Brian: The right decision?

[Man Friday]

Well we'll just have to see won't we? We should know by this time next year.

[Man Friday]

On todays performance...should we have sacked BMD sooner? Given Adkins more time to teach the players how to play football...?

Yeah I liked today's performance, particularly the bit where we got completely shat on and couldn't string two passes together ie the entire first half

We went in 0-0 and ended the game 0-0 and could have stolen it. That, against a very good, still improving team.

We'd've lost by at least 4 goals under BMc

"Scraping 1-0s and hanging on isn't my idea of "fun"."

Not clear about the difference here.

[Man Friday]

We'd've lost by at least 4 goals under BMc

You mean like we had been all season.

Oh no, hang on, our losses, with just a couple of exceptions (3-0), were by narrow margins.

[Snowball]

We'd've lost by at least 4 goals under BMc

You mean like we had been all season.

Oh no, hang on, our losses, with just a couple of exceptions (3-0), were by narrow margins.

We have been getting worse since the upward blip in January-Feb

1-2 versus a crap Stoke side, now in serious danger of the drop
1-2 at Man Utd
0-3 utter crap versus a poor Wigan side, still in the bottom 3
1-3 at Everton, well outplayed
1-2 versus Villa (and they are a really top side aren't they?)

0-1 at Man Utd (Dolan)
1-4 at Arsenal (Adkins)
0-2 v Southampton (Adkins, the first green shoots of ability...)
0-0 v a very good Liverpool side (won 5-2 at Norwich, 4-0 at Wigan, 3-0 at QPR, 2-1 at Villa, 3-2 at West Ham, 2-1 at WBA, 2-2 at Man City, 2-2 at Arsenal, 1-1 at Chelsea, 0-0 at Swansea)

[Snowball]

"Scraping 1-0s and hanging on isn't my idea of "fun"."

Not clear about the difference here.

Last season, a season where we become Champions without playing good football, I didn't find very enjoyable.

We were at "our level" but (for me) rarely looked genuinely deserving of our victories. I'd take the wins, but...



I haven't found this season enjoyable either, but I feel like we are a Championship side and any time
we get something "against the odds" (a little team playing with the big boys) it feels special, like
an FA Cup Giant-Killing feat

[creative_username_1]

We'd've lost by at least 4 goals under BMc

You mean like we had been all season.

Oh no, hang on, our losses, with just a couple of exceptions (3-0), were by narrow margins.

We have been getting worse since the upward blip in January-Feb

1-2 versus a crap Stoke side, now in serious danger of the drop
1-2 at Man Utd
0-3 utter crap versus a poor Wigan side, still in the bottom 3
1-3 at Everton, well outplayed
1-2 versus Villa (and they are a really top side aren't they?)


0-1 at Man Utd (Dolan)
1-4 at Arsenal (Adkins)
0-2 v Southampton (Adkins, the first green shoots of ability...)
0-0 v a very good Liverpool side (won 5-2 at Norwich, 4-0 at Wigan, 3-0 at QPR, 2-1 at Villa, 3-2 at West Ham, 2-1 at WBA, 2-2 at Man City, 2-2 at Arsenal, 1-1 at Chelsea, 0-0 at Swansea)

If we're using a tiny sample then the worst result is under Adkins. Not saying he won't be the best Reading mnager ever (i hope he is)
but not sure how anyone can draw any conclusions

[Snowball]

The point was we were getting worse and in danger of finishing with about 15 consecutive defeats.

That is why, IMO, Brian had to go.

Change of manager once (Eamon at Man Utd) then again.

It's quite ridiculous to imagine a total change of culture in such a short time, and Adkins
had barely SEEN the players before the Arsenal game as it was International Week

And TBF Arsenal were special that day (and their run is now WWWWW 13-3)

But Adkins made us look better v Saints, Competitive for half an hour until Fed's mistake

and better again IMO v a very good Liverpool.

[WAZZOCK]

We looked fitter, is this as a result of Adkins getting them in for double sessions? Probably.

[creative_username_1]

We looked fitter, is this as a result of Adkins getting them in for double sessions? Probably.

how can we test this. I should imagine they keep data on this. If you can get hold of it, great, we can discuss how fit they are

[Man Friday]

We'd've lost by at least 4 goals under BMc

You mean like we had been all season.

Oh no, hang on, our losses, with just a couple of exceptions (3-0), were by narrow margins.

We have been getting worse since the upward blip in January-Feb

1-2 versus a crap Stoke side, now in serious danger of the drop
1-2 at Man Utd
0-3 utter crap versus a poor Wigan side, still in the bottom 3
1-3 at Everton, well outplayed
1-2 versus Villa (and they are a really top side aren't they?)

0-1 at Man Utd (Dolan)
1-4 at Arsenal (Adkins)
0-2 v Southampton (Adkins, the first green shoots of ability...)
0-0 v a very good Liverpool side (won 5-2 at Norwich, 4-0 at Wigan, 3-0 at QPR, 2-1 at Villa, 3-2 at West Ham, 2-1 at WBA, 2-2 at Man City, 2-2 at Arsenal, 1-1 at Chelsea, 0-0 at Swansea)

I thought we were talking about under McDermott?

