Lee Johnson time at Barnsley (SAFC Supporter here)

Obviously, I hope you are right.

 

You've gone off on a tangent. I am just asking how you could sit there watching us compete with Middlesbrough and Newcastle and think there is no hope, but last season sit and watch us under Johnno at the bottom of the third tier and think things are moving in the right direction?

Don't say I'm not interested in an explanation just because you're hung up about confusing Robins and Ritchie.

 

Often agree with you Jim, but we will have to completely disagree on this one.

 

If he got out his own coaching manual and starting telling players about bomb alley and POMO.....

You'd be ****ed.

Stay well clear you'd be bored as **** within minutes never mind weeks.

 

Football under Mark Robins was a mechanical process. We won a throw in, we threw it down the line and often we won another because the ball was not played in field where there was a chance the ball would be lost, because a lost ball in open play represented a chance of a counter attack and Robins was not prepared to exchange a chance for us to attack the opposition if it opened up a chance for us to be attacked. I could predict that most of the play would take place down the sides of the pitch, not because we were particularly strong in that area and not because it gave us a better chance to attack. It was because is reduced the oppositions chances of attacking us. It was dull, it was boring and I hated it.

Johnson was never like that. His systems changed as he search for balance. Players came and players went as he searched for a formula that worked, but I always felt that I understood why the changes were being made, and I knew that he was search for something that worked and would improve us in the long term. I enjoy my football in a different way to many on here. I try to understand the processes at work, and I was trying to do that when Robbins was here as well. But all I understood about Robbins was that he was risk averse.

 

What changes did he make during the eight match losing or the nine match winless run? I think you've fallen for his faux cerebral approach. The improvement did come under Johnno but only after he had abandoned his "philosophy".

 

What was the philosophy that he abandoned?

 

Playing 1 up front

 

That is not a philosophy, it is a system of play. Surely if Conan had meant system, he would have used that word. The use of the word 'philosophy' suggests something deeper.

 

I guess the philosophy was the Spanish tiki taka obsession that he persisted with in many forms until we were thrown the Hamill shaped lifeline. Possession is not always King. If your centre halves pass between themselves 5678 times then hoof it into touch it merely becomes a meaningless statistic.

 

His supposed technical football which was not remotely technical as it didn't require any ability to actually play. The slow, ponderous, possession for possession's sake, ten sideways/backwards pointless passes then lump it forward. That philosophy.

 

Beat me to it.

 

Quick on the draw me...if our only our lass appreciated that.

 

Keith hill thought that was alright! (The useless lovely person)

 

That is merely a description of a team in change that has not yet found a balance. If you think that he set out looking for a system that clearly did not work you are being very disingenuous. Why can you not accept that it is difficult to construct a football team. Loads of managers leave their jobs every year and one of the reasons is that it is not easy and the are not given enough time. Our experience with Lee Johnson should have convinced you that if you resist the temptation to sack a manager at the first sign that something is going wrong, you give him more time to put it right. In the case of Lee Johnson, not only did the club avoid paying him compensation, it also received compensation from Bristol City. And just because we were a bit more patient than usual.

Life is about learning lessons and you learn a lot more from making mistakes than you do from getting it right. I am pleased that Mr Cryne has learned from all the rushed sackings.

 

OK this (if it works) but playing one up front

 

Just think of games under Johnno last season. That should keep the wolves from the door.

 

That is merely a coaching tool. It was used by those who wanted him gone. It was taken out of its proper context in order to ridicule him.

 

Lee Johnson didn't put it right. Paul Heckingbottom did.

I'm 100% convinced that if Bristol hadn't come knocking we wouldn't be in the Championship now.

You seem to think that people don't have the same level of understanding of the game as you if they don't agree with you. I know football management isn't easy - but some are good at it and others aren't. When Lee Johnson was managing too many in League One to many were better at it than he was.

 

This is in the very same slide presentation.

Describing areas of that same picture.

Still not a philosophy....

And he still tried it with 1 up front