Kewell our or relegation

[countygump]

Agendas aside I actually & thankfully missed Tues game ( a combination of "man flu"& lack of enthusiasm did for me) but through listening & taking note of the sensible posters on here I get the impression that it was proper bad,and this is worrying especially the negative tactics part. However I will repeat more or less the same thoughts that I have had over our last 5/6 managers, unless we have a better replacement lined up then sooner or later we have to back one of these "Rookies" to come good,the continuous merry go round of sign em, sack em aint working & I suspect that with every sacking this imaginary queue of " Better Managers" becomes smaller. I would have given KN longer but much like many of the earlier sackings I could see an argument for getting rid but shouting for HKs head already is beyond me.

Glad? it was only a touch of flu Kev, we all wondered where you were. We all felt you should have been down there suffering like the rest of us.

[Mark_Ross]

Agree, but after the shambolic performance last night I'm beginning to have serious doubts, and things have to improve sharpish.



Can't agree at all on this one. Calling Nolan an "absolute disaster" is absurd beyond belief. He came in when we were Conference bound and transformed us into promotion candidates. How is that disastrous? With the benefit of hindsight you can call his recruitment in pre-season, but if you look at the prediction threads before a ball was kicked most were hugely enthusiastic.



Agree 100% on that one!

ELITE: respect your opinions but if you'd read my post more closely you'll note I was only referring to Nolan's record THIS SEASON.

[Elite_Pie]

ELITE: respect your opinions but if you'd read my post more closely you'll note I was only referring to Nolan's record THIS SEASON.

Fair enough, I probably didn't read your post closely enough but I would still take issue with your comment that "forget previously - it don't mean 5hit*". Of course it means something, you have to look at the bigger picture when making a judgement because anyone can cherry pick a timespan to suit their argument. Was Brian Clough a poor manager because he took the scum down in his final season? How many of their fans would say "forget previously - it don't mean 5hit"?

* I assume when you typed that you were deliberately ignoring the double negative rule.

[magpie_mania]

Do you never question it?

There may be times when I wonder about some of the things he does, but I would never publicly malign him. Overall I think he's done a good job and feel quite sorry for him the way this season has played out.

You though don't ever have a good word and come over to me as bitter for some reason. You use every opportunity to 'question his competence'

[McCullochisGod]

There may be times when I wonder about some of the things he does, but I would never publicly malign him. Overall I think he's done a good job and feel quite sorry for him the way this season has played out.

You though don't ever have a good word and come over to me as bitter for some reason. You use every opportunity to 'question his competence'

Overall he's done a good job decorating the ground. And yes I'm glad he took over from the disease that owned the club before him. Unfortunately he has not improved the footballing side one iota and has made blunder after blunder to the point of us staring down the abyss. He's arrogant and pathetic, a footballing dad playing at the wrong level. If that's being bitter so be it.

[DelroyFacey22]

Delroy - agree with you re: Hawkridge, he is one of "pub players" on our books but replacing Dennis with Duffy is precisely what happened. It was a defeatist approach. The fact that we then re-shuffled and stuck Enzio down the middle was a consequence of that swap. I disagree with those who thought it was the only option, there was no point having Etete on the bench if we weren't going to use him to try to win the game.

Why did we need an "experienced" player to replace Dennis? I would certainly question that tbh. It was most of the experienced players who were the ones who were struggling.

I think if he throws on a youngster and it backfires people would crucify Kewell even more than they are doing now, we had no right to win that game with the way we'd played and should be greatful to the football gods that we managed a point, his substitution at that point could have gone the same way his change against Swindon did and ended up leaving us with nothing.

I think he did it because Enzio upfront was the best option he had available to him with two of his biggest players this season out injured.

[the_anticlough]

I agree with Slack, Jackal and a few others - Hardy's committed to giving HK a fair go. We're already better off than when he started.

A question worth asking is would AH accept HK being our manager in the Conference following relegation. We have to hope and pray that the answer to that is 'hell no' or even stronger. But given our dodgy position at the moment he should be doing some serious contingency planning. If we've still haven't escaped the threat of relegation after 30 games or we're sinking fast in the run-in... Something like that, better to have set targets rather than make an emotional decision, pressured by fans, after a couple of bad losses (which will come).

With that, comes the job of lining up possible successors just in case.

Hopefully, none of this will be needed. Others may disagree but I'd be fine with a comfy 19th place and let Kewell show us what a proper pre-season's recruitment, conditioning and tactical work can achieve.

