1. I did believe that we are an attractive team for managing in the past but now I didn't. Just think, for the last 6 years, how many world class managers have come to England: Mourinho, Benitez, Ramos, Eriksson...ONeill, Grant and Jol arguable but they do have qualities. And that what we get was shittest manager in the league. Yea you can claim that Shepherd was the major factor but on the otherhand I don't think he was stubborn enough to turn down someone like Hitzfield. And ok now what we get is Sam, imo a risky but good choice but definitely not in the same class as Mourinho and Benitez. Is that really mad to think we aren't really that attractive?
2. Ok, this is very arguable I know, but in my opinion you should NEVER think Sam wanna turns Newcastle into another Bolton who just know long ball, header and luck.
Again, this is very arguable, but here is my understanding.
Sam is a defense-first type manager for sure, and the first priority he is doing in Newcastle is to implement his DEFENSE TACTIC which is proven in Bolton. I am ok for this, and I also don't think anyone will object about this right?
If we just evaluate our defense this season, is that really our defense tactic is s***? Or is that some of our playey becomes Bramble again and cost us silly goals? Think again, Fulham, Derby, etc, many goals we lose this season were due to silly mistake of Cacapa and Rozehnal, or the unstoppable fluke goals. When we are using Taylor and Faye, who are less error-prone, our defense looks the most solid one we have since Robson era, even though we are having a LB who is frequently out of position. You can blame Sam for buying two s*** centre back, which is really his fault---f****** hell the Rozehnal is the worse version of Andy O'Brien---but other than that Sam has really did a great job for our defense. I am particularly impressed by his effort for trying to restore our pressing in Robson era. It is completely different from the one under Souness, which our player just running like headless chicken. The defense is much more systematic and consistent---ok, except the s*** errors by the new Bramble/OBrien.
The major problem is our offense. Here why I still defend Sam is because I think it is unfair to judge him by Bolton's style. Look at the players he had. Yea you can said they have Diouf, Anelka, or even Okocha or Campo etc but the truth is the players are just s***, so s*** that they are facing relegation immediately. If you are the manager would you ask these type of players, who were acquired due to extremely limited of funds, to play beautiful footballs? In another words, and it is a matter of belief that, do you think Sam is really willing to play like that or just he is forced to? Yea I know everyone will fire me for this and saying what we are doing now is the proof, but I do have different views. In my opinion, he is trying to consolidate the defense, in the highest order, that attacking type players like Emre are sacrificed. Then he will start to make some attacking plays, like long ball, left side attack etc which will not affect our defense. So our attack is simply limited by the players like Butt, Smith, etc who are good tacklers but never a good passer.
We are a club much bigger than Bolton, and for sure we should be able to supply more resources to him. My argument here is, due to his preference in consolidating defense and limited human resource(face it), he is forced to play like that. If he has more time and resources, spend some cash and bring in the players he want like Okocha, I don't think he will still ask the team to attack like that. We can definitely play a lot better if we have better players. Just an example, when we have Duff back to the left last game, we really have two wingers and start to play like what we are in the past. He knows how to do it, just he didn't.
So here is another problem, which I do think he should be blamed, is that he is clearly showing the message of "I don't care about this season's result", and that's why even Wullie is firing at him. I really understand this and the season ticket holder is calling his head for this. "Oh my god why do that?" "We can play better!" I also have such questions before the Arsenal game but now I understand why: he has written this season off and use it for rebuilding and training his tactics. This is consistent with his words at the start of the season. At that time, he has already claimed that he needs time and ask us to be patient until he can really do something. At that time, I do believe everyone like me thinks that the message is "Sorry the club is problematic and I need a lot of time to change things." And his statement has been already forgotten after the excellent start of the season that we think "The team is good and is capable of a top 6 finish." I think this is correct too, but that makes his message silly right? You can do it immediately then why ask for 2 seasons time? And now when I look back our results, our performances, I think what Sam Allardyce really meant at that time is "Sorry lads, result is not my priority this season, you gotta face a difficult time until I accomplish my tactics, get in the players I want and trained them well." Result is sacrificed for his long term plan, and that's what he meant, in my opinion.
The strongest proof, and the only proof I have, is the flashing quality we have made sometimes this season. I don't think people will argue about this too. In our normal setup things are really poor, but sometimes we can also play like a team that definitely can have a top 6 finish. The substitution of Emre, Duff, the hold up play of Viduka and Smith, and impressive pressing tactics we performed during Arsenal...all these are simply non-existent for the last 3-4 years.
I know it's f****** irritating to watch the team playing when it's f****** obvious to change a very simple bit and play a lot better, and it's so silly that people either think he is mentally retarded or he is forcing a contract termination by Ashley. But for me, as he has already announced that he needs time and his only priority this season is our defense but not our result, I will give him time to do that. I am also very depressed if we really become the 2nd Bolton but I will only judge that after he has completed his tactics. If he plays long ball, header and luck again I must be on your side, cursing him to die and suffer in Hell etc anything you like.
But now, at least now, I understand what he's doing, and I think it is possible that he can success, so I will give him the time he asked, 2 seasons.
