How long do we give him?

[Animis]

He seems to have a philosophy of 'keeping it tight', as many of our last 5 managers have implemented.

 

With our demise in the championship over the last 4 years, I could have almost have tolerated/accepted this approach, but surely we need to do better in L1.

 

We seem almost scared to be expansive, and this can only be the coaches instructions. We are not creating enough, and end up hanging on and individual errors are then magnified.

[SiJ]

1 minute ago, @owlstalk said:

 

 

But we would have won if he’d not thrown the ball into his own net

 

Everyone would have said crap performance but got the points in a tricky away fixture

 

We would have been back to winning ways 

Confidence would have returned 

 

 

I know, but reading the reports of those who were there or watched on ifollow, it sounds like it was another underwhelming display against a poor side.

 

That's going off what others have said, admittedly.

 

I can confirm we were utter crap against Shrewsbury once we missed the pen. Saw that with my own two eyes.

[Guest Grandad]

1 minute ago, mcmigo said:

Very early days. It will take time to get this style working. 
 

defenders need to get more comfortable receiving the ball in tighter spaces, and further up players need to gel better .

 

no point going back to 4 4 2 and punting it, we have played that lots over last 20 years with absolutely no success.

 

 

*apart from our 2 promotions from the 3rd tier

[TodwickOwl]

9 shots on goal in 4 games says it all 
 

It isn’t working Darren, stop trying to carry on as you are and make a change now before you’re a gonner

[parajack]

2 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

 

There’s nothing more to it than this

There is mate.......& we have discussed it many,many times on here...our inability when one nil up,to score again and close down a game,or to go one nil behind and be unable to claw our way back into a game.

 

YES our GK dropped a clanger,so did Jamie Vardy yesterday,scored in his own goal,missed a sitter at the other end,but than went on to score two more..........

Happens to the best of GKs....

If we had set up to attack in a more direct fashion & put our opponents under more pressure,BPF  mistake would have made no difference at all,to anyone but him....

[mcmigo]

2 minutes ago, parajack said:

We need historically mate to be more than 1 goal up to be sure of winning a game,just how it is.....Knowing that we need to set up so we can  soak up the mistakes (we know really) we are going to keep on seeing,whether its BPF or a defender droppiing a clanger

To do that we need to set up to attack quickly and score more goals...We will not do that in my view playing it out.......

Plenty of teams play out from the back and score lots of goals .  The MK dons goalie no longer takes goal kick restarts, the defender passes it to the keeper who then dribbles it forwards to create space for a short pass.

It will take time to get this right. 

 

[@owlstalk]

1 minute ago, SiJ said:

I know, but reading the reports of those who were there or watched on ifollow, it sounds like it was another underwhelming display against a poor side.

 

That's going off what others have said, admittedly.

 

I can confirm we were utter crap against Shrewsbury once we missed the pen. Saw that with my own two eyes.

 

 

Yeah but we need a win more than a great performance 

 

We were seconds away from that 

 

Then our keeper throws the ball into his own net 

[SiJ]

All the talk of systems...I'm not sure playing 4-4-2 makes much difference if you are lethargic and just pass the ball from side to side.

[Steve Down South]

22 minutes ago, mcmigo said:

I have a sort of second  team - MK dons - as it is close to where I live and kids get in free. So I often pop in there and watch their games , so have seen how they have progressed.

 

under Paul tisdale, they played boring and mainly long ball football which just about did enough to stay up 

 

they then moved to Russell Martin who introduced playing out from the back, and to be fair the defenders made mistake after mistake doing it. The left back lewington has been there since they were Wimbledon and you don’t suddenly change a player who started nearly 20 years ago overnight. but they stuck with it.

 

this season the 3 times I have seen them they look certain to go up . They have a goalie and defenders who literally never go long , are all now comfortable in tight space and on the ball; and they pull teams apart very easily.   They play one up front but it’s a very fluid midfield . 

 

that took two and a half seasons , but they are now there and I will be amazed if they aren’t promoted automatically. 
 

we are giving our players a handful of games before demanding we go back to 4 4 2 and aimless punting.

 

we need to give this time, it will work in the end. 

Whilst I’ve no real knowledge of what’s going on at MK Dons this season, I agree 100% with the sentiment of your post.  It’s a good balanced view, let’s be realistic and give it time.

[@owlstalk]

1 minute ago, TodwickOwl said:

9 shots on goal in 4 games says it all 
 

It isn’t working Darren, stop trying to carry on as you are and make a change now before you’re a gonner

 

I reckon Channers won’t dismiss him this season 

[mcmigo]

4 minutes ago, Grandad said:

*apart from our 2 promotions from the 3rd tier

And then nearly went down again when we got back up , those 2 seasons back up were absolutely awful .

the teams that have gone through both leagues - Norwich, Leeds, pigs, Swansea et al have all done so having changed the style . We punted our way up , then got back to the championship and kept punting it.

 

 

 

[everydayiswednesday]

2 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

 

I reckon Channers won’t dismiss him this season 

I fear you are correct.  Could change if crowd's plummet. 

