KB and that we must look in to the reasons why he has not had as much as a sniff of a job opportunity in 8 long months when there have been plentiful opportunities out there to be had.

Unfortunately, in my eyes Adams is little more than a Blackwell mark II and has similar, antiquated views on how to set out a football team.

Football has evolved and is evolving. We have stood still and thus, in effect, have gone backwards.

Case in point, Mr Warnock - for a long time regarded as the hoofmeister general. Neil is now older, wiser and has in no uncertain terms "seen the light". So has Ian Holloway.

A seed change is required at our club, and quickly IMHO.

UTB.

I think Warnock inherited a team of hoofers and so played to their strengths, when he was given some money to spend and started to get his players in, the style of football improved. The thing that Niel does best is that he can get the most out of what he has

 

[SheepdipBlade]

If KB was still with us there would have been blood on the terraces by now. The level of hysteria around him at the start of the season made his position totally untenable and the only way he could have weathered the storm was by having us nailed into the promotion places all season long - never an option given the financial realities we face.

The most positive thing about KB leaving is that most fans can now see the problems lie at a deeper level - and not everything is the manager's fault. Even Dave Bassett or St Neil couldn't make a silk purse out of the pigs ear we now have at the Lane.

 

[oldblade]

Would Adams or Speed have got a draw away at Cardiff, while playing with ten men for an hour?

I don't think we know that any more than we know whether or not Blackwell would have got a draw at Forest or a win at Millwall.

Personally I think we would have still struggled under Blackwell because the squad is poor and was poor before the various managerial changes. However, I do think our position might not have been so dire had he stayed, because he seemed to have a knack of grinding out some good wins even when we were playing badly.

But I also think we would be in better shape had Speed remained. Our results under him were not good, but every time that it seemed we would drop into real trouble, we kept managing to pull off a couple of good results to keep us afloat.

 

[sitwell]

If Blackwell was here I would be Micallgio ,Lenners, Pinchy and a Sheffield United heart attack all rolled into one. That bastard is 90% responsible for the state our club is in.

 

[DronnieBlade]

Unless my memory is playing tricks, KB favoured a 4-5-1 line up. Adams favours 4-3-3

4:5:1
4:3:3

The difference is subtle. It means that both managers favour a beast of a number 9 who is supposed to "Lead" the line as the focal point of the attack, often with long balls aimed at the target for him to control and lay off to advancing (normally midfield) players.

Maybe its as simple as that !

My point is that this system, having been very popular 10-20 years ago is slowly but surely dying a slow and painful death while we continue to persevere with it.

Just my opinion but I think we should take a long hard look at our method and perhaps even tap in to the thinking in to what our Academy philosophy is in developing younger talent which is, I have on good authority, fundamentally different to how we send out our 1st team squad.

UTB

 

[SwissBlade]

We often asked last season what people like Sam Ellis did, we all questioned why Blackwell persisted with 4-5-1 and then why he always changed his side to suit the opposition, well I think last night was a very painful way of proving a point.

I wanted Blackwell removed at the end of last season because I didn't think he could take us forward anymore, but once the powers that be granted him a stay of execution, I felt that we had no option but to then work with him for this season. Looking at the QPR game back in August and the one last night, what were the differences?

For a start, in August QPR were almost an unknown quantity and they carved us apart with at least 2 goals on the break, but we set ourselves up 4-4-2 and if memory serves me right we looked more likely to score when they hit us, but we had some heart, it was early season and the players were fresher.

The differences last night were that we knew what to expect, we set ourselves up in what appeared to be an attacking formation, but allowed ourselves to get put on the back foot too quickly. As it happened the first goal came in very similar circumstances to back in August. We were attacking, got hit on the break and 1-0. The balance of play before the goal was massively in QPR's favour last night.

I think Micky is a better manager than what he's showing at the moment. Blackwell is certainly a more cautious and perhaps realistic manager in terms of the capabilities of his playing staff. Micky seems to put too much faith in his players to perform, whereas Blackwell just expected them to fail and prepared for that.

If we learn one thing from the Blackwell sacking, then for me its 'back him'. Looking back now the board soon distanced themselves from Blackwell after giving him the pep talk he needed to keep him in the job after the play off final defeat. There were calls all the way through last season from a minority of fans which grew as the season went on. What the club should've done is backed him, not with cash. He was their fall guy, but back him with strong words.

Right now, we're heading down the same road, Micky is isolated and gets no public support. I'm not a big one for hearing from the board, in fact I don't like it. But on this occasion it needs it.

 

[beechblade]

Blackwell started the season with Bartley and Morgan as first choice centre backs, with Ertl, Lowton and Nosworthy as other options. I'm not sure how he can be criticised for failing to have sufficient cover at Centre Back.

Britton only played twice for Blackwell, who employed him in a creative, attacking role from where he laid on Evans goal against Cardiff. I don't see how he can be blamed for him failing when Speed played him in front of the back four. Simonsen and Creswell both played their best football for us under Blackwell. Maybe he knew how to get the best out of them?

.

Yeah true about Brittons first game, but he was found out to not be the creative player we all thought the very next game at Hartlepool, and the following game at QPR.

As for the CB thats the key for me, he provided people who could the role for a game or two, players who can do the optional role, arguably Lowton could provide cover for longer, but I seriously doubt we'd have seen him fill in in that role under Blackwell, we needed a specialist as proper cover, and after the season before Blackwell should have learnt he needed that proper cover not the quick fix option.

I don't blame Blackwell as the one who sowed our demise, there were other factors, he went from positive attackive play to a very defensive role and it showed in most signings he ended up making, and it's not the first time Blackwell also did a similar u-turn at Leeds by getting far too negative in his approach.

 

[Cool Clint]

If Blackwell was allowed to stay, Fans would have wanted him out everyweek till now and he would not have made it to this week.

 

[Kenilworth]

Speed has a lot to answer for this season by palying such a negative formation - When he left we were 20th in the league and well on the slide. He copped out before he was hounded out cos he could see the writing on the wall. Yes, I believe that KB would have picked up more points than Speed, through his experience as a champ manager, so I think we would have been better off now. No, it wouldn't have been pretty but it might have been effective to a point. When Speed went and Bartley fooked off to Rangers there was no cover in centre defense so we kept on conceding the first goal in a game and continued the habit under Ralph.

After this weekends results I can only see Palace as a remote target now but their home record is so much better than ours - their away record just as atrocious. Problem is that we need to win all our remaining home games and pick up at least one or two wins away. If Palace win all their home games even with us winning two of our last set of away fixtures it would still leave us one pouint behind them. Doomed.

 

[oldblade]

If Blackwell was here I would be Micallgio ,Lenners, Pinchy and a Sheffield United heart attack all rolled into one. That bastard is 90% responsible for the state our club is in.

I think that's a bit harsh.

Not my favourite manager by a long stretch, but the board appointed him. They had a golden opportunity to let him go after the play off final, and they could have sacked him at the end of last season. Incredibly, they allowed him to 'build' the squad over the summer, then just before the end of the transfer window (and probably after what limited funds were available had been spent) they sack him two league games into the season. One of the least understandable decisions with regard to hiring/firing a manager that I can ever recall this club making.

Also, I doubt if it was Blackwell's idea to sell Beattie when we did, or get rid of the 2 Kyles, or gut the rest of the squad. I feel the board are probably nearer to 90% at fault than Blackwell is.

 

[Bladesman]

Blackwell wouldnt be here as the fans would of litrally killed him I reckon.

Although on the other hand I think we would be in the same position or there abouts to where we are now.