New head coach’s post match interview

[cidercity1987]

4 minutes ago, Bris Red said:

That is something that suprised me aswell, 'we haven't done any work in possession' found that very strange.

Sounds good if you're playing away to top of the league. Against almost bottom, not so much

[eardun]

Just now, cidercity1987 said:

Sounds good if you're playing away to top of the league. Against almost bottom, not so much

It sounded more like he hadn’t spent time on changing what we do in possession, ie bringing in his new ideas. Didn’t want to overload them with new stuff in 3 days. 

[David Brent]

17 minutes ago, Tafkarmlf said:

It's different sure, I enjoyed it as I listened to what he said and found it insightful and honest 'we haven't worked on that, that didn't work in the way I wanted and so on'

Not sure what's 'baffling'

Did you ever listen to Mr Pearson?

[italian dave]

9 hours ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

I’m incredibly down about this appointment. I’ll be honest, it’s terrible! Nigel wins that game today, end of. I’m not getting into a debate on it, I’ve seen better football in non league. Nothing against Manning but I’m getting Holden vibes. 

Just a reminder that we won our first 4 games and were top of the league after Holden’s permanent appointment. Things can easily change. 

[italian dave]

1 hour ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Yes it can be laid at his door! With three days in you don’t change the press and style of play that with a fully fit squad has been successful. It was dreadful! The players had no idea of game plan. I’ve been here several times. We didn’t need a new Manager bounce, but most clubs get some kind of push, that performance was down to the management. 

Hang on…..your previous post you said - and I quote! - “I’m not getting into a debate about it!!

[One Team]

3 minutes ago, italian dave said:

Just a reminder that we won our first 4 games and were top of the league after Holden’s permanent appointment. Things can easily change. 

Absolutely. Win the next six games on the bounce and people won’t care which way he looks in interviews. Lose  the next six though and he’ll be looking at the exit. 

FWIW I don’t like his style either, but won’t matter a jot if he wins games and gets us promotion.  A lot of Oxford fans said much the same about him but didn’t care as they did well. 

[RedRock]

Think Manning’s body language was a give away. He was desperately disappointed by the performance and, rather than tweaks, he’s thinking this is a far bigger job than he was sold/realised.

On his ‘surprise’ starters, think all of us were hoping that Mehmeti would respond positively to someone who believed in him and a new slate.  Weimann, maybe a new set up would rejuvenate him. Nope, both fails.

Personally, wouldn’t entirely give up on Mehmeti just yet but the guy is running out of chances. Weimann, the only way I’d play him now is to experiment with him as the lead forward with Conway tucked in behind.

Underwhelming start but let’s hope Manning is a quick learner. Needs 3 months, including the transfer window, to see where we are heading with any clarity imo.

[GrahamC]

13 hours ago, Spreadsheet Boy said:

George Tanner’s interview was good.

That was his 50th league game for us, coming on the same ground as his debut.

He is still a little bit safe at times with his passing but for £300k & coming from League Two he’s been a very good signing.

Thought he looked sound defensively yesterday & his availability also means we get to play Sykes where he is most effective, though yesterday certainly wasn’t one of his better days.

If he could just up his availability record he’s ideal for us & it will be an interesting situation as to how he competes with McCrorie for the RB spot when he is finally available.

[David Brent]

9 minutes ago, Tafkarmlf said:

Yup pretty much every week. Some interviews were angry, grumpy, some had an air of FFS and exasperation. Very rarely happy. Pragmatic and some could say dour but that was his style 

He looked in an awful lot of pain towards the end though.  hopefully they find an answer for that because doing interviews like that cant have been fun.

 

Just say no

[steviestevieneville]

26 minutes ago, Bris Red said:

That is something that suprised me aswell, 'we haven't done any work in possession' found that very strange.

Perhaps he hasn’t had time. He may of just focused on us defensively . If we keep a clean sheet we don’t lose. The next two weeks will be interesting though. 

[italian dave]

14 minutes ago, David Brent said:

Did you ever listen to Mr Pearson?

