Inexperience Shining Through Or The Way To Get A Response

Must say that up until very recently I would have backed Alex Neil to turn our situation around and get us out of the mire, but now I´m not quite so sure. His publicly criticising of the players recently seems a risky course to take, and has so far had little result. I´m not saying he´s not justified, but surely any dressing down of the players has to take place behind closed doors, where they also get a chance to air their views. I´m not suggesting he should call them world class, when quite obviously they´re not, but outwardly he has to back the players, or he´s going to get even less out of them than he is now. Certainly his post-match comments recently suggest that he has lost a bit of confidence in them, as do his frequent team selection changes, and I can see the next few weeks being a real test of his man-management skills if he is going to get this one back on track.

I´ve always liked the way that he´s spoken, and he´s always come across very well in the media, seems to me, but during this run of defeats, as well as becoming understandably irritable, he doesn´t really seem to have any clear plan of escape - just keep on doing what we are doing, only do it a bit better, somehow that does seem awfully inadequate.

I´m not suggesting anything as radical as a change of manager, because, as others have said, if the worst comes to the worst and we don´t hang on this year, then Neil would seem to be easily our best chance of an immediate return, but I do just sense a bit of a sea change in the manager/players relationship, that hasn´t been there before.

Be interesting to see if the players can/will respond, because respond they certainly have to, or we can begin to wave goodbye to another Premier League journey, before we´ve got out of first gear.

 

I have to say, RBF, that on turning my pc on this morning, the first thing I checked was Newsnow, to see whether or not he had realised it's all a bridge too far for him and had tendered his resignation.
I'm pretty sure the board would have rejected it anyway, but after 5 league wins plus a duffing up in the FA cup, I just thought losing to comfortably the worst side in the division so abjectly may have forced him to reconsider his position.
He hasn't - but had he done so, I'm not quite sure what I would have thought?

 

Yes RBF, as you say his change of tune and starting to criticise the players in the media is a risky road to take and I'm struggling to see where we're going to get any more points this season. It all seems such a long way from the euphoria of Wembley and some of our unexpected wins since then.

I'm not going to say much more on the subject, but I just feel that if he was to start more or less the same 11 each week (barring injuries/suspensions), as the more successful teams do and we could hopefully begin to see the players starting to gel and getting the odd result.
I'd at least like to see a settled back 4 - Pinto, Bennett, Klose and Olson,as this would allow Brady to play further forward where I feel he would be more effective!!!
Might be inclined to reinstate JR between the posts as well.

 

Maybe he's just got fed up with defending the indefensable.

 

Possibly, but I´m not sure that is the best tactic to go public with. I notice a clear difference between how Remi Garde has tackled his situation at Villa, and Alex Neil. I´m not saying there is a right and a wrong way of dealing with it, but Garde has continually said that although it will be tough, he still believes in the players and thinks they can get out of it - very naive possibly, but at least outwardly, he´s giving a sense of unity.

 

I would argue the situation with Villa and Remi Gardé is slightly different.

I think he is within his rights to criticise the players.

Coming back to the title; 'inexperience'?

Look at players like Mulumbu, O'Neil and Naismith as well as our 'old guard' of players like Wes, Rusty and even Bassong and Howson. It's not like we're fielding a bunch of kids. I believe Villa have a relatively young side whilst ours is made up of seasoned pros with years of Premier League experience between them. They're grown men on big players' salaries so why should they shy away from responsibility?

 

As RM2 says, these players of ours have a lot more bottle than any of them are showing at the moment - we've all seen it before, except for the January arrivals.
Somebody mentioned a week or so back that they wondered if all the constant game by game tinkering that takes place is demoralising for the players? The CBs never knowing who their defensive partner is, no real understanding between the full backs and the wide men in front of them as they never spend enough time on the pitch together for that 'telepathy' to occur.
I wonder if the coaching methods and some decision making is losing the players?
We're well and truly fooked if that is the case!

 

If he's putting a team together, giving them instructions and they're quite simply not doing as they're told, not turning up, not doing the basics right and for the past 5 weeks he's given them the hair dryer treatment and it hasn't worked maybe a public kick up the arse is what he thought was needed?

 

Hi skald bor, I don't envy the board on the choice of decision they make on our current situation. The manager has the job of ensuring the morale of the team is adequate for the task in hand and by going public criticising is not going to help.

Cromer anticipated his resignation, AN is not a quitter. Like all managers he wants to be a success but that is not the board's consideration, their task is what is best for the club.

