Owls 4 Rovers 0

[roverstillidie]

Goodison provides leadership through his presence not his words, his recent form hasn't being helped by his depolyment on the right side of the defence - he is much more comfortable on the left.

As for any potential candidate, I'm not convinced by Harvey. Ray Mathias could be the kind of person to step in and provide some organisation and basic dicipline perhaps with the Chief as his assistant - we've suffered badly from his loss at the start of the season in my opinion.

Even if we stay up I think Parry has to go, the club isn't developing in any sort of way. I want Rovers to bring in a manager who will first and foremost get them playing football, at least then we will maintain steady attendances rather than the nosedive at the moment.

 

[SonkORLY?]

Even if we stay up I think Parry has to go, the club isn't developing in any sort of way. I want Rovers to bring in a manager who will first and foremost get them playing football, at least then we will maintain steady attendances rather than the nosedive at the moment.

Are you doing an impression of Peter Johnson sacking Ronnie Moore?

 

[Boz]

Why wait? If a change needs to be made, at 3-0 down, you can't write-off 9 minutes.



Taylor is a far better center-half than either of those and played very well against Huddersfield, as did the whole back 4. Makes un-enforced changes would have been a bizarre move.

Anyway we're obsessing over individuals but the team as a whole played appallingly and they need to take the blame for that.

I'm not a huge Parry fan (who is?) but if he keeps us up this season then fair play to him for doing so on a shoestring budget. Sacking him would be harsh. If we stay up, and continue with the 4-4-2 at PP, I'd be happy for him to stay. Sacking him now wouldn't be good as we'd rush into making a replacement. IMO Those suggesting he should be sacked should suggest a realistic alternative to seeing out the end of the season with him at the helm.

Not convinced by Jim Harvey - average semi-pro manager. Even less convinced by giving the job to Mahon or Goodison.

As you made reference to in an earlier post, which I'd agree with, Jennings starting was probably a mistake due to fitness issues. That said, he's a kid, whose confidence is fragile, hauling him off at that time for "tactical reasons", gives the impression that the blame is being heaped on him for being 3 down.

If your definition of playing well is to concede twice, not to creative vision or wonder goals, but defensive gaffes, then I wouldn't like to contemplate your idea of a defence playing badly. That said, I wasn't suggesting that we changed the defence from Saturday, merely my opinion of the defensive options available for the Owls or indeed the Huddersfield game.

If we continue on current form (6 points from 33), then we'll get ~4points from the remaining games and will be undisputedly down. At the moment we're in freefall, with little sign of improvement and doing nothing as you suggest is not an appealing option. My earlier post made it clear we weren't best equiped with players to try the Bristol Rovers model, maybe if ITM was still here... Mathias isn't available, trying to rescue Stockport from an even worse position. If the Chief were available, worth a punt, otherwise look at getting someone in until the end of the season to try and keep us up.

 

[roverstillidie]

Are you doing an impression of Peter Johnson sacking Ronnie Moore?

The football was actually improving under Ronnie Moore, his last season was much less hoof than the previous two. The team also played with commitment under Moore. We also had steady attendances around the 5500 mark under Moore. So no, I'm not.

 

[Mal]

To be fair to RoverstillIDie, from what I recall, he opposed Ronnie's sacking and indicated that the team had overachieved under him and that the appointment of Barnes would be a disaster, so his observations are based on assessing the situation, regardless as to whether others agree or disagree. Fair enough i.m.o. as the first two comments above were true!!

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I'm not a huge Parry fan (who is?) but if he keeps us up this season then fair play to him for doing so on a shoestring budget. Sacking him would be harsh. If we stay up, and continue with the 4-4-2 at PP, I'd be happy for him to stay.

I understand the argument that to change manager were we to stay up would be harsh, and agree with it in a sense, but I just don't have any confidence that Les can change our style of play to a more balanced approach that can entice the stay aways back. I just don't think he believes in attempting to play football, and probably does not know how to direct the team to play a more expansive style.

Attendances have fallen sharply this season, despite a slightly improved league position, and if there is a similar reduction next season we will be caught in a classic downward spiral. You can argue the stay aways are selfish and foolish for refusing to back the club and damaging it financially (I would agree), but falling gates are a harsh fact that the club has to recognise.

