Keith Hill/David Flitcroft - a good team

Ever since they arrived I've stuck to my opinion that they are a good management team. I still think they are and I think it's a shame it hasn't worked out for them at Oakwell. There have been numerous reasons it hasn't worked out in my opinion:

1. Keith didn't do a very good job of connecting with the fans (partially to take the heat of his players IMO), but this ended up dividing fans into two camps; "happy clappers" and "moaning **** fans". We all used to support the team together, but unfortunately that idea ended about 10 years ago.

2. He was sold short by the board last January with the sale of Vaz Te. Although he ended up sanctioning the sale, it was clear he'd been put under pressure to do so and our main goal threat disappeared (never to be replaced). Just to make things worse, Butterfield got crocked by Michael Brown and the Drinkwater deal fell through after it seemed like we'd got it in the bag.

3. I think Keith was under the impression that he would be supported when making the necessary changes to the way we sustain ourselves as a football club. My impression was that we were no longer going to buy players who we couldn't make a profit on in future transfers. We were going to develop young players (either from our academy, other academies, or lower league "rough diamonds". We then sell them on and re-invest the profit over a 4/5 period until we can start creating a real team that can challenge for promotion. This was always going to be hard, and there is a risk that you can be relegated, but in the long term the model is the only real option for Barnsley FC unless we are taken over by rich owners.

4. I believe that Hillcroft had one major blind spot; a defender who takes no crap and wins everything in the air. Needless to say, these type of defenders aren't usually that great with the ball at their feet, and the ones that are play in the Premier League. Our style of play dictates that the players who receive most of the ball are centre backs - so why not make sure our two best players are in that position? I honestly think that if we could have recruited this type of player in August we'd be far better off now.

5. We only have one style of play, and to be in bluntly, we've been found out. We really struggle to break teams down because they know that we'll pass the ball around in front of them without ever getting in behind. They just wait for us to make a dodgy pass or try to force the ball through a gap and then counter attack. It often makes our defence look like a bunch of clowns as they're all over the place (due to the way we commit people to the attack) and we concede soft goals.

6. Use of strikers - I think in League 1/2 target men style strikers are used simply to hold the ball up. They're big and strong and can be used as a platform to create attacks - if they score goals it's a bonus but they don't usually have that much ability with the ball. At Championship level, these target men are good enough to score goals and set up play - I don't think Keith fully got to terms with the difference and it led to Davies often having to pull out wide to receive the ball facing the goal.

Despite all of the above criticisms/observations, I just can't fathom why anyone would question Keith Hill or David Flitcroft's integrity. A large number of posters on this board have been calling him every name under the sun for not being successful in their eyes. It's disgraceful and it should stop. Both guys have done their best, and will undoubtedly learn from this experience. Nigel Adkins was relegated with S****horpe and many called him a ***** manager - he then moved onto a team with a competitive budget and got a double promotion with Southampton. I'm sure he learned a lot from that relegation, and had to endure some awful criticism. I hope Hillcroft do the same and stuff those words back down your throats.

No-one should ever be afraid of failure, learning from those experiences is the only way to improve. A few on here would do well to realise that.

 

If they were that good thy would have learnt from last season and been better, not worse, this season.

 

Disagree.

1. He liked to talk **** to stand out and have people talk about the rubbish rather than the rubbish results.
2. The board had no alternative - vaz te said he wanted out and wouldnt play if they didnt sell
3. He should have phased his in - and kept an eye on the now!
4. Hill came out before the season started and said we needed a leader at the back - tried to sign greer than didnt move on to another after he failed
5. Proves he is tactically inept
6. Davies goes out wide because he is a one trick pony - thats all he can do - bring the ball in, cut inside and beat the keeper. Now hes been found out and and struggles
7. Their best aint good enough. They have been found out at this level - and thats where he will turn back up at somewhere like oldham.

He could talk the talk but not walk the walk.

 

Vaz Te blah blah Butterfield blah blah Drinkwater blah blah....

 

Some of the attempts to justify people's opinions by bad-mouthing Hill and Flitcroft has been really disappointing. There are plenty of valid reasons for firing Hill but the lack of grace and clutching at straws by some is pretty disgusting.

 

A well reasoned argument to back up your opinion. Enjoyed that and agree with a lot. We never recovered from January for a variety of reasons. No disgrace in it.

But on here you just need to say 'he's ****. End of'.

FACT

 

Which he was, finally you talk sense

 

He made mistakes. He wasn't ****. That's all, no need for all the agro as a few have said.

 

I think he worked hard, tried his best, but at the end of the day he just had run out of ideas, in fact I think he had done that by the end of last season !!

 

Agree but I thought he had lots of ideas, just not many came off these past 12 months and he didn't learn from his mistakes.

About sums it up.

 

maybe I should have said workable ideas really !!

 

Or he wasn't good enough, sorry I never believed in his own hype.

 

What about the fans who gave Hill unquestionable support for over a year but after watching defeat after defeat after defeat and witnessing an experienced championship defender be treated like **** had their faith sucked out of them. The breaking point for me was the Nottingham Forest game but I didn't call for his head until the Wednesday game. I don't think I fall into either of those two categories. I am just a fan who reached the conclusion that Hill had to go to give us a glimmer of hope.

 

Yes, he cluelessly kept us up despite having the smallest budget in the division and losing Vaz Te, Butterfield, Drinkwater and Perkins in one fell swoop

 

And this season ??????

 

Found it difficult to replace them. No shame in that, sure many managers would.

 

You would have thought that if he could not replace them , he could have come up with a viable alternative, given the amount of scatter gun signings he made ? To be in the same spot 12 months after losing the 3 players that created the legend of fantasy, is not bad luck, it is bad management. No amount of hard work can cover the fact that he could not win a football match.

 

Smallest budget but this time more so, injuries, poor crowds, numbskulls destroying the confidence of Wiseman, McNulty, Done and Alnwick with doubtless Golbourne to follow.