andrew1957 I will start by saying I have nothing against Adkins. But I hope all of you who wanted Brian sacked for making an odd strange team selection or tactical decision are happy about Saturday. It seemed to me that then both team selection and substitutions were very odd indeed.
Yes thanks. The first 30 minutes was one of the brighter performances of the season I've seen, alongside parts of Sunderland at home, Chelsea away and Man Utd away. Nice signs we're going in the right direction and unfortunate we're not in a position where we look like we'll get a new manager bounce.
Not sure what was odd about subbing on Leigertwood for an injured Akpan. Or McCleary for a tired and bypassed Guthrie. The only slightly odd one was Hunt instead of Pog.
andrew1957 In my opinion Brain was a genius at getting the best out of what he had. He would look at the players at his disposal and work out a system to fit that availability. He made 4-2-3-1 work, 4-5-1 work and 4-4-2 work at times. He made 4-2-3-1 work brilliantly in 2010 and then at the end of the season he lost Sigurdsson. In 2011 he rebuilt around Long changing to 4-4-2 and we nearly went up. Again the best players were sold. He rebuilt again and in 2012 we went up far too early - his crime was being too successful too soon.
yes, but sadly he didn't do it at all this season.
4-2 Chelsea, 7-5 Arsenal, 5-2 Arsenal, 4-3 Utd, 3-0 Sunderland, 3-1 Spurs, 3-1 Spurs, 3-0 Wigan all contenders for a thrashing.andrew1957 I am still furious he was sacked. I said when he was that we had lost our one tiny chance of survival with his sacking. He simply got the best out of limited players. Over this season we were seldom thrashed under his guidance.
andrew1957 Adkins totally failed to do that in his first two woeful attempts and we were soundly beaten both games. They were not even close.
Yeah, we were shocking in comparison to the previous 5 games. What a load of impatient biased nonsense
Don't be ridiculous. With a few key additions most of the players will be able to do the job we need.andrew1957 Now we will need a completely new squad. I doubt there are more than 4-5 players who can adapt to Adkin’s passing style, so the vast majority will now have to be moved on.
Brian had been poor this season and had shown no signs of really being able to build a team to take us forward or get us playing decent football. Please stop trying to make out Adkins was brought in to save us, he was brought in to give a us a better chance of survival, but primarily for next season and in the hope that if he does take us up it'll be with a squad in far better shape to survive.andrew1957 What is the point of this. Brian could have got us promoted again using the same tactics as before and then Anton could have invested massively in the squad - building on what we had. Now it has to be all change as the confidence of these players has been shot to pieces – not least by Brian’s sacking.
andrew1957 I really hope Anton has very deep pockets as he will need them - and a lot of patience if we try and change the way we play. I hope I am wrong but I fear a long stay in the Championship beckons.
We don't need major changes. Evolution rather than revolution. There's no reason to think Adkins will do any worse than McDermott would have done. He's got more experience of promotion. He's got experience winning a Play Off competition and he's got more experience in building a team to survive after promotion.
GTF over yourself. And GTF over Brian being sacked. It's happened, he got it because he didn't do a good enough job this season. End of.