QPR Press Conference

[And Its Smith]

57 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

Oh no we saw what Manning ball was in the early days. That QPR game is the most boring game of football I've ever seen. 

But and this is the key bit, Manning adapted. After a while he learned that the to get the best out of this squad was to go back to a style this squad was built for and he has evolved upon that style. Was it Blackburn away when we 1st saw us go back to a more familiar style? 

Big ️ in the box for the early style but then a big in the box for adapting but an annoyance remains that we did waste time on that style to begin with. 

We can talk all day about this but I think he came in here and over estimated our ability based on the fact this is the most talented squad he's ever had. I think our games against Oxford gave him a false impression. He then realised that other Championship clubs are also quite good. 

But it looks like he now knows the squad inside and out and knows its strength and weaknesses. 

Hopefully we can salvage our season. The expectation is to win the next two and if we do then we'll be on course for not only my pre season expectations but also the raised expectations the board set. 

I’m amazed you’d judge a manager on their first game in charge.  

[Davefevs]

1 minute ago, And Its Smith said:

I’m amazed you’d judge a manager on their first game in charge.  

I don’t think you judge, but you still take it into consideration.

[And Its Smith]

1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

I don’t think you judge, but you still take it into consideration.

I would take a managers first month into consideration let alone his first game.  I don’t think I ever have.  Every manager needs time to get to know the players and put his ideas across. 

[Shauntaylor85]

14 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I don’t think you judge, but you still take it into consideration.

Let’s be honest, injuries and suspensions for the Forest game changed his hand and he has forced into the 4.3.3 (to a degree) which was best suited to us. I am not convinced he would have changed without that Pring suspension but no doubt we are a better side playing that way, reminds me of the Plymouth and Swansea wins under Nige, so we could be that effective before. My concern is trying to shoehorn Twine in makes us narrow again, keep it the same, it suits us better with a back 4.  

Edited February 15 by Shauntaylor85

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, And Its Smith said:

I would take a managers first month into consideration let alone his first game.  I don’t think I ever have.  Every manager needs time to get to know the players and put his ideas across. 

It is a useful reference point…something to gauge things on, e.g. never pressed as badly as we did (at times) that day!

[Mr Popodopolous]

Just on a tactical note etc.

I know it is two different games, different game states, home v away etc but 2nd half v Southampton showed there was no notable need to in particular the last half hour, to go so bunker last half hour at Middlesbrough.

0 Shots and 15-20% Possession...just not enough, just too cautious. I'm not saying never never go that way but still feel it was unnecessary.

[MC RISK77]

4 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I don’t think you judge, but you still take it into consideration.

Fair enough but he had only been  3 days at the club, no real time to evaluate and get to know the players both professionally and as importantly personally.

No more than a couple of training sessions as well.

I think a month or maybe even more is when you start to get a feel for what a new manager brings.

[ExiledAjax]

Something else I had not appreciated was that he's managed 21 games for us already. It's roughly one game every 4.5 days (tomorrow will be game 22 on day 102 of his tenure).

I don't know exactly how it compares to other "autumn managers" like Ruhl, Cifuentes etc, but that feels like a high frequency of games.

[Jose]

5 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Just on a tactical note etc.

I know it is two different games, different game states, home v away etc but 2nd half v Southampton showed there was no notable need to in particular the last half hour, to go so bunker last half hour at Middlesbrough.

0 Shots and 15-20% Possession...just not enough, just too cautious. I'm not saying never never go that way but still feel it was unnecessary.

Here’s hoping he learned from that. After we scored first I was dreading sitting back but we looked even more of a threat after. 

[mozo]

8 hours ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Let’s be honest, injuries and suspensions for the Forest game changed his hand and he has forced into the 4.3.3 (to a degree) which was best suited to us. I am not convinced he would have changed without that Pring suspension but no doubt we are a better side playing that way, reminds me of the Plymouth and Swansea wins under Nige, so we could be that effective before. My concern is trying to shoehorn Twine in makes us narrow again, keep it the same, it suits us better with a back 4.  

He's played a back 4 for the majority of his games. 

What is clear though is that results have been better with a 4.

Just incidentally, our previous manager played the majority of games last season with a back 3.

[Davefevs]

5 hours ago, MC RISK77 said:

Fair enough but he had only been  3 days at the club, no real time to evaluate and get to know the players both professionally and as importantly personally.

No more than a couple of training sessions as well.

I think a month or maybe even more is when you start to get a feel for what a new manager brings.

Yeah, I’m not disagreeing.  It’s why I said I’d wait til Feb 2nd when he arrived.  Just saying the QPR game still has relevance in the evaluation, it’s something to compare progress against.

You could argue that it might’ve been better to wait until that game was over, knowing you had an international break coming straight up afterwards, before trying to change things.  But I also get the need to start embedding stuff too.

