Millwall v AFC Bournemouth - 4 To Go!

SlowDownDerek said:
I was referring to when you disappeared not when you came back. He succeeded initially in motivating the players, finding a formation that worked and giving them enough confidence to start the season well and bounce back from defeat. Obviously using your logic this was purely down to squad quality and happened despite our worst manager in history.

As I say, this is probably semantics but your definition of quality is so specific it's effectively meaningless. If you defined player quality using the same logic then Lee Tomlin would be a better player than Dan Gosling because he's better technically even though he lacks fitness, desire and drive.

A squad that has weak confidence and disruptive players is obviously not as good as one that is settled and resilient. The manager can obviously influence this (and JW seems to be a miracle worker with their confidence) but this is as much a characteristic of a squad as their level of football ability. At some point this squad will have their confidence knocked again, let's hope JW really has helped them out of old habits and credit to him.

Of course it's not all JW, dare say that JTs final act in shipping Josh King out and bringing Ben Pearson helped them turn the corner, or Joe Jordan, or Gary O'Neil....
Click to expand...
I disappeared when I did because I got fed up with not being able to write anything without the same 5 people replying instantly negatively, it had become boring. I then got abused and my 13 year old kid got badly abused on social media just for being my son. Sometimes you have to just let these things die down for more than just your own sake. Not sure what my leaving or coming back has got to do with squad strength and manager debates to be honest?

You are right a team strength is also about resilience and confidence not just talent and I don’t know how many times I have to agree with you!! More reason not to give it to a bloke part responsible for it, and probably why it got better when he went. JT didn’t turn performances around... they were generally turgid whatever the result, with the odd exception, not like the free flowing football we have seen recently.

Your Tomlin\Gosling debate is in your own head. I’d always rate a player on fitness as well when judging player strength. We don’t have any unfit players. Some of them lacked confidence for sure but that was through playing 18months of negative football with defeats that Tindall was a massive part of.
 
Neil Dawson said:
I disappeared when I did because I got fed up with not being able to write anything without the same 5 people replying instantly negatively, it had become boring. I then got abused and my 13 year old kid got badly abused on social media just for being my son. Sometimes you have to just let these things die down for more than just your own sake. Not sure what my leaving or coming back has got to do with squad strength and manager debates to be honest?

You are right a team strength is also about resilience and confidence not just talent and I don’t know how many times I have to agree with you!! More reason not to give it to a bloke part responsible for it, and probably why it got better when he went. JT didn’t turn performances around... they were generally turgid whatever the result, with the odd exception, not like the free flowing football we have seen recently.

Your Tomlin\Gosling debate is in your own head. I’d always rate a player on fitness as well when judging player strength. We don’t have any unfit players. Some of them lacked confidence for sure but that was through playing 18months of negative football with defeats that Tindall was a massive part of.
Click to expand...

The only reason I bring up you leaving is that JT did turn the form around and he was able to motivate them at least up to a point. It's disingenuous to ignore the early season form and declare him our worst ever manager even if ultimately he wasn't good enough.

I've obviously not explained the Tomlin point well enough, which is that mental strength is as much an indicator of squad strength as fitness is an indicator of player quality. They can't be the best squad in the division if they are mentally weak in the same way Tomlin isn't better than Gosling because he's unfit and lacks drive. You rate a player on fitness? So do I. I rate a squad on mental strength too and I'm far from convinced this lot have that despite recent performances. I hope they prove me wrong.

Anyway, we'll get told off for going round in circles again if we're not careful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

;