Micky Mellon Sack Watch

[GlossopLatic]

6 hours ago, Sloshed Joe said:

Another reason why the ‘decision makers’ wanted Mellon for the job was his previous association & success managing James Norwood. They will have realised that getting our new expensive star striker motivated and firing was key. The way that Mellon talked in his early interviews, about being out of the game working in other fields and this project being presented to him - I wonder if he even applied for the job but was in fact approached by DR and sold the dream - due to his promotion record and history with Norwood. It’s sound logic, but clearly hasn’t paid off (yet)

 

Similar logic would’ve been to let Thommo & Redders continue. Yes, Thommo was part of a recruitment team that saddled us with an unbalanced squad. But as manager, I liked the fact that he backed the players which he’d scouted. Reid, Nuttall, Lundstrum, Ward, Kurt etc - he would’ve poured all his efforts into getting those players firing to prove his judgement was sound. And a lot of the squad had a rapport with Thommo coz they knew he’d rated them and brought them in. I liked the fact he was a proud Oldhamer as well.

 

In hindsight, I think giving them the job until the end of the season, to see if he could get his expensive signings firing, would’ve been the best approach. Then reassess the situation in May.

 

Instead, a lot of those players have barely played, are demotivated and will be much harder to flog.

 

Let's not kid ourselves that Steve Thompson had a magic formula for this team he didn't. They would have reverted to type pretty quickly if we gave him longer than we did.

 

45 minutes ago, Littlemoor Lad said:

After reading that, it's as if Unsworth never left 

In fairness, we did improve beyond recognition and it was such a relief but now we're back to square one and everyone's revisiting past traumas.

Maybe the weight of expectation is too much to carry for any manager or player who wears the shirt.

 

Which is why sacking the manager rarely proves to be the answer to the problem infact it never does. The problems are because the same players will revert to type at some point.

 

So what's our way out of this?

 

Well I would hope that we have already made plans for recruitment for next season. I think the managers knows which players he needs to bring in, perhaps the players know it too and one or 2 of them know they won't be part of it next season and perhaps have psychologically downed tools.

 

We need players with the right mentality clearly they need to be comfortable with the expectation of being one of the favourites for promotion and be comfortable with the idea that teams like Fylde or Kidderminster will be up for it when they come to Boundary Park and the expectation is to beat them.

 

We also need pace and energy in that team their is a lack of it. We started with 4 centre midfielders yesterday it was a narrow midfield so when we have that and no out ball we just put the ball up the middle of the pitch. Nick Haughton showed yesterday and no doubt Chris Conn-Clarke will prove on monday what we are missing.

 

We don't have a magic man! someone who we can get the ball to and they will make things happen. We don't have wide players who can commit men and take people on, for some bizarre reason we haven't found a right back, the lad for Fylde looked OK yesterday look how he strode out from the back for their first goal. That position needs solving. 

 

So we have a big Summer ahead with bringing players in and getting players out. I'm hoping those that come in have not only enough ability but can drag a few up with them. We have a squad of players now which you can split into 2 broad groups. 1 lot shouldn't be at the club and the others are good enough but need the right players around them to get us promoted back to the football league.

Edited March 30 by GlossopLatic

[yarddog73]

On a serious note what player is going to want to come here and play hoofball every week, we already know there are players who have signed and are shocked at our style of play, it's not an attractive prospect for any player, most of them want to play football not the turgid shite Mellon and Brabin churn out.

[TheBigDog]

11 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

Just yesterday we had;

 

McGahey at RB there he just looks exposed

Hogan at left CB when his preffered position is on the right

Gardner LM when his strength is on the ball in the middle

Hammond RM where he's looked less effective every time he's played

Norwood shifted to RF which is criminal really, he should be in a two and preferably with Dallas

Dallas who came on as a LF and the same applies as did to Norwood

 

You could go on and on, add to that Mellon has a penchant for dropping his inform players, Dallas the latest yesterday yet he'd arguably been our best player before yesterday, Fondop is dropped on a whim regardless of what he does, Sachdev MOM - not seen since. Walker played well and frozen out, Sutton blamed for everything and the defensive scapegoat yet we have some absolute raffle winners keeping their places week after week despite conceding soft goal after soft goal, keeper keeps his place regardless of what he does, kills us in an attacking sense and plays with no hands some weeks, about eight strikers but one of the lowest scorers in the division over the past couple of months.

