Geds 22 league games (so far)

[Little Shrimp]

Considering it's his first ever management job, Ged's done alright. At times we've played some extremely good football, and gotten results because of it. Our ability to play out from the back has improved, and there are far better passing structures in possession than previously. On the flip side, we have been a bit weaker defensively.

There's also some important context needed. Most pundits covering L2 thought we were overperforming at the start of the season, and this wasn't wholly unfair - having the best goalkeeper and best finisher in the league in Moore and Mellon was always going to be a huge boost. The dip in form came when Moore got injured, not when Derek departed. Ged's not had Moore at all, and hasn't had Love either - his energy and technical quality in midfield would be a huge asset for the way Ged appears to want us playing. Add to that the loss of our loanees in January (worth saying too that Mellon was barely fit or available for Ged's stint with him) and the loss of McKiernan to injury - there have been a lot of obstacles.

The playoffs were always going to be a big ask given the departure of a manager and that many of our best players. It's not been perfect, but I do like some of the things Ged has started to implement. He's done well to keep us in contention for the playoffs and although they appear to be slipping away a bit now, I'm looking forward to seeing how things will shape up with a full pre-season/summer of recruitment.

Accy got rid of JC to give themselves time and room to appoint someone new. Lesson to be learnt there.

Accy got rid of Coleman when they already knew they were safe and the playoffs were too far gone. Derek's departure came too early in the season for us to have that luxury.

Generally speaking - any shouts to get Coleman in as manager are utterly ludicrous. His achievements at Accrington were monumental, but he's been coasting the last few years blowing the wage budget on an array of unheard of players in the hope that he might find another Colby Bishop. No thank you.

[black morse]

Thank you Little Shrimp. From the little I have seen (including Sunday's poor showing) I agree with you. I can always rely on you for a balanced view

[fulwoodshrimp]

I think my worry is our worst performance of the season was our last one at Salford- it reminded me of our game at Barrow earlier in the season. In both games on dodgy pitches we seemed to lack passion and organisation. We made a poor Salford side look decent.

[shrimpsontoast]

I think we just need to be careful not to lose sight of the wood for the trees. Nice passing patterns and an ability to play out from the back are not much good if you are liable to concede a hatful of goals each time you step onto the field (let’s be honest we have looked that way consistently for quite some time). I’m concerned that if we continue to convince ourselves that we are in playoff chasing mode, that effectively amounts to a free hit for the manager / squad. What I want to know is how we would approach things tactically starting from a new season day one, when a little bit more pragmatism / care will surely be required (or a serious squad upgrade, which feels somewhat unlikely).

[Gone_Shrimping]

I think we just need to be careful not to lose sight of the wood for the trees. Nice passing patterns and an ability to play out from the back are not much good if you are liable to concede a hatful of goals each time you step onto the field (let’s be honest we have looked that way consistently for quite some time). I’m concerned that if we continue to convince ourselves that we are in playoff chasing mode, that effectively amounts to a free hit for the manager / squad. What I want to know is how we would approach things tactically starting from a new season day one, when a little bit more pragmatism / care will surely be required (or a serious squad upgrade, which feels somewhat unlikely).

With The King taking 27 points from our first 16 matches we were almost safe from relegation in November bar a huge points deduction or a collapse like Lincoln a few years ago. That start had us on course for circa 80 points so it was a free hit for anyone taking over from Derek. It's looking like we may be in the 64 to 68 points range and I think if we were starting the season now , the way we are playing would have us back in the old days fighting relegation.

[shrimpsontoast]

I have a theory that if we go 2 down at Tranmere or Crewe or Newport in August or September, the chances of us coming back and scoring 3 are going to be much lower than they are in the excitement of a playoff chasing run-in. If you get walloped a few times early doors in the season, that is likely to set the tone and its going to be really difficult to recover from.

[vvm]

Just looking at league alone and it's 6 won out of 22. Most of the wins have been very tight too, on another day we don't beat MK and probably lose to both Tranmere and Crewe. Agree with Shrimpsontoast above that earlier in the season we probably don't come back in those games.

Purely hypothetical but that record could easily read won 3 out of 22.

Ged has done fine and I appreciate it's his first managerial job and he's had so much shit to deal with behind the scenes. I think a lot of us might expect us to push on next season but I'm quite worried we could go in the other direction.

[shrimpsontoast]

7 out of 23 actually, as it correctly states at the top of the thread.

[shrimpsontoast]

Doh I mean 7 out of 22 !

[Freez]

While agreeing that DA did a great job before he left (again) and left us in a good position, I do take issue with the “it was a free hit” scenario. That’s far too simplistic and rose tinted than the actual truth of losing all five influential loanees and selling the best young left sided talent within weeks of taking the job that GB inherited.
Having to rebuild, and we all admit some signings have worked, others haven’t, was always going to be the test.
Yes the jury is still out, and rightly so as we have been up and down but being realistic it may have been so with DA in charge, we will never know. DA will always be a legend for his time with us, we may well finish up mid table, which most would have settled for at the start of the season? My opinion obviously.

