To All you Blackwell supporters.......

[TonyAgana]

If you are satisfied with the dross that we are watching wek after week I despair for the future of Utd. And it is utter dross dressed up in excuses..

Have we got to the "that's what Hitler did" argument, here? I think so.

It is dross, and I'm not satisfied with it. So now what?

 

[TonyAgana]

I agree with a fair bit of this, but the bit in bold is a piss take, yes? To be fair, he'd challenge for a place in the Loyal Trooper starting 11.

UTB

I know what you mean but he was a signing out of desperation and never meant to be a long-term replacement. Without injuries since his signing I don't think we'd have seen much of him. It's a good job we had him, though!

 

[scouseblade]

Injuries, loanees, suspensions, disruption etc cause problems, no doubt, its the ability of the manager to gel the team he has together with his tactics and strategy that helps out. In this case Blackwell has proven that he is unable to gel a side together because of the disrption. You may ask, can any manager do this? Well, I cannot think of specific examples but teams have had worse injuries and financial problems than we have a competed better than we have.

 

[TonyAgana]

Well, I cannot think of specific examples but teams have had worse injuries and financial problems than we have a competed better than we have.

I honestly don't think there has. It certainly isn't expected! Hence the reason I think Blackwell has nothing to be ashamed of with a top-half finish (obviously THAT isn't guaranteed! ).

 

[mickle-blade]

To quote Deadbat
"United – Blackwell’s post match interview states we dominated the game and had lots of chances we failed to convert. I find it hard to agree with him as in the first half we did not have a shot on target with a Yeates header over and a free kick wide of the post the sum of our efforts. In the second half we hit the bar with a header but other than that I cannot recall that many clear shots/efforts on goal other than the Yeates free kick and then when Bartlett had a header saved. So to be frank I cannot see where he is coming from? We also did not really dominate the game; played little football of note and looked largely clueless against a poor side that should be beaten easily by a side with any serious promotion credentials. We looked no better than a team who had been at the bottom of the league most of the season and that says a lot. Today was desperately depressing with no atmosphere, no life and no spark both on the pitch and off it. The look on supporters’ faces as the game petered out said it all. I worry about the decline in attendances and the apathy continuing with the current performances/results and lack of direction shown in the first team from both the manager and the board.

Blackwell can say what he wants about the team disruption, the defence changing and injuries but the reality is we have lost to Scunthorpe and Peterborough in recent weeks and failed to score against either side. Against sides with a far inferior wage bill and playing staff that is unacceptable. Indeed, the performances, style of play and results for the most part this season have been largely unacceptable and his excuses are wearing thin. The chief executive Trevor Birch said we had the second highest wage bill in the division and we are now also rans in the middle of the league. The buck must stop with the manager."


I think that sums up everything perfecty.......Don't you, Thak you for the excellent report Deadbt

 

[SwissBlade]

Tony Agana

To your credit you've been very defensive of Blackwell on here this afternoon... Do you think we can progress on the field with Blackwell in charge?

I agree that he's been dealt a shit hand by McCabe and has a thankless task to keep the fans happy, but I no longer believe he has the ability to consistently churn out the results with the players we now have

 

[Jon Bon]

I agree that he's been dealt a shit hand by McCabe and has a thankless task to keep the fans happy...

Not that shit a hand really though, is it? IMO that's why he got the contract extension, to buy his loyalty and his silence when the family silver was being sold from under his nose.

Don't worry, notwithstanding his inability as a coach, he's being paid very nicely thank you to be McCabe's human shield in all of this.

 

[Private Widdle]

Not loud enough for anyone in the directors box to hear then.

First time I've heard it at home so I think the directors did.
Wait till next Saturday even McCabe will in brussels.

 

[raul]

His biggest supporter is the bloke really responsible for the mess, the one who seems to have gone into hiding. While everyone is steaming into KB, he'll be going nowhere so as to ensure eyes stay firmly on the dugout and not a bit further up the South Stand.

 

[TonyAgana]

Tony Agana

To your credit you've been very defensive of Blackwell on here this afternoon... Do you think we can progress on the field with Blackwell in charge?

I agree that he's been dealt a shit hand by McCabe and has a thankless task to keep the fans happy, but I no longer believe he has the ability to consistently churn out the results with the players we now have

I don't believe that's the question that needs answering. But no, I don't think he's the man to take us forward. Confused? Don't be. I just believe he's the man for the job in hand - that being "not imploding". I think that moving forward isn't particularly high up on SUFCs agenda right now.

 

[SwissBlade]

I don't believe that's the question that needs answering. But no, I don't think he's the man to take us forward. Confused? Don't be. I just believe he's the man for the job in hand - that being "not imploding". I think that moving forward isn't particularly high up on SUFCs agenda right now.

