Holmes_and_Watson

Herd

Shake

Assessment

The Goggins/ Benali inspirational marathon dream ticket is but a Rasmus press conference away! Nige and Woodward can consult as we release that untapped potential on the rest of the season. 🙂

I'd have loved to have had Bielsa manage our club at any point. But it's a very emotion based wish just to have had him here. In practice, he wouldn't have lasted the summer. He lasted only a couple of days at Lazio. When they didn't bring him the agreed players, he was off like a shot. If he followed that approach with us, the lack of a striker would have been it. And I'm not objecting to that. If promises haven;t been kept, why put your reputation on the line/ waste your time. He may well have agreed whole heartedly with SR's desire to reduce that wage bill and focus on those youth players. But on at least one occassion a team he was with jettisoned too much experience. The youth floundered, and he was towards the bottom of the table when he went home, and was suspended by the club. Then there's the usual opinion on his teams. That they start brightly, but it catches up to them in the end. While you'd hope that would be managed better with experience/ sports science, I'd don't think it would have suited Lavia much. With Romeu likely to have been just as gone under Bielsa, we'd be in the same bother. It's one reason he likes a good run up to taking a team over. To have worked a lot of it out at a lower level, and then reap the success. As you say, the 1 year contracts might also get in the way of the succession planning of SR. They'd always be on the verge of sounding out other managers to take over. Had it happened in the summer, we might be sitting here discussing the erratic post match interviews of a manager, so we can be thankful that....oh... 🙂

The board would have hired him based on the principles they wanted to adopt. Once RalphBall got found out, they were looking to tighten up defensively. To do that, they went off and crunched some numbers (on us against lots of other teams) and determined they would like 5 at the back. It's not known if that was reached with a striker and possibly another attacker coming in during the summer window. Or whether they preferred 5 at the back anyway. So NJ, who has no problem with 5 at the back, gets a tick in the interview. Beyond that. The board know he'll be fine with it, as they've scouted him extensively and know his systems fit what they want to do. Those above NJ bring in players based on selling them on later, but do try and vary the age a bit (Aribo, DCC for example). NJ has a "I make players better. I make strikers score more goals" stall out, and the board like that a lot. Ralph found out that his new back room team this season, that he didn;t seem to have a hand in selecting, had more input into what was going on. So, the board principles/ objective will be there too. I've no issue with some of that. I think SR thought RalphBall was going to work forever, and that Ralph just needed the investment to push on. I don't know how much everyone involved varied the preferred style when that striker didn't appear. It makes such a difference to everything, as we saw when Broja was on song. By the time NJ came in, with no striker, that may not have been the best option at all. Having staff there that weren;t hand picked sounds good in principle. A head coach works within the successful ethos of the club. Like the players, they too will move on to bigger things, but the club will go on without missing a beat. Except, the next head coach feels he has no backing from his own coaching staff. And if those principles don't work, it's murder to change everything around to fix it. NJ will go based on results/ having fallen out with everyone connected to the club. But there are wider issues with the decisions that brought him here. They will have to be addressed, or we're in danger of repeating this cycle all over again.

I hope he points. That could be nearly anyone. 🙂

I caught Alex Crook on talksport while boiling the kettle earlier. He was basically saying it was time for a new person to come in. They discussed a number of the things mentioned here. Broadly the taking of reponsibility, saying he wasn't going to blame the players, before blaming them; the inexperienced approach at this level and that a record at Luton isn't going to make a difference to what's going on here, right now. He did mention that he knew the players and some of the board were unhappy. But he could well have been reading that from here too. Still, it's another news outlet waiting for SR to make the call. As for NJ, it could have been so much easier for him, if he could have closed his mouth, after the first sentence. Lavia being subbed? - He was on a booking, and he's too important a player for us to lose through suspension. STOP - Do not criticise his performance. Approach - He was brought in off the back of specific values and with specific goals. He has not seen those values instilled in the team, he has not hit his goals, and that both are his fault. He's not happy with the approach he took since coming in and will work tirelessly to correct it. STOP - Do not say the players were all rubbish before him, that it's their fault that they can't follow instructions and that he's sick of pandering to them and/ or the coaches and/ or Rasmus. Overwhelmed in the Premier League - By all means trot out his achievements, and it being a super career opportunity. By all means say that these were the foundations of what he'd like to see here. Return to previous answer about the work he'd like to put in to achieve that. STOP - Do not blame shadowy parties interfering with your tactics/ approach. Do not blame the players for trying to pull wool over your eyes/ play to their strengths. Team Selection - almost indefensible, but default interview answers are available. New signings not trained with us much yet, but wanted them to play a part. Bree is a known quantity from Luton days, so that's not the same obstacle. Bland pick the players he felt were best suited to start would be baffling, but at least supportive of those players. STOP - Do not chuck them under the team coach when the various team changes don't work out. None of the above deflects from the stark reality of the results and the difficulty of the task. But at least it wouldn't alienate every one of his colleagues. As for Rasmus, I wonder if his emergency go to manager would actually more of the same. Another out of the left field hire. Because it will be hard to give up the stat based principles, the preferred team formations and the ego to get in someone who has the experience, skill and drive to do it without that input.

