Should he go or should he stay?

[Woodcote Royal]

Who comes in and does better then? I want to hear the nay-sayers alternative suggestions.

McD has had a poor season and has signed poorly last summer.....but who else is going to get more from such a (comparatively) weak squad. I'd like to think that Brian deserves a chance to rebuild in the Championship last season, just as Coppell had one season following relegation. Not sure that AZ would feel the same way, mind.

I would take Phil Parkinson in a heartbeat.

God bless the Reading legend but this is priceless

[SPARTA]

Surely if we're in the promotion mix next year, that'll be lightning striking thrice?

We wont be with this style of football and with the players we will lose (Pog for certain, Pearce looks like he's off, Morro getting all the headlines and now linked with Arsenal - hell, even the useless Churchy will be off in Jan). We got lucky last season, most of us recognise that. We will go down a weaker team than the one that won promotion. You fancy an immediate return? Not a chance!

[melonhead]

If we go down with Brian, nothing will change. Good players will go, average bargain basement hard-workers will come in, and we will continue to play long-ball, sit deep and soak up the pressure football in the hope of lightening striking twice and somehow being in the promotion mix next season. Brian doesn't know any other way to play, and that is now his undoing!

So the first six months under McDermott prior to selling Sigurdsson was long-ball, sit deep and soak up the pressure stuff? Ok.

lol

agreed


he plays the best way to suit the players he has



if a sigurdsson was available hed have gone for him, and played that way again

[SPARTA]

If we go down with Brian, nothing will change. Good players will go, average bargain basement hard-workers will come in, and we will continue to play long-ball, sit deep and soak up the pressure football in the hope of lightening striking twice and somehow being in the promotion mix next season. Brian doesn't know any other way to play, and that is now his undoing!

So the first six months under McDermott prior to selling Sigurdsson was long-ball, sit deep and soak up the pressure stuff? Ok.

No, but he hasn't ever returned to it, has he? It's been long-ball direct football ever since. What's that, 30 months of football and the same system? He has built his own team to suit his own direct style. Hard workers who hustle and bustle. That's what he wants, that's what we are, that's what we will continue to be under his management. You can't blame him; he feels it's tried and tested, which at the level below it is, but we need to play football and make better use of a quality passer of the ball in Guthrie, and pacey wingers in McCleary and Kebe, and a top end goalscorer at this level in Pogrebnyak who is being wasted with a brand of football that doesn't get the best out of him. We could be doing a lot better with this team IMO.

[SPARTA]

If we go down with Brian, nothing will change. Good players will go, average bargain basement hard-workers will come in, and we will continue to play long-ball, sit deep and soak up the pressure football in the hope of lightening striking twice and somehow being in the promotion mix next season. Brian doesn't know any other way to play, and that is now his undoing!

So the first six months under McDermott prior to selling Sigurdsson was long-ball, sit deep and soak up the pressure stuff? Ok.

lol

agreed


he plays the best way to suit the players he has

lol

agreed

he plays the best way to suit the players he has brought to the club...

[melonhead]

lol


agreed


the best possible players he could bring here with the money available

[Jay o/]

lol

agreed


he plays the best way to suit the players he has

lol

agreed

he plays the best way to suit the players he has brought to the club...

Can't argue with SPARTA on that. Brian should be judged on his signings, his playing style, his tactics. No excuses!

[melonhead]

Brian should be judged on his signings, his playing style, his tactics, his budget

[sandman]

Why shouldn't those players adapt to our style of play?

[melonhead]

especially if theyve not done enough to demand we build a style/team around them

[Cobi]

Can't argue with SPARTA on that. Brian should be judged on his signings, his playing style, his tactics. No excuses!

Agreed. At the end of the day Brian has picked these players, and picked the style he wants. I completely disagree with melonhead saying he bought what he could with the money he had available. He brought in attack minded midfielders like Howard to play the Sig role, yet we still played the same direct football -- not the flowing football we did when Sig was here. One of Howards biggest downfalls was that he didn't work hard enough. As a manager you are quite rightly judged on who you buy, where you play them, and how you task the team to play. It doesn't work at this level, that is clear for all to see, and yet we still don't try and play a different way. Don't try and tell me we don't have the players to play a passing game! Guthrie in the middle pulling the strings with a holding midfielder along side him, good wingers wanting the ball out wide, a good variation of strikers wanting service from the wings and through the middle. The tools are there to play a better brand of football. However, Brian doesn't want anyone in the middle slowing down the pace of the game. He doesn't want anyone to over-pass the ball. He wants route one, and we get 33% possession for it.

[Man Friday]

I like Brian but I love RFC.

Gay.

You say it as though it's an insult.

[Arnie_Pie]

These forums appear to be attracting far more cock-ends than ever before.

[sandman]

It is to the TheSieve.

[handbags_harris]

Brian picked these players because there was absolutely no way we could hope to replace Sigurdsson with a like-for-like signing of the same quality. Therefore he had to look at what he had and play to their strengths around a focal point - we had Shane Long up front and a team of honest tryers ehind him. He couldn't go out and buy another Sigurdsson so to make the team perform to the best of their ability he went out and signed Leigertwood. His quote when signing was that he would enable us to attack better - and he was absolutely right. We did attack better. Long then left, and he was in the same boat again. The style is similar but was sporadic at best until Roberts came in with the new money (which I am led to believe still hasn't actually materialised). Even then, you may notice that the style changed again when we played Guthrie in the middle, much more emphasis on balls to feet, whether by design or not, the style changed with him in the side. It is, however, questionable whether it actually improved the side. So yes, his style since Sigurdsson has been much more direct but when you have the two best players this club has has produced since the academy formation (Long loosely placed into this category) sold from under your feet, two players who the teams were built around, then it is very much a case of back to basics. That unfortunately means direct football. It does not mean McDermott cannot adapt a new style of play because he has done it twice already.

[Royal Lady]

Hi Wooly68 - you started another thread saying "taxi for McDermott" - are you Guthrie in disguise?

[Hampshire Royal]

It must be just me, but I have seen 3 games this season - Newcastle, Norwich and Arsenal. In the first half against Arsenal we played some really good football and were ultimately unlucky to lose, Against Newcastle, we again played good football. The Norwich game was different in that we played against a team that just 'parked the bus'.

I have seen games on TV where we just didn't play hoofball - OK there are the occasional hoofs out of defence, but name a team that doesn't do that. Brian's problem, if there is one, is always going for the win, so maybe that's why we are vulnerable at the back at the end of games.

We have been so unlucky to draw or lose some games, and surely this luck must change. To people who say sack Brian - what planet do they live on?

[soggy biscuit]

Even if we lose 5-0 I will be disappointed if McDermott is sacked

[SPARTA]

It must be just me, but I have seen 3 games this season - Newcastle, Norwich and Arsenal. In the first half against Arsenal we played some really good football and were ultimately unlucky to lose, Against Newcastle, we again played good football. The Norwich game was different in that we played against a team that just 'parked the bus'.

I have seen games on TV where we just didn't play hoofball - OK there are the occasional hoofs out of defence, but name a team that doesn't do that. Brian's problem, if there is one, is always going for the win, so maybe that's why we are vulnerable at the back at the end of games.

We have been so unlucky to draw or lose some games, and surely this luck must change. To people who say sack Brian - what planet do they live on?

Hi Brian. Thanks for taking the forum's advice on team selection tonight. Obviously if it all goes tits up the buck ultimately stops with you. Break a leg. SPARTA.

[JayRoyal]

Di Matteo anyone?