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Baldyboy

Defending Alex Neil

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How can anyone defend a manager who after TWENTY SIX games still doesn''t know his best team? Henow has players he wants yet still persists in playing people out of position with better alternatives on the bench! Surely that is the sign of a poor manager?

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I think he reason why some people are defending him is because, with the team he has, he''s managed to do well this season in that he''s kept us out of the bottom 3. However, questions have been asked all season and naturally as we are now in the bottom 3 having just lost to the worst team in the league, are much more concerned.

It''s shocking that he doesn''t know his first team, it''s shocking that he still occasionally plays Martin at CB. However, whats also shocking is the board not forking out in the summer.

AN has to now get Klose, Pinto and Naismith gelling with the team who are low on confidence.

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The big problem has to be all the changes to the team. that is 25 premiership games and 28 different players ,must be nearly a record.

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I''m going to defend him. Yes, he''s done things wrong. No doubt about that.

However, I believe he is the man to take us forward. Last season, we were 7th/8th when he took over, only going one way. He was an unknown bloke, managing a small Scottish club. He turned up here with many fans a bit underwhelmed. He won game after game after game. We finished 3rd and won the play-off final.

We start the season playing good football, not getting results we deserve but seeing our team full of championship players competing at this level. We spend £20m in the transfer window to bring in new players but our performances lately have been poor, we''ve been poor for one month, one month, and you think that being poor for one month means we should remove a manager who dragged us into this league, who made a group of championship players compete in this league? Ok, they''ve faltered lately but they''ve largely performed for us since Alex Neil came in. After all that great work, the answer many of you have, the best you can come up with, is Nigel Pearson? Really? Nigel Pearson? Come off it!

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Tinkering will be his downfall. No two consecutive weeks the same. In-out, in-out, shake it all about.

Ridiculous.

By contrast, Mick McCarthy down the road has managed to get an average bunch of freebies on the fringes of the play-offs and sitting amongst bigger spending clubs in a very tough league.

He hardly ever changes his first choice team. The defence has been the same personnel all season despite fans (TWTD) clamouring for change in both full back positions.

AN doesn''t do continuality.

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Bit of a dichotomy coming up; after Villa surely personnel changes ARE needed though? AN has to be bold and make some big decisions. Let''s remember player selection is only one part of maximising team performance. Having said that, I hope AN has kept his relationship with John Ruddy in decent condition...

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The club let him down in the summer, buying big in January and trying to integrate new blood into a losing team is so much harder than starting with your new squad at the begining of the season. At least you have some time then, not a lot but some.

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[quote user="BroadstairsR"]Tinkering will be his downfall. No two consecutive weeks the same. In-out, in-out, shake it all about.

Ridiculous.

By contrast, Mick McCarthy down the road has managed to get an average bunch of freebies on the fringes of the play-offs and sitting amongst bigger spending clubs in a very tough league.

He hardly ever changes his first choice team. The defence has been the same personnel all season despite fans (TWTD) clamouring for change in both full back positions.

AN doesn''t do continuality.[/quote]
Uh, this has to be a whole new level of stupid.
They play god awful football and still concede goals in a division lower than us.
I am not jealous about any aspect of them.

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I really hope you''re right D7 but I''m afraid you won''t be. We will see one way or the other, assuming he''s given the chance.

It''s not the results that are causing people to question if he can pull things round. It''s the gradually deteriorating performances. Confidence is obviously lacking and is showing in lack of risk taking, pressing and the ability to attack and defend with real purpose.

Whatever happens, this is a big moment in the clubs history and we can''t simply drift into relegation.

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He doesn''t know his best 11 because they''re mostly at a similar level, plus they''re all inconsistent. It''s a bloody nightmare.

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Hogesar missed the point and decided to be insulting:-

"Uh, this has to be a whole new level of stupid.

They play god awful football and still concede goals in a division lower than us.

I am not jealous about any aspect of them."

Oh another insult merchant. What''s new?"

You managed to completely mis-read my point. NOTHING to do with comparing the varying status of the two clubs, NOTHING to do with being "jealous" of any aspect about them, just giving an example of the value of continuity..... whatever the level. It could have been Bournemouth. Just an example. Right!

Pratt.

Oh! It''s easy to be rude to fellow posters after all.

Harder to mis-interpret what they are getting at though it would seem.

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Perhaps their isn''t a definitive ''best eleven'' and maybe AN thinks there is a different best starting line up for each game depending on the opposition?

Quite agree with the previous post saying that they are all so inconsistent it must be a nightmare. Keeping the team the same for too long can almost ''reward'' players who aren''t playing well IMO, although I accept that the current chopping and changing isn''t working either. But earlier in the season was going reasonably well I wouldn''t have thought too many people cared about the team being changed regularly, and as I''ve said before Lambert used to do it lots in the 2011-12 season when we finished 12th.

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His problem is our history. We have seen this and a number of our players are showing traits they have shown us before.

I don''t want to be in a position where we support a manager because we believe he will get us up next season.

We look at options for now. We have to stay in this league it can be AN but I don''t want us to make the mistakes we have done so many times recently

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"Bit of a dichotomy coming up; after Villa surely personnel changes ARE needed though? AN has to be bold and make some big decisions. Let''s remember player selection is only one part of maximising team performance. Having said that, I hope AN has kept his relationship with John Ruddy in decent condition..."

Agree with that, which suggests that his selections for Villa didn''t work.

Can he ever get a settled team.