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 hours ago, mozo said:

He's played a back 4 for the majority of his games. 

What is clear though is that results have been better with a 4.

Just incidentally, our previous manager played the majority of games last season with a back 3.

Majority under NP. Some relatively narrow margins for last season.

Iirc we changed at HT v Swansea in the Cup.

29.5 with a back 3 in all comparisons, 23.5 with a back 4.

26 v 20 in the League.

Not checked for this season under LM.

[mozo]

Just now, Mr Popodopolous said:

Majority under NP. Some relatively narrow margins for last season.

Iirc we changed at HT v Swansea in the Cup.

29.5 with a back 3 in all comparisons, 23.5 with a back 4.

26 v 20 in the League.

Not checked for this season under LM.

According to Transfermarkt LM has played 7 of his 17 league games with a 3, and 10 with a 4.

[Davefevs]

9 minutes ago, mozo said:

According to Transfermarkt LM has played 7 of his 17 league games with a 3, and 10 with a 4.

As I’ve said before, I don’t think it’s necessarily the number of players per se, but what the change in shape does to our press / block.

And that too is dependent on how the opposition build-up and their shape too.

But my observations are they we’ve generally pressed better when we’ve pressed as a “front 4”, e.g. Bell, Conway, Knight, Mehmeti on Tuesday, rather than as a “three”.  Typically that front 4 has been the case when couple with a back 4, and we are effectively 442 / 424.

But there is still a bit of “horses for courses” for us not to get too rigid in how we look at it.

On the flipside, even if we play a back 4, we still tend to attack as a 325 or 334 or variant of.  Whether that’s Matty James dropping in, or one full-back playing higher on the side of possession.  Without any real sample size to back it up, I feel that when we play (what we fans see) as a back 3, we don’t get that rotation of players moving our opponents around, and therefore we can’t / don’t play through the middle of the pitch.

[italian dave]

5 hours ago, ExiledAjax said:

Something else I had not appreciated was that he's managed 21 games for us already. It's roughly one game every 4.5 days (tomorrow will be game 22 on day 102 of his tenure).

I don't know exactly how it compares to other "autumn managers" like Ruhl, Cifuentes etc, but that feels like a high frequency of games.

I haven’t got stats to directly answer that, but I did get some together to make a point a couple of weeks ago, when one particular poster was claiming that “it’s the same for everyone”.

And, taking Cifuentes, when we play QPR tomorrow it will be their 8th game since the Xmas/New Year schedule. We’ll have played 11, plus an extra time.

We’d played 2 (and an extra time) more than Southampton on Tuesday night. And we’ve played more games than almost everyone else we’ve played in that time.

So, yes, it’s been a gruelling schedule. If there’s a consolation to the fact that we’re not playing Man U next week, it’s got to be that free week. 

[Super]

12 hours ago, And Its Smith said:

I’m amazed you’d judge a manager on their first game in charge.  

He was still pining after Nige in fairness.

[Davefevs]

6 minutes ago, italian dave said:

I haven’t got stats to directly answer that, but I did get some together to make a point a couple of weeks ago, when one particular poster was claiming that “it’s the same for everyone”.

And, taking Cifuentes, when we play QPR tomorrow it will be their 8th game since the Xmas/New Year schedule. We’ll have played 11, plus an extra time.

We’d played 2 (and an extra time) more than Southampton on Tuesday night. And we’ve played more games than almost everyone else we’ve played in that time.

So, yes, it’s been a gruelling schedule. If there’s a consolation to the fact that we’re not playing Man U next week, it’s got to be that free week. 

Thankfully the foundations of a team that can run and run was put in place over the past couple of years!

Yes, that’s a slightly facetious comment, but a relevant one, LM referenced that in his first press-interview.  Couple that with LM’s better (imho) rotation and having a fuller squad to change pre-game and in-game, means we have coped pretty well in the main.  We were outrunning teams earlier this season, and Tuesday night we out ran Saints.

Hope we reap the benefits over the rest of the season.

Being the saddo I am, of the teams who have games in hand or are still in the cup, we don’t benefit from being the preceding game or the game after, unfortunately.

[italian dave]

12 hours ago, And Its Smith said:

I’m amazed you’d judge a manager on their first game in charge.  

 

9 hours ago, Davefevs said:

It is a useful reference point…something to gauge things on, e.g. never pressed as badly as we did (at times) that day!

Can’t we just all agree that - just like NP, just like most managers - we’ve come a long way since the first match and the first month of his tenure.

Personally, I think tomorrow will be a more interesting comparison with the last two games than it will with the away game at QPR.

Both Boro and Solon wanted to go for it and to win the game. They gave us space to play in. I’m not sure QPR will do that. I think they’ll play a lot deeper, be happy to just make things difficult for us. The things that are hard for us (and most teams tbf) to break down. It will be interesting to see how we manage against that.

