by alfie9 »
01 Oct 2017 06:28
I want Stam to succeed and if it were my decision, I'd give him the full season at least (unless we are in a serious relegation battle around Christmas/January).
Based on performances and his body language, I think he's in over his head right now. For the first time ever he's been given a sizable budget and was able to complete a squad largely made up of his own signings. Problem is, it's a big squad. Trying to keep all those players happy (that are expecting a fair amount of game time) is probably causing him problems. Team spirit seems low at the moment. His rigid possession based ideology isn't working without a striker up front, and he seems to be in denial about it. The frustrating thing is, I really do believe that strikerless could work in this team. It requires more movement and risk, our players need to be able to drag defenders out of position to create space. Unfortunately, the lack of movement from the midfielders and forwards this month is clearly indicating that it's Stam's instructions that are holding the likes of Aluko, Beerens, McCleary and co. back. Stam has every right to be confident about his philosophy after last season's success, but the football has not improved this month, if anything it has regressed. The Aston Villa win, which brought so much optimism, feels months away. (And on that note, where the hell is Popa?)
Sometimes I think that the knee jerk reaction of sacking him now would be best, because I want to be entertained, not walking away from games feeling as though we hadn't given it our all. But then I think about what happened last season... the man performed miracles. We finished third with an inexperienced, thin squad. We beat Fulham because of one of the best tactical performances I have ever seen by a Reading manager. He gave us one of the most electric nights in the history of the Mad Stad.
So no, I don't want to see him sacked any time soon. But ultimately this fast-paced world of football management will always follow the old Survivor principle: you must learn to adapt, or you'll be voted out. It is time to adapt.