Agree with most of that - Walker has shown very little in the time he has been here and Hudson has obviously been instructed to slow things down I reckon.

 

Mellon has been failing for quite a while now and the doubts I had about him when he was appointed have not gone away.

[LightDN123]

People are entitled to question Mellon, though I don’t agree. 
 

But let’s not start saying it’s got worse than Unsworth and start to retrospectively improve his spell here. Unsworth was an absolute incompetent manager and an unlikable character. In 9 games he won 1 game of football after assembling his squad. He’s dog shit and Mellon should not be compared to him. 
 

Crack on with the Mellon debate, but please don’t give that fraud any credit for anything. 

[nzlatic]

We need players who can handle the pressure and expectation. We don’t have enough of them now and it’s costing us. It’s no coincidence that our better performances are in games where the pressure is reduced - Chesterfield, Barnet at home, our better away form in general. Out of the play offs (reduced pressure) and we steadily picked up points. Get in the play offs (pressure increases) and suddenly they can’t win a game. 
 

Until we do that then it won’t matter what manager we have or what style we play, ultimately too many of them will crack as soon as the heat gets turned up. 

[yarddog73]

24 minutes ago, LightDN123 said:

People are entitled to question Mellon, though I don’t agree. 
 

But let’s not start saying it’s got worse than Unsworth and start to retrospectively improve his spell here. Unsworth was an absolute incompetent manager and an unlikable character. In 9 games he won 1 game of football after assembling his squad. He’s dog shit and Mellon should not be compared to him. 
 

Crack on with the Mellon debate, but please don’t give that fraud any credit for anything. 

I don't think anyone is giving anyone any credit in this, comparisons will be made because we are as dysfunctional as we've ever been right now and Mellon has had opportunity to correct some of that and hasn't. 

[yarddog73]

1 minute ago, nzlatic said:

We need players who can handle the pressure and expectation. We don’t have enough of them now and it’s costing us. It’s no coincidence that our better performances are in games where the pressure is reduced - Chesterfield, Barnet at home, our better away form in general. Out of the play offs (reduced pressure) and we steadily picked up points. Get in the play offs (pressure increases) and suddenly they can’t win a game. 
 

Until we do that then it won’t matter what manager we have or what style we play, ultimately too many of them will crack as soon as the heat gets turned up. 

Whilst everyone (including Mellon) make excuses for them they will continue to play like a bunch of fancies. Some of our players are amongst the best paid at the level we are at and I'll put the manager in that bracket also so what are we actually paying for? 

[josh_latics]

29 minutes ago, LightDN123 said:

But let’s not start saying it’s got worse than Unsworth and start to retrospectively improve his spell here. Unsworth was an absolute incompetent manager and an unlikable character. In 9 games he won 1 game of football after assembling his squad. He’s dog shit and Mellon should not be compared to him. 

 

But if you were to compare them, Mellon has won 1 of his last 9...

[LightDN123]

9 minutes ago, josh_latics said:

 

But if you were to compare them, Mellon has won 1 of his last 9...

But what came before it was far better than anything Unsy ever produced. 

[nzlatic]

11 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

Whilst everyone (including Mellon) make excuses for them they will continue to play like a bunch of fancies. Some of our players are amongst the best paid at the level we are at and I'll put the manager in that bracket also so what are we actually paying for? 

I’m not making excuses for them I’m highlighting their deficiencies. We need work out who isn’t mentally up to coping with the pressure of playing for a club expected to win promotion and replace them with players who are.

[deyres42]

I don't believe there is any great pressure or expectation playing for Oldham Athletic, we are hardly a sleeping giant of the sport.

 

We just have too many technically defiect players and a coaching staff unable to both improve those players and mask the defiects effectively enough that it doesn't impact on results.

[BP1960]

Mellon and Brabin should be at the youth team match today v Walsall (11am Chapel Road)

If not and they come up with some excuse it's shows a complete disregard to our young lads.

They'd see a different type of football though from a coach who had got them playing on the front foot with pace, skill and enthusiasm.

 

[nzlatic]

4 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

I don't believe there is any great pressure or expectation playing for Oldham Athletic, we are hardly a sleeping giant of the sport.

 

We just have too many technically defiect players and a coaching staff unable to both improve those players and mask the defiects effectively enough that it doesn't impact on results.