I think set pieces can be an important factor in that scenario, so hoping Twine will be starting, if only for that reason. 

[Port Said Red]

1 hour ago, mozo said:

According to Transfermarkt LM has played 7 of his 17 league games with a 3, and 10 with a 4.

What that doesn't tell you on the face of it is who he had available for those games. I am not great at remembering these things, but how many times was it through choice, or because of working around who was fit and available. 

What ever the answer is, it shows that he is not blindly wedded to a set formation to the detriment of tying to fit players into a position they are not capable of playing.

[italian dave]

7 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Thankfully the foundations of a team that can run and run was put in place over the past couple of years!

Yes, that’s a slightly facetious comment, but a relevant one, LM referenced that in his first press-interview.  Couple that with LM’s better (imho) rotation and having a fuller squad to change pre-game and in-game, means we have coped pretty well in the main.  We were outrunning teams earlier this season, and Tuesday night we out ran Saints.

Hope we reap the benefits over the rest of the season.

Being the saddo I am, of the teams who have games in hand or are still in the cup, we don’t benefit from being the preceding game or the game after, unfortunately.

Definitely. Both things.

We’ve got great fitness levels.

And we’ve managed that rotation brilliantly imho.

I’ll certainly not be criticising selections or substitutions for a while: we may not always agree with or understand them but LM and his team know and see a whole lot more than we do and have managed it well.

The stand out for me was the game at Forest. Despite having a smaller squad and the more gruelling schedule, we were easily the stronger side in extra time, and if anyone was going to win it in that last 15 minutes it was (should have been) us. 

[Davefevs]

5 minutes ago, italian dave said:

Can’t we just all agree that

[Rudolf Hucker]

21 minutes ago, Super said:

He was is still pining after Nige in fairness.

 

[JP Hampton]

20 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Couple of nuggets in there, weren’t there?

I think he’s been very relaxed these last two or three interviews.

Think these were helped by whoever the person was asking the questions, second. Thought the questions were excellent and gave LM plenty of scope to elaborate. Good interview. 

[Crimson Crayola]

21 hours ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

I think in his short time here he has understood that whilst he may remove his emotions our team performs best when it plays to the emotions of the crowd. 

I think he's started to learn the power of a collective spirit. And to be fair to him he's never really managed a team that has had such a big and passionate fan base. 

Nah. There was far too much talk about behaviours and principles. He's now dropped all that talk. 

"To be fair" that's his philosophy, and in the early days he's always likely to use that as a crutch. (Which after Nige felt borderline robotic let alone unemotional) He now knows the team, the club and the press, so its no surprise he's a little bit more engaging in pressers.  Perhaps we just needed to be a little more patient?

[Ian M]

2 hours ago, JP Hampton said:

Think these were helped by whoever the person was asking the questions, second. Thought the questions were excellent and gave LM plenty of scope to elaborate. Good interview. 

Yeah whoever that is has been asking some fairly thoughtful questions in a manner that is disarming. I like his style, hopefully someone can put a name to the voice.

[cidercity1987]

1 minute ago, Ian M said:

Yeah whoever that is has been asking some fairly thoughtful questions in a manner that is disarming. I like his style, hopefully someone can put a name to the voice.

James Piercy

[mozo]

8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Thankfully the foundations of a team that can run and run was put in place over the past couple of years!

Yes, that’s a slightly facetious comment, but a relevant one, LM referenced that in his first press-interview.  Couple that with LM’s better (imho) rotation and having a fuller squad to change pre-game and in-game, means we have coped pretty well in the main.  We were outrunning teams earlier this season, and Tuesday night we out ran Saints.

Hope we reap the benefits over the rest of the season.

Being the saddo I am, of the teams who have games in hand or are still in the cup, we don’t benefit from being the preceding game or the game after, unfortunately.

Totally agree, and we said when Nige was sacked, that whoever took over would (did) inherit a young, fit ambitious squad. 

I do think this squad is still lacking some technical aptitude and maturity for a proper top 6 push.

8 hours ago, Port Said Red said:

What that doesn't tell you on the face of it is who he had available for those games. I am not great at remembering these things, but how many times was it through choice, or because of working around who was fit and available. 

What ever the answer is, it shows that he is not blindly wedded to a set formation to the detriment of tying to fit players into a position they are not capable of playing.

Yeah, I just sense that there's a misconception that Manning came in, changed Nige's back 4 to a 3, and told the team to pass pass pass until the opposition falls asleep. Definitely not the case.

21 minutes ago, Ian M said:

Yeah whoever that is has been asking some fairly thoughtful questions in a manner that is disarming. I like his style, hopefully someone can put a name to the voice.

He is really good, and poses tricky questions sometimes.