I think that’s just about personal taste though, isn’t it? Like @Tafkarmlf, I rarely enjoyed listening to Pearson. Often grumpy, and what others describe as “told it like it is” (and that’s fair enough, that’s their view) I always felt was telling us what he thought we wanted to hear or what we already knew.

If I’m honest, I can’t say there have been many managers I can remember where I’d have gone out of my way to listen to post match! 

[The Fat Controller]

9 minutes ago, RedRock said:

 Weimann, the only way I’d play him now is to experiment with him as the lead forward with Conway tucked in behind.

That's where I'd play him too, especially with Wells out, and I don't really feel like it's an experiment at all. It's where he wants to play. It's a position in which he has been successful for us. 

It helps Conway too who is much much more effective in a narrow 2 than in a wide 3. 

[grifty]

1 hour ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Yes it can be laid at his door! With three days in you don’t change the press and style of play that with a fully fit squad has been successful. It was dreadful! The players had no idea of game plan. I’ve been here several times. We didn’t need a new Manager bounce, but most clubs get some kind of push, that performance was down to the management. 

Successful? We didn't have a play style? Unless you include pass it around the back 4 until we get under pressure and lump it up to a forward in the hope Knight picks up a loose ball. Or play it back to Max to boot out of play.

The style of play looked exactly the same as the Sheff Wed game. Manning needs to try and coach half the team how to make a 5 yard pass because Pearson sure couldn't!

Don't get me wrong, I didn't want Pearson to leave, but lets not pretend we were playing anywhere near something resembling 'good' football for the majority of this season!

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, eardun said:

And yet he looked down at the ground in his interview even more than Manning! Personally I don’t get too hung up on style - I find the content more interesting. And what was interesting in Tanner’s interview was that Manning made a tweak at half time that made things a lot better down the right hand side in the second half. Manning doing things like that is more important to me than where he looks in interviews. 

 

Whatever the tweak was to the right side, QPR were dominant til the subs started having an effect (on at 60, starting to affect the game in 70).  We could barely get out of our half.  I think it took Dickie’s courage to come forward with the ball, and TGH’s confidence to pass and move to get us going.  We finished strongly.

But in a game of cause and effect, whatever he did to make a minimal improvement on the right second half it didn’t help the rest of the team.  We were under a lot of pressure for a long spell.

38 minutes ago, italian dave said:

I think that’s just about personal taste though, isn’t it? Like @Tafkarmlf, I rarely enjoyed listening to Pearson. Often grumpy, and what others describe as “told it like it is” (and that’s fair enough, that’s their view) I always felt was telling us what he thought we wanted to hear or what we already knew.

If I’m honest, I can’t say there have been many managers I can remember where I’d have gone out of my way to listen to post match! 

I loved his interviews, so informative, lots of the way he thinks about the game, etc.  Yeah, he didn’t like talking about injuries or transfers or contracts, but none of those are really his to talk about, not in the way he talks about the football.

[Lew-T]

To be fair to Manning, you’re not gonna top Nige in terms of entertainment value with an interview. You just can’t!

[Numero Uno]

1 hour ago, Bris Red said:

That is something that suprised me aswell, 'we haven't done any work in possession' found that very strange.

I didn't, not in the slightest. You come in to a new club to prepare for your first game in three days time. What difference are you going to make in three days in terms of possession - **** all, that's what. I actually think, as dull as it was for those watching, that concentrating and perhaps the odd tinker with the "out of possession" that we are good at was 100% the correct thing to do and all-in-all he would have been a lot happier than the fans with a 0-0. He's seen our relative solidity for himself, under his watch now. He's got two weeks to work with the majority of our squad on what we do when we get the ball, with no interruptions, and I would reasonably expect to see some improvement in that area next game.