[morganowl]

19 minutes ago, mcmigo said:

I have a sort of second  team - MK dons - as it is close to where I live and kids get in free. So I often pop in there and watch their games , so have seen how they have progressed.

 

under Paul tisdale, they played boring and mainly long ball football which just about did enough to stay up 

 

they then moved to Russell Martin who introduced playing out from the back, and to be fair the defenders made mistake after mistake doing it. The left back lewington has been there since they were Wimbledon and you don’t suddenly change a player who started nearly 20 years ago overnight. but they stuck with it.

 

this season the 3 times I have seen them they look certain to go up . They have a goalie and defenders who literally never go long , are all now comfortable in tight space and on the ball; and they pull teams apart very easily.   They play one up front but it’s a very fluid midfield . 

 

that took two and a half seasons , but they are now there and I will be amazed if they aren’t promoted automatically. 
 

we are giving our players a handful of games before demanding we go back to 4 4 2 and aimless punting.

2 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

 

 

But we would have won if he’d not thrown the ball into his own net

 

Everyone would have said crap performance but got the points in a tricky away fixture

 

We would have been back to winning ways 

Confidence would have returned 

 

 

dont matter if you win draw  or lose at not 1 game this season have we looked quality creating plenty of chances , we have had 10 min spells against doncaster ,shrewsbury apart from that its been tepid , how on earth can success be achieved by having a lone striker gregory 33year old totally isolated even if he was in his prime or had some premier league striker they would still struggle in this system . i dont like how we set up or play and to be frank ive hardly heard anyone stick up for it . i really thought darren was going to turn our club around but its clear already he has not got a plan b . clubs even at league 1 level can easily combat us. 

we need to give this time, it will work in the end. 

 

[parajack]

4 minutes ago, TodwickOwl said:

9 shots on goal in 4 games says it all 
 

It isn’t working Darren, stop trying to carry on as you are and make a change now before you’re a gonner

Well done mate,GREAT post,& bang on the money,summed it up ....his system is wrong.....we can go into the ifs,buts & whys...all day.....

Its not a personnel issue,we have the players we have,& thats it...up to DM to adapt & set up a systym to outscore our opponents,& allow for the inevitable mistakes & clangers that will always surface at this level..

No point trotting out 'possession' stats......they dont win games..

[Guest Grandad]

5 minutes ago, mcmigo said:

And then nearly went down again when we got back up , those 2 seasons back up were absolutely awful .

the teams that have gone through both leagues - Norwich, Leeds, pigs, Swansea et al have all done so having changed the style . We punted our way up , then got back to the championship and kept punting it.

 

 

 

But did stay up

 

And made steady progress season on season the 2nd time - building on the squad and finishing higher and higher - until our Chairman f****d it up

[morganowl]

11 minutes ago, Animis said:

He seems to have a philosophy of 'keeping it tight', as many of our last 5 managers have implemented.

 

With our demise in the championship over the last 4 years, I could have almost have tolerated/accepted this approach, but surely we need to do better in L1.

 

We seem almost scared to be expansive, and this can only be the coaches instructions. We are not creating enough, and end up hanging on and individual errors are then magnified.

we are not creating anything and already have some of the worst stats in the league for that , id pretty much say for a neutral we must be the most boring team to watch in league 1 , im pretty sure goals scored and conceded along with chances must be 24th in the league . 

[FreshOwl]

What it boils down to is the fact it’s a completely different set of players, but the same problems continue 

 

- struggle to kill teams off 

- mental fragility 

- lack of identity and game plan 

- general passiveness

- incredibly slow tempo 

 

So if we still have these problems with a completely different group, where does the fault lie

 

The coaching staff who have been ever present during the transition? 

 

 

[Guest Grandad]

10 minutes ago, mcmigo said:

And then nearly went down again when we got back up , those 2 seasons back up were absolutely awful .

the teams that have gone through both leagues - Norwich, Leeds, pigs, Swansea et al have all done so having changed the style . We punted our way up , then got back to the championship and kept punting it.

 

When did Leeds go straight through into the Prem? They spent 10 seasons in the Championship after their promotion from League 1?

Swansea spent 3 seasons in the Championship after promotion from League 1

 

 

[mcmigo]

2 minutes ago, FreshOwl said:

What it boils down to is the fact it’s a completely different set of players, but the same problems continue 

 

- struggle to kill teams off 

- mental fragility 

- lack of identity and game plan 

- general passiveness

- incredibly slow tempo 

 

So if we still have these problems with a completely different group, where does the fault lie

 

The coaching staff who have been ever present during the transition? 

 

 

It lies with no one really as it is far too early .

 

defenders and goalie need to get more comfortable and confident to receive ball in tight spaces and use it not smash it . That takes time.

 

Midfield need to get used to playing together.

 

SB needs to get up to match fitness properly and find his feet.

 

etc etc

 

its very very early days 

[mcmigo]

Just now, Grandad said:

 

When did Leeds go straight through into the Prem? They spent 10 seasons in the Championship after their promotion from League 1?

Swansea spent 3 seasons in the Championship after promotion from League 1

 

 

Exactly .

 

proves my point.