I have never advocated sacking managers just because of position or bad luck and mismanagement above. We knew Cox’s hands were tied upon appointment, with some questionable signings prior and some sanctioned by him, i am now wondering if it is time for a change? He’s a local legend and a good man clearly but at what point do we question the tactics, decisions and general play? I know we aren’t gifted with talent but would another manager get more from our current squad? Or unlucky with injuries and decisions? For me next two are critical unless the league is declared null and void.
It’s a fair point. Does anyone think a new manager could do better with the current cohort? Whilst we are poor as a squad can someone else make any difference? Like i said i am not advocating a sacking for the sake of it. I just wonder if someone else may get a better response and performance from the current players?
Thing is that this could have been posted last winter, or indeed the winter before that.
There’s no guarantee that if we change managers yet again the new incumbent can do any better than Cox given the players he has available. If Swann waits until after the Grimsby game that leaves just one week of the transfer window for a new manager to be appointed and to bring in additional players. We know how that went last January!
It ain’t going to happen. Even if Cox is sacked I’d expect Swann to put Russ back in charge again and the merry-go-round turns full circle.
Dismissing Cox and Lillis means another managerial payoff. Something we can’t afford especially if we need another striker. which we desperately do!
So I’m afraid it’s a bloody mess. I don’t think Neil is solely responsible for our on field failures because it clearly goes back beyond his appointment.
But, he is now in charge on pitch and had time. I agree we can’t afford to replace them, but we can’t afford relegation either. At what point do we draw a line with the manager and hope we can grind out survival with someone else ? Our fate is pinned to null and void maybe? As i said earlier i am not advocating sacking, just questioning whether someone else can get more from our current squad.
Either the players are doing what he tell’s them and he has no clue what he should be telling them to do or they just aren’t listening to him and are doing what they want.
Sometimes it’s just down to bad luck, but that’s not the case here.
Years of poor chairmanship and mismanagement have now left the club in a corner. No money for managerial pay offs, and even if there were, it’s a club few managers would want to take on. Plus, with so little time or money to develop a settled, confident team capable of escaping relegation, even fewer managers would be capable of succeeding.
It’s not even a club anyone would want to buy, currently.
It feels like we’re on death row, at the end of the line, and facing the inevitable with little chance of appeal.
To be fair to Cox he may become a decent enough manager given time but we haven’t got time. In my opinion to get the best out of what we have “which isn’t a great deal” we at least need an experienced manager to extract every bit they can.
Cox has them playing so negative it looks to me like the attacking players have lost the will to live.
There’s much wrong at this football, mostly caused by Swann. Signing an inexperienced manager from day one to guise a rag tag squad like this was asking a lot to start with.
I know we keep saying “me included” that we can’t keep sacking managers but we seriously need an experienced head at the helm to give us the best chance of staying up.
Cox is way out of his depth. An experienced manager would be severally tested, never mind a rookie. Asking far too much and Cox doesn’t/won’t have the first idea of how to guise us to safety.
I don’t know who’s out there manager wise but we need to appoint somebody preferably who’s guided a team through relegation battles and survived.
No doubt that’s not a cast iron certainty it’s going to be profitable but if we don’t look down that route, I feel we’ll go down with Cox in charge.
Playing like we are doing, so negatively is asking for trouble.
” we can’t keep sacking managers but we seriously need an experienced head at the helm to give us the best chance of staying up.”
You might well be right, didn’t work so well down the road though. Personally I’m disappointed with the apparent lack of input from Lillis, surely he’s been around long enough to see the problems, he can’t have forgotten how to play if you want to score goals.
Who hires the managers? Who fires the managers? Who hires his son as the chief scout? Who scouts and signs players? Who gives false promises? Who makes big mistakes but never learns? Who when he took over OUR CLUB told the current directors they weren’t wanted? Who season after season is dragging OUR CLUB out of the football league. Next big question – Who thinks Swann and his family should go before the previous happens?
You might well be right, didn’t work so well down the road though.
I know getting an experienced manager means they’re a dead cert to save us but whoever they are will have a better chance than Cox.
Swann lumping the pressure on Cox to do it is asking far too much, he’s clearly way out of his depth. The currently style of play he’s probably relying in because he’s not tactically clued up enough to go any other way with the team struggling the way it is.
I don’t really blame Cox. This would be a hard enough job for the most experienced manager, nevermind a rookie.
If Lillis is assistant – well fine. That guy has seen it all. So unless Cox is ignoring him – we have to admit to having significant experience in place at management level.
No. The problem is that we started the season with a raggle-taggle mix of players. (Not as poor in quality as some make out IMHO)
11 good enough? – Possibly. Nine perhaps but when a number get injured on top of that – we end up having to blood players too early.
The balance between experience and inexperience amongst the players was optimistic, to say the least.
Cox? – Too much experimentation we’ll all argue but when you are leaking at the back and have no impact whatsoever up front – maybe you have to try something different.
