LucaAltieri

Hope not. He's only been there ten minutes. And considering how they were going before he got there, it's clearly not a case of terrible management on his part.

They were doing a lot better than they are now. How is it clearly not a case of poor management? I do feel sorry for him mind, don't know how anyone can successfully manage while not being able to speak the same language as the players

I don't have more than a surface knowledge of what's going on there but a quick look at the last 10 results he's had (3-3-4) and the last 10 before he took over (4-5-1) both show them picking up 13 points.

EDIT: Actually, some of those will be cup games too. "Points" probably doesn't stand up, but the overall argument remains.

Hope not. He's only been there ten minutes. And considering how they were going before he got there, it's clearly not a case of terrible management on his part.

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,94573.4700.html

About half way through The Nowhere Men. Not great writing but still really interesting so far. All about the shitshow that is scouting in the UK. The old timers making a pittance and the emergence of moneyball and data-driven recruitment.

Just went and watched the highlights. Those goals.

Was just coming here to post the same thing. Those two teams were not the best the league has to offer.

It's a dark day for MLS.

Graham Carr implements a recruitment policy with strict parameters. Whoever establishes Graham Carrs remit should be put in charge.

 

Carr simply does as he's told which is to buy young, Foreign players for as little an outlay as possible, from smaller leagues who will then in turn make the club a tidy profit 2-3 years down the line. You simply can't run a football club in this way when this is your only transfer strategy. It's just not flexible at all and has left us in a position where we have a young squad, devoid of any leadership which regularly goes on ridiculous losing runs because there's no figurehead(s) in the dressing room to get the players back on track. You can see it on the pitch. We go a goal down, heads drop and there's not a single player on that pitch who is capable of getting a reaction from his teammates and taking the game by the scruff of the neck.

 

The fundamental problem is that NUFC is not run like a football club and decisions are not made for footballing reasons. It's always going to be a recipe for disaster.

You're right on a number of things. Our squad does seem to lack a leader figure and that affects the squad psychology negatively. It's a failing of our recruitment policy, as that's a key factor when looking to bring in players. Every model for player evaluation includes a player's mental attributes as a fundamental pillar. Either our scouting team is shit at assessing this aspect of a player or the people making the signings aren't paying enough attention to that area. That's one problem.

The recruitment policy relying on cheap players from foreign leagues and unproven kids obviously isn't going to be as successful as blowing wads of cash on proven signings. But there is merit to the approach when it's done right. Going two windows barely signing anyone, lacking cover in essential positions, and missing out on targets because of haggling over the odd million or few hundred thousand here and there - that's not what I'd consider "doing it right" but it's not my money. If that's the approach they want to take then there's not much anyone can do about it... but they really need to be investing in other areas to develop the cheap players they bring in.

There's definitely some quality among the players that we have. We just haven't managed to form it into a cohesive team. Partly due to lack of investment in certain areas, partly due to the psychological aspect you mentioned. However, all of this comes back to the same fundamental problem; the team lacks a footballing vision.

The most successful teams when it comes to buying cheap, developing talent, and promoting from the youth ranks all have a footballing philosophy that runs throughout the club. Players can come and go, managers can get replaced, and the club philosophy remains. The philosophy informs the scouting policy, the recruitment selection, how the youth teams are organised, and allows for interactions between all parts of the club to be cohesive and all-encompassing. It allows them to build team after team.

We don't have that. We don't have a philosophy and we can't get one because we're not being run, at an operational level, by football people. We need someone who knows football - preferably good football - informing every part of the club. It doesn't matter who the manager is until we get that. If the business team, scouting team, youth team, and first team aren't all on the same page then we're going to continue having these problems.

If we hadn't burned the KK bridge, he'd have been an ideal candidate for a Director of Football-type role to advise on this stuff (ok, maybe not the youth development - but the rest of it). Until we have someone like that in place the manager is basically irrelevant.

shot stats to argue in favour of playing Tiote.

Even ignoring the glaringly obvious (ie. changes in teammates) you can look at Tiote's own personal contribution to shots/goals and see it's nothing special.

Set pieces sorted.

Still think an old hand like Juande Ramos would be a good appointment. Not that it matters right now.

would prefer him left as a conscious vegetable personally, aware of all around him but unable to participate or function in any meaningful way

It never hurt Shola's career.

Not terribly original or clever but I'm a fan of the Latin tendency to question the virtue of a referee's wife.

If anyone changes my posts again I will do absolutely nothing because this is the internet.

How often do kids get concussions from headers though?

They don't, because getting kids to head the ball is fucking impossible anyway.

Give footballers soldiers helmets.

Seattle/Dallas has been fantastic, two goals in a minute to probably force extra time

Seattle didn't come to play. Putting Roldan at left back was a terrible idea. He was beaten time and time again.

The penalty takers they picked were shit too.

We bottle it every year. Deserve everything we get.

I hope this is Sigi's last year. I'm done with the same old crap post-season performances.

Vieira is a great appointment on paper. Someone on the up rather than winding down like Capello. Also a big enough name to command respect from everyone on the team.

The biggest challenge I can see for a foreign coach being the convoluted transfer system and recruitment rules in MLS. I don't think the football side of things will be too tricky. He knows a thing or two about playing a physical, athletic style. You assume he'll have help with the transfer sides of things, but considering he turned us down due to the lack of control over recruitment you have to wonder how long it'll last.

He was clearly looking for a first team role and City apparently thinks highly of him, so they've given him a more high profile gig that keeps him under their control. If he's great then they can bring him back to Manchester whenever they want. If he fails then no great loss.

 

At the moment, NYCFC is a glorified reserves team acting as a marketing vehicle in the most important city in the world.

Capello, while fucking awful, wouldn't be too bad for NYCFC.

1) The level of tactics deployed in MLS is abysmal. You don't need to be a genius to put something together and have it work.

2) A big part of NYCFC's problems this season come from the fact that Lampard, Villa, and Pirlo aren't going to give a shit what Jason Kreis has to say about anything. They need someone in charge that they respect. Capello could be that person.

When was our last hat trick?

Shola on cribs.

I might actually watch the highlights of this one.

Good article. Particularly the points about mercenary players. The solution needs to be local players the likes of Andy Carroll, Shola, S.Taylor, etc who will play for the shirt. They aren't/weren't good enough as individuals but they wanted to be here. We need to invest more in local grass roots football to ensure that the quality of the local kids is high enough so that we can have a class of 92 or a Gerrard & Carragher to carry us for a decade. The alternative method we're using (recruit foreigners and motivate them by telling them this is a shop window for bigger clubs) clearly isn't working.

We can't compete with London as a destination. We can't compete with the bigger clubs financially. The only remaining option is greater self-sufficiency through local player development. I know nothing about how much or how well NUFC currently contributes to that.

Someone else can say it.

 

Been with Adam Johnson too long...

Is Borini's sister 8?

Koks scores three in two and that's not enough?

 

What do they want, orgasms?

 

Or someone bigger.

Size matters.

Mcclaren doesn't come across as much of a disciplinarian like. This should be interesting.

With difficult characters you don't want a disciplinarian. You want someone who can bring out their best qualities, not try to contain the bad ones. Even SAF had to give Cantona special treatment despite being an miserable utter cunt to mostly everyone else.