Jose Morais - The Convenient Scapegoat

Morais isn’t a convenient scapegoat.

It is clear that the state the club finds itself in, generally speaking rather than specifically our current league position, is a manifestation of a series of poor decisions and non decisions made over the last two years off the pitch.

HOWEVER...

The position the club is in right now, the number of points gained over the last dozen games, Jose Morais has responsibility for, in large part. Of course we have poor players in a lot of areas. So no, he can’t be expected to win every week.

But we can expect some endeavour, grit, desire. Some effort, utilising the strengths we do have. To be organised.

Results have not improved under him one single iota since he took over - but he has the benefit of an actual goal threat and the ability to compete for the ball and retain it in the final third. Heckingbottom did not have such a luxury, we were toothless and the ball came back as quick as we cleared it for two thirds of the season. Yet with the obvious flaws and limitations he has, he still achieved the same points per game as morais has achieved with mcburnie scoring 8 in 12 and Moore working the centre halves and linking play rather than a lonely Bradshaw running a lot but achieving not a great deal.

Everywhere else on the pitch we have gone backwards under morais. We are disorganised off the ball, do not ever close down a runner with the ball and allow crosses and shots at will. There appears to have been no coaching done in this regard and his instructions appear to be to retreat at all times.

He makes decisions which at times look bizarre and the rest of the time look like they have come out of the penguin book of painting by numbers football management. (We’re losing so stick another striker on, but remove the creativity and ability to get the ball, or pick the centre half who has the most games at this level - despite it being glaringly obvious we have better options and that he’s a year or two at least past being able to perform at this level, and doesn’t give a ***** either).

So no, he’s not a convenient scapegoat. He’s not to blame for the whole situation.

But he has contributed massively to what looks like a season which will end in relegation. What is convenient is the fact that he and some sympathisers will point to what went before to forgive him all his shortcomings.

I’m sure he’s a nice fella, and this isn’t his squad, but he has failed massively at what he was employed to do. Make any excuse you like, but as poor as our players are, there are at least three worse squads, none of the other bottom six have an oli mcburnie but most look to have plenty of trundlers and also-rans of our ilk. He’s had a series of very winnable fixtures and failed to win any of them. He got a great result in the blunts derby game and before that at Birmingham - but failed to kick on and gain any momentum by twiddling with tactics and team selection.

He’s not to blame that the squad isn’t great, but he is to blame that the results for the last nearly three months have been as poor as they have been, despite playing a lot of sides which are absolutely no better. We are crap - but nobody will convince me that Burton Albion (who sit on the same points tally now), Bolton Wanderers and Birmingham City are any better, nor Reading really. Yet we appear to be sinking without a semblance of a fight.

I hold him to account for that, in fact I’d go as far as to say with a half decent manager for the last two and a half months we’d have got five or six more points minimum. We’ll never know, I can’t prove that, but despite saying in the past he should be given a chance, I now have concluded that he’s shown enough to prove he deserves nothing of the sort, that Ganaye and the rest of the board need to come out with their hands up and admit they made a monumental fuckup, and right the error.

When Heckingbottom upped and ****** off we needed someone who would galvanise them, get them organised, roll up the sleeves and grit out a few results. Stink the place out a bit maybe, route one and unattractive, but sneak the result as we have the best striker and a big’un who can keep the ball. Do enough and start again in August after sorting the squad a bit.

We got a man who has absolutely no knowledge of how to do any of that, no intention of trying to adapt to his situation or surroundings and apparently little to no actual ability. We could have got a number of people in to try and do such a job, the kind of thing that odious **** Warnock has made a career of. Grayson was available, there’s dozens in league one or two we could have got. We were given a former junior member of Mourinho’s backroom staff who’s record as a manager was terrible and who probably had never seen a single championship game.

 

Hard to argue against any of this troff.
It makes despairing reading.

 

Patrick did state in an interview that he'd offered to make Connor the highest paid player in Barnsleys history. That doesn't say if it translated to an actual bit of paper, but the "offer" was made.

 

Pretty much my thoughts echoed in this post.

 

Aye this.

 

Only thing I question in that is Grayson. That would have been uninspiring.

Ask Bradford fans what they think of him.

 

It’s a long read - too long really - but I agree with every bit of that.

Basically - it’s been an incredibly poor start by Ganaye and the new owners.
And although I’ve been slated on here for saying it - the jury is still out regarding Ganaye.
Would love to hear Hecky spill the beans on this one.

We have gone from a club with no money that made good managerial appointments.
To one of those clubs - and there’s many of them - with a shed load of money that make terrible managerial appointments.
Up to appointing Chris Wilder - Sheffield United is a fine example of this.

 

I would pretty much agree with this post which has been well put together

 

But the players can’t be blamed?

 

Don’t know what you mean by that , I thought the discussion was about the bigger picture. As in the structure of the club and decision making ,at the end of the day from the playing side of things the manager/coach calls the shots and is responsible, the better the person in that position,the more he will get out of his players in workrate, organisation and attitude

 

But you can only do so much with those things. You need quality when it matters and we don’t have it often enough.

Not entirely convinced we have workrate, organisation or attitude at all times either. I can pin the second on Morais but not the other two

 

I take your point , I don’t point the blame at the manager, he has came into an existing situation . That dosnt mean I think he has the necessary attributes to do the job ,time will tell on that if and when he gets the chance to find his feet. Regarding the players they are part of a team, I do feel they have been hung out to dry to a degree, to compete in the championship you need a good balance of youth and experience not to mention quality

 

So where does that leave us?

It was obvious to a blind man on a galloping horse that the transfer policy in the summer, with is myopic obsession with “future value” cared nothing for the impact on the pitch and was unbelievably unbalanced

 

I agree with you on that , can only hope the existing players come out the better for the experience, and summer signings bring a better balance to the squad whatever league we are in . There is no reason we can’t have a good squad for next season

 

If we continue to follow the myopic transfer policy that solely recruits for “re-sale value” not for what the team needs then it won’t be.

It has always been omitted for me that the success of the plan is dependent on (relative) on field success but isn’t intrinsically *about* on field success

 

The transfer policy will indicate which league the club are looking to play in, if they wish to play in the championship in future ,this will require investment as you obviously know ,so we will have to wait and see . I feel this season the failure to sign a goalkeeper to support that area of the team in January has came back to haunt us

 

It’s never healthy to play the blame game but the person with most to learn from our demise is the Head of Recruitment, whoever he or she may be. We’ve signed lots of players in the past 15 months, a lot of them for decent money, but some of the choices clearly haven’t been the right ones.

 

I agree with that. What baffles/worries me is the seeming lack of other choices in these situations

 

The recruitment as a whole has been disastrous.

Lindsay 300k
Pinnock 600k
Moore 700k
Thiam 900k
Potts 800k
McGeehan 1000k
Mallan 350k
McCarthy 200k
Pinillos 300k
Pearson 300k
Knassmullner 500k


Then the free transfers that would have cost a fair wad.

Fryers
Isgrove
Cavare
Mills

And the loanees

Gardner
Williams
McBurnie
Mahoney
Ugbo

Spent about 6m on player transfers, god knows in agents fees and signing on fees.

We’ve probably shelled out close to 10m and the teams a ******* shambles.