Sadly, Mr Jones will not be there. Fan: What's your favourite flavour of crisps. Jones: None of the Walkers flavours, after Lineker called my comments strange, and Wright put the boot in. I prefer traditional Luton food anyway. Like the Bedfordshire Clanger. I've brought plenty of clangers here, to remind me of my time there. Fan: You certainly have.

The last 10 mins of the Wicker Man had Ingrid Pitt and Britt Ekland in it! 🙂

His employee of the month award will look nice beside his league 1 manager of the year one. 🙂

From his comments... Ralph got us punching above our weight, in large part because he had a system that worked, and had the players to get it working for good spells of a season. I remember a player saying that Ralph's coaching took them away from years of how they would have normally approached things. Now we have a manager who says it's about the players, and not the systems. This is popular among elite managers who don't see themselves as setting up in a 5-3-2 or 4-4-2, but as a fluid group adapting to the game and maximising opportunities within it. When NJ has tried to implement things, we've been left with confused looking players. There were rumblings about the complexity. That's not something at odds with NJ's desire for direct outcomes into the box. It's also that he wants them to be pressing, harrying, closing, blocking, but also counter pressing, making deep passes to attackers and on and on. The players are left wondering how they can magically be in two places at one, and it falls apart into a systemless shambles. There's obviously a gap between playing levels. While NJ might think he was the best in Europe statistically (on a shoe string), it's at a lower, more forgiving level. While not diminishing that manager of the year he should be proud of, it doesn't mean that it transfers to a faster, tougher, sharper, more talented level. He even mentioned that he'd been too soft on the group because they were premier League players. They wandon't be for much longer. He'll be able to relate to them more quite soon. it's disappointing that he feels they were pandered to. That's something a manager who already had experience at a top level, wouldn't have had to bother with. That's one reason they get that bounce. They've run hundreds of matches at top levels, know what works and what doesn't in short order with the squad they get and can plough through egos, inner club battles and coaches/ department heads putting their nose in, where it's not wanted. NJ is having to learn all this the hard way, brought in when we've no time for that to happen. Well, unless the owners are okay with relegation, and are confident of a quick return. He says he was brought in to work in a certain way. But he also cites the limitations in the squad to fit that way, as big reason for recent results. The first way, that attempted to get the best from the group's established strengths hasn't worked. And despite the break and all the later weeks, he never liked it anyway. Now he's going to do it his way, regardless of whether the team can do it or not. You'd think that would make things worse, but the first way is such a low bar. It doesn't say much about those who hired him, if they didn't bother to see if NJs statistical success was based on things our players could actually do. From the post match comments, there was a lot of lines being drawn. Lots of "no mores". Sadly one big line should have been on his first day, and he should be further down the path of making the changes needed to keep us up. He says as much himself, as he mentions the compromises he's made. I want any of our managers to succeed. Watching NJ take painful lessons every week at a level he's not been at before, isn't nice for any number of reasons. I can only hope this this new approach works very soon. Otherwise the statistics he will have to trot out in interviews will be the ones relating to him being our worst ever manager.