Cheers. I guess it'd be nice to know how much longer the reprofiling is envisaged to take... Obviously it can't go on forever and perhaps we're being inpatient.

How far will we be allowed to slip, my concern (which i'm sure is the concern of the board too) is that we'll lose more fans during this process and we really need to keep the fans...

So whilst i'm sure Blackie will always do his best to do the job in hand, it isn't good enough to then turn it around and start taking us forward again

I think we can get a better man to do the job in hand and take us forward... O'Driscoll

 

[jpblade]

How about

It was too sunny, the sun was in my lads eyes; or

we started at 12.15 which we are not used to so it affected our performance.

For God sake Blackwell you walked away once by sneaking out of the back door, have the guts to do it again tonight please.

 

[Foxy]

Without defending Blackwell, don't the players have to stand up and take some responsibility?

Yes, they are his players and his responsibility, but once again, far too many let him down today.

 

[rhfl1982]

Without defending Blackwell, don't the players have to stand up and take some responsibility?

Yes, they are his players and his responsibility, but once again, far too many let him down today.

think the players definitely have to hold their hand up. hendo and yeates had good chances to score in first half but neither of them could even hit the target!!!

i was furious in the 2nd half when little put in a nice cross for our strikers to attack and they all just stood and watched as there defender cleared it

 

[mickle-blade]

Without defending Blackwell, don't the players have to stand up and take some responsibility?

Yes, they are his players and his responsibility, but once again, far too many let him down today.

I agree to a point with that Foxy and you have to question why they are not putting in a shift but there are 2 things that annoy
me more than anything.

1. The way he sets out a team from the start 2 deep banks of 4 in order to 'contain' the opposition whoever they are. So we are always on the back foot.
2. His total inability to change things while a game is in progress.
Perhaps he would be better sat high in the stands and see just what is happening. Maybe then he would see the same game as everyone else.

 

[SESKU Blade]

Without defending Blackwell, don't the players have to stand up and take some responsibility?

Yes, they are his players and his responsibility, but once again, far too many let him down today.

You're right, the players need to take responsibility too - but do they want to play for KB or even be at this club? because for the most part it's poor performance after poor performance.

After a poor performance most managers seem able to a positive reaction from their players/improved performance in the next game.

At the minute KB doesn't seem capable of getting the desired reaction from the players.

 

[Foxy]

You're right, the players need to take responsibility too - but do they want to play for KB or even be at this club? because for the most part it's poor performance after poor performance.

That should be irrelevant. They are footballers, paid to play football.

Most of them, haven't got a contract come summer, or if they have, will be wanting to begin discussing an extension.

Harper for example, unless he's been talking to someone else, is without a club come the end of the season... You'd think he'd be busting a gut and putting in hard working, quality performances to show he's worth someone giving him a job!

They should be playing for themselves, even if they couldn't care less about the Blades.

After a poor performance most managers seem able to a positive reaction from their players/improved performance in the next game.

At the minute KB doesn't seem capable of getting the desired reaction from the players.

We had an acceptable, if patched up, performance against Cardiff on Wednesday. Then today, we played reasonably in patches, but not the 90 minutes. The problem is, we are consistant at one thing, being inconsistant.

You look at the players before kickoff, which can you predict the performance of at the moment? Monty and Cresswell for me. They'll both put in as much as their bodies will give and keep going until the last minute. Beyond that, it's a lucky dip.

 

[jpblade]

Of course the players have to take some responsibility.

In any line of work you should always want to give of your best - personal pride should dictate that.

However, the question has to be are the players good enough? It's obvious to a blindman on a bolting horse that a lot of them arn't.

And, of course, Blackwell signed 9 of the starting 11 today. And that is why enough is enough.

 

[mickle-blade]

In our case mate it's an 'Unlucky Dip'.

 

[sitwell]

If you put Scunthorpes manager in charge of Utd and Blackwell in charge of them today I think we would win easily.
Tactics
Bottle
Motivation
Decision making

He fails miserably in all departments.

 

[Foxy]

However, the question has to be are the players good enough? It's obvious to a blindman on a bolting horse that a lot of them arn't.

And, of course, Blackwell signed 9 of the starting 11 today. And that is why enough is enough.

and the other question is, which he already answered in frustration the other week.... were they his first choice and did he think they were good enough or just the best we could actually bring in?

I think a lot of the Blackwell "persona" we see, is an incredibly frustrated one, annoyed by a number of factors beyond his control and unable to really mention them in public.

 

[oldblade]

If that is the case, why have we relied on the loan market? Do you honestly think Blackwell prefers loanees to permanents?

If I remember rightly we had 5 loanees involved in the last match against Wednesday. And that was before the list of injuries reached 'crisis' proportions.

