Caldwell out?

[tavyred]

1) I'm a bit envious of both the retirement and your attendance record

2) Having seen so much of the team this year, I'm kind of shocked that you think management are so little to blame

Don’t get me wrong it’s been awful, we just fundamentally disagree on why.
When a team is struggling the battle is to be effective against your opponent, a lot of the awfulness is explained IMO by GC having to sacrifice the aesthetic for the functional.

 

[BigBanker]

Don’t get me wrong it’s been awful, we just fundamentally disagree on why.
When a team is struggling the battle is to be effective against your opponent, a lot of the awfulness is explained IMO by GC having to sacrifice the aesthetic for the functional.

To me, functional would have meant a far more pragmatic approach to playing style. What we saw from September to Christmas was a team being instructed to play considered, patient possession football which they were simply not capable of doing effectively.

Caldwell clearly enjoys the aesthetics of his style, but it did us no favours. You really think he had us playing in that plodding manner out of necessity? I think he did it to blindly stick to his own philosophy and in the absence of a different, more pragmatic, tactical plan

 

[logman]

Gary is firmly in the group of new coaches who treat the training manual as a gospel. These manuals are written without the allowance for quality of players and believe that every player will be a perfect Prem standard player. I think Gary has been pig headed to believe that if he sticks to the manual then it will come good eventually, he backed this up by quoting his belief that goals are more likely to be scored from short corners. Yes they are if the players can one touch the ball but at League 1 they need 2 and that's where his coaching manual lets him down. Great to see the ball getting swung into the box more recently for the Rovers keeper to spill the ball or a nod back for Cole to shoot sweetly at Barnsley.

Hopefully Gary has opened his thoughts a little more to the restrictions of League 1 players.

This group has never stopped giving Gary 100% and I don't think a change of manager would have made them give more, what was needed was a change of mindset and let's hope the results continue as they are without the need of a managerial change and the upheaval that brings.

 

[arthur]

To me, functional would have meant a far more pragmatic approach to playing style. What we saw from September to Christmas was a team being instructed to play considered, patient possession football which they were simply not capable of doing effectively.

Caldwell clearly enjoys the aesthetics of his style, but it did us no favours. You really think he had us playing in that plodding manner out of necessity? I think he did it to blindly stick to his own philosophy and in the absence of a different, more pragmatic, tactical plan

I don't think it's got anything to do with aesthetics; it's about effectiveness and Caldwell thought his style would be effective. And it is now, but it's taken longer to become so than everyone, rose tinters like my dear friend Tavy and me included, would wish.

I've always been interested to learn of this alternative style of which you and your fellow Outers speak - long balls forward to Zanzala type football? Given the personnel at his disposal and the injuries to a whole range of first choice players, sticking to the plan/what we work on in training/the process was probably the least worst option.

The fact that the players seemed to stick by him was what convinced me that he should stay. Had he been asking them to play a style of football they didn't believe in then he would almost certainly have been gone when you wanted him to go. But there was absolutely no sign of that. On the contrary, the fact that they bought in to GC's methods so soon after his popular predecessor left does, imho, say something significant about GC's leadership skills

 

[elginCity]

To understand GC's footballing philosophy you only have to look at his mentor for 3 years, Roberto Martinez....

"Martínez is declining to fumble for a Plan B in the wake of six straight league defeats........Martínez shook his head before trying to explain that implementing the strategy needed to win wars sometimes involves losing a few battles."

"Now we need to be even more stubborn about staying with the things that we do."

Roberto Martínez sticks to his guns after being disarmed by Newcastle

Roberto Martínez said he would not change Wigan's style despite being robbed by Newcastle

www.theguardian.com

 

[Antony Moxey]

It's called reality.

Your reality maybe.

 

[SaintJames]

To understand GC's footballing philosophy you only have to look at his mentor for 3 years, Roberto Martinez....

"Martínez is declining to fumble for a Plan B in the wake of six straight league defeats........Martínez shook his head before trying to explain that implementing the strategy needed to win wars sometimes involves losing a few battles."

Roberto Martínez sticks to his guns after being disarmed by Newcastle

Roberto Martínez said he would not change Wigan's style despite being robbed by Newcastle

www.theguardian.com

But was that because Martinez wasn't able to be effective in coaching an alternative style of play but used what he said as an excuse

 

[tavyred]

To me, functional would have meant a far more pragmatic approach to playing style. What we saw from September to Christmas was a team being instructed to play considered, patient possession football which they were simply not capable of doing effectively.

Caldwell clearly enjoys the aesthetics of his style, but it did us no favours. You really think he had us playing in that plodding manner out of necessity? I think he did it to blindly stick to his own philosophy and in the absence of a different, more pragmatic, tactical plan

To me pragmatism in football is about the search for points nothing else.
What I saw in that period was a reasonable ability to keep the ball but an almost complete inability to score a goal. The choice then is whether our chances are improved by abandoning the possession based game which does at least limit chances for the opposition to score or do what you wanted a change to the style of play. I’m guessing GC was loathed to ditch the system which at least kept games tight and preferred instead to work on our issues around scoring. A much improved Sonny Cox coming back and the well documented re-jig of the defence has seen the turnaround we now see.

 

[Red The Paper (2)]

Your reality maybe.

Made me laugh. Great repost Ant

 

[Colesman Ballz]

To me pragmatism in football is about the search for points nothing else.
What I saw in that period was a reasonable ability to keep the ball but an almost complete inability to score a goal. The choice then is whether our chances are improved by abandoning the possession based game which does at least limit chances for the opposition to score or do what you wanted a change to the style of play. I’m guessing GC was loathed to ditch the system which at least kept games tight and preferred instead to work on our issues around scoring. A much improved Sonny Cox coming back and the well documented re-jig of the defence has seen the turnaround we now see.

The major difference is that we have started passing the ball forward at speed, and stopped farting around with it at the back !