Yes, we've fallen off one. Oh, did you mean cliffnotes? 🙂

We might be baffled and see them as legitimate questions. He will see it as intrusive questioning from those less qualified into his methods of squad management. That's never going to end well. It's never going to start well, for that matter. He's going to be judged on results, probably across the rest of the season. We might think we're miles off. He says we're really close. SR have supplied players. He'll have had a decent run at it, by the time the next one comes around.

True. Fulham have also had one of those striker folks that I hear can make a real difference to a season, especially if you have one from the start. 🙂 He's done well after a torrid time, the last time they were in this league.

14 deadline day targets missed by Everton. We get a few mentions. Link pinched from the Beeb. https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1729419/everton-news-14-stars-deadline-day-sean-dyche-empty-handed

Snipers. 🙂

Ruin

NJ *is* the next manager. The one after that is a foetus currently coaching a German under 8s team. Rasmus will sabotage the foetus' bid for under 12 team glory, to teach it failure, and despair. Only then, will it be ready to take over our first team. 🙂

Comedy thrives under adversity. If the material put on the main channels doesn't appeal, then it could be problems with their commissioning or the same production companies they frequently use. Or it might just be your personal taste differs. Fortunately, there's loads of comedy venues and online content available for you to find new funny things. The last golden age of comedy had strong roots in radio comedy. Lots of various shows there. The same with music. I don't catch a lot of new music. But it doesn't take too long on something like 6 music to find something I really like, and listen again to/buy. I get the bonus that, by the time I've heard it, they often have a decent bit of material out, so I get to binge. One very mainstream example in a load of other stations, online platforms and live venues. Again, a lot of lasting music comes through adversity. It always has, and there's no signs it's changing. It might not be in radio 1 play lists. But that doesn't mean it's not around. The list of horrible recent things are echoes of similar horrible past events. Some on the list have never gone away. I'd disagree that their appearance has led to the end of either music or comedy. You list 8 that you already like, with some of the Apollo too. That's a decent start. Is there a figure where that becomes a special age of comedy? Would we recognise one, if we were watching it, while at bit of us kept trying to compare it to Fawlty Towers? 🙂

Harry Rednapp's fantasy transfer windows.

I imagine he was bruised after Stoke, and wanted to see if he could recapture his Luton mojo, and carry that into a strong championship season. A premier League job wasn't going to come up often, it was the next step without getting a team promoted, and his back 5, stats based approach matched Rasmus. Not short on self belief, like lots of managers, it was the right time. Oh, and that he'd failed at Stoke, and done a lot of self appraisal over it, was a big hit too. It couldn't go horribly wrong twice, after all. 🙂 He has time to turn it around this season. It would have been far better had he not got the reinforcements in at the last minute. Considering how long SR stuck with Ralph, I don't see NJ going anywhere, if there are some clear signs of progress with the new look attack. We'd have to be getting thumped, *and* have Forest like performances, for a change to happen.

Presser Comparison Site... Press: Could you explain why a back 5 is your preferred choice? Response: Confused face Press: Despite 2 recent goals, Perraud was serving burgers today. Why was that? Response: passive aggressive confused face Press: Despite a couple of months, your players look baffled at your instructions, and can't put the ball in the net. Any thoughts on how to turn that around? Response: Confused face. OR Presser Comparison Site... Press: Could you explain why a back 5 is your preferred choice? Response: It's about the system to best enable us to score goals. It's not about individuals or personal outcomes. It's not about my bosses favouring that formation from their xGC stats, wanting to show horn it in regardless of suitability, and only hiring me as I agreed with them. Press: Despite 2 recent goals, Perraud was serving burgers today. Why was that? Response: It's about personal outcomes. It's not about systems or individuals. Perraud has to learn to develop outcomes that aren't just goals. Such as the outcome of feeding all the hungry fans at half time. Press: Despite a couple of months, your players look baffled at your instructions, and can't put the ball in the net. Any thoughts on how to turn that around? Response: It's about individuals. It's not about systems or personal outcomes. It's all the other things to absorb and use information. They couldn't do it before me, even including those runs of winning, attractive football. My messages of hoof it across to the small side men, are clear and consistent. The players inability to create things from where the ball ends up, is entirely their fault. Hmmmm. Tougher than I thought. I've not taken xP (expected pedantry) into account though.

Like a first match in charge, a manager's first fans' forum doesn't count. NJ has learned from the Liverpool game. 🙂