Andoni Iraola

Poppedmycherry said:
Am I the only geezer about who actually thinks we were second best, albeit marginally, even before the madness that ensued?

Granted, we scored a well worked goal from a lovely team move, but I never felt like we really threatened them other than that one moment

Wolves on the t’other hand I felt looked a threat on every occasion they came forward and had acres of space to play in. We, in comparison, were finding it difficult to penetrate (hehe) their resolute and compact defence

I think that little chef’s crazy moment has distracted from the reality that on the balance of play, we were quite likely going to lose that game anyway

Sorry!!
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Spot on. I though the first half was insipid, our goal was completely out of the blue but something in me hoped it might be the turning point, alas no. Wolves looked stronger and far more composed throughout the whole match. We seem to be going backwards rather than progressing, the early signs of AI's so called press, which had been fleeting but promising have completely disappeared or simply sussed by the oppo.

I can understand people keeping the faith, it's what we do best but it's getting bloody hard to watch.
 
New Forest Cherry said:
are you saying he [whoever he is] can have no input?
you do know you can now run whole multi-national corporations remotely, don't you?
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No, I didn’t know that :rolleyes:

These multi national organisations are able to operate and succeed because directors and managers have managerial deputies working alongside them.

These organisations are broadly office based; Iraola has his office, for the most part, outside on a training ground. So remote input can only be minimal when you think about the logistical and technological practicalities.
 
red_house said:
He's done nothing. Bill doesn't strike me as the sort of guy who takes fools gladly with his great expectations. There's enough in the current squad to get us out of this mess and its down to the manager to sort it.
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Bill seems quite tough I agree. Other than that, I would say he's hard to predict, though. He appointed O'Neil as 'permanent' manager when nobody expected him to, and then sacked him when nobody expected him to. Your guess is as good as mine!!
 
MB1980 said:
Yep, and players like Lerma impose themselves on the opposition as a result... they know he's there or lurking which can have subtle effect on opposition players. It can unsettle them slightly/mentally... particularly highly skillful, talented players who may sometimes be softer mentally. Helps dilute their impact, potentially, rather than almost have free reign.

Even if more limited, knowing theres a fairly aggressive playing darting around, breathing (biting?) down your neck is useful thing to have... and most sides have it. Not sure we have this season, with Adams out.
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Guessing it will be Scott and Billing in deeper roles before the next internazzzzzzional break. Shame as I think we are much stronger with Phil playing further forward.
 
Didn't our manager only want a 1 year contract? He had the confidence in himself to think he would rocket us up the league and have bigger clubs after him.

Have any players spoken about his style on the training pitch? Is there something innovative going on that will eventually kick in?
I may have missed interviews, but are the players talking about a positive vibe?

Genuine questions that people may be able to answer
 
woocash said:
Firstly, apologies for a pretty long post.

I'm afraid AI can easily become a scapegoat but is he really only one to blame? It's not like he's not to blame for the poor performance of the whole team but IMHO he was placed on a ticking time bomb.
Coach with a pretty low experience - from abroad with nearly no one from his old coaching staff around him. At least give him his old assistant he could relay on!
Also, I've a strange feeling that most of us (including myself) overestimated the strength of our team. Please ask yourself a question how many of our players would find a place in the first 11s of other PL teams (not including newly promoted). Now answer to yourself and be very honest! So, how many?
What AI has got from Blake and other people who're responsible for our transfers is... Pretty much nothing. Mostly rejects from other clubs like Radu from Rome (they kicked him out) or Kluivert who already played in few leagues and couldn't find a permanent place. On the top of that trying to copy Brighton without a good scouting team behind and buying a very expensive players like Traore (I still recon he's a good player but completely not suitable for PL, good technically player but no physical attributes at all! Should stay in Italy.) is not going to go well without already fully established PL squad. Another one is Dango who might be on day a good player but not ready for PL yet as well. Then we can go through all the injured players who cost as a lot of money to the last one which no one probably understands - Sinisterra for Anthony who plays only for his national team instead for us. Why? The only two good transfers would be Aarons and Kerketz but again should they be the only choice we've got and relay for whole season on? I'd like to also add Kelly on the top of that who will probably go for free to Tottenham at the end of the season, unless we've a gentleman's agreement with him and have a new contact prepared but trying to avoid FFP punishment. Speaking about Brighton they would probably bought much cheaper and even better players for what we spent. Also, what they normally do perfectly is loaning these new young talents for 1-2 seasons, for instance to Belgium to make sure they're ready for PL before they come back.
Another issue is lack of strong characters in our team and it looks like a lot of them have no heart to play for the club! Are they really listening to AI? Would they listen to other coach for longer period?
I know we all love Brooksy but, unfortunately he's just a shadow of the player he was (not his fault and fingers crossed he'll come back to previous form). Our arguably most suitable player who always gives at least 100% on the pitch is probably Christie. Again, he's got heart to play but is he a really "PL standard/quality player"? He can't even shoot from 16 yards as his every single shot looks like a pass to GK.
Btw. not sure what happened to Neto but did we managed to improve any GK at all? I think Boruc said once, that he had a better and harder GK trainings in Polish league, so take whatever you like from it.
We could go more and more into details but as long as we (Bill where're you now?) don't clean the mess from behind the scenes we'll go backwards instead of going forward.
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A lot of what you say makes sense. I wouldn't write Brooksy off yet, though. I think he's making pretty good progress. Agree that Kerkez and Aarons have generally been positive signings, hopefully Scott will turn out to be one too. Neto seems away with the fairies. He needs to be given space to sort out his head, so I think Radu/Randolph need to come in. As for not wanting to play for us, I haven't noticed that. One thing I will say about Cook is he looked devastated to be sent off. That's passion even if he hasn't been playing well at the moment. Agree with you about the seemingly wasted signings.
 
