Steve Clake - New Poll

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Steve Clarke

Poll ended at 24 Mar 2015 17:49
Yes
76
84%
No
14
16%
 
Total votes: 90
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RG7Fan
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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by RG7Fan » 07 Apr 2015 22:50

MmmMonsterMunch
Good point actually. I fear the players are getting off a bit too lightly in this discussion as well. They clearly can perform to a decent standard when required to as shown in the cup games.


I agree. They played with so much spirit, etc. against Bradford they looked like a different team, OK Bradford were pretty pants but we were better than we had been for a long while.

I think it was a point made by Mick Gooding on BBCRB after the Cardiff match. He said that on paper we have a strong squad for the Championship but we have massively underperformed, both under Adkins and Clarke, and shouldn't be 19th in the table. His view was that there must be another underlying issue that we don't know about ...

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by RG7Fan » 07 Apr 2015 22:52

MmmMonsterMunch Even if we hadn't had the cup run, we'd have finished at best 12th. We had no chance of promotion when Clarke joined. It would have taken a McDermott-esque run of 45 pts from 51 to give us even a sniff.

Semi at Wembley with crap league placing>>>>>>>>>no cup run & 12th place finish.


True, but people wouldn't have been shitting themselves about L1 next year ...

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by MmmMonsterMunch » 07 Apr 2015 22:58

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MmmMonsterMunch
Good point actually. I fear the players are getting off a bit too lightly in this discussion as well. They clearly can perform to a decent standard when required to as shown in the cup games.


I agree. They played with so much spirit, etc. against Bradford they looked like a different team, OK Bradford were pretty pants but we were better than we had been for a long while.

I think it was a point made by Mick Gooding on BBCRB after the Cardiff match. He said that on paper we have a strong squad for the Championship but we have massively underperformed, both under Adkins and Clarke, and shouldn't be 19th in the table. His view was that there must be another underlying issue that we don't know about ...


I suspect most of them know their future lies elsewhere next season - hence they are turning in decent performances in high profile games.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by Hoop Blah » 08 Apr 2015 12:26

Ian Royal ....Hector only looks better because he's gained experience from playing.


I think it's much more likely he's improving because he's being coached and instructed better to be honest.

Under Adkins we were far too open and he asked the defenders to take more risks on the ball. Clarke is much more pragmatic than that and not only is he giving the back for more support with the two midfielders in front of them and the fullbacks offering more cover I'm bet he's telling his centre halfs to concentrate on the basics of defending first and foremost, unlike Adkins.

In general I still think Clarke is doing a pretty decent job.

People can say he'd be in trouble without the cup run but if it wasn't for the cup run then we'd not be treating league games in the way we are. We've effectively played reserve teams in a number of games and in others you just know the players aren't playing flat out because they've got the cup in the back of their mind.

Add to that the loss of Murray and it's not really a surprise that Clarke's points per game isn't better than Adkins.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by RoyalBlue » 08 Apr 2015 16:31

But for the distraction of the FA Cup there would be far more criticism deservedly heading Clarke's way. The man focuses on selecting teams/tactics based on opponents' strengths, rather than ours, even more than Adkins. He tinkers and has come up with some truly bizarre selections/tactics that have backfired and cost us points. He is now onto moaning about refs and bleats about pitches more than any Reading manager I can remember. As for his signing of relics such as Yakubu and Knight....

I fear that he will waste whatever transfer funding we might get come the summer and be gone come the end of November/early December.


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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by Snowball » 08 Apr 2015 21:35

RoyalBlue He is now onto moaning about refs and bleats about pitches more than any Reading manager I can remember.

As for his signing of relics such as Yakubu and Knight....



Reading's pitch is the worst it's been for many a year and we've had to play at Bradford (one of the very worst pitches, maybe matched by Blackpool's)

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by tmesis » 08 Apr 2015 21:57

RoyalBlue But for the distraction of the FA Cup there would be far more criticism deservedly heading Clarke's way. The man focuses on selecting teams/tactics based on opponents' strengths, rather than ours

In fairness, I'm not sure I can remember what our strengths are.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by sandman » 08 Apr 2015 23:55

RoyalBlue He is now onto moaning about refs and bleats about pitches more than any Reading manager I can remember.



Oh the irony.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by Hoop Blah » 09 Apr 2015 09:25

RoyalBlue But for the distraction of the FA Cup there would be far more criticism deservedly heading Clarke's way. The man focuses on selecting teams/tactics based on opponents' strengths, rather than ours, even more than Adkins. He tinkers and has come up with some truly bizarre selections/tactics that have backfired and cost us points. He is now onto moaning about refs and bleats about pitches more than any Reading manager I can remember. As for his signing of relics such as Yakubu and Knight....

I fear that he will waste whatever transfer funding we might get come the summer and be gone come the end of November/early December.


You can't just discount the Cup success though, it's had a major effect on our fixture list and approach to the league games.

For what it's worth I don't think Clarke has tinkered due to the opposition as much as he has to protect players from their knocks and niggles and to keep them fresh for the Cup games. There's almost certainly an element of sussing out a few players before next season.

Signing Knight was presumably done specifically to allow both Pearce and Hector to be rested before the quarter final replay. I don't think you can knock that decision personally but I'd rather he'd have used Cooper and not Knight since then though.


