Worrying that the match winner had played for Duff at Cheltenham and we wanted to sign him yet he chose to join Plymouth.
MD will have learnt more about the players from this game than all the training sessions he's had with them so far. We know who the lazy ones are, hopefully so will he now.
Surely any and every promise made by a (non player) manager is a promise they can't keep. The manager can only make clear to his players what the tactics are and what he expects in terms of effort. Then he can only trust them to deliver on his promises, once they cross the white line. What I would expect is a drastically different starting line up next match to show those who didn't turn up that they can expect to face the consequences. What did you want him to promise the fans? "I promise I'll coach these players to best of my ability, pick the team I think gives us the best chance of winning, then I'll sit in the dugout, cross my fingers and hope for the best." At the end of the day, isn't that the only promise any manager at any level of the pyramid can realistically deliver on? And I'm sure it's exactly what our manager did. As for what happens between now and the next time a ball is kicked competitively, Spectemur Agendo and all that.
There's been a hell of a lot of goodwill apportioned to our new manager because of what he said. He has been judged by his words in his interviews. Your argument appears to be that all he said should have been ignored, because he has no direct influence on our performances. There seems to be a lot wrong with that to me. I speak to clients of the company I work for half a dozen times every day. I never promise anything I can't deliver. It's extremely poor management.
Three hours into the new season. Give the bloke a chance. They were screaming out on here for an English manager with experience of this league. That’s what we’ve got. Save your “I told you so for later”.
I wa thinking of going next Saturday but after reading threads today iam better off slitting my wrists!
So what should he say...The players I've inherited are ***** and can't be arsed? Give the new head coach some time but he can't make the players do the basics and put effort in. When they step on to a football pitch then that is their responsibility. A number of our players are a disgrace and in my opinion are putting in nowhere near the effort required.
My argument is that today's performance was likely not what Duff envisaged and that once the match is in play, he has a very limited amount of control over the circumstances around that performance. Clearly it is always better to under-promise and over-deliver but you don't sell season tickets by promising you'll do the best you can with a group of players you didn't choose, who are short on talent, application or both! So whilst this would have been a more realistic exercise in expectation management, he'd have been roundly and rightly slated for it. What assurances, in your opinion, should he have given fans when he got here? I am sure in your occupation, you never purposely promise what you can't deliver but unless you do all the work yourself, you must surely be reliant on the skill and application of your colleagues to help deliver on any promises you do make. I don't know what line of work you're in but I'm genuinely amazed if every project has been delivered on time and to spec, every single time. There must surely have been a circumstance where a complication arose and you were judged not on the initial outcome but on what you did to remedy it? Either way, that's what I'll be judging Duff on in the coming weeks.
Assurances that pertained to his own work and not that of others. "If players do not display the requisite work ethic then I will not select them." Styles was selected in a few preseason games. The consensus was he was entirely disinterested and it would be better for all concerned if he was sold. He certainly didn't get sweat on his shirt. And yet he was selected again today. So what we doing, trying to win football games and picking a side that will get sweat on their shirt, or putting players in the shop window? If it's the latter, what's changed? And what were those empty words about?
I absolutely agree that today's team selection is very much open to question. However, to use that as a basis to dismiss the manager's stated vision as empty rhetoric, on the basis of his first competitive match... Well, it seems premature to me. As for the future of certain players, I'm sure plenty of going on behind the scenes that we are not aware of. Until then, he has every right to expect and demand professionalism from them whilever they remain contacted to the club. He didn't get it and if he continues to pick these players regardless then you may have a point. However, if that selection was about putting our stars in the shop window, rather than a genuine attempt to win the match, then we really are doomed because nobody in their right mind is going to buy them based on that.
At the end of the day I'm annoyed. Not because we lost, but because for long periods we didn't do what I believe we should all expect from our team: for them to try their best to win the game. I've come away from many matches over the years when we've been hammered, humiliated even, but still believed what we got was the best those players could give on the day. Last year on multiple occasions that simply wasn't the case. Listening to Duff over preseason hasn't raised my expectations with regard to how successful we'll be this season. I'm fully aware of the limitations of the squad and the perilous financial situation we're in. But I thought we'd be back to fighting again. With a couple of exceptions, the absence of any kind of fight today I found, well, infuriating.
All completely agreed. I'm annoyed, you're annoyed. What I really hope though, is that Michael Duff is fv(king livid. Because Valerian Ismael would have been and a return to those levels of effort from the team and respect for the boss, is exactly the vision he's selling us.
Well Michael Duff thinks the team didn’t give in today and kept going till the very end. He thinks it was us not taking our chances which is probably correct really but I think we all hoped today was going to be the start of something new just feels like an extension of last season all ready.