Poppedmycherry said:
Am I the only geezer about who actually thinks we were second best, albeit marginally, even before the madness that ensued?

Granted, we scored a well worked goal from a lovely team move, but I never felt like we really threatened them other than that one moment

Wolves on the t’other hand I felt looked a threat on every occasion they came forward and had acres of space to play in. We, in comparison, were finding it difficult to penetrate (hehe) their resolute and compact defence

I think that little chef’s crazy moment has distracted from the reality that on the balance of play, we were quite likely going to lose that game anyway

Sorry!!
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On all the stats I think we outperformed them in the first half not hugely so but enough to justify the lead. The second half was abysmal.

I was talking with someone today who thought they were a few ditch interceptions away for generating some big chances which is something you don't tend to see in the bigger stats. It's not something that I particularly noticed.
 
Cherriess said:
A lot of what you say makes sense. I wouldn't write Brooksy off yet, though. I think he's making pretty good progress. Agree that Kerkez and Aarons have generally been positive signings, hopefully Scott will turn out to be one too. Neto seems away with the fairies. He needs to be given space to sort out his head, so I think Radu/Randolph need to come in. As for not wanting to play for us, I haven't noticed that. One thing I will say about Cook is he looked devastated to be sent off. That's passion even if he hasn't been playing well at the moment. Agree with you about the seemingly wasted signings.
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You say Cook hasn't been playing well but he was by far our best player 1st half yesterday. He won several duels by either tackling or Reading game so well and getting ahead of wolves players thru anticipation and setting us on attack....we were discussing in NS how well he was playing at half time....then what happened, happened which was so frustrating
 
Kudos said:
On all the stats I think we outperformed them in the first half not hugely so but enough to justify the lead. The second half was abysmal.

I was talking with someone today who thought they were a few ditch interceptions away for generating some big chances which is something you don't tend to see in the bigger stats. It's not something that I particularly noticed.
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Agree with the first part if you look on the stats thread, also agree on the second part. Philip’s sliding interception looked as though it could be key. Alas, it wasn’t
 
Kudos said:
On all the stats I think we outperformed them in the first half not hugely so but enough to justify the lead. The second half was abysmal.

I was talking with someone today who thought they were a few ditch interceptions away for generating some big chances which is something you don't tend to see in the bigger stats. It's not something that I particularly noticed.
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They were. Wolves had several breakaways in 1st half where we made last ditch tackles or interceptions to stop them scoring. I reckon at least 4.
2nd half after sending off they only really created one scoring chance of note, as we mainly sat in, until Neto's moment of madness
 
Cherry Warrior said:
You say Cook hasn't been playing well but he was by far our best player 1st half yesterday. He won several duels by either tackling or Reading game so well and getting ahead of wolves players thru anticipation and setting us on attack....we were discussing in NS how well he was playing at half time....then what happened, happened which was so frustrating
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Maybe in the first half, but in my opinion, he hasn't generally been performing well this season.
 
Cherry Warrior said:
You say Cook hasn't been playing well but he was by far our best player 1st half yesterday. He won several duels by either tackling or Reading game so well and getting ahead of wolves players thru anticipation and setting us on attack....we were discussing in NS how well he was playing at half time....then what happened, happened which was so frustrating
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What a load of crap.

He wins the initial tackle, tries to carry the ball forward then loses it.

There wouldn't be a single team in the top half of the Championship who would bring Lewis Cook in for any particular reason.

He is average at best, and doesn't have a defined role.

Sooner we stop relying on him the better.

Expect to see further impetus from the back now he's banned for 3 games.

Future England starter 8 years ago...... not in a million years, from 2015.

He's lived off his hype.
 
Neil Dawson said:
It is the Mail….

Although it wouldn’t surprise me if dumb and dumber persuade Bill to roll the dice again to cover their own ineptitude
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There's no covering their error here. Bill has said the decision to replace the manager was Hughes's and he's surely going to be held responsible if they feel they have to pull the trigger.

I suspect the players will be being canvased and that will go a long way to whether they stick or twist with Iraola.
 
HarryJCollis1992 said:
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That would be ridiculous IMO.
I believe that we have to ride this one out.

Plenty of evidence to suggest that the players' individual errors are what's costing us points. We've competed in plenty of games against some good sides and have looked good enough for points multiple times, only for somebody to make a stupid error.

Stick with AI. Keep working on developing an exciting and clear football identity, which will attract new fans from new markets. Even if it means a return to the Championship for a season or two, I'd rather do that than end up with another "pragmatic" manager and having nothing to look forward to on a Saturday.

It's far too early to say that AI has failed. This is going to be a big shift and it's going to take time and we are going to have to take some pain before it's done.
If it ultimately proves successful, it will have been worth the pain, IMO.
 
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