Steve McClaren

[Dave]

I don't think Ashley gives a shit about performances. He'll merely see we've been in the relegation zone nearly all season and even he is clued up enough to know that is a problem. If he cares about his advertising vehicle then he'll be concerned.

[mrmojorisin75]

I don't think Ashley gives a shit about performances. He'll merely see we've been in the relegation zone nearly all season and even he is clued up enough to know that is a problem. If he cares about his advertising vehicle then he'll be concerned.

You do get the impression he'll just phone up and they'll tell him it's all fine then he'll get back to Sports Direct business.

[Unbelievable]

They have to back him this January or sack him. We're going down otherwise.

 

Not sure about that. The league is rubbish and Norwich/Bournemouth could easily go down with Villa (who have all but assured their Championship berth) and the mackems.

 

In any case, 7 points out of the last 15 available may be enough evidence for Ashley that things are moving in the right direction without further need for his intervention. Two more points might have been had but for late-ish goals also (ignoring performances/deservedness etc). It'd be a gamble on his part, but one I think he is tight enough to take a punt on.

 

This wouldn't surprise me one bit. I still believe that gamble would probably pay off too.

[Mole_Toonfan]

At this point surely even Ashley realizes that just buying a load of players doesn't change anything

 

Who the fuck am i kidding of course he doesn't.

[midds]

“I think the half-term report, or half-time maybe, would say that we didn’t start the season very well.

 

“We were very inconsistent, but I think we’ve ended the first half of the season with a bit of consistency. We’re going to places now with a consistency of performance, whereas before we were inconsistent.

 

“We’ve been unlucky with the last two results – a last-minute goal against Everton and then losing this one like we did.

 

“I’m more disappointed for the players because they’re fighting and showing attitude and endeavour.

 

“They’re playing football, and we have to keep doing that, and get back to picking up points like we were in the previous three games when we were unbeaten.

 

“I would say we’re getting consistency and we just need to keep that going.

 

“The harder you work, the more your luck will turn. We haven’t had a lot of that over the last two games.”

 

ok

 

Hard to believe he's having to remind folk that we actually managed to go 3 games without getting beat. 3.

[Robster]

Hard to believe he's having to remind folk that we actually managed to go 3 games without getting beat. 3.

Heady days.

[BlueStar]

We've been very consistent this season.

[Guest firetotheworks]

 

 

He's not worse than Pardew like. Or at the very least, he doesn't have the quality of players that Pardew had in order to make a comparison like for like. I still think McClaren's s***, but the players Pardew had were far, far better throughout.

Towards the end of Pardew's reign the players were fairly similar in quality

 

I disagree, mainly because we had Remy, we replaced Debuchy with Janmaat and we sold MYM and HBA by choice and they weren't being played anyway. Even so our form was still s***. The point is that when our team was filled with a lot of quality, we played badly and got s*** results.

no we didnt.

 

Yep. My mistake. The point still stands though. We still had far more quality than we do now (HBA, Santon and MYM were available to him) and even if you think that both teams were comparable in quality, Pardew's results were no better.

[TRon]

It's either all a front or he's wildly deluded with little grasp on reality. We're currently not creating more than 2/3 chances a game to score and we're sitting too deep which is killing 2 out of our supposed front 3. We actually play 451 for round 80% of matches. I'd be interested to see how much Sis and Winj play in our own half...The reason is that both our holding CM's rarely carry the ball forward with menace so our wide am/f pick up the ball too deep and have to do all the work. This whole scenario is compounded by a striker with no pace which means we rarely turn a defence with one or two quick passes out.

 

His gameplan is no different to Pardew's in that we basically sit deep in our own half and hope for a break up front, only the execution is slightly different in that we try to pass more rather than lump it long. It's producing few chances and fewer goals. It might sneak a couple of surprise results against better teams, but against other struggling teams it's like crossing your fingers and hoping we take our chance and they don't.

[Unbelievable]

It's either all a front or he's wildly deluded with little grasp on reality. We're currently not creating more than 2/3 chances a game to score and we're sitting too deep which is killing 2 out of our supposed front 3. We actually play 451 for round 80% of matches. I'd be interested to see how much Sis and Winj play in our own half...The reason is that both our holding CM's rarely carry the ball forward with menace so our wide am/f pick up the ball too deep and have to do all the work. This whole scenario is compounded by a striker with no pace which means we rarely turn a defence with one or two quick passes out.