Agree about John Ruddy too. I felt he needed dropping and that young Rudd needed a shot at the role after waiting for so long.

Slightly disappointed with Rudd, although overall he did little wrong (Villa apart) but Ruddy''s presence in the box is missed. I can now see why Hughton brought in Mark Bunn when Ruddy had that long spell injured. Young Rudd may be not the prospect we thought. I hope I''m wrong, but Ruddy for me now.

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A Experienced manager has taken over a football club that was bottom most of last season added a few but a team that cost 22 million ! and he is top of the league

by doing every thing AN doesn''t

he keeps the same team

keeps the same system

he has pace upfront

his team is fluid

his team pass well

his team score goals

now I am not saying if we had Leicester manager here we would be top of the league far from it but I bet we wouldn''t be where we are

we don''t want pearson either Leicester have been a totally different team since he left

AN got the praise last season so he gets the $hit this season if we don''t perform the 4 game Christmas run is now sounding like the hughton 10 game run we can not keep a manager that is taking us down

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Although I don''t want Pearson here, its wrong to say Leicester have been a different the`m since he''s left. They''re playing in a very similar way they played in the last 10 games of last season.

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Spot on Mrs. M, Pearson was the guy who motivated Leicesters meteoric rise.  i know nothing of why he was sacked, likely off the pitch situations but on the pitch he helped create an astounding reverse in results.Defending Alex Neil...strangely its probably a reverse of what Pearson had at Leicester. Off pitch, i think Alex has done well,especially identifying targets to bring to the club, the board have finally succeded in giving us a good January window. But on the pitch....umm..if you had told me at start of the season that after 25 games, Alex would be playing Howson and Hoolahan in winger positions, id have laughed and thought "ok the guy has lost the plot".  But thats it in a nutshell. Can you individually defend a manager who has lost the plot on the pitch, where it really matters?But of course its the Boards job to defend him or not. Ordinarily i think  he would  get the boot, but this time around, the Board have backed this manager with big finance, so sacking hm is not as easy as it was with Hughton, who had been given a longer stint in anycase. I get the feeling the Board will not verbally defend him, but will silently back him.

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[quote user="ron obvious"]He doesn''t know his best 11 because they''re mostly at a similar level, plus they''re all inconsistent. It''s a bloody nightmare.[/quote]

It is because of the tinkering that they are so inconsistent

He needs to get the message he is the problem. I am very disappointed that he hasn''t had a vote of confidence as yet

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The club let him down in the summer with almost no net spend.

The club have gone and bought 2 defenders who are completely inexperienced in the English game, let alone PL. The jury is very much out on these 2 players - who have played twice out of the last 3 games when we have shopped 10 goals.

AN has definitely made mistakes but it''s no wonder he''s struggled to find his best team when he''s not been able to strengthen his team appropriately.

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[quote user="Kingston Yellow"]The club let him down in the summer with almost no net spend.

The club have gone and bought 2 defenders who are completely inexperienced in the English game, let alone PL. The jury is very much out on these 2 players - who have played twice out of the last 3 games when we have shopped 10 goals.

AN has definitely made mistakes but it''s no wonder he''s struggled to find his best team when he''s not been able to strengthen his team appropriately.[/quote]The net spend figure (perhaps somewhere between £4m and £6m) is misleading for two reasons. Three of the major signings (all pretty much welcomed here at the time) were Mulumbu, who was a free agent, and Jarvis and Mbokani, whom we acquired on loan, and so none of those cost a proper transfer fee. Secondly, having plainly decided (rightly or wrongly) we had no need of Johnson, we managed to get £6m for him very late on.

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All this talk of a best eleven is pretty strange.  We have a big strong squad and Neil is using it.  Each and every player in the squad is able to step into the first team if they are fit and on form  - and we would probably have a settled side if we were winning more. But hey, we''re losing games and the first thing people would be saying if we kept losing games and AN was picking a settled team, would be "change it" because we are losing!  You can''t have it both ways.

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[quote user="mrs miggins"]I can''t remember if he was sacked for being a (unt or left because his son was being a (unt. One of the two.[/quote]Both, the bullet headed loon and his son are both cunts[:D]

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Purple - I don''t agree the net spend misleading. I think it''s contextual. I simply cannot begin to understand what went on in the summer transfer window.

Out of interest (and I''m not picking another argument) how did you arrive at £4m - £6m?

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Constantly changing our managers is the problem,each one inherits the last ones team then recruits what they think they need then get sacked and off we go again. Survival or relegation we need to stick with AN and allow him to builda settled well gelled team and move on from there. I''m slightly biased as I hate premier league football but love the black hole that is the championship.

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No problem you will be happy next season as we''re heading at a breath-taking speed towards your promised land.

With the way things are going could even finish bottom

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[quote user="lake district canary"]All this talk of a best eleven is pretty strange.  We have a big strong squad and Neil is using it.  Each and every player in the squad is able to step into the first team if they are fit and on form  - and we would probably have a settled side if we were winning more. But hey, we''re losing games and the first thing people would be saying if we kept losing games and AN was picking a settled team, would be "change it" because we are losing!  You can''t have it both ways.

[/quote]We have a big strong squad ? really . We are so light in all positions and that''s why we are the whipping boys .It does not matter which of the three strikers we start with because none of them score goals , it does not matter which defenders we start with because they all concede goals , the midfield which once looked our strongest part of the squad now has the likes of O''Neil and Mulumbu strolling around . We are so short of the required standard it really is miracle required time .

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