I didn't like Pearson's sacking one iota and I detest the two who now run the football operation but I won't be criticising Manning just because he's not Pearson. What he did in preparing for yesterday was right for the club, even if it was annoying for travelling and watching fans paying their hard earned. If we had lost that game trying to be progressive in possession because players haven't had enough time to grasp what was required in three training sessions tops people would have been raging on here, simple as that.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Numero Uno

[Bris Red]

26 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

I didn't, not in the slightest. You come in to a new club to prepare for your first game in three days time. What difference are you going to make in three days in terms of possession - **** all, that's what. I actually think, as dull as it was for those watching, that concentrating and perhaps the odd tinker with the "out of possession" that we are good at was 100% the correct thing to do and all-in-all he would have been a lot happier than the fans with a 0-0. He's seen our relative solidity for himself, under his watch now. He's got two weeks to work with the majority of our squad on what we do when we get the ball, with no interruptions, and I would reasonably expect to see some improvement in that area next game.

I didn't like Pearson's sacking one iota and I detest the two who now run the football operation but I won't be criticising Manning just because he's not Pearson. What he did in preparing for yesterday was right for the club, even if it was annoying for travelling and watching fans paying their hard earned. If we had lost that game trying to be progressive in possession because players haven't had enough time to grasp what was required in three training sessions tops people would have been raging on here, simple as that.

Yeah fair enough, he obviously didn't want to lose the game and 3 days is clearly not enough time to implement what him and Hogg want the team to be doing in possession - i get that.

I just felt we were SO bad in possession for long spells yesterday, worst i've seen us with the ball in a long long time. Not blaming Manning for that directly but you'd have thought he would have tried to have gotten some bits across possession wise in the time he had with the squad seeing as defensively we have been fairly solid this season..

Perhaps yesterday with the ball it was just a bad day at the office, as you said given 2 weeks now with the squad you hope we will see us looking like we have a bit more of a clue of what we are doing in possession against Boro.

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Bris Red

[Numero Uno]

Just now, Bris Red said:

Perhaps yesterday with the ball it was just a bad day at the office, as you said given 2 weeks now with the squad you hope we will see us looking like we have a bit more of a clue of what we are doing in possession against Boro.

 

Absolutely, totally agree, I'm not expecting our midfield to morph in a fortnight to running operations like Bellingham does every week but there does need to be some evidence next time out of what we can expect to see moving forwards. I'm sure Manning and Hogg will be as keen to show us that as anyone.

[Davefevs]

1 minute ago, Bris Red said:

Yeah fair enough, he obviously didn't want to lose the game and 3 days is clearly not enough time to implement what him and Hogg want the team to be doing in possession - i get that.

I jus felt we were SO bad in possession for long spells yesterday, worst i've seen us with the ball in a long long time. Not blaming Manning for that directly but you'd have thought he would have tried to have gotten some bits across possession wise in the time he had with the squad seeing as defensively we have been fairly solid this season..

Perhaps yesterday with the ball it was just a bad day at the office, as you said given 2 weeks now with the squad you hope we will see us looking like we have a bit more of a clue of what we are doing in possession against Boro.

 

Re in-possession - I actually saw some small positives, whatever the reason.  I thought Max, Vyner and Dickie moved the ball a bit quicker between them, it wasn’t laboured….and we actually got the ball to Pring further up the pitch than we have of late.

The problem was we never got it infield from there to open up the pitch and break them down.  We didn’t get it down the line either until the second half when Pring set Mehmeti away.

On the other side we know George is more conservative, as evidenced by his receipt map.

But he did come in-field a bit.

I wanted Pring to drive in-field with the ball, but he had a bit of a beast with the ball yesterday.

Things improved when Dickie started to come forward, because that took one of their CMs out of their disciplined position, which until that point had blocked up the centre of the pitch.

Not much of a positive but a small one.

[eardun]

15 minutes ago, Bris Red said:

Yeah fair enough, he obviously didn't want to lose the game and 3 days is clearly not enough time to implement what him and Hogg want the team to be doing in possession - i get that.

I just felt we were SO bad in possession for long spells yesterday, worst i've seen us with the ball in a long long time. Not blaming Manning for that directly but you'd have thought he would have tried to have gotten some bits across possession wise in the time he had with the squad seeing as defensively we have been fairly solid this season..

