The Humiliation is complete

Of course the buck stops at McCall's door as you say he selects the formation and the players, unfortunately once they cross the whitewash that's down to the players, I think you'll find in those posts we agree on many things I actually said the Evans sub should have allowed him to change the system and yes the Harrogate performance cant be defended, not once have I defended McCall in those posts, I try not to have a knee jerk reaction, as long as he's manager of Bradford City I will support him,
I think you'll find we have been dire long before February, lets say we've been dire since the German lunatic sacked him after the Oldham game 05 February 2018, don't you remember those heady days of Grayson, Collins, Hopkin, and Bowyer.



https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/city-vs-harrogate-league-2-12-10-20.4299/page-10#post-407521

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/city-vs-harrogate-league-2-12-10-20.4299/page-12#post-407555

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/city-vs-harrogate-league-2-12-10-20.4299/page-15#post-407642

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/city-vs-harrogate-league-2-12-10-20.4299/page-17#post-407722

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/city-vs-harrogate-league-2-12-10-20.4299/page-17#post-407732

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/city-vs-harrogate-league-2-12-10-20.4299/page-19#post-407781

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/city-vs-harrogate-league-2-12-10-20.4299/page-21#post-407888

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/city-vs-harrogate-league-2-12-10-20.4299/page-21#post-407903

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/city-vs-harrogate-league-2-12-10-20.4299/page-23#post-408052

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/the-humiliation-is-complete.4314/page-2#post-408045

 

Just offering my thoughts it is allowed on a football forum.
He didn't have a wide man available so I'd suggest that didn't help if he wanted to play 4-2-4, we can only assume Zeli and DMH were both injured, maybe when he knew the situation with regards his squad he thought the diamond was the way to go to counter Harrogate, I could be wrong just an opinion, I've tried to find the post match interview where I believe Stuart quotes the diamond.

 

No matter the manager the players always resort to hoofball

 

Suppose he could have started Samuels wide.. ?

 

Harrogate has a population over twice that of Accrington, and is far wealthier.

It's actually a surprise there hasn't been a league club from Harrogate in the past, given the amount of wealth there, whereas Accrington...? Not so much.

What was the point of your question, by the way? To ask if I knew that Accrington existed, or to point out the massive and obvious differences between the two?

 

Suppose he could have invested in a wide player because Ismail's fitness record shows he never plays more than 20 games a season.

Oh, he did, he offered DMH a contract. Right, that looks like a good decision on this season's evidence so far.

 

Your original post did suggest Accrington wasnt actually a real place. Anyhow, if we are talking about populations, Accrington has a larger population than Burslem, yet Port Vale have sustained a decent lower league football club for many years.

Back to my original point though, I stand by view that Monday was a new low point for me. Hopefully it will remain our lowest point of the season and the shocking performance was a one off.

 

Depends if he insists on playing that formation again, or if he insists on changing the formation every match to suit the opposition rather than playing to our strengths (limited though they may be)

I genuinely feel the gap in matches didn't help us but also the poor formation compounded the problem.

 

Imagine that mate, McCall plays the lad who he brought as our pacey striker wide and the result and performance being the same, tinkerman putting square pegs in round holes would be the cry.
He played players in a formation he and the players thought would get a result and it back fired, if there was a MOTM he would have got a 6 out of 10 at best dire performance.

 

Exactly this. And how many seasons has this gone on? We're still searching for this mythical left sided player. All credit for Wood at making the left side his own, but I do wonder, that he's being shoehorned into playing the entire left hand side just because he's pushed on quickly. Was the same with Robinson - signed as a left back I believe, showed he had pace and can beat a man, so suddenly he's a left winger. The irony is, Woods game would develop so much better, if he had a left sided player ahead of him to work with and overlap. Instead, we've now got three central midfielders so that Wood can play as both a full back/wing back and winger. As we saw on Monday, Wood is not the finished article, a long way from it in fact. Someone to relieve the pressure on him would strengthen his game. Harrogate targetted him with great success, and they aren't going to be the only team to do that.
The final piece of the jigsaw, is not the fast pacey striker Stuart talks about, but a left sided player who can play in a formation, slotting in with the other outfield players, week in week out.

 

And the interview after the match. Stu didn't take any blame at all. Just banged on about how Harrogate looked good.
Great managers quickly acknowledge and react to what is going on as soon as that whistle is blown. I read a comment above about it's the players fault as soon as they cross the white wash, but a great manager is not afraid to get them back over that whitewash again and sub them if things aren't working out.
I remember watching a Prem league game and I can't remember which manager it was, some old school manager like Hodgson or Big Sam. These sort of managers that you think are a bit too old, but are likeable and have been in the game a long time. Maybe it was Warnock. Anyway, after five mins he subbed one of his players off because the formation he'd set up, had been found out by the oppo and his team were about to get over run. It was at that moment that it clicked for me, that decent managers are like chess players, and see the bigger picture and make the right moves at the right time to win the game. The player he subbed off was ofc very pissed off, but in the scheme of things I'm sure he understood and respected his manager. I certainly did. Made me realise that very good managers don't just stand on the touchline shouting stuff at their players. Bielsa I'm sure has done the same thing, and he's certainly up their in terms of reputation with not just players, but other managers too.
Stuart needs to start showing some balls to be honest. I thought he had on Monday, but it turned out that Evans was taken off because of a tight hamstring. I'm tired of seeing the same old subs come on with twenty minutes left. He needs to be a lot more proactive rather than reactive.

 

The things that bugs me is at half time when you see it's not working, why not change it?

 

All this round pegs in square holes and system changing stuff that the existing squad obviously can't adapt to, smacks of muddled thinking in my view. You have to question, whoever is appointed as manager, the reason why we still are treading water. Is it purely down to backing or a policy of make do and mend..if the latter then understandable why Rhodes plumped for Stuart. A large portion of blame therefore falls on the shoulders of those in the boardroom. Any manager has to have the tools to do the job and with questions being raised about our scouting viability and backroom support, one wonders if McCall is covering too many roles to do himself justice.In any event,I do believe any incoming CEO should be given the licence to restructure and add quality in the areas lacking to enable our progress on the field. Judgment on manager and players could then be addressed in January.

 

I said so on the match thread at half time, Evan's was subbed (a tightening hamstring) that was the time to change the foration, players looked like fish out of water.

 

Always got the impression though that Parky would be happy with 0-0 at HT and then push on for a winner...

 

Under Parky I cant remember many games where the opposition had the possesion Harrogate had in the first half, maybe the 6 - 0 drubbing by Bristol City that made them Champions.
The game against Bolton at home when Parky was their manager, we roared into a 2 -0 lead and bossed the first half, Parky made the changes at half time and they pulled the game back to 2 - 2 and should have won it but for a shocking miss by Madine late in the game.

 

100% right with your observations regarding the scouting and backroom support. Various managers have come and gone making little difference overall. The one common denominator in the past three seasons malaise is the scouting and backroom operationsthis could this be the root of the problem and until this is sorted nothing will change.

 

How long are we stuck with McCall under contract ?

pally, old school and out of touch.

Painful to watch.

Underperforming team lacking confidence.

Conveyor belt of players and formations.

Club legend but time to part ways and never go back.

 

So we start the managerial merry go round once more and hope we get lucky like we did with Phil Parkinson, it ain't gonna happen mate.

 

Not yet. This time around we're going to have to give it miles more time.

If he goes this time it needs to be absolutely clear. I don't want to get 12 months down the line and his name start to pop back up again.