 

His gameplan is no different to Pardew's in that we basically sit deep in our own half and hope for a break up front, only the execution is slightly different in that we try to pass more rather than lump it long. It's producing few chances and fewer goals. It might sneak a couple of surprise results against better teams, but against other struggling teams it's like crossing your fingers and hoping we take our chance and they don't.

 

I agree. The most discernible difference for me is that we now use Sissoko and Wijnaldum's driving runs from the edge of our own penalty box to break away more as opposed to aimlessly lumping it forward, but what we are seeing is a million fucking miles away from the possession football that McClaren prides himself on. In fact, our possession stats are probably very similar and this approach is helping us create even less chances per game. If nothing else I was hoping McClaren might make usplay a bit more attractive football again, but even that would be debatable now.

[The College Dropout]

 

 

He's not worse than Pardew like. Or at the very least, he doesn't have the quality of players that Pardew had in order to make a comparison like for like. I still think McClaren's s***, but the players Pardew had were far, far better throughout.

Towards the end of Pardew's reign the players were fairly similar in quality

 

I disagree, mainly because we had Remy, we replaced Debuchy with Janmaat and we sold MYM and HBA by choice and they weren't being played anyway. Even so our form was still s***. The point is that when our team was filled with a lot of quality, we played badly and got s*** results.

no we didnt.

 

Yep. My mistake. The point still stands though. We still had far more quality than we do now (HBA, Santon and MYM were available to him) and even if you think that both teams were comparable in quality, Pardew's results were no better.

 

Last season we didn't have any of those players lol. Santon was "injured" then sold in January. We where 10th with something like 26/27 points at this very stage last season. SMC has done noticeably worse with a better squad.

[The College Dropout]

The possession shit was awful anyway. Fuck possession. I like attacking football. SMC has never been an attacking football manager.

[Guest firetotheworks]

 

 

He's not worse than Pardew like. Or at the very least, he doesn't have the quality of players that Pardew had in order to make a comparison like for like. I still think McClaren's s***, but the players Pardew had were far, far better throughout.

Towards the end of Pardew's reign the players were fairly similar in quality

 

I disagree, mainly because we had Remy, we replaced Debuchy with Janmaat and we sold MYM and HBA by choice and they weren't being played anyway. Even so our form was still s***. The point is that when our team was filled with a lot of quality, we played badly and got s*** results.

no we didnt.

 

Yep. My mistake. The point still stands though. We still had far more quality than we do now (HBA, Santon and MYM were available to him) and even if you think that both teams were comparable in quality, Pardew's results were no better.

 

Last season we didn't have any of those players lol. Santon was "injured" then sold in January. We where 10th with something like 26/27 points at this very stage last season. SMC has done noticeably worse with a better squad.

 

We did have those players. Santon was injured, granted, but Pardew also still had HBA and MYM, who he chose not to play. Honestly I cba tbh, you're a fucking waste of time.

[Unbelievable]

HBA was at Hull for the first half of last season wasn't he? It was the club's own decision to get rid, so no sympathy, but he wasn't physically available to Pardew.

[Guest firetotheworks]

The possession shit was awful anyway. Fuck possession. I like attacking football. SMC has never been an attacking football manager.

 

Thanks again for this remarkably enlightening information that absolutely noone on here other than you knew.

[triggs]

The possession shit was awful anyway. Fuck possession. I like attacking football. SMC has never been an attacking football manager.

 

Thanks again for this remarkably enlightening information that absolutely noone on here other than you knew.

Ian W was saying the possession style we played would eventually come good tbf

[Guest firetotheworks]

I was referring to the last sentence.

[The College Dropout]

The possession s*** was awful anyway. f*** possession. I like attacking football. SMC has never been an attacking football manager.

 

Thanks again for this remarkably enlightening information that absolutely noone on here other than you knew.

Ian W was saying the possession style we played would eventually come good tbf

 

Others have spoken about how it was "progress". Now and at the time.

 

It was shit.

