Manager? Questions need to be asked

[Whiston Blade]

I blame him for the shite start, the shite formation and tactics and not realising what Millwall would do. Can’t blame him for Olsen’s fuck up but Slav gets minimal credit for changing it early when the problem was of his own making.

So he's not allowed to try and correct his mistakes?

 

[Kenilworth]

So he's not allowed to try and correct his mistakes?

Making too many of them. 13 games in.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Non existant, however if you want the lottery numbers for this weekend...

Will pass thanks.

 

[robbiez666]

Recruitment has been poor, formations and tactics baffling, and there has been no evidence of any type of plan. He has put the horse in front of the cart choosing to impose a style of play on a squad of players that aren't geared up to play it, rather than the other way around: playing a system that suits the players at his disposal. This is the cardinal sin of management. That said, he has one of the best squads in the division so we'll level out by the end of the season and improve. I still feel we'll be involved in a play off push. If not, his performance would be one of abject failure and the P45 wont be far away. That's the way of the world.

I still feel he was thrown under a bus by the Board.

If we had the kind of DM he wanted, then I suspect our midfield would be transformed. We never moved to bring someone in after that lad failed a medical
If we had a pacey wide player, I suspect we'd be much more dangerous going forward. It's square pegs in round holes at the moment

In terms of a central striker, we're a bit screwed. We have so many strikers but none can naturally play that role. It's a fair argument to say we play to the best of the players we have but I'm not sure what that is. 3-5-2 might make us more defensively secure (although I'm not convinced by Bash) but that's minus an attacking players, and we struggle to score as it is. I suspect we'd have the same issues as last year and still concede goals as little midfield protection.

I suspect, whatever he did, we'd be in a fairly similar situation.

 

[Swinton Blade]

So he's not allowed to try and correct his mistakes?

No, he needs to be 100% perfect 24/7.

 

[Nagima]

Brian Clough used to reckon you needed 3 excellent players to be successful. A goalkeeper a centre forward and a centre back who can stop good goal scores. I would have added a central midfielder to that. If you look at out team we don't have it. Egan is good but not great. Olsen hasn't looked good so far and up front we are relying on Billy whose best days are behind him. We don't have a dominant midfielder either.
Recruitment has been poor in the transfer window. Some people think we have a great squad. I don't think so. It's the second oldest in the league and we have too many bang average players.
There is no point blaming Slav. He didn't get what he wanted in the window. It's going to be a tricky few years ahead. Who ever is in charge of recruiting etc hasn't got a clue.

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

Brian Clough used to reckon you needed 3 excellent players to be successful. A goalkeeper a centre forward and a centre back who can stop good goal scores. I would have added a central midfielder to that. If you look at out team we don't have it. Egan is good but not great. Olsen hasn't looked good so far and up front we are relying on Billy whose best days are behind him. We don't have a dominant midfielder either.
Recruitment has been poor in the transfer window. Some people think we have a great squad. I don't think so. It's the second oldest in the league and we have too many bang average players.
There is no point blaming Slav. He didn't get what he wanted in the window. It's going to be a tricky few years ahead. Who ever is in charge of recruiting etc hasn't got a clue.

I call it getting the basics in the team right, straight down the spine of the team. It's the key areas on the park and we are weak in everyone.

I disagree on one point, I blame the manager, when he should have brought in a dominant/leader centre half and centre mid he chose to bring in Davies and Hourihane. Now we're seeing the results of that with teams who fancy getting stuck in generally walking away from the Lane with three points.

Get the leaders in the team, straight down the spine and they tend to drag the rest of the team along with them.

 

[Nagima]

We are in agreement on the spine of the team. The question I have is how much of a say Slav has had on recruitment. Davies was on our radar before and Hourihane smacks of desperation as it was late in the window. Who ever was in charge didn't get it right. The squad is lightweight when it comes to those key positions and lacks a physical presence and leadership.

 

[Speedracer]

Recruitment has been poor, formations and tactics baffling, and there has been no evidence of any type of plan. He has put the horse in front of the cart choosing to impose a style of play on a squad of players that aren't geared up to play it, rather than the other way around: playing a system that suits the players at his disposal. This is the cardinal sin of management. That said, he has one of the best squads in the division so we'll level out by the end of the season and improve. I still feel we'll be involved in a play off push. If not, his performance would be one of abject failure and the P45 wont be far away. That's the way of the world.

You have got to be kidding, it isn't Slav's fault that the squad is so poor, & I bet he was promised much more than he got too. What is the point in going back to another managers formation, even if they were bought for that system they have proved incapable of doing it properly for the last 18 months.
One of the best squads in the division? Don't make me laugh.

 

[ancientblade]

think by missing out on the defensive midfielder and a winger has really stalled us this season and its gonna need at least 2 more windows to correct the problem while not being totally convinced by slav i do think we have to give him at least another year to sort the mess out chris left us with

 

[nopigfansintown]

You have got to be kidding, it isn't Slav's fault that the squad is so poor, & I bet he was promised much more than he got too. What is the point in going back to another managers formation, even if they were bought for that system they have proved incapable of doing it properly for the last 18 months.
One of the best squads in the division? Don't make me laugh.

