Will we get the blues at the Blues?

ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Not good news for us in that Tony Mowbray has been appointed manager at Brum. I'd far sooner that we were facing a dispirited Rooney team. Mowbray is a wily, experienced campaigner and, although he'll have had just a short time with his new charges, you can bet that he'll improve them out of sight by matchday.

Before his appointment I'd have had us down for three points but, given that Luke Williams is also new to the job and the team, I think a draw would be a decent result for us. I'd like a win of course but I think it'll take time before we discover any fluency under Williams. My main hope is that he plays Cullen up front and instructs the team to get the ball into the box at every opportunity. If that happens, we might sneak a win.
 
The Blobster

The Blobster

Prediction Champ
Old man Mowbray or young blood in our dugout , who is your money on ?
Brum had a catastrophic fall with Rooney in charge , and I've no doubt that Mowbray will have them organised for Saturdays game .
I haven't a clue as to what our starting lineup will be , but it will be interesting to see our lineup and what tactics we will use . Have the players had enough time to absorb and integrate a new style of play ?
Can't wait for Saturday to see if there's an immediate improvement in our attacking intentions and speed of play .
Brum have a strong , powerful 11 , let's hope we are not bullied of the park and our football skills can come to the fore !
COYJB Make us proud .
 
jackodiamonds

jackodiamonds

Set-Piece Specialist
Staff member
I expect at least one Brum goal as the Swans will be adjusting to a new strategy, but I also expect at least one Swansea goal. I feel like Swansea will edge it, but it'll be close
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
However …. Williams is hedging already …
.

🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

An astute coach would recognize the turnaround under Sheehan, even if indirectly, and state that we are building and evolving from there. But he’s hedging like he’s starting from scratch and has inherited shit. I’m hearing hints of Madness in his thinking. Not impressed at all. No energy or enthusiasm in his mood … like he’s out of his depth and feels it.
 
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ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Can't. I cancelled Facebook when I was hacked. When I contacted FB to report it they couldn't give a flying fuck! BEWARE, this could happen to YOU!!
 
CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
I think it's a bit unfair to criticise a manager who hasn't managed a single game for us.

It's obvious that we're going back to passing football. But how much of it is Martin's ball and how effective it's going to be remains to be seen.
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
I don't understand the "going back to passing football". We've never actually left it. We haven't been a big boot and chase it team in ages and ages.

We've lacked direction, tempo, purpose, quality and so on, but we've always been a passing team even under Jacket to some extent. Couple that with dodgy player utilization, team selection and match management and you have a recipe for diminished returns.

We know we don't like Martin's Madness. We know we had zero patience for Duffer. Sheehan was actually getting results. I expect nothing else from Williams. Any new manager that thinks that he can come in mid-season, to a Club sitting within 2.5 wins of the playoffs, where the team has just harvested 50% of the points from the last 7 matches (4 away), and just pull a Rooney is either fucking nuts or he is Rooney. There is no patience for a period of incoherence and discordance and the dropping of points while the squad tries to figure out the latest dance steps to a completely different tune.

Williams should be focusing on increased quality and increased tempo and the tune that Sheehan has been getting out of the team can only improve or at the very least be sustained. If the new guy wants something radically different then he needs to bide his time and at the very least wait until the next preseason or introduce and evolutionary process, week by week, game by game. But, I'm not hearing that out of anybody's mouth least of all Williams. In other words, there's an intelligent way to go about this, and I am doubtful that Williams has that in mind or knows how to go about it.

Can we sustain harvesting 50% points from the final 20 games, probably unlikely, but that speaks to how well Sheehan did. 50% of the remaining points would put us at 62 points and 4 behind last season's madness. That's barely acceptable and anything less would be interpreted by me as a failure of Club management in recruiting head coaches and their staff.

If Sheehan hadn't done enough to earn a vote of confidence, the last thing I would have done is revert to a disciple of the recent past (deemed a failure) for our future. That makes no sense.

Take a cue from Darling's tone and body language in that interview. He was as effusive about Sheehan as he could be. He was far from a cup full of joy over Williams. He was basically a model of self-preserving diplomacy despite the interviewer prodding him for several leading questions to put a fucking smile on his face.
 