[Man Friday]

But Adkins made us look better v Saints, Competitive for half an hour until Fed's mistake

and better again IMO v a very good Liverpool.

Absolute rubbish. We were dreadful against the Saints - except for a 10 min spell, certainly not half an hour.

And as for the Liverpool match, if we hadn't had Gordon Banks in goal and generally been lucky we'd have been 6-0 down before we had our first chance.

For someone that likes to quote facts, your non-facts communication is incredibly biased/blinkered/barmy.

[Snowball]

After the brief flurry of good results we started to get worse and worse
and IMO had he stayed we might well have lost all our remaining games
because, it looked to me, like morale and confidence were totally shot,
our "tactics" were completely sussed and easily dealt with and the crowd
was starting to turn on the team, especially a few players, and the manager was
starting to act desperately.

McDermott's influence didn't disappear the day he left. His players had had
three years of a particular style drummed into them. That influence will take
a lot more than one game for Dolan and 2-3-4 for Adkins to totally disappear.

But gradually, gradually, the influence is diminishing

[winchester_royal]

But Adkins made us look better v Saints, Competitive for half an hour until Fed's mistake

and better again IMO v a very good Liverpool.

Absolute rubbish. We were dreadful against the Saints - except for a 10 min spell, certainly not half an hour.

And as for the Liverpool match, if we hadn't had Gordon Banks in goal and generally been lucky we'd have been 6-0 down before we had our first chance.

For someone that likes to quote facts, your non-facts communication is incredibly biased/blinkered/barmy.

I'm sorry, but rofl at having ago at Snowball for misrepresenting the truth and then saying we should have been 6-0 were it not for 'Banks'-esque saves

Given the McDermott apologists are so quick to defend our 'fortune' last season by saying it's only the final result that counts, surely they should now be rejoicing in a draw against Liverpool which has to go down as one of the better results of the season so far?

[DandyRoyal]

I don't think we looked fitter against Liverpool, everyone was dying in the frantic finale - the midfield was totally done, including Carrico who had only been on half an hour! (played well tho). The epic tackle on Gerrard seemed to sap his strength. One of the few things I will happily credit Gunter with is physical fitness - best lungs in the team IMO (different to Karacan who has energy, not lungs).

[St. Brynjar]

One of the few things I will happily credit Gunter with is physical fitness - best lungs in the team IMO (different to Karacan who has energy, not lungs).

An excellent point, he definitely put a shift in.

[Vic_Flange]

FFS sake; this thread sounds like to pissed old farts at a wake.

Brian can't lose as we all know he was sacked at a stupid time (I never thought I'd welcome a Leeds win but well done)

Nigel can't lose as we are as good as down already.

We didn't get enough Premier League-quality players, and whose fault is that? Loyalty and niceness come behind staying up.

End of.

Now, can we drink up please gentleman, we've all got homes to go.

[RoyalBlue]

FFS sake; this thread sounds like to pissed old farts at a wake.

Brian can't lose as we all know he was sacked at a stupid time (I never thought I'd welcome a Leeds win but well done)

Nigel can't lose as we are as good as down already.

We didn't get enough Premier League-quality players, and whose fault is that? Loyalty and niceness come behind staying up.

End of.

Now, can we drink up please gentleman, we've all got homes to go.

We certainly all don't know or agree that McDermott was sacked at a stupid time. Indeed the performance in the first thirty minutes v Southampton and throughout the game against Liverpool would suggest quite the opposite. It is quite clear that Adkins is making the most of the extra time that he has been given to assess the squad and start building for next season. Fingers crossed, we will not experience the traditional 'McDermott slow start'. If things continue this way, we will go down in far better shape and morale than we would have done when we inevitably crashed out had McDermott been allowed to continue in post. What's more, we would have then missed out on Adkins.

Maybe the timing of McDermott's sacking was stupid in that it should have come at an earlier time. However, can you imagine the outcry that there would have been had he been sacked earlier, particularly when for a brief period of time it looked as though he might have turned the corner in terms of results?!

[Cypry]

Maybe the timing of McDermott's sacking was stupid in that it should have come at an earlier time. However, can you imagine the outcry that there would have been had he been sacked earlier, particularly when for a brief period of time it looked as though he might have turned the corner in terms of results?!

I do wonder if Brian winning manager of the month gave the club a big headache and made it harder to act quickly when it became obvious that our brief upturn in results was exactly that, brief....
In fact the MoM award seemed to live up to it's reputation in spades for Brian - he didn't win a game after that was awarded on the 6th Feb.....

[winchester_royal]

He should have been sent packing after the miserable performance we put in during the defeat away to Sunderland, but as RB says I think there would have been far more outcry had it been done then. Plus one of the main factors for his dismissal was the poor January window, sacking him after the summer window where Anton was just as at fault would have left him far more vulnerable to criticism.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

If, as it seems, he was sacked for not spending enough in the January window, I think it's significant that he was sacked at the start of the first international week after that.

I think the plan was to use that break of two weeks without matches to get someone in quickly and so have an easy transition - but it seems that idea when tits up in reality, and whoever they had lined up was stringing them along or changed their mind.