[The College Dropout]

 

 

He's not worse than Pardew like. Or at the very least, he doesn't have the quality of players that Pardew had in order to make a comparison like for like. I still think McClaren's s***, but the players Pardew had were far, far better throughout.

Towards the end of Pardew's reign the players were fairly similar in quality

 

I disagree, mainly because we had Remy, we replaced Debuchy with Janmaat and we sold MYM and HBA by choice and they weren't being played anyway. Even so our form was still s***. The point is that when our team was filled with a lot of quality, we played badly and got s*** results.

no we didnt.

 

Yep. My mistake. The point still stands though. We still had far more quality than we do now (HBA, Santon and MYM were available to him) and even if you think that both teams were comparable in quality, Pardew's results were no better.

 

Last season we didn't have any of those players lol. Santon was "injured" then sold in January. We where 10th with something like 26/27 points at this very stage last season. SMC has done noticeably worse with a better squad.

 

We did have those players. Santon was injured, granted, but Pardew also still had HBA and MYM, who he chose not to play. Honestly I cba tbh, you're a f***ing waste of time.

 

Erm HBA was at Hull... then at home. MYM was at Roma.

[Elliottman]

The possession s*** was awful anyway. f*** possession. I like attacking football. SMC has never been an attacking football manager.

 

Thanks again for this remarkably enlightening information that absolutely noone on here other than you knew.

 

come on K.I Lad. some of the absolute dross that's posted on here (myself included) and you pull him up on that. Harsh.

[Parky]

Let's face it out four main buys were all gambles. Luckily 2 out of the four have worked out and it would have been nothing short of a miracle if Mitro had hit the ground running - a 21yr old from another league who in any other PL side would have been given a season to bed in and learn the PL. I think even the likes of Origie who are starting to come through have been here 2 years. The bottom line is that we're not buying with squad building in mind but future profit on player sales. This would have already killed this club but for huge chunks of luck and a couple of winning runs out of nowhere..

 

One thing I noted was McC said that he had been scouting Thauvin in the past and knew what kind of player he was etc...Doesn't bode well reg his judgement. Wingers without pace and physicality don't get very far in the PL. Might turn out to be a good squad player in time but not the stuff marquee buys are made of...Players who can turn a game etc..

[Collage]

Wouldn't call Wijnaldum a gamble. Highly rated and could have gone to one of the top clubs.

[Parky]

Wouldn't call Wijnaldum a gamble. Highly rated and could have gone to one of the top clubs.

 

Gone missing in plenty of games already. But I agree in the sense that he has a solid pedigree. Probably not his fault as he isn't really a left sided forward/wing...

 

The last window was the one where the real issues should have been fixed. A quality CD ideally PL and a quality striker to replace the waning and want away Cisse. Mitro has too much on his shoulders. I don't really understand what they are doing or if McC came too late to the table and the deals were already in the pipe. He doesn't have the CM's to play an authoritative possession game. And he doesn't have the forwards to play a counter attacking game. So we're essentially playing the sit deep and hope Pardew game with a bit more passing.

 

iirc we were linked with one of the Watford strikers, Berahino and Austin and we ended up with a 21yr old rookie with no pace and a dodgy attitude. 

 

The club is absolutely fucked fucko and we will go down without a massive spend in Jan or a new manager. Nailed on.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Tbh the window just gone isn't the reason we are in this shit and neither is the players that were brought in, it's all the shite that happened before. You could handpick 4 suitable players instead of Mbemba, Wijnaldum, Thauvin and Mitrovic yourself and i doubt it would have gone any better, the issue is the rest of the crap around them in the squad and none of them are good enough.

[Parky]

Tbh the window just gone isn't the reason we are in this shit and neither is the players that were brought in, it's all the shite that happened before. You could handpick 4 suitable players instead of Mbemba, Wijnaldum, Thauvin and Mitrovic yourself and i doubt it would have gone any better, the issue is the rest of the crap around them in the squad and none of them are good enough.

 

True. Dummet, Colo, Anita, Colback, Tiote, One Lung all need replacing. 

 

I don't even think we have dedicated def and striker coaches...Just McC and those other two selling New Age positivity and psychoanalysis. Reading to them at night out of books about the power of crystals and tamagochi.