[matt_magpie]

It's just a poor squad but I actually think with Duffy coming back is a positive, I think Turley can do a job at right back if he's required now as he's looking more fit.

I think all he needs to do is get a decent left back, I don't think Edvinas terrible but he is a liability with crosses to the far post and we just need a another decent centre mid and I believe that will at least be good enough to stabilise us.

Kewells not trying to do anything radical but shoring up the defence and getting a centre mid that can at least consistently perform at this level will help massively in his quest to play the right way. I want to believe Vaughan can still salvage his season but I think League 2 maybe just be a bad fit for him.

[Davy500]

This is an excellent post.



8 wins in 26 games in 2018 for Nolan, "HK" has 3 wins in 10 games already - so go and figure




Nolan was sacked because we'd been cr*p since Christmas and ended up falling in to the playoffs after having been in the top 3 of the league for 23 consecutive games last season



This is just nonsense, there has quite clearly been improvement, the fact we've kept 2 clean sheets and won 3 games under Kewell whereas Nolan managed 1 draw and a clean sheet and then went on to lose the next 5 conceding 3 or more goals every game is proof of that, denying it is just silly. We are very clearly in a better position than when Nolan was sacked.

Kewell's last 10 league games are 3W 4D 3L and that is a hell of a lot better than 0W 1D 5L...



Whilst that's what the numbers on the board said it's not what happened, he replaced Dennis with Enzio and put one of the two only experienced players he had available to him on the bench on. (Hawkridge would have been like playing with 10)

Your level of delusion is beyond belief. HK is useless-you only have to look at the Tuesday night match against Oldham to see this.

Regardless of what i think, a growing number of people want him gone

I said Nolan lost only 4 games AT HOME in 18 months. HK will probably lose 20 games AT HOME in 18 months if he lasts that long( Not a Chance)
- so you go and figure

Nolan form since Christmas? . you cant just isolate the games that make him look the worst

The only reason Notts did not do better was, Yates went, Bennett injured, Grants form dropped, no money for players in January transfer window. How that Nolans fault?

Why would Nolan think we needed defenders, we had the 3rd best defense last season, he added strikers, which EVERYBODY thought was the missing part of the jigsaw.

Probably even you was happy before the season started?

THERE HAS BEEN NO IMPROVEMENT UNDER HK

HK has only got 1 point from the last 5 games hardly an improvement.

HK side let 5 in against Exeter, something A Nolan side never did.

Quite frankly HK been lucky that has not happened more regularly like against Bury when it should have been 6 or 7 , Even Tuesday- Oldham had 18 shots on goal

Nolan made an impact immediately when he came in January 2017, HK has made no impact

HK can only be better than Nolan by getting Notts to league 1 , something Nolan would have done if he and Notts had not been swindled by the officials during the coventry match, So he still wouldnt be better

All Hk has got to do is be better than 2 clubs, prob only one as Macclesfield look certs for the drop

[DelroyFacey22]

Looks like someone's enjoying their Friday afternoon in a beer garden...

THERE HAS BEEN NO IMPROVEMENT UNDER HK

HK has only got 1 point from the last 5 games hardly an improvement.

And what did he do in the 5 games before that? 2 draws and 3 wins, 11 points... That's 10 more than Nolan achieved, therefore - IMPROVEMENT. That is an undeniable fact that isn't up for debate. To quote you "you cant just isolate the games that make him look the worst" which is exactly what you're doing by ignoring 5 out of the 11 games he's been in charge for

HK side let 5 in against Exeter, something A Nolan side never did.

Quite right you are, Harry Kewell's Notts County team after a week of training did indeed concede 5 goals to one of the better teams in this league.

Kevin Nolan's team conceded 8 in a historically bad result against Swansea. (but let's not focus on that because your argument will likely be that it was a cup game)

He conceded 4 against Coventry in the playoff second leg, 4 at home to Yeovil this season and in every game except for opening day he conceded 3 goals every game so let's not make him out to be the defensive messiah.

Regarding you saying that i was probably happy with the defense in pre season... That would be the defense that conceded 4, 4 and 2 in our last three friendlies? There were plenty of Notts fans concerned about needing defenders and a new goalkeeper in pre season and it carried on all the way until deadline day, Kevin Nolan was just about the only person happy with his defense and it was a big factor in him losing his job.