[Gone_Shrimping]

We don't know how many if any of the loanees would have remained had DA been the manager in January. I think Mellon was always going especially with Dundee and The Clarets having an arrangement.

DA certainly had a good reputation for looking after loan players and giving them plenty of game time. Maybe Eli King could have remained at The Mazuma , we will never know. His parent club did allow him to follow DA to Ross County which Eli may now regret.

My point is that when a manager takes over at a club with 27 points on the board from 16 games ( 1/3 of a season) then relegation is virtually out of the picture which takes pressure off.

I am hoping that Ged makes a success of the job so let's hope the club's ownership is resolved soon which will be a great help.

[black morse]

There's no doubt in anyone's mind that DA was a very good manager for us but, at the time, there were quite a few moans that we weren't attack minded enough, need 2 up front etc. We now have a manager who believes in going for 3 points every game and it's only a few weeks since many were saying how much they are enjoying the more positive approach. Some of those are now bemoaning the fact that we are letting in goals left right and centre. Do you want him to bolster the defence? That would mean reducing our attacking players. We all know that tracking back is a problem but after the number of mid week games we've had to play it looked like a very tired team to me last Sunday. Ged is doing his best to rotate the squad but with some injuries to our star players and one or two players who simply aren't really good
enough to even be on the bench his options are limited.

As has been said we would happily have taken a mid table finish at the start of the season and I for one am enjoying not having to be looking at the real possibility of relegation for once.

Give Ged a chance.

[shrimpsontoast]

Everyone is giving him a chance and clearly everyone really wants him to succeed. Further I don’t think anyone is suggesting we should go ultra defensive but at the same time people have some justifiable concerns about the openness of the current on field setup. Whilst there are exceptions, to be successful and watchable generally you need a healthy balance between attack and defence. Don’t see that there is anything inconsistent or unreasonable about people who turn up and pay 20 quid critiquing aspects of the approach under DA on the one hand and then expressing concerns about the more open approach under the current regime on the other. What I think many people would like to see is a bit more solidity over the remainder of the season (by the way you can be more solid and win, it’s not about trading 3 points for 1). In short, evidence that we can play another way. If the next 8 games have us leaking a lot of goals (or narrowly avoiding leaking a lot of goals, like the Crawley game, or maybe my memory has deceived me…) in the same way that we have done in recent months, a lot of people are going to be pretty apprehensive about the coming season. Of course the issue may be with the playing personnel rather than the tactical approach, but then we do appear to have offered new contracts to a good portion of the current squad. It may be that in time they can adapt, but they’ve had 20 odd games now…

[Billy bodger]

I thought I would wait for once before I listened to the after match interview with the manager and I’m glad I did. How honest was that, you could see he was gutted, but more importantly for me you could see there was anger at the performance. (His first interview after the Wrexham 6-1 thrashing he was like a rabbit stuck in the headlights).

His interview on Sunday shows that he believes this team is his, he has been in charge long enough for it to be called his. He has made tactical changes and with the forced changes to the squad since he took the team has evolved since DA’s tenure.

So what do we take from that? I agree in the next eight games, weather we reach the players or not, he has to get a reaction from the team and maybe even re-look how we play in those games. I don’t mean going back to DA type football but it all to easy to go on a massive bad run. The form needs stabilising.

Next season will come all to soon, I’m not being unkind but we had 27 points on the board when DA left, we have had for a small squad a bad run of long term injuries so how would DA have coped with that? Most seem to think he would have done better, I’m not so sure, but some think DA can walk on water!!

How well will Ged do next season? As much as I like how he has coped he will have to do better. Maybe it’s just because we are at the business end of the season and as fans we have had to higher expectations because of the good start, where we would have settled for being around the playoff spots!!

[RedRedWine]

On balance, I think Ged has done a great job in very difficult circumstances.

You have to consider that he has had to assemble pretty much a new squad from the one he inherited and that looked on course to really challenge for the play-offs at least, due to loan recalls. I must admit, it was in this area where I had my reservations when the appointment was made - as Ged has limited managerial experience; I wasn't sure if he had contacts at other clubs to pull in a few favours in the loan market... a key attribute required to manage this club... but this was seemingly an unfounded assertion.

I think we are a much better team to watch now under Ged - we play-out from the back and progress the ball forwards; which is quite a big change to what we were doing previously in terms of entertainment.

He's lost the head of recruitment (like the loan players, following Derek out of the club) and had to coach on his own at times due to the illness of his number two - before he left entirely due to being embroiled in betting allegations. Despite this, and against the backdrop of the ongoing turmoil/uncertainty driven by the ongoing ownership/club for sale status - we are three points outside the play-off places.

