OneSizeFitz

Based on my in-depth knowledge and assessment of his managerial style and ability, I'll go for 'I have absolutely no idea.'

The more I read about this boy, the less ridiculous the appointment sounds. He's young, hungry, intelligent, and knows his way around this level. Admittedly, he wouldn't have been my choice given the perilous position we find ourselves in, but there's no reason why (...given time) Lee shouldn't be successful here. Surely we'd be better off putting our energy into getting behind him and the team, rather than starting a witch-hunt against the chairman and/or him?

I feel sorry for Tarky - the crowd do seem to get on his back quickly. He's a good player, but his confidence is shot at the moment and he's making mistakes.

 

Second half today I thought he played quite well.

I have corrected it for you as you obviously was not at the same match.

 

He is :censored: week in week out but won every header today and nobody was there to pick the ball up.

Not sure about that. He only actually 'won headers' about three times the whole game. The rest of the time he either tried to chest it off to someone who wasn't there, or the ball just bounced off him. The fastest he moved was when he ran off down the tunnel at half time.

He's big, yes. He's experienced, yes. These days, he's little else.

Already been stated by TP and SC that he is not in contention

Where?

I believe we have options for a further year on Cisak and Belezika if we want to exercise them.

 

Grounds, Wesolowski, Montaño and Baxter are under contract.

 

I'd offer new deals to Bouzanis, Brown (young, can improve), M'voto (pretty decent for this level; not sure how many better replacements are out there), Tarlowski (can improve), Furman (but not break the bank to sign him; I'd accept him moving for compensation), Winchester, Sutherland and Mchangama (all on one year 'prove yourself' deals), and Smith based on recent form.

 

The rest for me can go: Jacob, Belezika, Hughes, Millar, Taylor and even Mellor. Let other youngsters try instead. I'd also let Simpson and Byrne go and see what else their wages could get us.

What's Jacob done to deserve being released? Not overtaken Bouzanis and Cisak by the age of 18? I'd keep him, definitely.

Bouzanis

Lee

Reece Brown

M'voto

Grounds

Taylor

Stephens

Wes

Morais

Baxter

Derbyshire

His man management appears atrocious the way his players take the piss out of him every week.

 

Why shouldn't his rapport with fans and and handling of the media be underestimated?

As soon as the fans and/or media start to get on a manager's back, it breeds a sense of uncertainty around the club. The players start to lose faith in the gaffer. This is then reflected by performances on the pitch. Also, doubt starts to creep into the gaffer's mind - panic decisions start to be made, out of desperation as much as anything. Take Steve Kean at Blackburn; he was hounded out by the fans and the media. All that's succeeded in doing is bringing more instability to the club, and look where they are now - two managers later, and little or no chance of promotion. Winning them over's half the battle.

Someone on the Coventry City forum said we are the worst team to have played at their place all season and Matt Smith is the worst professional footballer he had ever seen. Fair comment.

The same Matt Smith that scored against them, and should have had a penalty?

That's more like it, but we just know it won't happen.

Inclined to agree, unfortunately.

Personally, I'd go five at the back, with Grounds and Wabara acting as wing-backs with licence to bomb forward when we're countering, and give us attacking width. Give Crofty a rest. I don't think he's played too badly actually, but he could do with one. Playing 5-3-2 alleviates the problem of who to play left-wing, too; nobody. Give Taylor a go with Smith, let Baxter do his t'ing in the gap behind the front two. We'd also have options on the bench (Simpson, Croft, Sutherland etc.) which'd make a nice change.

Bouzanis

Grounds

M'voto

Tarky

Byrne

Wabara (or possibly Brown)

Wes

M'Changama

Baxter

Smith

Taylor

I'd take a point.

Long time visitor, first time poster.

A brief assessment of recent performances:

Although recent results have, undeniably, been dire, I'm of the opinion that Dickov is still the right man for the job. Recent performances have merited more than the 1 point we've gained in the last seven games:

- Oldham 0 - 2 Swindon. A fair result, I felt. Outclassed. No complaints.

- Yeovil 4 - 1 Oldham. Again, a very poor result, but flattered Yeovil.

- Oldham 1 - 2 Doncaster. Unfortunate, deserved a point.

- Oldham 1 - 2 Crewe. Very unfortunate, deserved a win.

- Scunthorpe 2 - 2 Oldham. A good point, given the circumstances. Showed good character from 2 - 0 down, and had Wes not been sent off, could well have gone on to win the game.

- Oldham 0 - 2 Brentford. Slightly unfortunate, could well have scraped a point.

- Coventry 2 - 1 Oldham. One minute away from a point at the Ricoh? Unlucky.

Admittedly, this still isn't great. But it isn't sacking form. And let's not forget the cup-run.

Dickov as a manager:

Positives:

- His effort, passion and desperation for the club to succeed are irrefutable.

- His ability to attract players to the club is equally so.

- His man-management appears excellent; the players really do seem to rate him.

- He seems very highly-regarded within the game.

- His rapport with the fans/handling of the media is also impressive. This shouldn't be underestimated (...Penney?).

Negatives:

- Tactical naïvety.

- An unwillingness to shake things up a bit when they're not going well. A lack of a Plan B.

In my eyes, the latter two could be solved with the addition of an experienced, wise head to the backroom staff (Sammy McIlroy 'd been on my shortlist). Dickov is FAR from the finished article, but he deserves to be given the opportunity to fix things. The club needs stability; Rome wasn't built in a day. I firmly believe that we're not far from finding the right formula. Fans of this club seem to have somewhat unrealistic expectations. Let's face it, we are, based on attendances and finance, about where we should be. The idea that we should be higher up the league is the conception of nostalgia and an opinion that the current bunch of players are under-performing. It's time we stopped living in the past, and engaged in some realism. Would we have been able to attract these players without Dickov? Baxter springs to mind.

I don't think we'll go down this year; our recent perfomances really haven't been that bad, and there ARE four worse teams than us in this league. Let's give Paul a chance, assisted by an experienced number two, until the end of the season and then take stock. The last thing we need is fans getting on the gaffer's back; he's doing his best. This sort of discontent inevitably filters through to the players, and isn't a mindset conducive to dragging ourselves out of a relegation dogfight. So, let's get behind the lads, and the manager and pull ourselves out of this mess.

KTF.