Perhaps yesterday with the ball it was just a bad day at the office, as you said given 2 weeks now with the squad you hope we will see us looking like we have a bit more of a clue of what we are doing in possession against Boro.

 

I’m not surprised we haven’t been great in the last couple of games. That’s not on Manning. The sacking of Pearson must have had a negative/shock impact on some of the players, especially the younger ones. We’ve then had a further change of coaching team between Sheff Wed and QPR (Fleming out; Manning and Hogg in). With all of that turmoil, I’m just glad we managed to pick up 4 points and two clean sheets.

[petehinton]

10 hours ago, robin_unreliant said:

Liam gives the impression in interviews of being a bit of an introvert. Somewhat similar to JL, which might be why he saw him as a good fit. This could just be an impression though, maybe I'm wrong. I'm not that confident that this type of personality will inspire the squad to give their best if I'm honest. 

All the best coaches I’ve ever seen operate “on the grass” have been extremely quiet, shy, introverted people off it. It really makes no odds now he comes across from what we will see. How this guy is when he has a camera shoved in his face, will in no way be how he is every day with the players. 
 

Coaches/managers can be hugely eccentric, but if they’re screaming and shouting a load of crap does that make it any more inspiring?

[Sir Geoff]

1 hour ago, grifty said:

Successful? We didn't have a play style? Unless you include pass it around the back 4 until we get under pressure and lump it up to a forward in the hope Knight picks up a loose ball. Or play it back to Max to boot out of play.

The style of play looked exactly the same as the Sheff Wed game. Manning needs to try and coach half the team how to make a 5 yard pass because Pearson sure couldn't!

Don't get me wrong, I didn't want Pearson to leave, but lets not pretend we were playing anywhere near something resembling 'good' football for the majority of this season!

That was part of our problem yesterday. Yes sometimes Max kicks a few out of play, but generally we gained a lot of ground by either Pring winning the header on the halfway line and us winning the second ball or else the ball glancing off Pring or the defender for a throw in. Yesterday we didn't do that and ceded a lot of ground as a consequence. Max was playing it short to Dickie or Vyner and everyone was just knocking it sideways with no purpose. At lease under Pearson there seemed to be an aim to the possession football. i.e pull the other team out of shape and wait for an opening to spring one of the wingers. Some people on here want to call it hoof ball, but at least we had a style and pattern of play. Yesterday the wide men didn't know whether to drop deep or stay high and look for space. Probably Sykes worst game of the season as a result.

[Davefevs]

4 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

Yesterday the wide men didn't know whether to drop deep or stay high and look for space. Probably Sykes worst game of the season as a result.

Yep, Sykes in particular seemed to get into bad body positions too, and couldn’t go anywhere.

Huge piece of conspiracy theory here…he’s not been good going into both of the recent international breaks.  Saving himself a little?

He’s generally been good this season, but felt he had more to give yesterday.

[chinapig]

1 hour ago, Spreadsheet Boy said:

I loved his interviews, so informative, lots of the way he thinks about the game, etc.  Yeah, he didn’t like talking about injuries or transfers or contracts, but none of those are really his to talk about, not in the way he talks about the football.

Yep, no cliches, no jargon, a refreshing change from the bland, content free stuff you get from most managers. No 'the lads done good' and 'we go again' tedium but intelligent, articulate insight.

Certainly not as old school as he's made out to be he also came across as emotionally intelligent with a sense of perspective.

He could certainly be grumpy if asked dumb questions, more so if he was expected to answer questions about decisions that weren't his. Can't say I blame him when those responsible for those decisions were hiding under a rock in Guernsey or the Bahamas.

I doubt we'll see his like again.

[italian dave]

1 hour ago, Spreadsheet Boy said:

Whatever the tweak was to the right side, QPR were dominant til the subs started having an effect (on at 60, starting to affect the game in 70).  We could barely get out of our half.  I think it took Dickie’s courage to come forward with the ball, and TGH’s confidence to pass and move to get us going.  We finished strongly.

