The other side of the coin is the managers who put the “bump” into new manager bump. An example many on here will recognise was Bob Stokoe. When he came we were steadily sinking towards relegation due to Alan Browns rigid adherence to his failed tactics. Stokoe used mostly players who were already at the club, giving the young players their heads. Same players, different manager.
And I’ve had a boss who insisted a reorganisation be done in a certain way, against the advice of the person who was most involved in the execution of the move. Resulting in wasted time and manpower and salaries and even more work to put it right.
And with the bad weather season on its way, I think attendances will drop even further. Who wants to sit shivering just to watch dross.
There must have been a lot of pants pissing then, because nothing has been rosy for us since our departure from the premiership - and before that. Except for a minor cup. Or am I being too critical?
Everything was rosy on this forum just 6 weeks ago. Unfortunately, that's all it takes for our support to decide we need another change in management.
Really? It was 8 weeks ago that Portsmouth put 4 goals past us and themselves kept a clean sheet. This forum was decidedly not rosy then! Apart from the 4-0 performance against Crewe none of our wins in early to mid October were emphatic. Of course our slide in form began after the Crewe game when Charlton took 3 points off us at the SoL. Then came the thrashing by Rotherham, Sheffield Weds and the loss to mighty L2 Mansfield and being held by L2 Bradford. A flattering to deceive 2-0 v Ipswich followed by the ignominy of being unable to score against whilst conceding a goal to a ten man Shrewsbury. That is a ****e run of form, but as importantly, a period where our manager seems to be devoid of ideas and where his mid game actions, with poor use of subs (eg bringing Evans on v Shrewsbury) have just made things worse. I'm not calling for LJ to be sacked just yet, but I totally understand why some on here are calling for him to be ousted. It isn't just the string of poor results, it is the fact that we have been playing such turgid stuff on the pitch - especially when we were told by KLD that we would be seeing an exciting, Sunderland style of play that would be rolled out across all SAFC teams. We were told that people will be able to identify a team as being from the SAFC stable just from the exciting style of play being displayed.
That was with the ****ing hopeless Parkinson though, who incidentally was sacked this time last year, so not really a shock
Totally agree, couple of signings in January and the push for promotion. If we fail, LJ position is reviewed in the summer and new coach signed and more signings should see us promoted next season. What could possibly go wrong. KTF
Stokoe makes for a very good comparison. Like Johnson, he won a cup not long after arriving. Like Johnson, he'd been at a few lower division clubs not really doing much and at his club prior to us he had some good cup runs, finished high up in the league, but wasn't universally popular with their fans. Although his most famous moment, obviously, came not long after he arrived in the 72-73 season, it wasn't until the 75-76 season that he won promotion. In the meantime, we hovered around what would now be the playoff places. I'm not sure, because I wasn't around, but I'm sure the fans would have been on his case during the 9 game winless spell (including 6 defeats) in the 73-74 season and the 4 and 5 game winless spells in the 74-75 season, if they're anything like they are now. Talk about streaky, eh? Quite a few similarities there. The main difference being, Stokoe was given time.
Agree with this. Not for the first time,Johnson seems to have the intention to try to shut the game down rather than pressing high and keeping an attacking momentum. I've previously done it to death on here.....I can't understand it....if we were really solid at the back I might be able to see the logic,but we're anything but solid,and all it does is invite the opposition to get at us. I think LJ is currently exhibiting a number of faults in his strategies,but this is the worst.
Very valid reply. Stokoe wasn’t perfect. My point was trying to illustrate that players who seem hopeless can be winners under a different manager. Brown refused to use the young players and when he did he stifled flair with rigid tactics. Our present squad may be champions under a different manager. In a nutshell, managers and players both have influence over what happens on the field. What the team of 73 might have accomplished had some of our best players not been plundered after the cup win is something to dream about.
The same problem that Ross had, when he came he had a reputation of attacking football, he actually said he would win games and lose games but would draw very few as his philosophy was to win games by attacking for 90 minutes. Look how that turned out, we'd go 1-0 and he'd **** himself and we'd end up with 11 men behind the ball and the game would end with the famous 1-1 scoreline. On Tuesday, yes we weren't brilliant at 1-0 but we were controlling the game and did look like we would get another, yes I agree O’Brien is **** with the ball, but they were a nasty bunch of bastards with their niggling little fouls which suits him. As the saying goes if it's not broken don't try to fix it, on Tuesday it wasn't broken till LJ decided to break it. I'm all for giving the manager time if he's the right manager. If you look at our set up, if the problem isn't LJ, what is it. If its the players then the recruitment was wrong , which means the recruitment team is wrong, if that's the case we have major problems. If KLD has a structure in place that he feels is right with the recruitment team, and they believe that they have signed the right players for the club and the way they want us to play, then surely if they've recruited the right coach they he should be able to get the best out of those players. If its not working either the recruitment of the players isn't working or the wrong coach is in place. Like has been mentioned by loads of people Johnson does not seem to be learning from his mistakes, at least if he was trying different things even if they didn't work I'd have a bit more confidence he would find the solution.
This is a key point - if you look back throughout his career he often talks about "leaning from our mistakes" yet never seems to Even that game when Coleman was manager and we were 3-0 down at Bristol City - Johnson came out and admitted it was his fault they'd thrown away a 3 goal lead and vowed to "learn from [his] mistakes" I think saying it is just a diversionary tactic - something he is doing a lot of right now