Yes - there have been three straight defeats recently; one of which came against high flying money-bags Wrexham... a game that we were bossing until an individual error turned the match. The other two I think, though disappointing (particularly Salford which was a complete no-show of a performance - of which there has been very few during Geds tenure) is at least partially driven by the lack of depth in our squad... having Joel Senior unavailable was a massive hole that we couldn't fill as an example... something that is always likely to catch up with us now that the games are coming in quick succession.

It does not help his cause perhaps that some of the more eye-catching wins have come on the road and not in-front of the home 'faithful' (Tranmere and Crewe in the league, both when 2-0 down... plus two away victories in the FA Cup against League One opponents) - but this should not detract from job overall.

Credit where it is due - the not so thinly veiled request by the resident geriatric hoping to recruit new owners in order to sack Ged (forget that the current ones are completely unfit to own any sporting enterprise at the forefront of its community), seems very wide of the mark IMO.

[CityShrimp]

On balance, I think Ged has done a great job in very difficult circumstances.

You have to consider that he has had to assemble pretty much a new squad from the one he inherited and that looked on course to really challenge for the play-offs at least, due to loan recalls. I must admit, it was in this area where I had my reservations when the appointment was made - as Ged has limited managerial experience; I wasn't sure if he had contacts at other clubs to pull in a few favours in the loan market... a key attribute required to manage this club... but this was seemingly an unfounded assertion.

I think we are a much better team to watch now under Ged - we play-out from the back and progress the ball forwards; which is quite a big change to what we were doing previously in terms of entertainment.

He's lost the head of recruitment (like the loan players, following Derek out of the club) and had to coach on his own at times due to the illness of his number two - before he left entirely due to being embroiled in betting allegations. Despite this, and against the backdrop of the ongoing turmoil/uncertainty driven by the ongoing ownership/club for sale status - we are three points outside the play-off places.

Yes - there have been three straight defeats recently; one of which came against high flying money-bags Wrexham... a game that we were bossing until an individual error turned the match. The other two I think, though disappointing (particularly Salford which was a complete no-show of a performance - of which there has been very few during Geds tenure) is at least partially driven by the lack of depth in our squad... having Joel Senior unavailable was a massive hole that we couldn't fill as an example... something that is always likely to catch up with us now that the games are coming in quick succession.

It does not help his cause perhaps that some of the more eye-catching wins have come on the road and not in-front of the home 'faithful' (Tranmere and Crewe in the league, both when 2-0 down... plus two away victories in the FA Cup against League One opponents) - but this should not detract from job overall.

Credit where it is due - the not so thinly veiled request by the resident geriatric hoping to recruit new owners in order to sack Ged (forget that the current ones are completely unfit to own any sporting enterprise at the forefront of its community), seems very wide of the mark IMO.

Very well said.

[redrobo]

On balance, I think Ged has done a great job in very difficult circumstances.

You have to consider that he has had to assemble pretty much a new squad from the one he inherited and that looked on course to really challenge for the play-offs at least, due to loan recalls. I must admit, it was in this area where I had my reservations when the appointment was made - as Ged has limited managerial experience; I wasn't sure if he had contacts at other clubs to pull in a few favours in the loan market... a key attribute required to manage this club... but this was seemingly an unfounded assertion.

I think we are a much better team to watch now under Ged - we play-out from the back and progress the ball forwards; which is quite a big change to what we were doing previously in terms of entertainment.

He's lost the head of recruitment (like the loan players, following Derek out of the club) and had to coach on his own at times due to the illness of his number two - before he left entirely due to being embroiled in betting allegations. Despite this, and against the backdrop of the ongoing turmoil/uncertainty driven by the ongoing ownership/club for sale status - we are three points outside the play-off places.

Yes - there have been three straight defeats recently; one of which came against high flying money-bags Wrexham... a game that we were bossing until an individual error turned the match. The other two I think, though disappointing (particularly Salford which was a complete no-show of a performance - of which there has been very few during Geds tenure) is at least partially driven by the lack of depth in our squad... having Joel Senior unavailable was a massive hole that we couldn't fill as an example... something that is always likely to catch up with us now that the games are coming in quick succession.

It does not help his cause perhaps that some of the more eye-catching wins have come on the road and not in-front of the home 'faithful' (Tranmere and Crewe in the league, both when 2-0 down... plus two away victories in the FA Cup against League One opponents) - but this should not detract from job overall.

Credit where it is due - the not so thinly veiled request by the resident geriatric hoping to recruit new owners in order to sack Ged (forget that the current ones are completely unfit to own any sporting enterprise at the forefront of its community), seems very wide of the mark IMO.

Hope you were not referring to myself as 'the geriatric '......