There absolutely must be! Not in the grand scheme of football obviously, but there certainly must be when it comes to playing for us in this league - where we are a sleeping giant.

 

We urgently need to go up for financial reasons (loss of EFL payments). The investment in the club facilities by the owners has been done so we can compete higher. We have one of the biggest budgets in the league. Fans have been starved of any success for decades and now can see that investment in the club and on the pitch so expect to see results. The pressure is on the players and the manager to deliver on that. It seems that pressure is too much.

 

We have plenty of players capable of passing a football. Even if Mellon is wanting a more direct approach, we have plenty of players capable of delivering wins playing that way instead. But it doesn't look like direct football, it just looks like complete panic. Just look what happens when a team puts any sort of pressure on the ball early on in a game.

 

And there'll be even more pressure next season where we'll rightly be expected to be consistently top 3. This summer we need to fix the gaps in the squad but also need to focus on character.

[nzlatic]

33 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

And there'll be even more pressure next season where we'll rightly be expected to be consistently top 3. This summer we need to fix the gaps in the squad but also need to focus on character.

I’ll add to this - if mentality and coping with pressure and expectation is a problem, then we need to bring in a top sports psychologist as well. 

[Sloshed Joe]

21 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

I’ll add to this - if mentality and coping with pressure and expectation is a problem, then we need to bring in a top sports psychologist as well. 

On that point, while we’re scrambling round for reasons that it’s all turned to shit recently, d’ya reckon there’s been any impact on the squad ‘alchemy’ since Mick Rathbone left the club in January…?

[BP1960]

Alfie Atherton not in the youth team, is this an indication he is in line for a first team call up?

Can't see any sign of MM or Brabin checking out the young prospects.

[Lags]

3 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

Alfie Atherton not in the youth team, is this an indication he is in line for a first team call up?

Can't see any sign of MM or Brabin checking out the young prospects.

 

I am sure someone posted he's recently been sent off. So banned?

[BP1960]

Youths 2  up after 25 mins playing a brand of fast passing football totally alien from what I've seen from the first team, and Walsall are a tall  competitive side.

The Latics big  quick number 9  is causing havoc.

Edited March 30 by BP1960

[BP1960]

The more I see of the youths the more I'm impressed with the coach. You can see every single player wants to play for him. I reckon he'd encourage the same style of quick  passing football if given the first team job. He's got  a great future in the game this man. 

[Wardie]

5 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

The more I see of the youths the more I'm impressed with the coach. You can see every single player wants to play for him. I reckon he'd encourage the same style of quick  passing football if given the first team job. He's got  a great future in the game this man. 

Chukwuma Akuneto

[deyres42]

As he gon yet?

[BP1960]

6 minutes ago, Wardie said:

Chukwuma Akuneto

 

That's him, an impressive coach and man.

[yarddog73]

3 hours ago, LightDN123 said:

But what came before it was far better than anything Unsy ever produced. 

Not defending him but I seem to remember we were third to Wrexham and County after Christmas in the form table through to the end of the season. Be interesting to see where Mellon sits over the same period.

 

 

Edited March 30 by yarddog73

[deyres42]

1 minute ago, yarddog73 said:

Not defending him but wasn't we third to Wrexham and County after Christmas in the form table through to the end of the season. Be interesting to see where Mellon sits over the same period.

Before and after Boreham Wood game where he told all and sundry they were shit and couldn't play.

[PeteG]

Whilst i'm all for giving Mellon time, I do think there needs to be some communication from the football club especially from the CEO who has been pretty anonymous in the 2 seasons he's been in charge of the club. It's ok speaking regularly with the Foundation but he really needs to communicate to the wider fan base via the official channels. We hear plenty from Frank which is all very nice but it's not about the football which has been largely shite since he took over. The club are now asking us fans to put our hands in our pockets for season tickets whilst we remain pretty much in the dark about the plans that were put in place. I remember DR saying on the podcast sometime ago all the off field stuff was to guarantee success on the pitch. We had a recruitment team headed up by Thompson, scouting team and stats based analysis. Is this still the plan and if so who is now in charge of recruitment. What happened to the B team? They seem to have come in with all these plans, it's turned to crap pretty quickly under Unsworth and now we are just winging it whilst throwing good money after bad. I would suggest before we look at replacing Mellon, there needs to be a total rethink from the top and it would be nice if that was shared with the fans.