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CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
Yankee_Jack said:
I don't understand the "going back to passing football". We've never actually left it.
Click to expand...
What do you mean? Since Garry Monk took over, only Potter and Martin played possession based passing football. Only these two managers wanted to dominate the ball. All others didn't care much. Gary Monk and Steve Cooper hated it.
 
CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
Yankee_Jack said:
An astute coach would recognize the turnaround under Sheehan, even if indirectly, and state that we are building and evolving from there. But he’s hedging like he’s starting from scratch and has inherited shit.
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Scroll to 20:11

 
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ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Yankee_Jack said:
I don't understand the "going back to passing football". We've never actually left it. We haven't been a big boot and chase it team in ages and ages.

We've lacked direction, tempo, purpose, quality and so on, but we've always been a passing team even under Jacket to some extent. Couple that with dodgy player utilization, team selection and match management and you have a recipe for diminished returns.

We know we don't like Martin's Madness. We know we had zero patience for Duffer. Sheehan was actually getting results. I expect nothing else from Williams. Any new manager that thinks that he can come in mid-season, to a Club sitting within 2.5 wins of the playoffs, where the team has just harvested 50% of the points from the last 7 matches (4 away), and just pull a Rooney is either fucking nuts or he is Rooney. There is no patience for a period of incoherence and discordance and the dropping of points while the squad tries to figure out the latest dance steps to a completely different tune.

Williams should be focusing on increased quality and increased tempo and the tune that Sheehan has been getting out of the team can only improve or at the very least be sustained. If the new guy wants something radically different then he needs to bide his time and at the very least wait until the next preseason or introduce and evolutionary process, week by week, game by game. But, I'm not hearing that out of anybody's mouth least of all Williams. In other words, there's an intelligent way to go about this, and I am doubtful that Williams has that in mind or knows how to go about it.

Can we sustain harvesting 50% points from the final 20 games, probably unlikely, but that speaks to how well Sheehan did. 50% of the remaining points would put us at 62 points and 4 behind last season's madness. That's barely acceptable and anything less would be interpreted by me as a failure of Club management in recruiting head coaches and their staff.

If Sheehan hadn't done enough to earn a vote of confidence, the last thing I would have done is revert to a disciple of the recent past (deemed a failure) for our future. That makes no sense.

Take a cue from Darling's tone and body language in that interview. He was as effusive about Sheehan as he could be. He was far from a cup full of joy over Williams. He was basically a model of self-preserving diplomacy despite the interviewer prodding him for several leading questions to put a fucking smile on his face.
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Agree with a lot of this but not so sure about certain aspects. I do believe one thing though - I think Williams should be given time to hone his approach to the squad; time to allow them to digest what he wants from them in terms of attitude, general tactics and specific game-plans etc etc. It might take a while and that's where patience from us enters the equation. Having worked with Duff, Alan Sheehan had some continuity that he only had to fine-tune to get some decent results and he did well. But Williams is probably looking at something more radical and that will take time.
 
Victoria Swan

Victoria Swan

Key Player
So much prognostication so little data! The predominant sentiment coming from nearly all the posts is "patience" and I heartily agree. Pointless to try guessing what will happen in the next few games, let's just wait and see before passing judgements. Insofar as 20% of a manager's job is connecting with the players and motivating them I'm guessing the level of commitment and energy exhibited by them tomorrow will be the main thing we'll be able to divine about Williams after one game under his belt. I just hope tomorrow we have at least that: energy. I care less about the result than that.
 
CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
At half-time against Morecambe, Williams told Grimes to get the ball forward more often than in the first half, which Grimes did, and that little tweak changed the dynamic of the game. Williams also pushed Patino forward into an attacking midfield role and Patino scored. Afterwards, in his post-match conference, Williams said that Patino should play as an attacking midfielder and not in central midfield, where his talent is wasted. After the Morecambe game, Williams bemoaned the lack of intensity and penetration in the Morecambe box. So, it seems he knows what he is doing when it comes to the attacking aspect of the game. I am curious to see how we defend.
 
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