Monty lost the Australia cup game with this squad. I still think his plan was to develop underperforming players so brought them in undercooked (see Silvera et al.).
Then he left so those players remain the unfinished product. I strongly suspect DWH, Wilson and the rest would be developing quickly under the unique talents of Monty/Serg.
Instead we have a half team of proven players and a half team of underperformers and a new coach who knows none of them, trying to implement a new model and with only a sliver of a preseason.
It's just the reality we face. 9/10 coaches we could have brought in would be facing the same issues, and so would whoever we would replace MJ with if we sacked him.
I'd be considerably more concerned if we were getting smacked every game or were playing like complete trash. But we've been well in these games and not far off. Add exhaustion to this game too.
So far this season we've seen many other teams lose by margins of 4 or 5 - we've been primarily a pair of shooting boots or a miraculous goalkeeping away from wins.
4 losses sucks, no doubt about it. But just blaming the coach fails to take in the context of our situation
Completely agree. Except it’s probably closer to 999 out of a thousand, if not higher.
Fans just want to win. I certainly do, but fans are also typically unrealistic if not outright delusional.
Best resourced clubs in the world often still struggle heavily, sometimes even for a season or more with a rebuild.
I honestly don’t know any coach that would walk into our squad without a pre season and be able to do anything. I wouldn’t even bet on Ange. Unlike most I feared we’d be an absolute shambles and I’m genuinely surprised we’re as competitive as we are. And you’d think more people would agree given how they keep pointing out just how many players they thin. we’re short of having a quality first eleven.
And that’s not a strong argument that we’re suffering from bad coaching unless he recruited them and or has had a good amount of time to develop them and failed. You can argue Torres, Wilson Doka and Paull would have been better under Monty and Serge. Who knows. Some did but plenty of players didn’t flourish under him. Can only lead a horse etc… and it takes time. Some of our best have taken years.
Reality is, we are, always have been, and always will be, the victim of our own success. It’s why we lost our best players. Our coaches. Which is hard at any point, but the timing of the loss of Monty was horrendous. That’s football.
Also, direct from some of the players, they’re tired, frustrated by their own mistakes and losing games they believe/know they could have won. I think it’s a fair reading. Been a very hard ask for all involved. I believe they’re all working hard. That they want it, and they’re really not that far off. So yeah, they do all deserve to be cut sone slack in this scenario. Agree has to be finite. But needs to be there too, or all we do is help perpetuate a downward spiral.
To be clear, I don’t have any real reason to defend Jackson. Could be an absolute clown . My only attachment as ever is the success of our club. But I don’t subscribe to the pitchfork model as my default tool for correction. Because it’s so obviously more damaging than useful most of the time.
But as have also said, after a point it just becomes untenable regardless. Jackson may be good or he may be shit, but once perception goes far enough, you have to act anyway.
Everyone agrees our squad isn’t strong enough, in fact many seem to think we only have half a starting team, yet after playing midweek in an exhaustive fixture, does anyone think we couldn’t have won that game? Players, coaches and most pundits do. And I agree with them.
Got to be careful what you wish for. So I’ll keep my pitch fork stowed until there’s no choice. But no doubt the time to decide is coming down the pipe fast.
Players need to win or eventually they’ll implode. The players seemed frustrated and angry right now. And to me I can see they’re also a bit scared of failing and likely what it means to their careers etc. This league is tight, small margins win games, and we have tougher sides ahead. Still, I prefer to get around people and rally when the chips are down, which is why id prefer we didn’t try to hate on Peil or the coach or our players while there’s any other choice…
But that’s the world.