Also, why are our players suffering from such a large amount of strain type injuries? The management might not be entirely blamelss here. Does our training regime have something to do with it perthaps?

Anyway, let's assume that the injuries are totally out of Blackwell's hands and that he has not been able to field his strongest side for much of the season, with the consequent disruption. That does not get away from the fact it is his responsibility to send the players who are available out onto the field with some sort of degree of organisation. Many times this season there has been little organisation in evidence.

 

[oldblade]

If you put Scunthorpes manager in charge of Utd and Blackwell in charge of them today I think we would win easily.
Tactics
Bottle
Motivation
Decision making

He fails miserably in all departments.

If he was in charge at Scunthorpe they'd have been relegated weeks ago!

 

[oldblade]

Without defending Blackwell, don't the players have to stand up and take some responsibility?

Yes, they are his players and his responsibility, but once again, far too many let him down today.

They've let him down many times this season. But to me that shows that he isn't a very good judge of a player, that he is incapable of motivating them, or a combination of the two.

 

[Nick Jansky]

If you put Scunthorpes manager in charge of Utd and Blackwell in charge of them today I think we would win easily.
Tactics
Bottle
Motivation
Decision making

He fails miserably in all departments.

Actually, Scunny's manager has done a great job without money. Might not be a bad call....

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

Foxy,

Isn't Blackwell ultimately reasonable and these are his players and his signings.
He is also responsible for the tactics of setting up so defensively against a bottom 6 side.

He's had 2 and a half years, and the same excuses that its the players fault. At what points does the man with ultimate responsibility put his hand up and accept it.

 

[Foxy]

Isn't Blackwell ultimately reasonable and these are his players and his signings.
He is also responsible for the tactics of setting up so defensively against a bottom 6 side.

Like I said, he's ultimately responsible as manager, but the players are not blameless and are letting him down. It isn't tactics that make players fail to do their basic jobs or put in the effort, they have to do that off their own backs.

As for them being his signings, they are, but like I said elsewhere, they aren't neccessarily his first choice signings by any stretch of the imagination. Whether or not he's signed them, he can't force them to do their jobs properly, his hands are tied somewhat in terms of punishments as he has no options to enable him to drop individuals.

The players have to take as much responsibility as Blackwell and put in the satisfactory effort/earn themselves a deal in the summer or a place in someones team next year.

He's had 2 and a half years, and the same excuses that its the players fault. At what points does the man with ultimate responsibility put his hand up and accept it.

The problem is, he doesn't have the ultimate responsibility of managing expectations, the budgets available to him or the direction of the club. He also cannot or chooses not to speak out about this publicly, other than mentioning player turnover/difficulties without attributing blame/further responsibility.

I think even his biggest critics would conceed that he doesn't have the options available to him that he would like and that the starting lineup in recent weeks (and most of this season) is very much "make do", not that he'd plan to have.

He has plenty of faults and is not by any stretch of the imagination blameless. I just think other parties are getting off lightly and we are seeing a very very frustrated Kevin Blackwell running out of ideas and optimism becoming the figurehead for all of it. It isn't just him.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

Sorry mate that doesn't wash with me, if he hadn't had the previous 18 months before this season with one of the highest wage bills in the division I might agree with you.

If you had been given a project to spec out and you spent all the budget and decided against redundancy in order to higher spec your front end kit you can't then grumble when it fails and you lose the lot. He's had more resources than Burnley last season, and had more than most of the league this season and we've been turned over by Peterborough, Palace and Scunny in recent weeks with poor performances.
I've only seen todays match out of those three but to line up so defensively today from the start was plain wrong.

 

[sitwell]

Scunthorpe , Peterboro and Palace can only dream of being able to get and pay the likes of Camara ,Harper ,Yeates ,Barkley Simonsen etc.
I knew about 3 of their players today and only because I used to laugh at Forte ,things are that bad under this fool and they will only get worse. He has tried to leave us twice ,we should make the decision this time.

 

[alcoblade]

Sorry mate that doesn't wash with me, if he hadn't had the previous 18 months before this season with one of the highest wage bills in the division I might agree with you.

If you had been given a project to spec out and you spent all the budget and decided against redundancy in order to higher spec your front end kit you can't then grumble when it fails and you lose the lot. He's had more resources than Burnley last season, and had more than most of the league this season and we've been turned over by Peterborough, Palace and Scunny in recent weeks with poor performances.
I've only seen todays match out of those three but to line up so defensively today from the start was plain wrong.

But during those 18 months he failed by a whisker. This season we / he's been polishing a turd, and it's not possible. We can criticise him for the way he approaches the game - and that for me is enough to want a change in manager - but he has definitely been asked to do the impossible, and is without doubt a fall guy.

UTB