We will just have to wait and see how the board deals with our current situation.

How about one of your literary efforts to brighten up our gloom ?

Regards to you and hope your missus is ok not forgetting muttley.

 

Er, the ´inexperience´ in the title was referring to Neil´s inexperience in the managerial department, not to any of the players, just ín case you thought otherwise.

 

Is pinto better than Martin? Or even Whittaker? Does Bassong not merit a place? Olsson better than Brady on current form, very few would agree with that! Not easy this selection lark......

 

But everyone has been clamouring for new defenders! You can't have it both ways!

 

But before Klose and Pinto arrived, it was exactly the same situation - change the back four every frickin' week
And if we - or he, AN does have hopes of a little stability among the back four, where the hell was Ivo Pinto yesterday, assuming he's earmarked to be our future first choice RB?
(apologies if he's crocked, I haven't heard anything to suggest he is though?)

 

I know, I do share your frustration! But I guess taking left back as an example, the switching between Olsson and Brady is to do with what formation the manager wants to play, who he wants to play ahead of the full back, what formation the opposition are playing etc.

We all know that the same criticism is being levelled in the form of "such and such plays every week, why doesn't he get dropped".

Put it yet another way, why have 25 players if you are only going to use 18 of them.

 

I'm also slightly bemused by what seems to be a bit of double-talk here. One minute a poster is saying we need to change the whole defence and the next minute the same poster is saying AN is tinkering with the team too much, that he should choose his best 11 and then stick with that. Similarly, if AN says morale is good in the squad then he's taken as being complacent and not facing up to the situation. On the other hand, if he criticises poor decision-making by the players, he is in danger of losing the dressing-room.

Quite frankly, I don't know what the answer is and therefore what AN should do in this situation. My gut feeling is that we should trust him to make the right decisions for that situation.That is partly based on the fact that we wouldn't even be in the PL now if he hadn't come in and managed the situation very effectively. Like Dorset, I feel we have a 25 man squad and we should use it. Players should feel that they are playing for the shirt each week and if they fail to perform, they risk being replaced. The squad is a 'team' and every player should have a chance to be playing. We don't see them in training every day or even in the dressing-room. AN does. Choices have to be made and he is the man who has to make them. He might not always get it right, but I'm pretty sure he gets it right more often than I would.

 

And to be honest, RER, that's one of the things that irks me the most.
How can a team be 25 games into a 38 game season - and still not know who it's best starting XI are?
Familiarity breeds positional awareness, imho, and we have none of either this late in proceedings!
Worrying times indeed.
Sorry, my opinion and mine alone

 

I can see the frustration, Cromer, but isn't our 'best squad' the one which is best suited to play against the team and the players we are facing? It's a difficult one and there is no easy answer. Players playing together on a regular basis form a natural understanding which helps the quality of play. Strangely, I feel Mbokani and Naismith have formed a good understanding in just 3 games and they were only a whisker away from taking the lead against Villa. I can't help feeling that if they had done so, that game would have turned out very differently. So do you stick or twist? It's a difficult one and there's no easy answer.

 

Well Cromer, I feel you're spot on with your post.
You look at the more successful teams and assuming they are all fit/not suspended, then you usually find 9 or more of the 11 who started the previous week taking to the pitch. I was a bit worried by AN's decision to play RM at CB against Liverpool to counter the threat of Firmino I think it was and I know lots of fans (including myself) were totally aghast to see him in the starting 11.
I do believe that AN doesn't know who his best starting 11 is and it's a bit late in the season to be trying to figure out who it might be!!!!

Another excellent post RER and as you say - 'there's no easy answer!!!'

 

Hello Rick, it´s not the fact that he´s critcising the players, but the fact that he´s doing it publicly, and sometimes very publicly, that is worrying me. I just fear that it is having, and will have, an adverse effect on performances, which is the last thing we need at the moment. As we´ve often said on here, players don´t really need telling when they´ve played a stinker, and I think instead of trying to goad and humiliate players into performing better, maybe he should try a different tack. I notice he was out chastising Rudd for his fatal part in Villa´s second goal, today, and yes, we all know he was wrong, but just not sure whether that is the ideal way to build up his confidence for the next game.

 

To be fair what does he do if he publicly said all was fixable and such (giving hair drier treatment to all in the background ) people would say he was deluded

Hope it all works out but beginning to think wall and writing are coming together