I totally accept, however, that making a rushed decision before the end of the season would be daft.

 

[SonkORLY?]

Fair enough Boz. General consensus was that the back 4 played well versus Hudders, think you even said that yourself.

Too many knee-jerk managerial decisions are made on the back of "poor form". Just as you don't hand out a new contract after a run of 10 good games, you don't sack your manager after a run of 10 bad ones. Over the course of the season we've picked up more points than Bristol, Notts County, Dagenham, Walsall, Swindon and Plymouth. The order in which these points are accumulated doesn't really matter. I hate the style of football we play under Les and we aren't playing well at the moment but overall he has done a good job considering that his aim is to keep us in League One. Form goes up and down for every team.

Attendences won't rise without investment in the squad or the appointment of a manager who is capable of sending us sky-rocketing up League 1 with a League 2 budget. Any manager of that calibre isn't going to take the Tranmere job. We are where we are because we are a small club, we have a poor manager because we are a small club.

I'm still waiting to hear better alternatives to Parry. I don't doubt that they exist neccesserily, I'm just interested. I think I'd like him to be replaced (although he might not deserve to be sacked) but I would need to have some idea of who I wanted us to appoint before I started singing "Parry out", etc.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I'm still waiting to hear better alternatives to Parry. I don't doubt that they exist neccesserily, I'm just interested. I think I'd like him to be replaced (although he might not deserve to be sacked) but I would need to have some idea of who I wanted us to appoint before I started singing "Parry out", etc.

Danny Wilson perhaps ? Gary Johnson went to a League Two club to find work. It is impossible to know the kind of alternatives that would be available to us without having access to financial information. Who knows, maybe Les is the very best we can afford ?

I still believe our style of play is having a noticeable, detrimental impact on attendances, but my concerns also go beyond attendances. For example, in terms of youth development I don't see how it is benefitting the likes of Ash Taylor to play the way we do. If you are a youngster who is strong physically, but struggles with distribution, our defence is the worst place you can be.

It should be pointed out also that talented managers (who may or may not be available to us) can produce tremendous results even with paltry budgets (cf. Keith Hill at Rochdale, John Coleman at Accrington, to an extent Paul Tisdale at Exeter and Mick Wadsworth at Hartlepool). These managers also all happen to believe in playing the game the right way.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

Interestingly, the 'alternatives' to Les as manager have CVs which I would say are that much better than Les, given how long some of them have been managing.

Danny Wilson? Sacked from a team below us. Gary Johnston? Many sackings. Keith Hill? Got Rochdale promoted eventually after many years - maybe an argument for giving Les the same opportunity? Ditto Paul Tisdale. Often the successful managers at our level are people who come from obscurity, spend a good few years building up a team, then finally get their rewards. Maybe we should do the same with Les......? (I'll just stand back now!)

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Wilson and Johnson both have many successes to their name as well, but you chose only to mention their failings. Any managers who have been in the game as long as them wil have black marks on their CV.

Given that Keith Hill is managing in the same division as Les with a budget that is of similar size, or even smaller, and is massively outperforming him would suggest he has a little magic which Les doesn't. Tisdale is a footballing purist whose whole philosophy is the complete opposite of Les's, which would account for his ability to improve players from Conference to League One standard.

Clearly Rochdale and Exeter gave these managers the time and space to develop and improve, but that doesn't mean that every novice manager will benefit from the same patience, and has any inate talent. From what I have seen of Les so far I don't believe he will develop into a Keith Hill, but I suppose that is a gut instinct rather than anything that can be proved objectively.

I agree that results would probably not improve markedly with a change of manager in the summer, and we would probably still be mired in relegation battles, but as I have said I am chiefly concerned about style of play, entertainment value of games, impact on attendances, further reductions in budgets etc.

 

[Ian]

Not that I'm saying Les should be a long-term option, not at all, but we would struggle to replace him with anyone half-decent. If we look back to the sacking off Barnes, it took ages to replace him as I believe we have zero pulling power for most managers, and in the end we just went for the easy, cheap option.