Well, he got a lot: five players on top of an already stacked squad, all presumably on top money at this level. How many should he/we expect? a brand new eleven or a full squad? Most Championship managers would snap your hand off for that backing. Most clubs and managers would snap his hand of for our squad: a stacked forward line of proven players at this level; a defence that is only JOC light from being the best in the division. JOC incidentally being replaced by a kid with a big reputation in Davies. The midfield was a bit light, but he's been backed with three top signings for this level - as well as the emergence of Ndiaye. A lot of proven promotion winners in the squad too. He's been blessed. "A bad workmen", and all that...

 

[CornwallBlade]

Is this because he didn't start McBurnie or Brewster who have done fuck all since signing.

Agreed, that marks him out as an astute assessor of footballing ability for me.

 

[Brewster Cost £70 million]

Could be worse and have Darren nice guy Moore who seems to pull a team outta a lucky hat,if we don't give slav time I dread to think who we could appoint.

 

[jono_t2000]

Or maybe the managerial mastermind could realise he has got a squad that is perfectly suited to 3-5-2 and use that formation instead of shoehorning players in to positions they aren’t suited to, and I’m a formation they aren’t suited to.

Heckingbottom got 3 wins in 10 in the Premier League with pretty much this same squad of players, Jokanovic has got 4 in 13 in the Championship

3-5-2 in it's standard setup is one of the most negative formations out there. Yes Wilder and Knill tweaked it to make it unique and attacking but they ain't here anymore.

Plus teams have figured out not to worry about the overlapping CB, and just focus on pressuring Norwood instead.

Going back to 3-5-2 would be incredibly big backwards step imho.

 

[HD8 Blades]

Hi Stegosaurus here

We'll never get promoted under Slav. I said we should have got either Big Sam or Little Sam to take the reigns. Or both together.

Medium Sam?

 

[Revolution]

Let’s see:

McGoldrick, Verrips, Robinson v WBA
Collective weak defending v Huddersfield
Robinson v Peterborough (got away with it)
Olsen and Robinson v Preston
Stevens (twice) v Bournemouth
Collective weak defending v Stoke (got away wit
Olsen, McGoldrick, MGW v Millwall

Unforced errors, time after time, costing us points.

It’s not the formation or the manager (though I certainly have some issues with what he’s doing and he’s doing an average job at best). It’s the players. They need to cut this stuff out.

And as I have said before I have a very hard time accepting that this if one of the best squads in the division. It is not. So many average or poor players.

 

[Bell4]

We are in agreement on the spine of the team. The question I have is how much of a say Slav has had on recruitment. Davies was on our radar before and Hourihane smacks of desperation as it was late in the window. Who ever was in charge didn't get it right. The squad is lightweight when it comes to those key positions and lacks a physical presence and leadership.

This

 

[Charlieblade]

SJ has a huge problem motivating these players. Defending our own box has been abysmal and yet game after game after game, closing down on the edge of our own box is not done. F@#king well shout at them/motivate fleck, Egan, Davies and Norwood etc to actually get stuck in! Bodies on the line please. If they don't want to or can't - then get Guidoura, Slater and Brunt in who might want to. He won't though and we will just carry on conceding the same type of goal in every game.
Painful.

I’d quite like to see Slater, Brunt or Gordon given a chance to start, but not all at once. There are enough gaps for them to fill, just not all at the same time.
Don’t forget that Slav has spent time away from the hurly burly of the championship, and this will not make his job any easier.
Hourihane was a good shout, but it didn’t come off. Thankfully Hourihane did

 

[S64 Blade]

Its weird that he keeps selecting the failures and is ignoring Brewster, McBurnie and Mousse.

£50m plus worth of players there and 2 league goals between them in 16 months. Are they not failures when compared with Sharp and McGoldrick in their mid 30s, with far more goals, output and desire?

 

[mattbianco1]

There comes a point, soon, where questions need to be asked. Approach in first half was poor. No tempo. No pace. No urgency. No aggression.

its not happening

What about the 2nd half?

Did the manager realise something wasn't working on 30 mins and change it?

Did the manager not get the players fired up for the second half?

Was the manager at fault for MGW flying in late and diving?

 

[Brewster Cost £70 million]

Love it how some are saying slav isn't giving youth a chance didn't we play 5 against derby in the cup and ndiaye plays a part in most games now,a big win on Sunday and all is good.

 

[Roygbiv]

It's 100% the players for me. You can have reservations about Slav but how anyone can watch the individual performances of these players in the last 2 seasons under 3 different managers and believe we have one of the best sides in the league is beyond me. Do a Championship best 11 and only Gibbs-White gets in. In fact he might be the only one who gets into a 30 man squad.