Social media and messageboards are toxic, anonymity makes it easy. FWIW Maynard had a polite smattering of applause at full time from behind the goal when he came over and I certainly didn't hear any booing.
We were firing on all cylinders attacking wise(15 in the 4 games before he took charge I believe) but obviously were leaking far too many goals. Far from a ‘mess’ though, and still in with a very good chance of the playoffs.
I’ve yet to work out why so many people are so keen to give him a free pass for our form since he took charge. If a new manager bounce is a thing, we’ve had the exact opposite.
If someone’s position is ‘ I dont want Notts becoming a hiring and firing club again so I don’t care how bad results get, I want him in charge for this season and the start of next’ I can sort of see that, but let’s not pretend he inherited a much worse position than he did.
As I see it a new manager bounce generally occurs when a team is already in a bad way. The new manager brings in a new start, draws a line under what has happened and this can give the place a lift on it's own. We were faltering, but by no means at that level and LW still had plenty of credit, so a new manager isn't going to have the same effect. It has been disappointing that the slide has accelerated though.
I don't think it's a case of giving him a free pass, but there are clearly things that are going to take time to fix, and I think he should be given a fair crack at sorting them, and personally I think 10 games isn't long enough. Also, I'm not convinced a new manager will make a difference, so what do we do in another 10 games when nothing has changed? Sometimes patience is required and as things stand I don't see that the risk f changing manager again outweighs the risk of sticking with him for a bit longer... but there would need to be signs that things are steadying / improving soon, now players are beginning to return from injury.
I agree with you, and I also agree that SM isn't yet (being polite here) quite up to the required level yet and unless there is a fairly big change in direction I don't think he should start the new season; however he has come in for some personal abuse for nearly everything under the sun from some posters that seem to think there weren't issues with the squad he inherited and are looking for the smallest thing to have a dig at him.
The major issues we currently have as I see it:
We didn't recruit decent defenders or keepers in the summer or January - not Maynard's fault
Our squad isn't able to mix it up and win physical battles - not Maynard's fault
Injuries to key players - not Maynard's fault
Ridiculous individual errors - not Maynard's fault
No longer scoring tons of goals and blowing teams away, particularly at home - partly Maynard's fault
Most of the issues were inherited by Maynard, not caused by him. Yes, we should be doing better and our form is dreadful, but when you look at the way we've lost games, a lot of blame has to be pinned on the people in charge of recruitment and the players, as well as Maynard.