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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by Ian Royal » 11 Apr 2015 19:40

Clarke's current performance has now slipped to worse than Adkins and if you look at a rolling 12 game points per game snapshot, there's a distinct downward trend. And it's unlikely to get any better against Bournemouth in our next outing.

The good work he did with the defence early on seemed to evaporate between Huddersfield and Charlton, although we're a bit more resilient again now. With the season virtually dead, I can't see it getting much better. We could really do with something to lift us going into the summer, but I just can't see any sort of decent finish out of this lot. They already look like everything's focused on the semi, and once we've demoralisingly lost that I can't see them starting to take the league seriously again.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by blueroyals » 11 Apr 2015 20:02

For me, his record since he took over proves that the issue is with the playing squad rather than a management issue.

He seems to agree with that, which is good. With that in mind he's got to sort things out in the summer or I can't see him making it through next season.

The performances this season should serve as a reminder to our owners of the impact of 3 years of transfer window incompetency. This is what happens when you sign & offer contracts to complete and utter drek over a period of time. Give SC freedom and I'm sure we'll be in a better position.

The current squad is an unfortunate amalgamation of signings by a long-ball merchant, a tippy-tappy pretender and an Russian playing IRL football manager.

A significant turn-over of playing staff in 1 window is unrealistic. And with FFP restrictions I can see it being a policy of "sell before you can buy" so it will be interesting to see how it unfolds. A lot of out-of-contract players are ones we'd like to keep, whereas the ones we want to move on still have 1 year+ left.

Next year will be a transition period, hopefully the season after we can make a push for play-offs.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by Nameless » 11 Apr 2015 21:24

Sell before you buy makes sense, but I don't think it will be sell in order to buy. And it may be more confirming exits rather than sales.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by Sutekh » 12 Apr 2015 08:57

A significant turn over of playing staff in the summer is not unrealistic, it could happen. Sure we'll probably still have big Pav on the wage bill but other than that I think anyone could be leaving with the places being largely taken by Academy graduates and bargain pick ups from abroad/lower leagues. If enough money also comes in there could be that one marquee type signing as well.

Cannot wait for the end of the Derby game, in just THREE WEEKS, so we can put this miserable season on and (esp.) off the field behind us and the wheeling and dealing can commence.


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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by 3points » 12 Apr 2015 09:17

We have a massive squad of players. BBCRB said we had used 37 players this season. I know a number of these have been fleeting appearances. But with a big drop in parachute payments that squad will have to reduce. Those wanting new contracts will have to accept lower money (Jem, Pearce, Feds) which I think the local lads are more likely to accept. Lots of free transfers coming I expect.

We don't have that many saleable assets either and I think it's the reason that both Gmac and Gunter have already been offered extensions, rather than allow them to leave on free transfers. It will be interesting to see how much the new owners are prepared to invest. But a good striker has got to be top of the most wanted list (again).

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by floyd__streete » 15 Apr 2015 08:21

Both Clarke and Adkins have now had 21 league games in charge this season. Adkins form extrapolated over a season would represent 54.76 points, which would be enough to survive relatively comfortably in most seasons other than perhaps 2012/13 when Peterborough went down with 54. Clarke's form extrapolated over the season would represent 48.19 points, relegation form in most seasons other than (potentially) this one. We're averaging 0.85 league goals per game under Clarke and we have failed to score in 7 of his 11 home league games in charge.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by RoyalBlue » 15 Apr 2015 08:32

sandman
RoyalBlue He is now onto moaning about refs and bleats about pitches more than any Reading manager I can remember.



Oh the irony.


Might be, if I was the manager. Someone please reset the poll after Saturday. He will then either be hero or zero.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by sandman » 15 Apr 2015 09:01

RoyalBlue
sandman
RoyalBlue He is now onto moaning about refs and bleats about pitches more than any Reading manager I can remember.



Oh the irony.


Might be, if I was the manager. Someone please reset the poll after Saturday. He will then either be hero or zero.


Nice attempt at an escape but it doesn't wash.

Adkins is gone and he failed, get over it. You're doing the exact same thing you accused many of doing with McDermott except you're backing a manager that did nothing to earn that amount of support.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by Extended-Phenotype » 15 Apr 2015 11:27

Steve Clarke is failing too. So he joins Adkins and McDermott on the pile at the moment.

Like others have said, starting to wonder if the team has some fatal flaws that three (supposedly) decent managers could not overcome.

Although of course, SC still has time.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by Coppelled_Streets » 15 Apr 2015 13:59

Extended-Phenotype Steve Clarke is failing too. So he joins Adkins and McDermott on the pile at the moment.

Like others have said, starting to wonder if the team has some fatal flaws that three (supposedly) decent managers could not overcome.

Although of course, SC still has time.


Clarke suggested recently that there are problems in the team and he knows what (who) they are. A clear-out is needed and it's unfair to judge the manager until he gets a chance to have that clear-out and bring in motivated players who want to play for this club. I don't even mind another season of struggle as long as the players are trying and giving everything - something I haven't seen much of for a long time.

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Re: Steve Clake - New Poll

by Ian Royal » 15 Apr 2015 18:55

sandman
RoyalBlue
Might be, if I was the manager. Someone please reset the poll after Saturday. He will then either be hero or zero.


Nice attempt at an escape but it doesn't wash.

Adkins is gone and he failed, get over it. You're doing the exact same thing you accused many of doing with McDermott except you're backing a manager that did nothing to earn that amount of support.

Like you got over McDermott?

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