Tomwh wrote:Broomo, do you see any issues with the squad and the performances of late at all? You keep mentioning last year, and our position now, however even throughout our barren run last year there were signs of a good footballing side. Currently, we seem to be on a downward spiral, and a lot of our good results this season came from poor performances.
I'm not sure what you expect this forum to be, just a few threads a week talking about how much of an honour it is to have Clough as our manager?
The squad is not balanced, our defence is slow, and team selections are getting weirder and weirder. Are these not valid criticisms?
Of course I see issues, I'd have to be blind not to. I certainly didn't expect this slump and thought we'd be cemented in the top 6.
I thought Perch and O'Toole would cope much better than they have when needed. I hoped Macca would stay fit as he did for most of last season.
I expected Lucas to have a decent season, admittedly playing alongside Oates and he's performed below average on the whole.
I thought Boateng would take the league by storm, he hasn't.
I wish people would stop with this line that I think Mansfield are honoured and should bow down to Nigel for being here. I like the club on the whole, he's the manager at this given time, no more no less. He's not god (there was only ever one of those in the Clough househole)
I see some selections as strange, some as necessity.
But I'll remind everyone of the good runs he's put together, the records he has broken, I'll remind everyone that this squad is more than capable of stringing a couple of sets of 5 wins on the bounce together and I'll remind everyone we are still on track to finish in the play offs (hopefully better) for the second season in a row and that doesn't happen too often at Mansfield Town.
The winning runs aren't flukes, he doesn't suddenly forget how to manage when we lose a couple and irrespective of what Rob says, there are too many discussions around getting rid and bringing in a "younger" a "more ambitious" a "better man manager" a "manager who doesn't just play his mates or has beens" for my liking and about a manager who on the whole is doing a decent (not world beating) job.
He either chooses to or deliberately ignores them to continue what seems to be turning into a semi personal argument. Now he can say no-one wants him sacked as much as he wants but all of the above have been posted on here within the last fortnight.
I hope we sign a centre half in January so I've changed my mind on that.
You can be sure if he does sign one it will be because he (like me) has recognised Perch and O'Toole are struggling and he (like me) is probably surprised and disappointed by that.
It won't be because he logged on to Stagsnet, read the posts and thought "raspberry me, why didn't I think of that"