I agree. Hecky bottled it and insisted on playing 2 defensive midfielders. We were awful before morais took over
He might not have had a transfer window but he did have Moore and Mcburnie. But even if he was handed the wheel of the Titanic it looked like he was doing his damnedest to find a second iceberg.
The side had struggled to score goals before he came due to having so few strikers but we were pretty well organised. We then added Moore & McBurnie just before he signed so we had the goals we needed but we lost all of our shape under him. He did really strange things, the kind of things that I don’t think I’d have done at 16 years old never mind whilst been a full qualified manager with many years coaching under me. Players who’d not played any football for weeks & hadn’t made any squads or played in any U23 games would randomly come in to the starting 11 like Hedges, Mahoney, Hammill, Knasmullner & (understandably) looked pretty useless as they weren’t match fit. He would change his full backs all the time as he didn’t believe they could play twice a week. So we had a scenario where there were games in which we were fighting for our lives & our best full back Andy Yiadom was sat watching Sky Sports News. There was one particular home game against Norwich on a Tuesday night where we’d led & looked quite comfortable but as the game wore on McBurnie who was playing on the left was absolutely knackered & Norwich started to over run us down that side & Pinilos who’s not the fastest was getting doubled up on because McBurnie could barely run. We’d had several scares over a period of about 15 minutes & he’d still not changed it. He even had Lindsay & Pinilos screaming in his direction for him to change something & still wouldn’t. Eventually they scored & eventually we went down. Them extra 2 points would’ve kept us up. I’ve never been as convinced about a manager not knowing what he was doing as when I came away from Oakwell that night. We all think certain managers are better than others & prefer certain systems over others but I can’t see how anybody can think he was anything other than dreadful whilst in charge of us.
I think Morais was and is a complete and utter fraud. I was highly dubious when we appointed him. You don't have to come to that conclusion based on his tenure at Barnsley. His record at every other club he's managed confirms it. I don't know how he keeps getting work.
Don't think anyone has been gas lighted. Everyone knew it was going to be touch and go that season with so many inexperienced players having to find their feet. I don't blame Mourinho for us going down. He didn't get us into a relegation scrap. I think someone different might have kept us up though. Water under the bridge, he'll be a bizarre footnote in our history.
One day we'll all look back and laugh about it. "Hey, can you remember that manager we had called Morris? Eeee, that was a funny old season, that was..."
I nearly went for him but its so long ago and I was only a nipper so I dont remember too well just it was poor -even worse than Iley - More comfortable with Spackman as the worst I remember as I remember it well - unfortunately
I meant 3 wins and 4 draws from a team hovering above relegation looks bad on paper, but in the bigger picture it wasnt as bad as what people are making out. It wasnt as if hecky was doing amazing and morais turned them to ****. To believe otherwise is delusional.
Morais was a shocking appointment . Moore and mcburnie in team , we would have stayed up under a different manager probably . Would have gave it to caretaker manager rather than morais
I can only agree with what many others have said. We were crap, there is no doubting that, but we were far from doomed when he arrived and there were some other shockingly bad teams around us. He was a terrible manager, arguably the worst we've had, who managed to waste one of the best strikers in the league which contributed to our relegation. He was a shocking appointment.
Just to add to the debate... the 15 league matches preceding Morais' appointment were: W1 D5 L9 Our sole win was against Sunderland on New Year's Day. We also lost 4-1 against Millwall in the FA Cup during this spell. Did I think he was any good? No not really. Do I think people are blowing it hugely out of proportion? Yes. Yes he had McBurnie, but as good as McBurnie was, he cannot be held solely responsible for the points we got with Morais IMO.
I get that, it’s true we weren’t exactly brilliant before he came but I think we’d have stopped up with a different manager.