Going down or staying up – I’m gonna try not to judge for at least 10 months.
Too much experimentation we’ll all argue but when you are leaking at the back and have no impact whatsoever up front – maybe you have to try something different.
There’s no maybe about it..choosing to set the team up like he is doing is going to have us limping to relegation.
Swann and Cox are lucky fans aren’t turning up to watch it, they’d have have been booed off countless times. People simply wouldn’t put up with it.
The playing style seriously needs looking at. Cox despite being way, way out of his depth needs to be braver.
I might be wrong (again) but it seems to me that Cox has decided that the best way to avoid the drop is to play for a 0-0 (or a flukey 1-0 by accident) until KVV is back and we have a chance of scoring so we can try for a win. Last night was yet another example of no winning intent IMO, how many of those have we had this season?
Too many and that’s the big issue here. I don’t know why Cox doesn’t even field 4/4/1/1 and at least have a go.
Cox chooses to play this formation consisting of 3 defensive midfielders and a striker isolated to such an extent he doesn’t have another player within 20 yards of him and then moans that we’re not creating enough.
Seriously, what the hell does he expect ?
He could field 4/4/1/1..stick Green RW and have Gillead in the no 10 role offering support to Loft or stick Green up and go 4/4/2.
I have absolutely no idea why he’s opting to go the direction he’s going in….makes absolutely zero sense.
What’s he got to be worried about he’s getting paid, he is allowed to play what style he wants by our chairman, without question. Plus all managers seem to have a big ego.
The way we are not working as a team is surely down to the way Cox is setting them up, the team selection and his lack of experience in getting the team to score points. If I was the manager, would be pulling my hair out with the goal keeping coach, he is stnding next to him as we are letting goal after goal because Howard will not leave his goal line for crosses into the GOAL AREA, and then we witnessed that bollack on Tuesday when he left his line and trotted out to the edge of the penalty area and then did not klear the ball, probably because he got lost by never visiting that strange location, the guy is a complete joke, and Watson must be sitting on the bench thinking “am I actually worse that Howard????”.
So with a team having no experienced management on the side lines, no centre forwards, and a bloody clown in between the goal posts what chance have we got of staying in League football, I think that we all know the answer to that!! The time has well gone when we stopped saying “he needs time”, “he inherited a poor squad of players”, “the club cannot keep sacking managers” (they wouldn’t need to if they set on the right man). So do we keep them in charge until we are in the National League, or do we take one mpre chance by setting on a decent manager, but Swann need advice on this, because he has decided on all these failures. The only good thing with this season, is that we do not have to sit in the Cluggy watching it, Christ I always leave at the 86th min stage, but I would be gone by the hour mark this season.
Howard reminds me of Tommy Evans. Fantastic shot stopper but every time a ball went in the box and when he had to come out to generally deal with anything your heart used to skip a beat.
No lack of experience where he’s concerned, he’s just limited as a GK…even at this level.
Watson is crap as well though.
On the new manager front, as I’ve said before….it’s asking far too much of Cox to keep us up, he simply doesn’t have a clue tactically how to turn it around, hence why he’s in the ultra defensive mindset he’s in, he simply can’t fathom any other way of going about it.
Dunno why so many problems finding a striker – one only needs to be a jot above mediocre to radically transform the current ‘forward line’.
I’m waiting for the ‘bring back Watson campaign’ to begin. After all if he has better CBs in front of him … which he would have in the next week or two …
Dunno why so many problems finding a striker – one only needs to be a jot above mediocre to radically transform the current ‘forward line’.
Forwards are the most expensive players in football. You can’t expect to get something for nothing in the way you can for perhaps a defender or goalkeeper.
bartonscorpion wrote:-
“Watson must be sitting on the bench thinking “am I actually worse that Howard????”.”
I’ll answer that for you Rory – Yes.
Howard has made a couple of memorable mistakes giving away easy goals but he’s gained more points than he’s lost IMO. Not perfect (L2 why would he be?) but not as bad as is being made out. Regarding leaving his line, all our recent keepers seem to have had this coached out of them. Even Gilks became less commanding after Mussy got his hands on him.
I don’t think sacking Cox is the answer. Certainly not yet, but things have to improve.
He looks like he’s resigned himself to the fact we can’t score goals without Kev so he’s setting up for 0-0 draws until he’s back.
The way we are playing at the minute seems very Russ I don’t know how much input he’s having but Cox would do well not to pay too much attention.
If Cox is thinking Russ got us out of this league last time so he must know what to do then someone needs to get him the tapes of us collapsing and limping over the line.
I feel for Cox – proper stitched up with a really crap squad with at least 4 strikers who should not be footballers (or part time at best).
Coupled to that he does not have the applicable attributes to be a football manager and is way out of his depth.
Take a moment to think about a local lad played for the club supports the club has the best interests of the club but stitched up by his boss and his own abilities – cannot be a nice feeling.
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