TrickyBlueLe ModHis style of football is meh at best. Not a single fibre of my being wants Rowett back but he’d do just as much as Neil could.
What's this based on though?
I feel like there's this perception that he plays the same as Rowett but it's not true. Rowett is a safety first, counter attacking manager. Neil typically plays front foot aggressive football.
He's not exciting, it's meh, and I'm not bothered if he gets it or not, but I feel like a lot of reasons for disliking it are based on stuff that isn't true
If its based on him not being a big name, being a bit of a miserable dickhead and not playing like Bielsa, then yeah, I'm with you, but he's not Rowett.
You only have to look at his time at Stoke and their reaction to him “turgid, binary, lacking cohesion, no identity” etc.
He hardly plays the aggression possession based game our owners seemingly want.
Personally and the biggest reason for me being against him is that I don’t like his face, he’s a miserable chunt and he reminds me of Cotterill for some reason.
Just said to my pal he gives me Steve Cotterill vibes lmao - not sure if that’s the Cotterill you’re referring too.
Gives me visions of sarcastic pressers in November when we ain’t won in four and are 10th telling us we ain’t got a clue and need to adjust our expectations
SpikeEl Hijo de QuarkioHis Norwich team were decent to watch and his Preston team weren't too bad either. I've got no idea why some are tarring him with the Rowett negball brush.
Norwich I might agree with you.
Preston under him were a filthy watch though.
Not so much negative as just absolute shithouse anti-football.
He would argue he had better players at Norwich I'm sure. I just think he's a win at all costs merchant, which I don't like - but a lot of people on here should, because many of them say it's what they want.
Thanks Spike, I can't remember his Preston team being that much of a shithouse, but I've been a reader on here long enough to know you're the memory man, so I'm happy to concede this one. I don't want us to be a shithouse team, but I don't really care if we are. I appreciate that others are dead against us using 'the dark arts' but I'm quite happy to be a morally grey hypocrite about it. I loved Savage when he was here, and I think we need to add a bit of a nasty streak to the squad for next season.
whoever comes in, i don’t want to hear any more about The Project - we get the idea of the plans, and they should no doubt be exciting
but let’s deal with the immediate future now on the pitch, let’s use this new reset opportunity to get this right
the plans and dreams for the future will be fantastic but i hope that wr get this season right on the pitch for sure
it would be good to get a break from it this close season, but it hasn’t happened yet
ephidorNO f**ks given football needs to stop mate !
Why though?
ThrillhouseephidorNO f**ks given football needs to stop mate !
Why though?
Exactly! This idea that football is entertainment nonsense needs to stop. Give me a winning team - that’s all I ask.
ephidorNO f**ks given football needs to stop mate !
Like most things, it’s somewhere in between.
We need to start being a lot effin nastier than we have been though.
Which doesn’t mean we can’t play good football too.
turleyThrillhouseephidorNO f**ks given football needs to stop mate !
Why though?
Exactly! This idea that football is entertainment nonsense needs to stop. Give me a winning team - that’s all I ask.
Entertaining football and winning are not mutually exclusive.
Going from Tony Mowbray to Alex Neil feels like going from a Tory government to a labour one, uninspiring…..
turleyThrillhouseephidorNO f**ks given football needs to stop mate !
Why though?
Exactly! This idea that football is entertainment nonsense needs to stop. Give me a winning team - that’s all I ask.
But playing front foot football is how you’re successful in 2024. We know this, we’re constantly walked over by teams doing that exact thing.
We’ve been watching crap teams play crap football for 10 years. One bad experience with a bad coach trying to fulfil the ‘be more modern’ brief and everyone’s running back scared to the same thing we’ve been failing at for a decade.
What’s the definition of madness again…
I'm amazed at people thinking this guy plays good football, they've watched different games to me. Boring, pragmatic, uninspiring.
TrickyBlueturleyThrillhouseephidorNO f**ks given football needs to stop mate !
Why though?
Exactly! This idea that football is entertainment nonsense needs to stop. Give me a winning team - that’s all I ask.
Entertaining football and winning are not mutually exclusive.
But too many on here think they are. All I want is a team that wins.
El Hijo de QuarkioThrillhouseturleyTamI don't know a massive amount about him, but remember thinking, as his Preston side shithoused their way through and sucked all of the life out a game against us at St. Andrews, that this was pretty depressing stuff to be subjected to. Can't get excited about this prospect, but it won't stop me getting a season ticket, albeit with less excitement than I was hoping for.
I think perhaps the best/only way out of league 1 is by ‘shirhousing’!
Apart from Ipswich, Portsmouth and Argyle who all got 90+ points within the last year by playing football?
This. Why a certain section of our fanbase are so terrified of playing football is beyond me. Dave McKay was manager when I first started attending. For the vast majority of that time we've played pragmatic "gerrit forward" football and have achieved eff all (League Cup win aside) I can only speak for me, but I want to see us try and play football. There is no reason why you can't be successful playing attacking football (which is another load of bollocks that parts of our fan base love peddling)
We should be able to get promoted from L1, and eventually get promoted to the Prem by playing good football. In fact all the data suggests this will give us the best chance of promotion, so I've no idea where the "nice football = failure, negative football = success" even came from.
I don't think that's a thing or that our fans are frightened of it as such. My view is that it's fine to want to play good football and some of my favourite Blues teams have all done so. Think Jim Smith and Terry Cooper. But you have to have the players to do it. We have made two massive errors in recent years appointing managers in Zola and Rooney to do so and from what I hear trying to force others too to only play a certain way when we haven't had the players too. And that is why we have gone down this year. But I don't know about the data suggesting it has to be that way either.
The simple reason teams get promoted playing that way is because they have the best players, not just, or even, because they try and play a particular way. When you have the best players you play good football.
Let's get the players first, then play that way.
He did at Norwich and Sunderland didn't he?
The two teams where he had a big budget with respect to the league, and was very successful with both
You can see why the 'data' would bring him up as a candidate, he's done the job twice before and been successful both times. Basing it all on Stoke and Preston is kinda missing the point, we're not gonna be a plucky low-medium budget team trying to punch upwards.
Again, it's meh and boring, but I'm struggling with people's shock that he might be considered by the club for a conversation given he's done exactly what we want on two occasions.
ThrillhouseturleyThrillhouseephidorNO f**ks given football needs to stop mate !
Why though?
Exactly! This idea that football is entertainment nonsense needs to stop. Give me a winning team - that’s all I ask.
But playing front foot football is how you’re successful in 2024. We know this, we’re constantly walked over by teams doing that exact thing.
We’ve been watching crap teams play crap football for 10 years. One bad experience with a bad coach trying to fulfil the ‘be more modern’ brief and everyone’s running back scared to the same thing we’ve been failing at for a decade.
What’s the definition of madness again…
It is particularly if you are seen as a "big" team, which we will be in League One. Our best chance of promotion is by working out how to pick apart packed defences, otherwise we risk promotion by too many draws.