But in a game of cause and effect, whatever he did to make a minimal improvement on the right second half it didn’t help the rest of the team.  We were under a lot of pressure for a long spell.

I loved his interviews, so informative, lots of the way he thinks about the game, etc.  Yeah, he didn’t like talking about injuries or transfers or contracts, but none of those are really his to talk about, not in the way he talks about the football.

I’m not sure I’d entirely agree that QPR were ‘dominant’. I felt it was more a case of two cautious sides cancelling each other out. @Bris Red has made the point that Manning’s top priority was probably to not lose his first game, and quite possibly Cifuentes felt similarly about his first home game - and for QPR unbeaten in two is a signifciant step.

The fact that we couldn’t get out of our half for long spells wasn’t particularly because QPR were putting us under massive pressure, or were a huge threat, it was more to do with them being prepared to sit back with two lines of 4 in their own half, and we couldn’t even begin to break that down!

I never really felt that they looked likely to score - they had a few half chances, like us, and I don’t think they had a single shot on target did they?

On Pearson, that’s fair comment. I was thinking more about the after match interviews than some of those longer ones. And to be fair, that’s all we’ve got in terms of a comparison between NP and LM. Perhaps Manning will show a different side when he’s got more time and space to talk about his footballing ethos more generally. 

Edited November 12, 2023 by italian dave

[Numero Uno]

11 minutes ago, chinapig said:

I doubt we'll see his like again.

Not on Stevie's watch you won't......................

Edited November 12, 2023 by Numero Uno

[UncleRed]

Woke up, walked the dogs, people still moaning about LM post match interview

[exAtyeoMax]

thought his interview was fine. Will probably get more in-depth as time goes on but he said all he needed to say, not much more he could add after such a short time.

I didn't mind him looking down, to me it made him look more thoughtful and considered. Will probably get more confident as the season progresses unless we lose

[Numero Uno]

46 minutes ago, petehinton said:

All the best coaches I’ve ever seen operate “on the grass” have been extremely quiet, shy, introverted people off it. It really makes no odds now he comes across from what we will see. How this guy is when he has a camera shoved in his face, will in no way be how he is every day with the players. 
 

Coaches/managers can be hugely eccentric, but if they’re screaming and shouting a load of crap does that make it any more inspiring?

Most managers who are screaming and shouting crap really struggle with getting players to listen to them. That's how it works in the real world. Yes, you get fantastic EXCEPTIONS like Clough and Fergie (and even Colin to a lesser degree) but have a look at the record of ex-players who tried to COPY their methods - it ain't great.

[Davefevs]

21 minutes ago, italian dave said:

I’m not sure I’d entirely agree that QPR were ‘dominant’. I felt it was more a case of two cautious sides cancelling each other out. @Bris Red has made the point that Manning’s top priority was probably to not lose his first game, and quite possibly Cifuentes felt similarly about his first home game - and for QPR unbeaten in two is a signifciant step.

The fact that we couldn’t get out of our half for long spells wasn’t particularly because QPR were putting us under massive pressure, or were a huge threat, it was more to do with them being prepared to sit back with two lines of 4 in their own half, and we couldn’t even begin to break that down!

I never really felt that they looked likely to score - they had a few half chances, like us, and I don’t think they had a single shot on target did they?

On Pearson, that’s fair comment. I was thinking more about the after match interviews than some of those longer ones. And to be fair, that’s all we’ve got in terms of a comparison between NP and LM. Perhaps Manning will show a different side when he’s got more time and space to talk about his footballing ethos more generally. 

I’m not saying they were good with their dominance (on-top a better word?), but it was the period they created their chances, it was the period we had to defend our goal / box.  We defended it well, but we invited pressure by allowing them to start their attacks much higher up the pitch.

++++++

I’ve just watched the club interview, only heard the BBCRB one last night.  I think the words are more important than the eyes / body language imho.  A game where you’re not really gonna be able to come out and be all the joys of spring.

I wish we had another game quickly, this fortnight is gonna be a long fortnight!