The main reason people have backed him this long is an undoubted ability to attract a higher calibre of player to the club, mixed with some fantastic occasional performances.
You look at the team on paper and think "surely" they ll click, and every time they do it buys dickov a few weeks whilst the usual dross is served .
However clearly there are many times where these players couldn't give a :censored: , yep some will have off days, but not as many as us, and that falls on the manager, as does tactics so dated and easy to play against, classic example as mentioned in another post, playing smith with no one to chase his flick ons , that's all he offers, so a totally inept choice. Why doesn't he play the squad players when the 1st 11 are so :censored:e, there's no fear of losing the jersey , and no motivation for squad players. Finally change this rigid 4 across the middle , more often than not the central pair are overran and the wingers unable to get into the game , why not try 3 in the middle , tighten it up , with 3 up top? Probably coz the squad is so set up for 442 that we don't have the right type of players. Fed up !