Objectivity

[0Amarillo<P><FONT color=#cccc00 size=4><EM> º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ Amarillo ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°<EM><FONT><P>ddMMyyyy0Falseen-US<P><FONT color=#cccc00 size=4><EM> º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ Amarillo ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°<EM><FONT><P>True 0]

Amid all this manager talk, consider this: Palace fans are calling for Dowie''s head, and I''ve heard Rangers fans calling for McLeish''s head (they won the title last season!) and now some Everton fans calling for Moyes'' head.

They are all good managers who are going through a bad patch. Should they switch?

Should Palace sack Dowie? They are 2 points ahead of us and arguably a superb parallel example for ourselves - we should no more sack Worthy then they should sack Dowie.

Or, hey, Palace and us could swap managers?

[Robert N. LiM 4,244]

I think most of us would agree that Palace would be mad to sack Dowie, and I think most Palace fans would think we''d be mad to sack Worthington.

The only neutral match report I''ve read from Saturday, from the Observer, suggests that we played pretty well and missed a load of chances. Most of the posters on here suggest we were crap, but I wonder if the assessment of the performance would have been the same had Deano scored from the penalty. 

It''s interesting that on another post no one can agree on our best team for tomorrow night against Hull, suggesting that solutions to our current plight are by no means obvious.

As far as I can see, there are reasons for getting rid of a manager:

1) You think there''s someone else who can do the job better. I honestly can''t think of anyone who''s available, and the fact that some people are even nominating Kevin Keegan suggests that I''m right.

2) He''s lost the dressing room. No real evidence of this, is there?

3) He''s consistently been awful. I think, objectively, the jury''s out on this one. Don''t think anyone would argue with the job he did from taking over to winning promotion, and frustration at last season has surely got to be tempered with some realism. We went down on the last day. Yes, in hugely disappointing fashion, but were we really expecting mid-table security. Obviously this season has been a massive disappointment, but we have hadno continuity at all. Yes, Sheffield United have built a new team, but it hasn''t been disrupted as much as ours.

4) A change brings an immediate upturn in fortunes. Not in the days of the transfer window. A new manager can''t do anything with the squad until January. I don''t think the change is worth what it would cost us in compensation.

As my name suggests, I haven''t been to a game this season, and I can''t comment in detail on performances, but I think distance does give some objectivity, and this is my attempt at it. On the ball, City

[Salopian 1]

We are not talking about about a few matches, as in the case of other managers, but a continuous underperformance throughout last season and this, both with players now gone and with new ones.

Some of us have been patient, waiting for the new players to adjust to the way of playing. It has to be admitted that some have been injured, but with pre-season games it''s something like 15 games the majority have played together.

The fear is that the inconsistent and poor performances, except for a few at the end of last season and the muddle and lack of direction will continue through this season. While we may be be able to avoid relegation this time round, it is difficult to see a place much higher than we are at the moment. We have already played 6 home games out of 10, against indfferent teams, and even top teams missing key players, and we have seldom played confidently for more than part of a match. This surely has to be down to the management selection, tactics, substitutions and above all motivation.

[Ark 0]

I think the fact that Palace fans want Dowie out has to take the cupcake for me. Rick Waghorn suggested in his column the other week that this wasn''t the case and that therefore City fans were jumping the gun in calling for Worthy''s head... Dowie shouldn''t go (certainly not yet!) and ditto Worthy, this "new" revelation seems to show that all of us footie fans are a fickle bunch without an ability to sit back and look at the bigger picture... I would have to agree, because I know that I''m as guilty as many.

When you invest so much of your life in supporting a team it''s hard to accept that, on balance, they are likely to fail more than they succeed (ie. finish mid-table or get relegated as opposed to finishing in the top six), and you''re always likely to look for fast fixes and magic formulas for instant success (some chairmen are as guilty as fans). But simple maths dictates... you can''t have 24 teams finishing the season as champions!

[ronbol ronbol 0]

We didn''t deserve a draw from the spot, It would have only let worthington off the hook again. It was a dull dire match.

[0Amarillo<P><FONT color=#cccc00 size=4><EM> º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ Amarillo ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°<EM><FONT><P>ddMMyyyy0Falseen-US<P><FONT color=#cccc00 size=4><EM> º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ Amarillo ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°<EM><FONT><P>True 0]

Yep, fair enough.

I actually think our performances this season aren''t very different from the season we got promoted. I remember a lot of games where we were less than convincing but managed to get the win anyway - several last-minute winners for example. Remember the game on Boxing day when we unvailed Hux, against Forest? They were the better side on the day by far, but somehow we sneaked the 1-0. On Saturday Reading did it.

I''m not being complacent, but I do think there''s a very fine margin between winning and losing and we''re just on the wrong side of it at the moment. I think we have the players and the management to turn things around already, so to change the personnel now would only mean continued disruption when disruption (injuries in particular) are part of the problem.